Corporal John H. Gray, 101st Indiana Infantry, Civil War Manuscript Archive

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American Historical Ephemera and Photography

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Nov 19, 2020

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  Letter Archive of John H. Gray of the 101st Indiana Infantry, including battle letters from Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and Kennesaw Mountain. This archive includes 69 letters from Corporal John H. Gray, a resident of Piqua, Ohio, who served in Company D of the 101st Indiana Infantry. During part of his enlistment, Co. D was assigned to the 19th Indiana Battery of Artillery. 42 of the letters are in ink and 27 are in pencil. The pencil mostly written during active campaigns. 43 of the letters have envelopes. The first letter begins on August 2nd, 1862 and the last June 19th, 1865. Gray was a very descriptive writer and some of letters are quite long. Summary of archive with highlights: • 5 letters, from August 2 to Sept. 1, 1862. Noblesville, Indiana, John’s Camp of Instruction. “I am now a soldier enlisted in the cause of freedom and my own native country.” On September 1st, his brother-in-law states that John went to Wabash last Friday, “the regiment is the 101st, Col. Garver.”• September 9, [1862]. Covington, KY, on patriotic stationery. “Marched across the Ohio on a pontoon bridge and laid down to rest for the night on the sidewalk and rested the best kind...Got our arms on Sunday morn and drew our clothes on Monday morn. We have the Vincennes Rifles with Saber bayonet.” “I am in 101st Reg. Company D, Cap. Floyd. I am glad we got to Cincinnati as I wish to protect my own native state.”• Sept. 25, [1862]. On the Lady Pike between Cincinnati & Louisville. “We are on a steamboat and going down the river… it must be to Louisville…Hunger is a good cook and makes dirt taste sweet and warm water like coffee. We were ordered to take two days rations in our haversacks, which consists of from 6 to 12 crackers, six spoonful’s of coffee, six of sugar, a little salt, some fried mess pork which I did not want, a little rice, and you have our stock in store...Our best dish is coffee soup which I could never before eat, but now I drink at least half gallon a day and so do all the rest.”• September 28, [1862]. Near Louisville, KY. “Our stay at Wabash was one week, at Indianapolis one week, at Cincinnati two weeks, and the rest of the time has been spent in traveling. The boys were dissatisfied at Wabash because the water gave them the "Tennessee quick step." At Indianapolis because they could not get to the city or home. At Cincinnati because they had warm river water to drink, etc. In fact, they are never content, but always dissatisfied. At the present time because we have not tents. They don't like to drill nor stand guard nor cook nor march nor steamboat ride nor go by railroad, but never yet have I heard them say they would not eat or sleep...Yesterday the thirty ninth came to Louisville…The 39th is all rugged and barefooted and some without shirts, and we being well dressed, they called us the "band box" boys...About one year ago the 39th Ind., 1st Ohio and others started from Louisville, travelled over Kentucky, Tennessee, a part of Alabama and now return to their starting place, having worked twelve long months as hard as man can and have accomplished nothing… the soldiers of Buell's Division consider him a traitor and not one of them will willingly go south under him again.”• 2 letters. September 30, [1862]. Camp Wilder, near Louisville. “We had rather a good time as plenty of sweet potatoes, cabbage & apples were pressed from a Secesh plantation close by. During the night one of the pickets of Co. B got scared and shot at his shadow, swearing he saw an enemy, but that he forgot to halt him.” Continuing in his second letter: “It has been the wonder of those who stay at home why the Indiana Regiments have done such good work in this war. I can tell why. It is this. Most of the Regiments are made up of farmers or those who were never used to anything but hard work, except on Saturday when most of them would go to town, get drunk and have half a dozen fights before they go home. Of all places, Indiana beats all the others in drinking, swearing and fighting.”• October 9, [1862]. 9 Days from Louisville. “If you could see me, you would not know me for dirt & grease is the only thing to be seen. Our whole Regiment is in the same fix and almost run to death. Forces marches do to talk about but when the poor soldier with his blanket, haversack with three days’ rations in it, a canteen of water, gun, cartridge box & bayonet meet together weighing 40 lbs.…our Regiment was ordered to guard the wagon train of the division. Just think of a string of six horse covered wagons, three or four miles long and then you can imagine something of our work...People in the north talk about the Rebel army living on parched corn and half starving, but if the Rebels do, they fare as well as we do for dry crackers and a little coffee is about all we have except corn which we parch on the ear. It is impossible to buy anything to eat except you pay 5 or 6 times value...Men drive hogs from their hallows and sup the dirty water to wet their parched lips and quench their thirst...Thursday we were within 12 miles of Perrysville where they fought, and our Brigade was badly cut up, and our Brigadier General Terrill and Jackson were killed…”• 5 letters, from October 28th to November 24th, [1862]. Munfordville, Ky. “We are camped again after a 30-day march through cold, rain, and all the inclemency’s of the weather. But as yet we have 300 or 400 men behind in hospitals, most of whom have been taken prisoners by Morgan and paroled… We just divided the waters of the mighty loyalty of Kentucky and after we passed, they rushed in, picked up the prey.”