Letter – Cecil Fogg, 10 February 1864

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg writes that he sent his father his pocket diary from 1863, which he carried while in Tennessee. The arrival of the paymasters leads him to believe they will be paid soon. Fogg has heard that his regiment received marching orders for Knoxville, though they have yet to move. He has continued working on the bridge, along with the 21st Michigan Regiment. Fogg writes that a depot containing overcoats and other clothing recently burned down, having caught fire from a nearby dwelling house that was supposedly set ablaze by a Confederate sympathizer. Fogg concludes by writing that they will take up the dead at Chickamauga and bury them in the Soldiers’ Cemetery near town.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Feb, 10^th

Father

I rec’d the Tribune Almanac which you sent to me, and the two letters containing money and stamps. I mailed a pocket diary for 1863, which I suppose you will get before this reaches you. It may contain some of the items of interest which I have not written to you. It is too small to write much in. I carried it in my blowse [blouse] pocket the most of the time since we came to Tennessee. The paymasters are here again. We signed the payroll yesterday, and I suppose we will be paid off again shortly. We only get paid for two months this time, and I don’t know as I shall have any [money] to send home this time. Most everything is plenty now, but prices are very

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high. Green apples are bought for $10 per barrel, and retailed out at 10 and 12 cent a piece. Cheese sells at 50 K, 60 cts. and butter 75 cts. to $1.00 per lb. Paper is the cheapest thing I know of now at this place; it can be had for 15 cts. a quire. Two months ago it was selling at 50 cts. It has been reported in camp that we have been under marching orders for Knoxville twice within the last two weeks, but we are still here. One division of our corps is said to have started for Knoxville this morning. They started very early this morning for some place. I have been at work on the bridge for 3 days. It is a large job. We have been at work on it for about a month, and have not got the abutments and piers half done yet. The 21^st Michigan Regt. is working at it too. The soldiers

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do the heavy work and the government pays $2.50 and $3.00 per day to citizens for doing the light work, which we could do just as well as they. There are men here working at the bridge from nearly all the New England states, New York and Pennsylvania, who get $3.00 a day and their board, and don’t work half as hard as we do at 50 cts. a day. There was a fire here on the morning of the 6^th. A depot burned down, and it was said to contain 50,000 overcoats, besides a great quantity of other clothing. It caught fire from a dwelling house nearby, and it is supposed by a good many that it was set on fire by some Rebel sympathizer. I must close now, for we have just rec’d orders to be ready to march at 4 in the morning, and it is after roll call now. We are going out to take up our dead at Chickamauga and bury them at the Soldiers’ Cemetery near town.

Cecil Fogg

Cecil Fogg enlisted in Company B of the 36^th OH Volunteer Infantry on August 12, 1861 at Marietta, OH at the age of 20. He served through his three year term of service and re-enlisted for the war, but was mustered out July 27, 1865 based upon a surgeon’s certificate of disability. The 36th served in West Virginia in 1861, and participated in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam as a part of the 9^th Corps before being transferred west in January 1863. As a part of the Army of the Cumberland’s 14^th Army Corps (George H. Thomas), the regiment fought at Chickamauga and later in the Atlanta and Savannah, GA (March to the Sea) Campaigns.

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 31 January 1864

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Letter of Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg writes that sutlers have come to camp, and retracts his previous request for money. He describes a scouting trip to McLenmore Cove where they rescued families of Union Home Guards who had been taken prisoner. Fogg writes that a cavalry expedition to Dalton found no Confederate troops, and that his regiment is still working on a bridge. The 92nd Ohio is working on burying deceased soldiers in the nearby National Cemetery, while other squads are fencing in the depot and repairing the railroad track to Knoxville. Fogg mentions family friends who have re-enlisted in the 40th Ohio, and were at Shell Mound since the fight at Lookout Mountain but are now guarding the railroad. Veterans from the 36th Ohio have begun to return home. Several deserters have been sentenced in a court martial. Fogg discusses the benefits of instating a draft and concludes by mentioning the recent arrival of sanitary stores.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Jan. 31/64

Father

I have rec’d 3 or 4 letters from you within the last 10 days; 2 of them containing thread. There was enough in the first one to do me, as the sutlers have now come up. I wrote to you on the 17^th for some money. If you have not sent any, you need not now, for I can get along without it till we are paid again. I believe I have not wrote to you since the scout. We were out on a 3 days’ scout to McLenmore Cove. We started out on the 18^th and went up to where we came down the mountain in Sept. We camped there at the foot of the mountain on the night of the 18^th, and the next day we went a few miles farther and loaded up about 16 or 18 wagons

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with some Union families and their household goods, and came back to the place where we camped the night before. We camped there that night and returned to our camp at Chattanooga the next day. The families which we moved in are families of Union Home Guards, who have been taken prisoners by the Rebs. The Home Guards met to organize and elect officers, and the Rebs slipped in on them in our uniform, and took all but 5 or 6 of them. They shot some of them in the own door yard, stripped some of all their clothing, and made them double quick towards Dalton in their bare feet over the frozen ground. It rained the morning we started out there, and the road was very bad that day. But it froze up that night, and snowed a little.

