From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1864:
From the First Veteran Cavalry.
Camp Piatt – Kanawha Salt Works – Coal and Oil – Politics in the Army.
CAMP PIATT, W.Va., Oct. 12, 1864.
FRIEND STOWELL: – It is now a month since we arrived in the Kanawha Valley, and during that time quite a village has sprung up on the bank of the river, consisting of over three hundred little houses of all sorts and styles of architecture, regularly laid out in avenues and streets, and containing a population of more than twelve hundred. These are the winter quarters of the 1st Veteran Cavalry and the industry and ingenuity of the men have made them right comfortable.
Our regiment has lately been largely increased by the arrival of some three hundred recruits, and more are on the way, so we are able to make quite a respectable appearance.
We are stationed at what is known as “Camp Piatt,” here has been a Military Post established here since the commencement of the war for the protection of the Kanawha Salt Works, coal mines &c., and it is called “Camp Piatt” in honor of Colonel, now Gen. Piatt of Ohio who first commanded here.
The Kanawha Valley has, for many years, been celebrated for its salt, and the salt works are very extensive, lining the banks of the river for miles. The salt water is obtained by boring, the wells ranging from 700 to 1,800 feet in depth. By means of large wooded pumps, worked by steam, the water is raised from the wells, and collect- [sic] in large vats, through which are steam pipes to hasten the evaporation. The water evaporated, the salt is shovelled out, packed in barrels and is ready for market. Each of these wells produces from fifty to one hundred and fifty barrels of salt per day. The machinery is almost entirely constructed of wood and is of the most primitive style. I do not believe that the slightest change or improvement has taken place in thirty years. One of these wells runs itself. The water is so impregnated with gas that it forces its way up, and through the pipes for many hundred feet, into the vats prepared for its reception, thus doing away with even the expense of pumping. But the cost of fuel to run the engines is very slight. The hills are filled with coal and you have only to dig into the mountain a few rods from your salt well and get all the coal you require to carry on your works. – It is almost impossible to avoid getting rich, and these people go on in the same old way, using the same antiquated machinery, content to make just as many barrels of salt as their fathers did before them with no ambition to go ahead or to do anything new. If some drive ahead Yankee could get hold of these works, he would astonish the natives some, I reckon, and soon bring down the price of salt.
The Cannel coal with which this valley abounds, is rich in oil and large quantities of coal oil are extracted from it and sent North and West, but strange to say no oil wells are in operation here as yet, although in boring for salt the enterprising citizens of the valley have often “struck ile” and have sometimes experienced no little trouble in getting rid of the stuff and working through the strata, to the lower one of salt. Northern capitalists are now beginning to “prospect” here and the vast wealth of the Kanawha Valley will no doubt soon be brought to light.
A few copies of the Reveille found their way into camp last week and were gladly welcomed especially by the boys of Company K. How they ever got here is a mystery. These with a copy or two of the Rochester Union are the only Democratic papers I have seen for months. We get nothing but Administration and these of the most rabid kind. It is laughable to read the falsehoods with which they are filled concerning the feeling of the army toward its old commander, Gen. MCCLELLAN. Almost every day we see accounts of votes taken among the soldiers at Hospitals and in the field, and all of course for “Uncle Abe.” This is considered here a “big joke,” for everybody knows the army is for “Little Mac” and wherever a vote has been taken the result has been invariably a large majority for MCCLELLAN. Let me give you an instance of the way the Republicans make votes for “Abe.” The papers have been publishing a vote said to have been taken at Frederick City Hospital, just after our campaign in the Shenandoah, and they say Lincoln had 823, and McClellan only 246 votes. Now for the truth of the matter, Archy Randolph, 1st Sergeant of Co. K., whom you well know, was in the Hospital when the vote was taken and will testify that while “Little Mac” had 246 as given above, Lincoln had only 23, a difference of just 800 votes. Again they claim a large majority in the old Sixth Corps. A vote has been taken in our Division and out of 2,300 votes cast, Gen. McClellan had over 2,100. The 15th N.Y. Cavalry from Syracuse, now at Cumberland have just taken a vote with the following results: MCCLELLAN 870, LINCOLN 82. Majority for “Mac” 788. Our regiment is largely for McClellan. The officers are about equally divided, but the men will vote up a large majority for George. The three companies from Seneca, Ontario and Wayne counties will give McClellan 90, and Lincoln about 20 votes. Company K is almost unanimous. Every one of the boys from Seneca Falls goes for MCCLELLAN, SEYMOUR and DANIELS, and only one from Waterloo is in favor of Lincoln. – So we go. Don’t be afraid of the army. – The boys will stand by George. Only do your duty at home, and McClellan will be our next President and Union and Peace will once more bless our land.
Yours Ever,
SENECA[.]
Archy said McClellan really won Frederick City Hospital vote
Mr. Lincoln and New York supports the idea that Republicans controlled the content of information consumed by soldiers in the field: “To get out the vote, the soldiers presented a special problem of the war-time election. Secretary of War Stanton took pains to stifle any flow of Democratic propaganda into the Army while opening the gates generously to equivalent Union Party materials. … [referencing Russell F. Weigley, A Great Civil War, p. 380.]”