“The commander of the squad going ahead found a piece of 20 acres of good corn and gently rode up to the owner and told him that the Colonel commanding the 33 Brigade had ordered him to get a few loads of his corn… and the soldiers were ordered to change arms for husking…in four hours we had the field almost entirely picked… the old man came into the field and much surprised, he came to headquarters he had been told that a few loads only were wanting!” Later on they found out “his step son was in Morgan’s Guerillas.” And that “the old man had fed Bragg’s Army.” “On yesterday, Wednesday, just at breakfast, one of our Company had gone to breakfast and had opened his haversack, had put his crackers out on the table, and put one bite in his mouth when back he fell dead, which shocked us very much. He was not complaining very much but was able for duty. This warns us to be very prepared. The day and the hour we know not. In life we are in death. We buried him with the honors of war. He is the third we have buried this week.”“My gun is a first rate one and will fall a Rebel at 1,000 yards distance...The country around here is desolated and barren. So many troops having passed through that the fences are all destroyed, the best timber burned, and the fields of grain turned out to commons. There are a good many citizens here who stayed here when the Southern Army was here and then they were good Rebels. Now good Union men.”• 5 letters, from December 1st to 5th. 2 Letters from Glasgow, KY. “The rain descended in torrents wetting our blankets and making the roads muddy and slippery. Thus we trudged along about 20 miles and camped for the night. It rained like it did in Noah’s time before we got our tents pitched… we piled down in our bunks in mud and water half knee deep to a duck… I woke up shivering.”“I am in the hospital… I am not sick, but detailed...I am under Dr. Abbott of the 80 Ill. V. M....This is the first place we have entered since we left Louisville which is not desolated and robbed...This Hospital is in a large Secesh Hotel. We call it the United States Hotel By Uncle Sam.”• January 5th, 1863. Bowling Green, KY. John’s Company D is now assigned temporarily to the 19th Indiana Battery. “This getting on cars is a new thing to us. It seems rather like play than war for we have been marching so much that we are almost used to it and apparently it comes handy.”• 2 letters, January 8th, [1864]. 19th Indiana Battery, Chattanooga. “The most of this army is at Ringgold where we have four guns, but most of the batteries are at Chattanooga.” In his second letter: “Our teams have all starved to death except one 3-horse team which hauls wood for the officers.”• 14 letters, January 14th to June 20th, 1863. “Most of the troops drew rubber blankets at Nashville so we are fitted against wet weather. The blankets are 7 by 3 feet so you see they will completely cover a man. I have one...This is a beautiful country and a nice neat city. The fields are loaded with forage just as though there had been no army here for Bragg did not allow his men to forage around Murfreesboro. Consequently there is plenty for our army...But as for a close of this war, soldiers have ceased to look. With soldiers the discussion of peace, politics, and compromises are the things which take up most of their time. God only knows the feelings of soldiers in the west, so far as I have found out by conversing with soldiers of different Regiments. In fact they are all very unpatriotic and have got to be compromise men, and I would not be surprised in the least if half our company would desert nor would I blame them nor anybody else for getting out of the clutches of men who have been made worse than tyrants by having two straps of authority fastened upon their shoulders. I tell you this war will never end while officers reserve such enormous pay for thousands of men who could not earn enough to make a decent living are now receiving hundreds of dollars. As long as this continues, as long the war will continue.”“The city is filled with sick and wounded of both parties. There are some wounded Rebels here who were wounded at Perrysville...The first Ohio Reg. got badly cut up in that engagement. They are within five miles but I have not got to see any of them. It is said the Rebels are about fifty miles from here, and we will advance upon them as soon as the railroad is complete between this and Louisville for we are now short of rations, especially sugar & coffee, which things are as essential to a soldier's welfare as fire is in the north...When the railroad is open again and communication kept open between this and Louisville, I think things will be more plenty and cheaper...There are but 4 Union families in Murfreesboro. All the rest are almost starving as they have no Union money and there is nothing to buy except what the Army brings and it sells to them not Union families. We are camped right in a grave yard or at least nearby one where the graves are thicker than hills of corn. The Army marks its path everywhere with the graves of those who died in her defense.” “I am too fast while in picket. I strolled thirty or forty yards to a Negro hut where I got a piece of short cake, the best I have tasted since I left home.”