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It thawed a little the next day, and froze up again at night, so we had pretty good walking back to camp. I understand that our cavalry have been out to Dalton and found no enemy there. Our regt. is still at work on the bridge. The 92^nd [Ohio] is engaged at the work of re-interring the bodies of soldiers who have been killed or died, and been buried near this place.

They are burying them in the National Cemetery near this place. There are also squads at work fencing in the depot, and repairing the track between here and Knoxville. And I think the [rail]cars will be running through to that point in a short time. This is a very lively place at present; nearly everybody appears to be doing something. I saw John Williams’ boys a few

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days ago. They are in the 40^th Ohio. Their division passed up the river. They have been at Shell Mound since the fight at Lookout Mt. They have all three re-enlisted, and expect to go home in a short time. They are going up to guard R[ail] Road between here and Knoxville for the present. The veterans of the 36^th (about 54 in number) started home a few days ago. Harrison Adney is one of them. None of the Salem boys in this regt. have re-enlisted yet. I believe Henry Pedin started home a few days ago on furlough. We have had about 2 weeks of the finest weather I ever saw at this time of the year. It realizes my former ideas of the “Sunny South,” but which all were put to flight by that cold snap in the fore part of the month.

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The deserters are catching it pretty hard at the court martial now in session. Three deserters in Co. B were tried a few days ago. They don’t know their sentence yet. Bill McKey is sentenced to one month’s hard labor, and lose 10 month’s wages. His sentence is light. Some have to work 6 months, lose a year’s pay, and after they have worked out their sentence, return to the regt. and make up for all the time they have lost. All your arguments in favor of big bounties for volunteers look to me as though they might be used as arguments on the other side. If the novelty of the thing has worn off and volunteering is a drag, why not draft at once save time and money, and bring out some of the Copperheads into the ranks who never will be there unless they are drafted, or get more than their services

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are worth in the shape of a bounty. If the draft had come off 6 months ago, there would not have been so many loafing soldiers at home pretending to recruit for months at a time when their services are needed in the field. I think the veterans ought to have twice the bounty that a raw recruit gets, for a veteran is worth more to the gov’t than 2 new recruits. Almost every regt. in the service lost more than half their no. before they ever done any service to the government. A regt. will lose one half its no. in getting seasoned to the service.

Some sanitary stores have reached this place, and the sick and wounded in the hospitals in town have had the benefit of some of them. And the hospital attendants and officers are living in closer. They can afford to be generous when they have more than they can use themselves.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 17 January 1864

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg begins by saying that he is out of money, and requests that his father send him some. He was previously spending a lot of money on food, but expects to spend less now that they get full rations. He mentions that the soldiers at Knoxville have had harder times with less to eat, and are re-enlisting just so they get an opportunity to go home for a few days. Fogg mentions that the 36th Ohio is building a bridge across the Tennessee River.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Jan. 17^th 1864

Father,

I am out of money again, and expect I will need some before we are paid off again. I wish you would send me about five dollars. Perhaps it would be best to send a dollar or two at a time. I will not need it all at once, and if you send it part at a time, I will be pretty sure to get part if not all of it. If you send it all together it may get lost.

