Year: 1863




A Profane but Significant Letter


Opinions of Sergeant In the Rebel
Army.


The following is verbatim copy Of a
letter found by one Of our soldiers on the
bo1y of dead rebel sergeant. after the
battle Of South Mountain, in Mary ylsnd. -
We give it with ell its ribaldry and pro-
family, as an indication Of the temper
which prevails among the soldiers Of the
rebel army.-New York Post
"September IA, 1862,


"IN CANT NEAR HAGERsrows Nd.


DEAR JlM:--We arrived here yester-
day after the damnationist march you ever
heard Of We marched over to Nd, on
last Thursday week. Ever since we left
Gordonsvile we have hal hell of time;
first fighting with old Pope. then hard
marching after the God dam Yankees and
living on green corn and muddy water
Hard fighting. hard fare and most God
dam hard marches, my feet got so dam
sore was first to go barsfeotsdo / can
hardly get along. Our boys is nearly
worn out. but still we are dragged along
at the point Of the bayonet by our dam
med officers, who don't care dam for US,
so we do the fighting and they get the hon
or of whipping of the dam Yankees.


IL am getting most dead sick of this
war. and il only knew when / entere d in
the service that the war would be so long,
and we would be led in such dam eternal
dogs life, would have run away from
the whole dam Southern Confederacy, for
1 begin to think that we have been hum
bugged the damdest by our officers in the
war. What in hell difference does it make
to ms, jim. whether we live under old Abe
or under Jeff Davis; neither Of them care
dam for us. only to do the fighting and
voting. and then we may go to hell for all
they care. You must not think that am
turning Yankee, am as good Southern
right man as ever. but | begin to think
that we have been fooled by God damn
set of effice seeking Williams who are too la
zy to work, and have lost good fat pick
ings by the election of old Lincoln, and
want US poor white niggers to build their
house for them while they don't care dam
if it fall on us and kill every dam one of
us if they ear keep their dam niggers and
grew fat in office. You may think that L
talk dam queer for sergeant in the Con-
federate army. but l viii be dam d if DONE
think it's time to stop this dam killing
Of poor white men that the rich may grow
richer.-If our captain was to hear me talk
so expect he would have me reduced to
the ranks and put in the guard house and
bucked. or perhaps shot like poor Max;
but / tell you Jim. have been thinking
good deal lately over this matter since
have got in Maryland. / have talked to a
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 sny one in the South, aud
say they want to preserve the Union under
our government; and l almost begin to
think il would be dam shame to divide
it for the sake of few office seekers. II have
found great deal of hospitality among
the people here, and find they don't differ
with us on many points. They only say.
preserve the Union and let the damn Mig
ger 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 damn folly to join us.
and. in fact to speak candid, can't see
what rights we have lost to make such .
hell of fuss about. 4 find things quite
dfferent here from what expected We
were told that Maryland was ripe for re-
volt, and as soon as we entered her bor-
ders 40 900 or so, 900 would flock to our
standard; but we found we had been fool
ed the damdest. for the people all appear
ed to be very well satisfied with their con-
dition, and if can judge from the appear
snce of their country and the prosperous
condition of the people, think they have
made a dam good hit of it by staying in
the Union, and it would have been dam
sight better il we had oil remained con-
tented, and not made dam set of fools OF
ourselves. Lam afraid we are in trap
here and the half will never get out. /
think it was dam bad thing in coming
over here, but we was forced in manner,
as we was nearly starved out. and this is
land of milk and honey, everything in
abundance. 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 q dam sight better than
We have been used to- jim. burn this let
ter. or it may fall into the hand of some
officers and if ours get hold of it may
catch hell right soon. / hear your regi-
ment has been ordered to report to Gen.
Smith in Kentucky. Let me know if it
is SO. 1 wish you were with us as we in
tend to go in shortly and give the Yankees
hell. rs ~ aall.d asN.