“There are some of the strongest earthworks cast up around Murfreesboro that I have ever seen. We are preparing for an attack and at the same time are getting a good ready to advance and carry terror and desolation to our enemies...Murfreesboro again takes the appearance of a business place. The streets are thronged night and day. Fugitives are returning and living in their houses again so that to see the place now and when the battle was fought, no one could realize it as being the same place.”“The Rebs fight hard and were it not that we, as it were, out wind them in battle, they would come off best in every engagement. We have been beaten in some of the set battles which caused us severe loss and strengthened the arms of our 'Southern Brothers.'...Showing the superiority of western "mudsills" over Yankee "inventions," the western soldiers are hardier if not pluckier than Eastern troops. Gen. McClellan announced to the world that he had one of the finest "disciplined armies" the world ever saw. But it was repulsed before Richmond and at Fredericksburg. While the Western army although "disorganized," "disheartened," and "disloyal" has gained every important post yet attacked except Vicksburg and resigning from the past it must fall!”“Most of the troops around this place have turned over their tents and received shelter tents which we call “dog tents”. Each one gets a piece of muslin about five feet square and by two or three putting theirs together they form a tolerable good dog house.”“We have had some change in Regiments lately. Our Brigade now contains the 68th, 75th, and 101st Ind. Regiments and 105th Ohio Reg. with our Battery. The other Brigade in this Division is now mounted as Cavalry.”“After we left Kingston we were relieved from the front and have been protecting the train against any rear movements of the Enemy!...So far we have lost but one man wounded in the Regiment in this campaign. The Battery has lost two, one killed and one wounded. We have plenty to eat but are not as well clothed as when Gen. Rosecrans was in command. Prisoners are brought back every day by guards...They have contested the ground inch by inch from Buzzard Roost, but as Gen. Sherman says, there is no use of their making a stand anywhere as he has forces enough to walk right over him...From the amount of wounded they bring back every day, we sometimes think that the fight is pretty bad, but after all it is only skirmishing.”• 5 letters, July 9th Three Miles from Elk River Bridge in Sight of the Cumberland Mountains, Camp Winford, TN. “After a march of twelve days through the rain, mud and very hot dry spells, during the rain storms, I am safely seated in my pup tent writing a few lines to those I love and whom I have been thinking of all morning. This is Sunday in the field amidst battles and bloodshed. Yesterday was the memorable 4th of July. In the evening each Division Commander fired thirty four blank rounds as memorable of and indicative of the Union as it was...We have been in the rear as a guard for the trains since we left Hoover's Gap where we were in the fight. We lost 15 killed and 45 wounded...The Rebels fled from Tullahoma without a fight. They left three siege guns and almost all their stores. They left enough cornmeal to keep our Army two months which we feed to our horses as well as men...There is that which is exciting and strange about it that one appears to delight in killing the enemy...I have written this on a leaf of a company book, and where I will get an envelope I cannot tell but a soldier can get anything.”“Our fourth of July was spent in marching through rain and woods and mud knee deep. Our rations have been increased to their full and we no longer dig roots and eat herbs...The corn is rich enough, but unless “you plant, you cannot reap,” and as almost everybody has been taken to war, there is none left to sow and till the soil, even the Negroes have all gone long ago to where freedom perched high and in safety.”“We planted our Battery where the balls were fast falling and then we opened a terrific fire deafening me and obstructing the view of the enemy as clouds of smoke rose at each shot, but in the air was stirring and the rain falling the smoke would soon clear away...Bragg's army has so much diminished that it will not take much of an army to defeat him. So we may be placed along the Rail Road or River to protect it as a line of communication. We all like Gen. Rosecrans as a commander. We like Gen. Thomas as a Corps commander, and Gen. Reynolds as a Division commander. Col. Hall our Brigade Commander is reported dead, and Col. Robinson of 75th Ind. is now in command.”“We have moved twice in three days and will move again this afternoon. Every time we get fixed up right, that is when we get our dog tents up and all the dead horses in the camp covered up and the trash swept up in piles, then we are ordered to march to another point.”