Keep an account of what you have sent me, and what you send me hereafter, and take it out of what I send to you. I have spent a good deal of money here for something to eat, but we get full rations now, and I think things will be cheaper now, for the [rail]cars came in on the 14^th and they are bringing rations in fast now. The soldiers up at Knoxville have had harder times than we have [had] here, I think, and less to eat. They are nearly all re-enlisting up there to get to go home where they can get something to eat. Three regiments arrived her a few days ago from Knoxville on their way home, and a great many are going to start from here in a few days. The 36^th [Ohio] has got into a job of building a bridge across the Tennessee [River] at Chattanooga. Half the regt. works 3 days at it, and then the other half works 3 days. They have put up a portable saw mill, and are at work on the abutments and getting out timber at present. I have not got my coat yet. It is comfortable weather now without an overcoat. If it don’t come, I will get paid for it by the Express Co.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 21 December 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg mentions the recent battle at Chattanooga. He has been at work clearing the ground for a National Cemetery between Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, and can hear the Engineer Corps blasting as they work on the road around Lookout Mountain. The troops are on reduced rations until the railroad is completed. General William T. Sherman’s 15th Corps recently passed through as well as General Joseph Hooker’s troops. Fogg describes them as being in “destitute condition.” He mentions a letter printed in the Nashville Union from the 2nd Minnesota Regiment, which describes the battle at Missionary Ridge on November 24th and “straightens up” a misleading account written by a member of the 6th Indiana. He states that the 11th Ohio’s flag was the first one in the Confederate works, though it was his division led by Absalom Baird which engaged the enemy in hand to hand combat.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Dec. 21^st 1863

Father

I rec’d yours of the 11^th yesterday. There is nothing of importance going on here at present. I have written to you twice since the last battle [Chattanooga]. I also sent you a Nashville Union and Louisville Journal, and will send another by this mail. The Union is the anti-slavery paper of this section, and sells the quickest among the soldiers in this army. But the news dealers will persist in bringing on Nashville papers, Dispatches, Louisville Journals, etc., and consequently they have large quantities of them left over which they have to sell at reduced prices for waste papers, etc. The price of newspapers has been reduced from 10 to 5 cents here lately. There are no

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sutlers here, and therefore we have to do without some little necessary articles as well as conveniences. I wish you would send me a skim of thread in a letter the next time you write. The Engineer Corps are at work day and night at the road around Lookout [Mountain]. We could hear them blasting rock all night last night. The river is up higher than it has been before since we came here, and it has been very cold for a few days. About a week ago there was a hard thunder shower, with some of the loudest thunder that I ever heard. It rained 2 or 3 days and then turned in very cold. I was at work one day last week clearing off the ground for a National Cemetery. One-hundred of our regt. done the first day’s work on it. It includes almost 30 acres

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and is on a knoll about halfway between Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, to the right of “Orchard Knob,” the Knoxville R.R. running just on this side of it. We are still on ¾ rations, without any prospect of any more than that until the R.R. is completed to this place. Sherman’s (15^th) Corps passed down the 18^th, but I did not get to see the boys in the 53^rd [Ohio] as I was out at work that day.

Hooker’s men passed down the day before, and they were in very destitute condition. A great many of them were bare-footed, and many of them had no blankets. They left their knapsacks here when they went up the river. They lived off the country nearly altogether, they said, having drawn only 2 day’s rations from the gov’t since they left here (about the 28^th of Nov.). In the Nashville Union

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of the 17^th, which I send [to] you, is a letter from a member of the 2^nd Minn. Regt., which partly straightens up a very exaggerated and partial account of the battle of the 24^th [of November – Missionary Ridge], which was written by a member of the 6^th Ind, (Johnson’s Division) who doesn’t do any fighting himself, but stands back at Ft. Wood till the battle is over, and then tells about what “we done” at Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Our brigade was not in the advance when the charge was first attempted on Ms. Ridge, but we were on top of the ridge as soon as any of them on our part of the line. The flag of the 11^th Ohio was the 1^st one in the Rebel works on our part of the line. Our regimental flag was not there, or it would have been on the ridge as soon as any of them. It was our division (Baird’s) which engaged the enemy in that hand to hand fight on the left just about sundown after we had driven them a half mile out along the ridge. My overcoat has not arrived yet, but I suppose it is safe as it is in the hands of the Express boat.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 24 September 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. His company left the Signal Station to rejoin his regiment in Trenton, GA then came down into the Chickamauga Valley. He describes being part of the advanced guard in the Battle of Chickamauga, being fired at by Confederate pickets. Despite being outnumbered they managed to turn the Rebels back and took prisoners. Col. William G. Jones was killed with another man from his company. The following day they were part of the center and were nearly surrounded, being fired on by sharpshooters from 3 sides but eventually were able to meet up with Gen. Gordon Granger’s Reserve Corps and fell back to Union fortifications.

