griffing@fnal.gov
The
Civil War Letters of William Beynon Phillips
[click
on image to enlarge]
Headquarters
Haskins Division
First Brigade, 22nd Army Corps
Fort Bunker Hill,
[Washington,] D. C.
December 1, 1863
Dear Annie,
I
am back again “drafted into the Army.” I arrived Sunday, safe & sound,
and am now settled down again for the next 10 months. Heigho, that will end
soon & half my troubles will be over. I staid in
I received your letter of Thanksgiving Day next day and felt very happy. I hope, dear Annie, that you will have a very pleasant time of it in school & that you will make it a point to enjoy yourself. I am very thankful for your kind interest in endeavoring to make my visit so very pleasant. Indeed, I did enjoy myself. The visit was to me an oasis in the Sahara of Military Life. But, I firmly believe it is near ending. God grant it for the sake of our distressed country, is my prayer. Won’t the bells ring & the people shout when glorious peace will be announced in trumpet tones all over the Land? The 4th of July will be eternally eclipsed.
There are rumors current here of our Regiment being about leaving, but I don’t believe it. They say so many false things here. [inkblot here] If you blot your copy, fix it so.
We had the honor today at Ft. Bunker Hill to salute the “Goddess of Liberty” raised today on the Capitol Dome with 35 guns. 9 Forts along the Defences saluted also. Congress meets next Tuesday and I shall have the pleasure of being present on its opening. I shall let you know the interesting points when I write again. Now dear Annie, you will please excuse this scribble for I am in a great hurry being very busy always the beginning of the month. Be sure to write soon. Good Bye & a Kiss.
Yours
as ever, --
Footnotes
The
19.5 foot bronze statue of "Freedom" that stands atop the Nation's
Capitol Dome was originally called the "Goddess
of Liberty." Thomas Crawford was commissioned to design the statue
in 1855 and executed a plaster model in his studio in Rome before he died in
1857. The model, packed into six crates, was shipped from Italy in a small
sailing vessel in the spring of 1858. During the voyage, the ship began to leak
and stopped in Gibraltar for repairs. After leaving Gibraltar, the ship began
leaking again to the point that it could go no farther than Bermuda, where the
model was stored until other transportation could be arranged. Half of the
crates finally arrived in New York in December, but all sections were not in
Washington until late March of 1859. Beginning in 1860, the statue was cast in
five main sections by Clark Mills, whose bronze foundry was located on the
outskirts of Washington. work was halted in 1861 because of the Civil War, but
by the end of 1862 the statue was finished and temporarily displayed on the
Capitol grounds. Late in 1863, construction of the dome was sufficiently
advanced for the installation of the statue, which was hoisted in sections and
assembled atop the cast-iron pedestal. The final section, the figure's head and
shoulders, was raised on December 2, 1863, to a salute of 35 guns answered by
the guns of the 12 forts around Washington. William Phillips' letterhead
suggests that the day of the statue-raising was December 1st, but he may have
either written the date wrong on his letter or started the letter on the 1st and
finished it on the 2nd. For more information, see:
http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/freedom.cfm
griffing@fnal.gov