• August 15th Camp University, TN. “I am glad the draft is bringing home stayers into the field. It should have been done long ago, but soon there will be a thinning of our ranks by the expiration of term of many Regiments…We intend to present Capt. Harris with a Sabre, cost $175.00. It is a splendid one...I expect if you were here you would be surprised at the innumerable flocks of women and children who visit our camp every day. They are the farthest removed from fine ladies & pretty children that is possible to be called with frizzly hair and dirty faces and patched clothes. They look most like bleached skeletons of anything else. The men too are not more than half witted. Decidedly they are very ignorant as most of them cannot change a dollar bill.”• September 9th Between Raccoon & Lookout Mts., GA. “Georgia is much more plentiful than Tennessee, and we have a good many vegetables such as roasting ears & potatoes. The country is rough and ugly yet. The trip is paying pretty well as we are in the region of Nellie Gray. O! my darling Nellie Gray. They have taken her away. They have taken her to Georgia. And I’ll never see my Nellie anymore.”• BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA & MISSIONARY RIDGE. September 24th, 1863 to March 22nd, 1864 – Chattanooga, TN. “After two hard fights, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday which lasted nearly all day, I am safe and sound. We are expecting to fight again in two or three days. We are strongly entrenched 3/4 mile south of Chattanooga. The enemy appears to be afraid of us now, although they compelled us to fall back on Saturday & Sunday. We were out numbered but now we can whip them three to one. Our loss was two pieces, one of which I belong. Three others were disabled, but we have repaired them so that we are now able to stay in the front with four guns...We lost 16 horses killed, 2 men killed, 16 wounded, and 4 missing...This envelope has been through the battle. You sent it to me on the 8th Septr. Nelson Kelly & Bill Jordan are reported killed or at least badly wounded. Jordan was left on the field.”“The Rebels shell us almost every day off Lookout, but they cannot do us harm. The distance is too great for effective firing. We have been working on breastworks in front of us for two weeks and will work on until we finish them...Captain Harris was hit with a spent ball. When he was hit, I was not two steps from him...We have been changed to the third Division 14th A. C.”“Just the other day, I walked to the picket post and saw the Rebel Pickets not over twenty-five yards from where I stood! I was safe as Pickets are not permitted to fire on each other. The little stream of Chattanooga Creek divides the ground called U.S. and C.S. territory...The Rebels whom I saw looked very well clad, having good hats, jacket, pantaloons, shoes, and most of them had blankets, none had overcoats. Their features are of rather peculiar cast. Their complexion very fair, almost snow white. They are not full round faced like Yankees, but thin hatchet faced poor skeletons. Why? I cannot tell, but it is characteristic of almost all of them...I was not allowed to converse with them as it is strictly forbidden to hold conversation with them. Although one could have heard the other very distinctly even in a common conversational tone.”“On the 23rd, the fight began on the extreme left. I could not see it but it was a success so far as we desired. It caused the enemy to mass his troops on the left. On the 24th we opened on the right and by ten o'clock at night held Lookout in our power. Now the Rebels held only a part of Missionary Ridge, and on the 25th our whole force consisting of six Corps, two under Thomas, two under Sherman, and two under Hooker, charged the Rebels from Missionary Ridge, which they held by dark. Sometime during the night, Bragg began his retreat, leaving almost everything in our hands. Artillery. Ammunition, camp equipage, commissary stores, and a host of prisoners. I heard the rattle of musketry, the roar of artillery, saw the two lines of battle, heard the shout of our noble brave soldiers rushing headlong over Rebel works, and putting the flower of the Southern Army to flight. All this was thrilling...The fighting was off about three or four miles, but we could see our flag and a long dark column of men see the bayonets glisten in the sun, but we could not see a single man. We could see a mass of men. The fight was hard at times. So far I have heard that we took eighty four pieces of artillery and twenty five thousand prisoners. Our troops have advanced in pursuit of Bragg about eight miles...I have not seen Gen. Grant nor Hooker nor Sherman, but I know they are here.”“Yesterday and day before, Gen. Sherman and Hooker came through with their troops. They went very near to Knoxville. Their trip was a hard one and so many came back barefooted and without pants, that they were a crowd of ragged skeletons. It is said that our 4th Corps under Gen. Granger is so bad off for clothing, that they cannot return without a fresh supply.”“On New Year’s Eve (1864), we failed to draw rations so at supper I just sucked my finger and thought of the fine turkey or good dinner you would all partake of on the morrow. Night passed over while many a hungry soldier lay shivering with cold in his tent while the bitter, bitter cold wind howled and blew and passed hurricane like...We are awaiting the draft with much uneasiness. We want it put in force immediately. We stand ready to welcome anyone who may fall into its clutches.”