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Chattanooga Sept 24th

Father

I am sitting in one of the “Last Ditches” (just finished) writing this. I have been through a two day fight and nearly 2 weeks of skirmishing since I wrote to you last and have escaped unhurt up to this time. Co. B staid up on the mountain above Jasper guarding the Signal Station from the 22nd Aug. till the 6th of Sept. On the 6th we started for our Regt. which was at Trenton Ga. we got there on the 8th. On the 10th we started southward and went about 10 miles then crossed over Sand mountain [AL] one of the Look-out range, when we were coming down the valley into Chickamauga Valley we could see where Gen. Negley’s Division was fighting a whole Corps of Rebels. I was in the advance guard

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coming down the mountain and was fired at by Rebel pickets at the foot of the mountain. It was about dark when we got to the foot and we ran the pickets in abut a mile farther and then stopped for the night. Several balls came pretty close to me that evening and one of our co. was wounded. We skirmished around here till the 18th when it was discovered that the Rebels were moving towards Chattanooga on the other side of Pigeon mountain. we started and marched all night of the 18th Our Brigade was about the center. The Rebels out numbered us 3 to one according to their account. There was a weak place in our line a little to our right when the Rebs broke through

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and we were called out there to turn them back, and we did it we took some prisoners there who said it was the hardest fighting they had ever done and they had been in nearly all the fights in the east. There is where our Regt lost the most. Col [William G.] Jones was killed and Maj. [William H.G.] Adney wounded one of our co. killed and 5 wounded. The next day the big fight came off They turned our right and left and we were nearly surrounded in the center and were exposed to a fire of sharp-shooters on three sides of us. About an hour before sunset our Brigade took the lead and made a charge to cut our way through and get out of there, and we got out just about sunset. When we stopped Gen. Reynolds, Col. [Philander P.] Lane of the 11th

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Capt Henry, 3 Lieutenants and about 150 of our Brigade (mostly 36th men) were all that was present. The balance had taken a different direction after passing through the 1st and 2nd line of Rebs and come out by a shorter cut bringing with them about 200 prisoners when Gen. Reynolds and his 150 men stopped it was sunset, and we had run 4 or 5 miles, cut our way through 3 lines of rebs and were then chasing a while Brigade of Cavalry. The dirt and noise we made then was all that saved us, we found our way to Granger’s Corps, then to our own, and fell back 6 or 7 miles that night. Monday night we fell back to the fortifications and have been at work fortifying all the time since.

Col [Timothy Robbins] Stanley of the 18th was slightly wounded Sunday.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 2 September 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Jasper, TN. Fogg expects to remain with the Signal Corps on the mountain above Jasper for some time. Rations and water must be carried up the mountain, but the troops would rather do that than stay in the valley and drill. They have plenty to eat, as they get produce from local farms and meat from hunting. Fogg describes the rough road conditions going up the mountain. He mentions how their camp is located near a cliff, and describes the view across the river. Fogg mentions that a few contrabands, or escaped slaves, are employed as cooks in his regiment. He describes the recent weather conditions, and writes that he does not know when he will get a chance to mail the letter since they have crossed the river.

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Jasper, Tenn. Sept. 2^nd

Father

I wrote to you from this place about a week ago. I rec’d yours of the 8^th just after I sent my letter off; also yours of the 23^rd a few days ago. We are still with the Signal Corps on the mountain above Jasper, and we are likely to remain with them some time, I think, as our regt. has crossed the [Tennessee] river and left us here.

The army has been crossing the river for 2 or 3 days, and are not across yet. We have carried our rations up the mountain from the camp since we have been here, and have to carry our water a mile and a half. But we have nothing else to do, and would rather do that than

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stay down in the valley with the regt. and drill. The are a few farms up here on the mountain, and we have had plenty of potatoes, geen corn, apples, peaches, etc. since we have been up here.

Some of the boys killed a deer, and there are some sheep running through the woods, so we have plenty of fresh meat. I thought the road over University Point was bad enough, but this road is a good deal worse. It took 6 mules and 20 or 30 men to get one wagon up the mountain. I think it was the first wagon that ever went over that road. It is only a bridle path, and I never would have thought that a wagon could have been got up there, unless it was taken in pieces. but we managed to get it up

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by carrying the load up the worst places. We are camped on top of the mountain just back of a cliff of rocks, several hundred feet high, extending for miles along in front of the river. We can see on the other side of the river, some 15 or 20 miles back, a similar cliff 40 or 50 miles in length – which looks like a line of breastworks from this place. We see very few contrabands in this part of the country. I don’t know what has become of them; there are a few in our brigade, employed as cooks, who get together [on] Sundays and have a camp meeting when we are in regular camp. We have one negro preacher in our regt. We had some hot weather about the time we left University Point, but

