A young man from Seneca County enlisted for one year in August 1864. Instead of the regiment he signed up for, he was sent to the “Orange Blossoms” from downstate. He was finding picket duty in front of Petersburg pretty disagreeable work.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper on December 8,1864:
Letter from a Soldier.
CAMP OF 124TH N.Y.V.,
NEAR PETERSBURGH, Nov. 21, 1864.
inside Fort Sedgwick (1865)
FRIEND FULLER: – Thinking that perhaps you would be glad to hear from a soldier, one who lived in Seneca County when this cruel war first broke out, and intends to live there again if his life is spared that long, I thought I would give you a description of how things look in this part of the country. Our Corps (the 2d,) is guarding the front line of works in front of Petersburgh, and I can assure you that it is not very agreeable work. My regiment, the 124th, lies in the rear of Fort Sedgwick, and we do picket duty in front of the fort. The picket pits are about three hundred yards in front of the fort, and about two hundred and fifty yards from the Rebel picket line, but a little further to the right. Our picket line and theirs are not over twenty five yards apart. Where the 40th and 8th N.Y. are doing picket duty, our men talk to the Rebs, and sometimes they exchange papers with them, at the same time keeping their heads below the bank of dirt. The way they do it is by tying a piece of dirt up in the paper and then throwing it over, and they are generally honest enough to do the same. I have been told that before I came here and before we advanced our picket line, that the pickets were on very good terms. Our men would go half way to meet the Rebs, and trade coffee for tobacco, and one thing for another, and talk for an hour or two at a time; but since we advanced our picket line and captured about two hundred and fifty of them, there has been a constant firing on both sides, so much so that it is not safe for a man to show any part of his body above the works. Our pits are in an awful condition, now we are having so much rain, that it makes the mud about a foot deep in them. When a man goes on picket here, he does not expect much sleep. If he does sleep, he will have to do it standing up. It is not very agreeable standing there in the mud for twenty-four hours, I can assure you, for I tried it yesterday and night before last, and it must have been a great deal worse last night, for it has been raining for the past three days. I have been lucky so far in dodging the balls, but a young man by the name of John Anderson, from Seneca Falls, got wounded in his right hand. He was in the same pit with me. It was a very lucky shot, for his hand was not over three inches from his head when he got hit. He will probably lose his two fore fingers on his right hand.
battle-worn flag
There are only four in this Regiment that come from old Seneca, that I know of: C.B. Brusie, E. Bateman, Mr. Trent, and myself. None of us enlisted for this regiment, but for some unknown reason we were sent here. We are all suited, though, as well as if we had went to the regiments that we enlisted for. We have a very good lot of officers. Our Col. Wygant [Weygant] has just returned to his regiment. He got wounded the 27th of last month, in the battle that we had up on the left. Our Major was also wounded and taken prisoner at the same time. Our loss was very heavy in officers. Besides Col. Wygant and Major Murry [Murray], we had one Captain killed and two Lieutenants wounded. I believe that the regiment numbers now about three hundred and fifty men, all told. It was raised in Orange County. It has been through all the battles that the army of the Potomac has since the battle of Antietam, and in all probability would have participated in another, had it not been for this rain, for we received marching orders the day it commenced to rain, and we would have moved that night, but the least bit of rain in this State makes it very mean traveling on foot, and Gen. Grant is not going to make a move unless he can carry it through. He does not want to get stuck in the mud. The report around camp is that we were going to Weldon, North Carolina, but the army don’t know now-a-days where they are going until they get there.
I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES O. GOODYEAR
Charles O Goodyear
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Speaking of “if his life is spared that long”, 150 years ago today President Lincoln wrote a woman in Boston who lost five sons who were killed while fighting for the Union. From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven:
FIVE-STAR MOTHER
TO MRS. BIXBY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864.
MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts.
DEAR MADAM:—I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
A. LINCOLN.