“Hood & his army have been served aright by the noble Thomas.”“Four months ago today we were badly cut up at Chickamauga since which time we have been fasting at worse than starving rates! Today we begun to draw full rations! It is a jubilee to this Army!”“I believe that if we press upon this summer, we can draw out half of their Army by desertion and the rest are not hard to whip.”“So far none are wounded but Captain Harris. He was wounded in the right leg about four inches above the knee. The ball was a small lead one that come from a bomb shell that burst near him. The ball passed through the thickness of one lined pair pants and two pair drawers and also through the flesh. The bone is not hurt. The battle was at Tunnel Hill on the 25th. We have no very late returns except that this fight was a hard one. Certainly there are many wounded as the long train of ambulances keeps pouring in here and unloading their heavy loads of wounded in Bragg's frame hospitals just behind our camp.”“Hereafter we will be identified with the 101st Ind., Lieutenant Colonel Doan commanding...This is the country famed as the Sunny South. But last night it began to snow and continues until now. Ten inches deep and more falling. We started a train to Ringgold this morning, but it returned on account of the track or road being so covered that it was impossible to see...All quiet at Ringgold. Gen. Thomas has his Hd. Qrs. here yet...The prayer meeting which we started in our Battery has been prospering to the refreshing and reviving of the dead elements of our souls and is the topic of conversation among the unbelievers and I believe that we will be rewarded for our efforts. Yes, I know we have been blessed of God. We have felt His presence and been moved to action. I understand that there is a series of interesting meetings carried on in town which has resulted in the conversion of many precious souls.”• 3 letters, March 30th to May 6th. Ringgold, GA. “I presume you have read the suggestions of Gen. Sherman to the Adjutant General at Huntsville, Ala. concerning the property of the inhabitants. It is a true statement and policy perceived and brought to light by his "Master mind." His orders also suit us for we are sometimes astonished to see our Commissaries of Subsistence selling provisions to the citizens when they will not issue full rations to us nor even sell us a little extra provision. If citizens cannot live without Government sustaining them, they are compelled to go to Nashville for their necessary supplies. Our Motto and insignia has turned out to be "forty rounds of ammunition in the cartridge box and sixty in the pockets. Three days rations in the haversack which must last five days!" Our ration is to consist of full allowance of crackers or flour and coffee and sugar and double rations of salt. No salt meat allowed… but the trouble is "we are the pack mules!’"“This afternoon we received orders to move in the morning at daylight with three days rations in haversacks and three days in wagons and sixty rounds of ammunition. It reminds me of the time I left you at Murfreesboro. We go forward to fight. This may be my last letter. If so all is right, but if I get out all right you will hear from me again. The mail will soon go out and it is said to be the last opportunity for some time.”• June 12th, 1864. Camp of 101st Ind. Vol. in the Field near Acworth, GA. “On the 1st of June we left the train and marched to the front and relieved Johnston's Division. Here the enemies works and ours were within 600 yards of each other, and our skirmishes and the Rebel Skirmishers so near as to hear each other spit or talk, there being a sharp-edged hill between our lines… not fifty feet apart...Here we had one man wounded in our company. His name was Michael Thompson, shot through the left forefinger. It was taken off...We are in the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Gen. Baird, 14th Army Corps and the Regiments in our Brigade are 2nd Minnesota, 105th & 35th Ohio, 75th & 87th & 101st Indiana, so when you see anywhere names belong to those Regiments in the papers as among the killed or wounded, you may know how badly we have been hurt or how much we have suffered. John Gallaway, the Hospital Steward of our Reg. was taken prisoner a few days ago by the Enemy while beyond our lines in quest of forage and something to eat. The soldiers of this army are hopeful that this year will close the war and are willing to suffer almost anything to be free from the bonds that Rebellion has riveted on them. Rations are short and although they are said to be full rations, yet for three days we do not get more than we used to get for only two days. The men are not more than half clothed at present. But there is no grumbling...The cars ran to Acworth this morning and when the army heard them whistle, you ought to have heard what a long loud cheer went up from the thousands of glad hearts that still beat in the breasts of this army in the wilderness of Ga. We are confident of driving J. Johnston or as it is rumored Hardee back to Atlanta without a General engagement but there we expect a hard battle...Since we left Ringgold, we have been for days and nights where the bullets have whizzed over our heads constantly but none were hurt...We are on the skirmish line and near the enemy we have to fire frequently in order to keep awake. Sometimes it is so wearisome that our men go to sleep while the Rebels are loading their guns. The presence of continual dangers so hardens us to it that there is little or no fear ever felt except by the cowardly. There is time to be scared after you are hurt, but it is of no use before because to be alarmed at every ball or report of a gun would soon kill a man with fear.”