George Frederic Edgerton was born at Norwich, Connecticut in the year 1827, the youngest son of William and Sarah (Morgan) Edgerton. He was raised in Norwich and made his living as a carpenter, a trade he probably learned from his father.
George Frederic Edgerton was probably the “Frederick Edgerton” who was recorded in the 1850 Federal Census of Vernon, Tolland County, Connecticut, residing in the household of Hiram and Eunice Kenny (pg. 283; dwelling 192; family #; 200; enum. September 25, 1850). He was enumerated as “Frederick Edgerton, joiner, aged 23, born in Connecticut.”
George F. Edgerton was married at Norwich, Connecticut on March 30, 1851 to Abby Maria Cooley, daughter of William Simon and Frances (–) Cooley of Norwich. According to the Norwich marriage record (Vital Records, Book 7½, page 23), George was a “carpenter, aged 24, residing in Norwich” and Abby was “aged 19, residing in Norwich.” A record of the marriage is also found in the registers of the First Congregational Church of Norwich (Book 3, pg. 321).
George and Abby (Cooley) Edgerton had two sons: Charles Frederic, born at Norwich on February 11, 1852; and George Albert, born at Norwich on May 12, 1853. The elder son died at the age of six months. George Albert was married first to Wilhelmina Crocker and second to Maud Scott Broderick; he settled at New London and had one son, Frederick William.
“George F. Edgerton, of Norwich, Connecticut” enlisted on August 23, 1862 as a private in the G Company, 26th Infantry Regiment of Connecticut. The 26th Regiment was active in battles at Port Hudson, Louisiana from May to July of 1863. George died at Port Hudson on July 23, 1863.
These letters are part of what was once a much larger collection of letters by George Frederic Edgerton, a carpenter by trade and a Private in the 26th Connecticut Infantry who was killed in action at Port Hudson on July 23, 1863. The letters span November 15, 1862 to March 19, 1863. A fine pencil drawing by Edgerton of Camp Parapet is also included, as well as transcripts of letters from relatives and poems and an article from Harper’s Weekly; a few original covers, and more.
Edgerton’s fateful journey into the deep south began on August 23, 1862 when he enlisted as a Private in Company G, 26th Infantry Regiment of Connecticut. The regiment was organized in Norwich, CT on November 10, 1862 and attached to Thomas W. Sherman’s Division, Department of the Gulf.
The 26th left Connecticut for Long Island, New York on November 12, 1862 to report to Nathanial Banks for his Southern Expedition as part of the Vicksburg Campaign. It then boarded the steamer “Empire City” and to Carrollton, Louisiana November 29, arriving at Camp Parapet on December 16, 1862, where the soldiers received arms, drilled, picketed and otherwise waited for future orders. The southern climate, forced marches, guard duty, rugged accommodations and foreign food took its toll on the inexperienced soldiers from the North, who were further weakened by the oppressive heat, contagion, lack of sanitation and injury. Disease figures prominently into Edgerton’s letters, and his descriptions — too many to quote — of the contemporary means of treating the afflicted do much to explain the high level of mortality in the unit.
In January 1863, the 26th was attached to the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 19th Army Corps, Department of the Gulf. It was on duty at Camp Parapet until May 1863, then boarded the steamer “Crescent” to Springfield Landing. Arriving on May 20, 1863, the unit was assigned to Nathaniel Banks’ siege line against Franklin Gardner’s command at Port Hudson. From there, the regiment participated in the siege of Port Hudson from May 24, 1863-to July 9, 1863.
On May 26, and due to a misunderstanding between Banks and Sherman regarding a “loophole” in Special Order #123, the Brigade was organized at the right center of Neal Dow’s Brigade and ordered into a plantation owned by a man named Slaughter (and which is described by Edgerton.) Over 135 men were killed and wounded in the failed assault on what is known as “Slaughter’s Field.” While Edgerton does not make specific mention of the name Slaughter, the context of the letter and the fact that then 26th was involved in the battle strongly indicate that it was.
It is not clear when or where Edgerton was wounded in action during of the Port Hudson battles, but he died on July 23, 1863 in a Union hospital.
For 48 days, Garrison commander Franklin Gardner held out on surrender until he was informed that the vital city of Vicksburg fell on July 4, 1863. He, with his starving and ragged army, surrendered five days later on July 9, 1863.
The following are excerpts from many of the letters that were in the original collection, none of which are transcribed here.
