"...French unmentionable..."

Monday, June 8, 1863, Hamilton's Crossing, Virginia

There has been many events of late. I have had to borrow some ink from Mathis and I still am in danger of running out. 

The army has left here; at least a good part of it. There was no announcement from the officers. It is just something that we have had to figure out for ourselves from evident circumstances. Before I begin to detail what has happened, it is perhaps necessary to explain something else that has happened earlier, lest it have a bearing on what has happened since.

There has been a great shaking -up of the entire army, perhaps made necessary by the death of our Jackson. General Lee's army had been just two corps, or wings, Longstreet's and our Jackson's. Now there are three corps. Longstreet has kept his. Another one, the Second, has been created and given to General Richard Ewell, a man that I must confess I know little enough about. A new corps, the Third, has been given to our former division commander, General Hill. His old division, the Light Division, is now under Dorsey Pender. 

The shaking continues. General McGowan still has not recovered from his wounds sustained during the great victory at Fredericksburg. Abner Perrin, of the 14th, runs the brigade and Colonel Miller runs our regiment. I am not fully aprised of the entire change of affairs. I understand that the wonderful Stonewall Brigade has been stripped from Hill's Light Division for duty elsewhere. I am but a high private and certainly not privy to the higher thinking of generals.

Longstreet is gone, with his entire force, where we do not know. Ewell is gone as well. We have observed the Yankees pickets on the river's opposite shore and we presume all Hooker's army is still there. Is another flank move in the works? And if not, where have Longstreet and Ewell gone? Again, it is not for those like me to wonder but just to follow orders like good soldiers.

A very few days ago, the brigade was put on the road to march to this place. Here, we erected breastworks in anticipation of a Yankee attack. Since taking up residence at this place, there has been one such attack but not against this brigade. It happened on the Port Royal road and was repulsed. It was probably just one of those probing affairs started to see if we are still here. They got their nose beaten for their trouble.

The new schedule for picket duty calls on one company from each regiment to man the line for an entire day. Our Company I finished this morning when we turned the picket over to the Campbell Rifles of Company A. They are good gentlemen.

This is a dangerous game. Our numbers are too few to adequately guard against a Yankee raid. What makes the situation worse is that many of us on picket have spent our time building and then tending to campfires where there are no camps. One does not have to be an officer to realize that there is a great game here. We are pretending to be the entire army and by doing so, are holding Hooker in place until General Lee's great plan is revealed.

Should the Yankees decide to again dance with us, they will lead and we must follow. There are so few of us here what with sickness and being detailed away. The company probably does not have forty muskets represented on the line. I can only assume that the brigade suffers in a similar manner.

If anything is to happen, we are well-supplied to take care of it. Our cartridge boxes are full if not our bellies. The company is clothed decently but not lavishly. Over the winter, we would have benefitted from a general issue of overcoats. Now that it is warmer, there  is no pressing need for an overcoat. Perhaps someone in Richmond will spend his time this summer in procuring overcoats for us before the next winter gets here. I still have my good blanket and thank my lucky stars for it.

There have been few packages from the home folks of late. I had the good fortune to run across Mr. Pickle who brought a very few packages from his warehouse in Richmond. Some of us in the company were given new socks and some shirts and drawers. There were no jackets or trousers or anything to put atop one's head. The worst of it was that there was not a morsel to eat.

Holton and myself were discussing the other day something called a biscuit. We both agreed that we had heard of such a thing but could not figure out what one was. Bill Barton, Junior heard our conversation and came over to jaw with us. He said he heard that it was a French unmentionable worn by their elegant ladies. We left it at that. 


I Send You These Few Lines:


Tooms is right, for once. Lee's army has gone on a trip to...? The corps of Longstreet and Ewell have already left their camps on the south side of the Rappahannock. Tooms and his pards don't know it yet but their time is coming.

It is part of the aftermath of the Battle of Chancellorsville fought this past May. Hooker's Army of the Potomac, having been badly bloodied during that battle, is is a rest and refit mode, strictly defensive. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had the momentum and the advantage of being winners and all the morale points that comes with it. It's time Lee's people took a trip.

Leaving Hill behind and hoping that he can impersonate the entire army is a bit of a gamble but gambling is what Lee is about. 

The reader may remember Mr. Pickle from a previous diary post. This is Obidiah Pickle, field agent for the Central Association for the Relief of South Carolina Soldiers. People back home make or bake things for their boys at the front and give them to the Association. These things are then sent to the Association's warehouse in Richmond where Mr. Pickle takes them to the front for distribution.

The Confederacy is straining to outfit Lee for an extended absence.  There's something that neither Tooms nor his pards know about this little perambulation but that's for another diary entry.