This is the second of two volumes in a collection of Civil War letters written by Vermont soldiers to their hometown paper, the Rutland Herald, while they served in the infantry, the artillery, and in Vermont's highly regarded cavalry regiment. Included are tales of campaigns from Louisiana to Virginia, and from the Shenandoah Valley to the Carolina coast. The soldiers garrison lonely bayou outposts, stand to their guns in defense of Washington, and ride to glory with George Armstrong Custer. The book is illustrated with 26 engravings and prints, 15 maps, and 22 historical photographs.
Letters to Vermont Vol. 2
From the Civil War Soldier Correspondents to the Home PressBy Donald WickmanImages from the Past
Copyright © 1998 Donald Wickman
All right reserved.ISBN: 9781884592171
Excerpt
Eloquent Writer of the 7th Vermont
"J.Q.D."
John Q. Dickinson, 7th Vermont Regiment
No one could have ever guessed Vermonters would be servingin the region of the Gulf of Mexico and among the bayous ofLouisiana. But serve they did, and they suffered for their dutyas disease exacted a toll higher than ever expected. The 7thVermont witnessed service the furthest distance away from theGreen Mountains and almost the longest length of duty inFederal service of any Vermont regiment.
John Quincy Dickinson traced his heritage to one of the foundingfamilies of Benson, Vermont. The son of Isaac and CorneliaDickinson, he was born on November 19, 1837. He received his earlyeducation in the academies at Poultney and Castleton and enteredMiddlebury College in 1855. He graduated in 1860 and found immediateemployment with the Rutland Herald as the Montpelier correspondent.During the 1860 and 1861 legislative sessions he sentthe paper daily reports about the state legislature. He was describedby a Herald editor as "one of the readiest and spiciest writers thatever penned letters from the capital." Other state newspaperscopied his columns not only for the detailed accounts of legislativeaction and pending measures but for his "ready wit and local hits atthe peculiarities of the members of both houses."
In October 1861, Governor Erastus Fairbanks announced two moreinfantry regiments were to be raised in addition to the fivethree-year regiments already in Virginia. These two regiments wereintended for the Gulf Coast.
Dickinson immediately answered the call and assisted enlisting soldiersin a company from Middlebury designated to be part of the7th Vermont Regiment. Upon his return home after enlisting,Dickinson remarked, "I have committed myself for the war be itlonger or shorter."
The company was organized by January 15, 1862, under the commandof Captain Henry M. Porter. On February 12, it was musteredinto Federal service at Camp Phelps, the name given to the RutlandFairgrounds, in honor of General John W. Phelps. The Middleburycompany was designated Company C, and Dickinson wore theshoulder straps of a second lieutenant.
On March 10, the 7th Vermont departed from Rutland to New YorkCity, where water transport awaited.
March 15, 1862
Letter from the 7th Regiment
Ship Premier, New York
March 13, 1862.
Nothing of interest has occurred on our passage from Camp Phelps tothis city. Upon our arrival here we were marched to the Park Barracks,where a dinner was in waiting for the entire command. After partakingof the bread and meat, the right wing under Col. Roberts, marched onboard the ship Premier, and the left, under Lieut. Col. Fullam, onboard the ship Tamerlane. We sail at twelve o'clock to-day. Should anopportunity occur at sea, I will send you a line. The only incident ofinterest to us in New York has been the presentation of a beautifulsword to Captain Kilburn by the members of Co. D. The presentationwas made by Lieut. Thrall, as follows:
"Capt. Kilburn, allow me in behalf of the members of Co. D, to presentyou with this token of their affection, and esteem, and to say to you thattheir only wish is, that you may ever be to them the same that you havebeen heretofore. They, sir, ask nothing more."
As the thing was entirely unexpected to Capt. Kilburn, he seemedmuch affected, and replied as follows:
"Lieut. Thrall, and the members of my command. This is to me one ofthe proudest moments of my life. The officer who has the confidenceand esteem of his command can rely upon them to follow and to obey intime of trouble and danger, and this pleasing incident shows mostforcibly that such are the relations we bear toward each other. I thankyou, officers and men of Co. D, for this pleasing tribute of your feelingtoward me, and [I] will only add that while we remain together myendeavors will be your comfort and happiness."
J. D. G.
The twenty-two-day voyage south was long, especially for a regimentof Vermontèrs who were not familiar with saltwater travel. Itwas surely an experience most wanted to forget.
May 16, 1862
Letter from Ship Island
On board Ship Premier,
Ship Island Harbor April 5.
My last communication (off Sandy Hook), was to the intent that wewere "all well and in good spirits," I should have added as far as heardfrom, like Fred Snarl when stepping on the gallows. Scarcely had weweighed anchor, when everybody took a strange antipathy to an imaginaryJonah, situated somewhere in the region of the stomach. Sea-sicknesswas the prevailing disease, and it was amusing to see thesuddenness of its attack, and the varied but useless efforts to ignore itssymptoms. Some would go to their meals with dauntless bearing, urgingtheir lop-eyed friends to do the same; but before they had eaten twomouthfuls perhaps, the small white spot would appear on the cheek ascertain and cumulative in its results as the clouds the size of a man'shand seen by the Prophet. Another would abuse some one with a faintstomach, and only desist when warned of the wrath to come by thelightness of his own.
Sea-sickness has a mysterious under-surface influence like the undertowof the tide, which takes one away from his fellows when he leastexpects and throws him up in spite of himself, after it has whirled himabout long enough. Some with cadaverously earnest countenance wouldinsist that they were not sea-sick, and labor to convince you that it wasthe pickled onions, fried potatoes or rice and molasses they ate for dinnerthe day before; but a drunken man might as well preach theinevitable "all right"; for this scourge of the gods has a brand for thebrow as unmistakable as that of Cain's. The physician's skill avails nothing,and our Surgeon peered over the bulwarks for sharks as often asany of his patients. There are to be sure, some general safe-guards, butthey are mere generalities. Major Winthrop laid down two rules to beobserved by the soldier anywhere:
1st. Trust in Providence
2nd. Wear easy shoes.
This, at least is the substance. To these, for soldiers aboard ship, Iwould add: — Maintain a temperate, nutritious diet — for this only will[?] which we have to do. A peculiarity of the epidemic is, that those whoboast loudest of the fact, receive the warmest and most lasting embraceat its hands. And this, by some law of contrast, leads to mention that thevery first man that was sea-sick was____________, no, I forbear to mentionthe name, for he lives too near Rutland. For fully ten days, king and cobblerwere on a level sympathizing in the same affliction. It seemed, however,like three-quarters of the voyage. Our first sight of land after theJersey shore faded from view on March 28th. It was the South-east cornerof West Abaco, where the ocean...
