getting letters home: mail wagon leaving Falmouth
The New York 33rd Volunteer Infantry has less than three months remaining in its two year enlistment. Here’s a letter home from a member of the 33rd.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:
Patriotic Letter from a Soldier.
The following is a copy of a letter from a soldier in the Thirty-third to his father, at Waterloo:
CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA.
March 2d, 1863.
Dear Father: – Your kind letter came to hand yesterday and was read with all pleasure. You asked me about my food and the quantities of rations; I will say that they are as good as one would ask for. “Old Joe” has ordered that we shall have four rations of fresh soft bread per week, two of fresh potatoes, and two of desicated vegetables, or potatoes instead; as good coffee as any one can wish for and enough of it; plenty of good fresh and salt beef, and as good pork as any farmer in old Seneca can produce. But I will leave that subject.
I still bunk with my old friends, Cook and Covert. We have the best house in the regiment.
You wish to know how I stand on the war, the Administration, &c. I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war. I am not in favor of peace, – that is, I am opposed to all ideas of peace, unless it is a restoration of the Union and a downfall of the so-called Confederacy. I am opposed to all manner of compromises, all foreign intervention, whether by mediation or otherwise. I believe that we are able to settle our own difficulties, and believe that we have some man who is able to command this army. I am no man-lover. I love McClellan as any soldier should his leader, but to go so far as to say that no other than him can command this army, I will not say; but at the same time I cannot see why he is not the man, because he schooled himself for the task, but it seems that he did not accomplish anything, after nine months hard drill and school, and five months trial. But I am told that he has been meddled with, that his plans have been frustrated by the War Department and the Administration. I say support it to the letter so long as the present one exists, and at another election, if it doesn’t suit, change it. I believe in supporting it, because I believe it to be all powerful. The Union must be preserved at all hazards. I cannot believe that this, the greatest and best Government that ever existed has gone or or is going to ruin, as some writers from home write to their friends in the army. Such things have a bad influence upon the army in the field, and no man breathing the spirit of a true lover of his country will do it. Now the idea seems very foolish indeed, to think the great America has lost all, everything, home and integrity, and only been to war two years. As for my part, I am not afraid. I will trust the old ship and stand by her a while yet. Considering the direct and bad discouragement of a considerable portion of them and the indirect influence of bad example to which all have been exposed, the real wonder is that the general morale has fallen no lower. The indications that the Government has at last determined to correct the evils, whatever personal or party sensibility it may wound, is the most encouraging of all signs. We trust the enforcement of discipline upon all grades will here after be carried out with the sternest impartiality. It matters not where it strikes; individuals are nothing before a vital principle. Absolute subordination is the one thing needful for our national army. With it that army will be surely irresistible; without it all is at the mercy of accident. Father, I am for the Government as it was handed down to us by our forefathers. I have enlisted for this Government, not for two years, but during my natural life. One thing must be done; treason must be punished. The work should be commenced in time. The Government must exert its power in sustaining and enforcing the Constitution. Some talk of compromise; that is equal to a surrender. Why, in the language of the noble Paul Jones, “no, not surrender, we are just getting ready to fight.” So let our motto be.
Father, if you remember, I wrote to you on first going into war, that if we had all such officers as Col. R.F. Taylor, the old 33d would make her mark. As for our field and line officers, clear down to 4th Corporal, the Army of the Potomac has no better or braver or loyal men than are in the old 33d. As for myself, I hold the office of high private, and I think my prophecy as respects the mark you will all see inscribed on our banner, on our return home, (if we should be so fortunate as to return,) in letters that will be long remembered, that the 33d belonged to the Army of the Potomac.
From your ever dutiful son,
WM. H. GREEN.
Co.C, 33d Reg, N.Y.S.V.
” individuals are nothing before a vital principle.”
Apparently the ample provisions provided to the Army of the Potomac were appreciated by some of the local inhabitants. According to The story of the Thirty-third N.Y.S. vols.; or, two years campaigning in Virginia and Maryland (by David W. Judd (page 275)):
Falmouth, April 1863