• June 20th, 1864. At the Foot of Seneca Mt. or Cedar Ridge or Lost Mt. in front of Marietta, GA. “It is now nearly two months since the "Ball" opened and has been rolling night and day ever since. At least there has not been a day but what we have heard cannonading and over half that time have lain near enough to hear the reports of the enemies small arms and hear the balls whistling over our heads, killing and wounding more in the rear than in front...So accustomed have we become to the noise of Battle and "Pomp and Circumstance" of glorious war, that we sleep while the hissing shell and whirring solid shot and zipping leaden balls fly over our heads or strike the trees or breast works near us or cut the leaves above us in innocent haste...If men would obey officers not half as many would be hurt. After we move up we fortify in less than thirty minutes so that our works are proof against musket balls and our men have all become such good sharpshooters that they make it as hot for Rebels behind their works as it is for us, but this is because we flank them so as to always ensure a cross fire on every position they take…Now we have plenty and have the Rebs on mountains and hills, not unlike those at Chattanooga, but we are now pursuing and not besieged as we were then. We have tolerable plenty of rations, but our clothing is still neglected and we are pretty near naked...We crossed the Rebel works and saw where they had lost many by the blood and brains and fresh graves...I wish the Rebels would charge us tonight for I would like to strew the ground in front of us with their dead...Just now a Reb shell burst not fifty yards to my left doing no harm and hundreds of balls have passed over my head, not over fifteen feet since I began to write. But no one seems to mind it. Each one thinking it as a "matter of course" and "if you are to be hit, you will be hit wherever you are."• September 3rd, 1864. Jonesboro, GA. “We kept moving night and day and succeeded in cutting the Mobile Road without any opposition, and Aug. 31 we struck the Macon Road, but on the 1st of September, we came up with half of Hood's Army which he had detached to whip out this Yankee Raiding party! This Reb force consisted of Hardee's Corps and two Division of S. D. Lee's Corps which we assaulted and succeeded in breaking their hastily constructed line and capturing five hundred prisoners and four pieces of Artillery! But alas, it was a sad day as we lost heavily in the old 14 Army Corps, but we had no right to expect anything else of Gen. Jeff C. Davis whose bull-headed fighting just enabled the Rebels to fall back with nearly all their force…Our loss was heavy, not less than three hundred killed in our own Corps, which I saw next morning after the Rebels had drawn off. This move of Sherman's has entirely destroyed Hood's Army dividing it…Gen. Baird had two horses killed under him.”• October 21, 1864. Gatesville, AL “We left Atlanta Ga. on the 3 of Oct. and have travelled night and day ever since so you may know that we have been jot in pursuit of Gen. Hood. We are tired down and of a truth this short period of 20 days has been the hardest time of our soldiering. The marching has been hard and often we have gone from fifteen to twenty miles per day and night...This whole army we are forging and impoverishing the people, but it appears the only way to wipe out Rebellion.”• 2 letters. November 1st to 8th. Rome and Kingston, GA. “Today is election day and I voted for my first president. I voted in the 94th Ohio.”• January 1st, 1865. Savannah, GA. “I attended preaching today in the Baptist Church...How unnatural it seemed to see women in church. You would feel as much surprised to see a goat or sheep in church as we are to see ladies. You may think this strange but we are constantly and forever surrounded by masculine things that we are unfitted for the softer society of the opposite sex.”• April 14th, [1865]. Adjutant’s Office 101st Ind. In the field, NC. “We left Goldsboro on the 10th and have passed through Raleigh, the Capitol of this state. The Rebels give way easily. We heard of Lee's surrender the 12th inst.! We are in lively hopes that the war is almost over. We get a good many of Johnston's men every day. They, however, say that he will not surrender to Sherman but is going to Grant to surrender to him. We will press him nevertheless. Today we began to forage again and now suffering sets in on the poor citizens. I hope to be home before long for Johnston must surrender or disperse his army before many days.”“You cannot realize our intense feelings and gratification to know that hostilities have ceased. We received the news of Lee's surrender on the morning of the 12th Inst. and enjoyed it to a surprising exten
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