griffing@fnal.gov
The
Civil War Letters of William Beynon Phillips
[click on each image to enlarge]
Fort
Lincoln
near Washington,
[D.C.]
Wednesday, May 6, 1863
My Dear Annie,
I received your letter with much joy yesterday & felt very happy to learn that you were well as I am, thank God, at present. I am today stronger than ever & the late sickness has left me much healthier & stronger. I am very sorry to find that you are kept so very busy, but yet there is joy in having plenty to do & the health & will to do it. But you must not be “all work & no play” as the saying is. It is very gratifying to learn that you are perfectly clear of that disease which is so prevalent in your neighborhood. I hope dear, that you will not get it in the least, but you must not be so afraid of it for that is as sure a mode of having it as any else. You want to be a little cautious, that’s all.
Dear
Annie
, news is very scarce about Fort
Lincoln
—The War Department has ordered the suspension of all work on the forts. The fight
is going on desperately below & the Rebel prisoners are coming into the city
by the boatloads. We don’t know what minute we may be called upon to engage in
the strife. But we are ready & know how to do it. The boys would jump for
joy to have a chance to help our comrades in crushing the Rebels on the
Rapahannock. I hope that
I was on picket duty last Sunday on Bladensburg Bridge. While off duty I went to church but the minister was a Secesh & I went out. They are all Rebs there -- ladies & all. “Too Bad.” It makes me feel sorry to see a “Lady Rebel.” I hope they are very scarce in Carbondale.
I am sorry to say that as to furloughs they are put a stop to. I suppose they are waiting to see what will be the issue of Hooker’s battles, if he is defeated, which God forbid, Washington depends on us for its safety.
I hope, Annie to see you soon for I am very anxious & it would be my greatest pleasure to have your company once more. This cruel war will be over soon & then for happy times. You promised me your portrait. Can’t you send it in your next letter? Try now...I would feel very happy to have it. You must pay your debts my dear or else I shall sue you for them. Then you will have to pay damages and all. Ha, ha. Don’t fail to send it now.
Please,
you must not tell me to excuse your letters for they are perfect & what
makes me feel happy, its faults aint inquired in too by no means. Be so kind as
to give my best respects to [your sister]
Yours
as ever, --
I
handed the note enclosed to
Footnotes
The
disease was probably smallpox, as it was mentioned
in a previous letter by William Phillips. Soldiers were often inoculated to
prevent them from contracting the disease but unwittingly carried it home to
their loved ones when on furlough. The Scranton cemetery records show numerous
deaths from smallpox in 1862 and 1863.
The fight alluded to in this correspondence refers to
the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1-3, 1863) which turned out to be yet
another federal defeat, despite great optimism going into the engagement.
Initially, General Hooker caught the Confederate forces off guard and threatened
to turn their flank. But in a masterful maneuver, General Stonewall Jackson
turned the tables and outflanked his opponent, causing the federal army to panic
and retreat back across the Rappahannock River. Unlike many of his predecessors,
General Hooker was perceived by his men, and the politicians back in Washington,
as a "fighter" who would achieve great victories where others had
failed. Morale in the federal army slumped once again after Chancellorsville
and, at the same time, bolstered the confidence of the beleaguered Confederate
forces in the field.
The "Secesh" (Secessionist) minister and
congregation may have been in Bladensburg or any other community in Prince
George's County, Maryland, as the local citizenry were nearly all southern
sympathizers. Prince George's County in 1861 was part of the South. It had a
plantation economy and a population that was more than half slave. There was
virtually no abolitionist sentiment here -- in the presidential election of
1860, Abraham Lincoln received just one vote from all of Prince George's County!
The social and civic leaders were all slaveholders and very much
Southern-oriented. When it became evident that Maryland would not secede from
the Union, scores of young men went South to fight for the Confederacy.
Soldiers often used "this cruel war"
to describe the conflict as it was the title of a very popular song ("When
This Cruel War is Over") composed cy Charles Carroll Sawyer. It is reported
that the lyrics pulled so strongly on the heartstrings of the soldiers that many
field commanders banned the troops from singing it.
The
Bridge at Bladensburg in 1861
griffing@fnal.gov