It has been both said and written that all good things must come to an end and so it has. Last week at this time, I was under arrest, confined to quarters as there is no stockade yet built. As the cold blasts of winter have visited us, being confined to quarters is not so bad. I was indoors, with a fire and not too badly fed.
Lieutenant Williamson's letter to Captain Porteaux, who could vouch for me and release me from my confinement, found its way into the hands of Doctor Bittle of Roanoke College. He explained that Captain Porteaux was captured by the raiders last month. The captain could not vouch for me but the Doctor could, and did, in a letter to Lieutenant Williamson. I am now free and all the worse for being so.
On the other hand, both Hancock and Duncan, who had been, "guarding" me in quarters. Sergeant Harper was making his rounds of inspection when he came across both Hancock and Duncan in our cabin, having exchanged their outdoors guard posts for an indoor fireplace. Harper leveled invective at both of them for their transgressions and confined them to quarters. He bore the letter which freed me and then ordered me to report for a work detail. I had to leave the warm cabin and go outside while Hancock and Duncan stayed indoors, with a fire, with the prospects of being fed not too badly.
The work detail is rather involved. We are tasked with the building of a plank road from Orange Court House to Liberty Mills. My job is not so bad. Stories of my escapade with that hired horse and wagon led to my being assigned a wagon to transport felled logs to where they can be used as planks for the road. The horse I was given to pull the wagon was in considerably better condition than that hired one, rest its' soul. The weather is very cold and there is snow everywhere. The soldiers of the detail that have the task of felling the trees worked in their shirts. The rest of us were bundled up like Russians. It did not escape my attention that all folks on this detail had shoes. Those without shoes were exempted from this detail.
Terry, White, Lyles and, "Ham", Steele, amongst many others, were working the axes. Sims and Turner assisted with the loading of mine and other wagons. "Ham" gave me a very dirty look. I do think that he envied my working as a driver. At one instance, Hood, who was driving a wagon next to mine, winked at me.
After my first days' work was completed and the horse brushed down and fed, I went back to our cabin and was challenged by two fellows with fixed bayonets. I recognized nether of them. It was only with great difficulty that I convinced them that my business within the cabin was appropriate and did not include breaking Duncan and Hancock from their imprisonment. When one of them opened the door, I pelted both of the "inmates" with a snowball each. How dare they sit in a warm cabin while I worked in the cold. I should not have done that as they now refuse to share any of their prisoner rations with me as I had shared mine with them.
They told me that the two guards outside were Cook and Vaughn from B Company. Someone thought that having guards from another company would lessen the chances of familiarity causing them to abandon their post in search of some way to avoid death by frostbite. Hancock and Duncan refuse to invite their guards inside to get warm. It is just pure meanness.
I Send You These Few Lines
Tooms is lucky. His letter of salvation from,"prison", has come through. He is now free to be detailed to hard labor in wintertime, although not as hard as some. The 12th and the rest of the regiments in the brigade were tasked with planking a five-mile stretch of road from Orange Court House to Liberty Mills, both locations being in Orange County on the south side of the Rapidan River, west of Fredericksburg. Some of this road is today's Virginia State 20.
There are a lot of names in this diary entry, all of which are real names of those who served in Company I of the 12th South Carolina Infantry. All but two, that is. Cook and Vaughn are also real names but they served in Company B, known as the, "Bonham Guards."
William Cook joined Company B of the 12th in August of 1861 in Ridgeway Depot, Fairfield County, South Carolina. The muster roll for May and August of 1864 list him as being on furlough due to a gunshot wound. The records at the National Archives repository in College Park Maryland do not state in what battle Cook received his wound but the dates indicate Spottsylvania. Eventualy, he was transferred to the Invalid Corps and detailed to new duty in Columbia, SC.
John M. Vaughn enlisted on April 12, 1861in Ridgeway, SC. He is recorded as being sick in hospital in Stanton, VA, disease not specified. He sustained a gunshot wound in the right hand, probably at Spottsylvania, according to certain dates in his records. Vaughn received a 60-day furlough to recover. Sometime after this, he was detailed back to his home county, Fairfield. The last record of him, the muster roll for November and December, 1864, has him listed as being absent without leave, or AWOL.
Has Tooms forgotten that he still owes the livery stable operator in Big Lick for a horse and wagon?
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