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for the last week it has been very pleasant; the evenings being cool enough to sleep very comfortably with one or two blankets over oneself. I don’t know when I shall get this mailed, as our brigade and division have crossed the river, and we have no chance to send our mail off now.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 25 August 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Jasper, Marion County, TN. Fogg describes marching to a large natural spring in a valley where they set up camp nearby. Fogg mentions the rough road conditions, and writes that more men died due to injuries sustained from an ammunition explosion. The soldiers enjoyed fresh peaches and ears of corn while in camp near the spring before they marched to Battle Creek and then to a camp near Jasper. Fogg is writing from one of the highest points overlooking the town and the surrounding countryside. He mentions that the Confederates fell back from the Tennessee River, and he expects a large fight in Chattanooga.

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Jasper, Marion Co., Tenn. Aug. 23^rd

Father,

We have moved again since I wrote to you last. I received yours of Aug. 1^st a week ago at University Point. We left that place on Monday morning, the 17^th, about 8 o’clock, and marched 12 miles in a southeast course. We came down the mountain into a valley and camped about noon close by a big spring. I thought I had seen big springs in Tennessee before, but this beat any that I had yet seen. It is so deep that citizens say they never have found any bottom to it yet, and they have measured it 150 feet. It is about 25 feet across at the top. The road down the mountain was a good deal worse than it was on the other side; in fact, it was the worse road we have ever been over yet. We lost one wagon coming over. Those men who were wounded by the explosion at the battery were burnt worse than was thought at first, 4 of them died before we left there, and two more of them were not expected to live long. One of them, it was thought, might get well. The 2^nd day after we left the Point we stayed in camp at the big spring. Here we got plenty of ripe peaches and roasting ears [corn]. We have had plenty of them all the time since.

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There are some very large peach orchards on the mountain around here; all natural fruit though. Wednesday morning we marched 5 or 6 miles down the valley and camped on Battle Creek. The next day we went down a mile further and camped by a spring, which comes out of a big rock in the side of the mountain and runs a few rods over a bed of rocks, and then empties itself into an opening in the rocks about 25 feet deep, and that was as far as we could follow it. It is very cool water, and there is a current of cool air [that] rushes out with the water, which is so much cooler than the outside air that it is dangerous for a person very much heated up to come very close to it. The next day we left this place, crossed the Battle Creek, and camped ½ a mile from Jasper. Our last camp at the cool spring was about 1-1/2 miles from the Tenn. River. Yesterday our co. was detailed to guard the Signal Corps for a short time, and we came up to here where we are at present, on one of the highest points around here, overlooking the town of Jasper and the surrounding country for 30 or 40 miles. We can see ranges of mountains in Georgia and Alabama, 40 or 50 miles off. The Rebels fell back from the [Tenn.] river yesterday. I think we will cross the river in a few days and have a big fight at Chattanooga.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 14 August 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from University Point, TN. Fogg expects to move soon across the Tennessee River. There are rumors of peace, but most think it will take more time for the Confederates to accept the terms set by Abraham Lincoln. Fogg writes that he enlisted due to a “hatred of the South and a desire to end slavery,” and can fight for his country with a clear conscience now that slavery is nearly abolished. He describes an artillery accident involving the 21st Indiana Battery and that a deserter, Thomas McClasky, was sentenced to be shot.

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University Point, Tenn. Aug. 14^th[1863]

Father,

I rec’d yours of the 1^st a few days ago. I expected we would be moving on before this time, we are expecting to move at any time. It is reported here that part of the Army is moving now. It is thought here that when we move we will cross the Tennessee River. Some men here, with more money than brains, are betting that peace is declared. But the most of us think it will take another month or two, like July has been with the Rebs, before they will come to Lincoln’s terms; though they are coming to it slowly in places. We are all Grant men in this

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army; that is unconditional surrender before peace. As much as we would like to see peace, when I volunteered, it was not so much patriotism as it was hatred of the South and a desire to help end slavery. But now that slavery is about disposed of, I think that I can fight for my country the 3^rd year with a clear conscience. I think you were lucky in not losing anything by Morgan. It is the best plan to stay at home in such an emergency, and not run off and leave any thing alone. If they find a house deserted, 10 to 1 they will destroy everything in it. When, if the owner had been there, it might probably have been saved. I know that is the case in the South, and

