It is becoming ever more difficult to get enough firewood to keep us warm. The easy wood has already been cut. To get more wood, we must go further afield. It is enough to expect the horses to pull the wagons short distance when unloaded let alone fully loaded over several miles in their present condition. The horses eat just as we soldiers do, very badly and they show it worse than we do. We predict that shortly, the horses will give up and we will pull sleds of wood ourselves. We will then eat the poor horses. Spring cannot come too soon.
All of us in the Dandy Eights Mess are sick. The sneezing and coughing are incessant. None of us are fit to work a johnny detail. Even so, we are not exempt from picket duty or any other duty. If we did not pull our turn, someone else would have had to do it instead and since the entire regiment is sick, nothing would be gained. Sickness or not, each of us must do his duty.
The brigade was called upon to assemble for some unknown purpose. We thought that perhaps the Yankees were trying again to get by us and get at the railroad. We dismissed this theory early since if it were true, we would have heard the long roll. We did as our officers said and assembled around a gentleman whom we suspected wanted to tell us something. The brigade looked quite small as did the gentleman.
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| U.S. Grant |
We were introduced to a Doctor Davidson, who used to be in the Eleventh Mississippi. We happily thought that one of our own would inform us of some good thing to happen to us. Instead, he lectured us on a fantastic plan that had to have come from the mind of a lunatic or a rank charlatan. He proposed to build a fleet of flying birds to bomb the Yankees from the air. He was seeking support and money. He received little of either. Even Hancock thought it a humbug.
When we left him, we were little the wiser but certainly more amused. We went back to our quarters and ate what little we had
At least the Yankees are leaving us alone. They are cold and hungry, too, I hope. I wonder if they have enough firewood. I hope not.
I Send You These Few Lines
This is the first entry in the Greenback Diary for 1865 and there's something that I need to share with you readers. Years before I had any notion of writing a blog, I came across something concerning late war Confederate records. They disappear.
Beginning with the January/February muster rolls for 1865, so many Confederate soldiers vanish from the rolls. Officers tend somewhat to still be represented past January but the enlisted ranks are very poorly represented. A good many officers and enlisted vanish much earlier than that but the disappearances become wholesale at the beginning of 1865.
I really do not know how to account for this. Fire? Flood? Strain of war? I have a list of about three dozen members of Company I, 12th South Carolina that disappear from the muster rolls in 1863 and 1864 without explanation. They do not appear on the Appomattox surrender rolls. Where did they go? Died? Deserted? Transferred? There's no telling.
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| Robert E. Lee |
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| Samuel McGowan |
The reason that I bring this up is that this documentation issue will affect the blog. The very basis for the events noted in Tooms' diary comes from primary sources. When Tooms writes that Dennis Castles is furloughed or Garrett Sims dies of his wounds or S.R. Caskey is transferred to the Navy or George Cauthen is fined $2.25 for nine cartridges, it is because there is a primary source document that confirms this. This is good material and I consider myself lucky to have access to it. This blog is better off for it.
There have been times when I have taken license with persons or events and those have been noted as such. Now that 1865 is here, there will be more in the way of license. Documentation, where it exists, will continue to be noted. Although the primary sources will become thinner, there will be no need to engage in wild, fanciful stories for the sake of holding the reader's attention.
Having said that, I need to explain the Dr. Davidson, mentioned above. He is real and so is his story.
"Doctor", Roderick O. Davidson had been a soldier in the 11th Mississippi until his discharge whereupon he secured a position with the Treasury Department. While working there, he concocted a scheme to build a fleet of airships to fly over Union positions and bomb them away.
His airship, called the Artis Avis, was made of iron straps covered with white oak. The wings were feathered and moved up and down just like a bird's. It carried a crew of one and several bombs. The, "Doctor", claimed that his contraption could fly 75 miles an hour, powered by a one-horsepower engine.
Davidson visited the Army of Northern Virginia's camps during the winter of 1864-65 to try and drum up support and money for his airship. General McGowan's brigade, in which was Tooms and the 12th south Carolina, was one of the brigades that listened to the man whom was flying higher than his airship. You just can't make this stuff up.
Tooms' observation on the size of the brigade is quite accurate. At full strength, the brigade should number some 5,000. For the month of January, 1865, an inspection showed that the brigade numbered 3116 on the rolls. However, only 1898 were present. Of those, 1521 could bear arms. So, on paper, the brigade was operating at 60% of authorized strength. But in reality, where it counted most, those who could shoot, the brigade was at 25%. Each one will have to shoot more Yankees to make up the shortfall.
I've tried a whole new layout for the new year (1865). I think I've pushed a few buttons that I shouldn't have. Any opinions or suggestions entertained. Lastly, Happy New Year.
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