Year: 1862

L


The following s a verbatim Of letter foune
by one of our soldiers on the body of a deat
rebel sergeant, after the battle Of South Noun.
tain, in Maryland We give Il with all its rib.
aIdry and profanity, as an indication of the TEN.
per which prevails among the soldiers of the
SEPTEMBER, ii, 1869.
IN CAMP NEAR HAeERsTowN, MD.


Dear Jim;--We arrived here yesterday after
damnatlon march you ever heard of We march.
ed over to Md, on last Thursday week Ever
since we left Gordonsville, we have had a he'll
OIL time; hrst fighting with old Pope, then hard
marching alter the God dam Yankees, aud ly-
ing on green, corn aud muddy water. Hard
nghting hard fare, and most God dam hard
marches; my feet got 80 God dam sore I was
first to go bareiooted. can hardly get along.
ours boys is nearly worn out, but still we are
dragged along at the point of the bayonet by
our dam'd officers, who don't care dam for us,
so we do the fighting and they get the honor Of
the whipping the dam Yankees.


81 am getting most dead sick of this war, and
i'll only knew when / entered in the service
that The war would been so long, and we would
be led in such dam eternal dogs life, I would
have run away from the whole dam Southern
Contederacy, for begin to think that we have
been humbugged the danadist by our officers in
the war What in hell difference does it make
to us jim, whether we live under old Abe or
under jeff Davis; neither of them care a dam
for us, only to do their fighting and voting and
then we may go to hell for all they care. You
must not think that | am turning Yankee, l
am as good Southern right man as ever, but l
begin to think that VIC have been fooled by a
God dam set Of Office seeking Villains who are
too dam lazy to work, and have lost good fat
pickings by the election of old Lincoln, and
want US poor white niggers to build their houses
for them, while they don't care dam if it fall
nD nc md Ii IA, r r Al
keep their dam niggers and grow fat in Office
Bou may think that talk dam queer for a SER
jent in the Confederate army, but / will be
dam'd it don't think its time to stop this dam
killing poor white men that the rich may grow
richer.


flour captain was to hear me talk SO cxpec
he would have me reduced to the ranks and pu
in the guard house and bucked or perhaps sho
like poor Max; but l tell you, Jim, l have been
thinking good deal lately over this matter
since have got into Maryland have talked
to good many Yankees or Union men as they
call themselves, and they generally talk very
sensible; they seem to be down on the niger as
much as any one in the South and say they
only want to preserve the Union under our gov
eminent, and almost begin think it would be
dam shame to divide it for the sake of few
oiilce-seekers. have seen great deal of hos
pItality among the people here and find they
don't differ with us ON many points They
only say preserve the Union and let the dam
nigger go to hell They ask us what we are
fighting for, and when we tell them for our
rights, they say they have all they ever had,
and it would be dam folly for them TO Join us,
and, in fact, TO speak candid, can't finally see
what rights we have lost TO make such hell of
a fuss about. / find things quite different here
from what expected


We was told that Maryland was ripe for re-
volt and soon as we entered her borders 10000
or 5OOO0 would flock to our standard; but we
found we had been fooled the dalndest, for the
people all appeared to be very well satisfied
with their condition, and if I can Judge from the
appearance of their country and the prosperous
condition of the people, l think they have made
dam good hit of it by staying in the Union,
and it would have been dam sight better if
we had all remained contented with our condi-
ton and not made dam set of fools of ourselves
am afraid we are in a trap here, and half will
never get out. think it was dam bad thing
in coming over here, but we was forced in 4
manner, as we was nearly starved out and this
is land ofmilk and honey; everything in abun-
dance. | tell you Jim, we live high to what
we used to do in the Old Dominion We now
get salt enough on our meat, which makes it eat
a dam sight better than we have been used to.
jim, burn this letter, it may fall into the hands
OF some officers, and if ours get hold of it I may
catch hell right soon.


hear your regiment has been ordered to re-
port TO Gen. Smith in Kentucky. Let me know
if it is So / wish you We're with us, as we in
tend to go in shortly and give the Yankees hell.


Your friend,


W. H. GREEN"