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from what I can learn, that is the way Morgan’s men done in Ohio. The 21^st Indiana Battery in this brigade met with a serious accident one day last week. They had taken out the ammunition from the caisson to dry, and was so careless as to leave some fire in a tree only a rod or two off. Some of the fire blew in among the powder and set it off. There were 3 piles of shell and canister, about 50 loads in each pile – 2 lbs. of powder to each load. It wounded 7 men. One of them died the next day. It is a great wonder that more were not killed. The canister shot were scattered all around over camp like hail. I was sitting in my tent about 20 rods off, and could feel the wind strike against me very sensibly. I looked up

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and just then the 2^nd pile went off. The blaze of it went as high as the tree tops, and it was the loudest report that I ever heard. Our new general (Turchin) is getting very popular with us. He has issued an order regulating the price of produce which the citizens bring into camp to sell. The have to sell apples, peaches, and potatoes at $1.25 per bushel now. They used to ask double that. We hear that Thos. McClasky of Morgan[‘s raiders] (a deserter from this co.) has been taken and sentenced to be shot. We have 670 men in our regt. now. It is to be filled up to 1,000 by conscripts. They will be here in a short time. We have had some very warm weather since we came to this camp, but it is cooler up here than where we camped last. Deserters are coming in nearly every day from Chattanooga.

Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 10 July 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from a camp near Elk River, TN. Fogg comments on the weather and road conditions since leaving Murfreesboro, and mentions an encounter with Confederate troops at Beach Grove. He describes marching to Manchester and Tullahoma, and writes that they captured prisoners and took some corn meal to eat. They discovered that the Elk River bridge had been destroyed, and heavy rains made it too dangerous to cross on foot, so they were forced to travel out of their way to an older bridge. There are rumors of Union victories in locations such as Vicksburg or Richmond, though Fogg is skeptical.

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Camp near Elk River, Tenn. July 10^th/63

Father

I have written 2 or 3 letters since we left Murfreesboro, but I was in such a hurry each time that I don’t know whether I told you anything or not. We would only have about 15 minutes’ notice to write our letters in, and there was no ink, and but little paper, etc. to be got. We sent back our knapsacks, and we could not carry such things very well. We had dry weather before we left Murfreesboro. We left there on the 24^th of June. It commenced raining that day, and rained nearly all the time for 3 days, and it rained every day but one since, till yesterday. There has been no rain here since day before yesterday, but the roads are awful, and teams can hardly get along at all. We were stopped 2 days at Beach Grove by the

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Rebels. On the 3^rd night they slipped off in the dark and we did not discover it till about noon the next day. Our brigade went on 12 miles in the afternoon, and camped a few miles from Manchester. We went in to Manchester the next morning and stayed there that day and the next. The next day we started on toward Tullahoma, and went to within about 5 miles of the place. There were 2 showers that day, about as hard as I ever seen it rain. It rained about 2 hours each time, and we were in it all. We could hear the [rail]cars at Tullahoma all that night, and the next night. Our regt. was out skirmishing the day before, and the night that the Rebs left town. We could hear the cars all the time, but couldn’t tell whether they were leaving, or receiving reinforcements. We went into town the next day and camped about a mile west of town that night. The town is,

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or was before the war, about as large as Withesville. It looks like a town built in the woods. Where we were the ground is not needed [kneaded?]; the trees are left standing and the town is well shaded. We left there the next morning and came to Elk River, where we camped that night. We captured a few prisoners, and a large quantity of corn meal at Tullahoma, and a great deal of meal had been destroyed by the Rebs. We brought some of the meal along with us, and it came in very good play when our crackers ran out. The day we got to Elk River the bridge was destroyed, and we went up the river about 2 miles to a ford where the most of the 14^th A. C. had crossed. It was pretty late when we got there, and we camped on the north bank that night, calculating to cross in the

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morning. But it rained that night and raised the river so high that we could not cross. Some regts. crossed, but they lost some men and a good many guns. The water came up to the necks of the shortest men, and it is a very swift stream. We had to go way around, about 4 or 5 miles, to get back to the old bridge, which the pioneers were repairing. We stayed there that night and the next day. They had got the bridge fixed up so that we could cross, and we crossed that morning (the 4^th) and came 2 or 3 miles this side of the river and went into camp. We heard National salutes all around us and ahead of us. Besides that, we heard any amount of stories of great victories gained by our armies in the East, and Vicksburg, Richmond, etc. But we all had the privilege of believing just as much as we chose to of it. And I did not chose to believe any of it.

[rest of letter missing]

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Tag Archives: Cecil Fogg

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 10 February 1864

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 31 January 1864

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 17 January 1864

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 21 December 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 24 September 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 2 September 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 25 August 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 14 August 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 10 July 1863