[December 16] Had a pleasant sail up the Mississippi River…so many oranges growing…The negroes shook themselves almost to pieces…[December 19] We landed on here on Dec. 18th…A little steamer took us to shore…the Laurel Hill…There was 3 Regt. went away…to Vicksburg…they were hard tickets. Wilsons Zouaves was one…I never saw so many negroes in my life. We could all have one if we wanted…The are fighting hard to Vicksburg, now it has got to be taken….[December 20] There is 51 of the Connecticut men that are buried close by us so you see this is an unhealthy place here. The 23 and 28 Regts. came very near being lost that Saturday night…we hold most of the plantations…There are some white people here…[December 23] I have been sick all night with the bowel complaint…vomiting about all the time…The women peddle pies or something they call pies and every time we eat them we are sick…I was detailed with 4 other men to go down to Carrolton, a place about a mile from camp, to work at my trade, making Camp Chest for the big Officers to carry on the field…There is a large Bakery and Foundry down there where I work and a lot of n*ggers…The Southerners say the only hope they have is that we shall all die of disease…It is hot as July here in the day time and cold nights…The soil is all clay…You ought to have see me washing my clothes…An old back woman was looking on, she said ‘dat is not de way I do it’ so she went at it herself and washed mine and Charley’s…I feel better…If you could see the mule teams and the n*ggers that there is agoing here, you would think they was some of them they drive 4 horses or mules and ride one of the kind ones…[December 24] Just got back from the hospital…These fortifications are about 4 or 5 miles long and was built by the Rebels and was Commanded by Gen. Lovel but when they saw our ships coming up the river, they ran and left and the women burnt the gun cartridges…There is troops agoing up the river almost every day…[December ?] One of our men is sick with the typhoid fever…the doctor thinks, if we are careful what we eat, we shall get along better…Our breakfast was clear tea and dry bread. This noon it was salt pork, friend, and dried bread. It is tough, I tell you…I had a narrow escape from being killed the other day. I was bringing a pail of water from the river and a n*gger was driving a wild ox and he came around the corner on to me sudden. I jumped to git out of the way and I went into a ditch 3 feet deep, head foremost. It did not break my neck but it is awful lame…He went on and the guard run his bayonet into his head and broke it off and over went that man and on went the ox until he fell into a hole and then they caught him…I had a good dinner the other day, it was down to the Bakery where I am to work. It was Christmas Day. The N*gger that was cooking upstairs brought us down a plate full of pancakes and they was good…
[January 1, 1863] 24 sick in this Company now…I made you a nice little ring. I expect it was the bone of a Sesech Ox…[January 3] Pete Ladd…is ordered to his Reg’t to Baton Rouge. Col. Burge he has been in the city all the time, helping the quartermaster…The boys have been fishing up balls & guns over the Parapet today. The Rebels just threw them in there when they left…[January 8] I wish you could see the negroe women that have come here. They dress up in flounces and all kinds of rigs and some with hoops on…There is about 1300 here and they say there is to be 11,000 here and what in the world are they going to do with them. We have 4 men guarding the house close by the Camp. The woman was afraid to stay there alone. Her husband is in the Rebel Army. I would not care if they should carry the house off and all around it…[January 9] John Crary is detailed to do writing for Gen. Neel Dow…Dr. Finney…says we must be careful what we eat and drink…We do not buy anything off the peddlers…I weigh 136 pounds…[January 12] Capt. Maynard’s Company, through a negrow, captured a Rebel Lieut…His father came after him but the Col. said he could not go…The old man’s Plantation is in our possession…I should rather live in old Conn…where the negrows have got a chance to learn…I see them with their spelling books trying to learn their letters, old men and women…[January 13] I saw something that attracted my attention. It was a lady of color with drawers on. They were blue overhauls like mine. How we did laugh…[January 16] The River is rising fast, and the flood wood comes down so fast that the n*ggers are gitting it all the time…[January 14]…We built 3 chests…The old n*ggers wife baked me some hoe cakes and they were good. Then I got her to wash my clothes, 5 cts apiece….Today brings no news but it brings death. 2 more lay dead now at the Hospital…[January 16] I hear we are Brigadeed under Gen. Nell Dow…The Rebels say here that they are willing to lose their slaves and become a nation again…they are…taking the Oath every day. I saw a whole load of Negrows come in the other day and they did look tuff…The big guns are manned by a Company from Vermont and Wisconsin boys…[January 20] There was about 500 negroes came here the other night and there is more to come. I wish you could have seen them. Such looking men and women I never saw. They carry everything on their heads and not touch it…There is a part of the 50th Massachusetts Reg’t. They were 21 days coming from Hilton Head and the vessel was condemned…The 16th New Hampshire Reg’t. was paid off today…
The Parapet is 2 or 3 miles long with lots of big guns and the Rebels would stand a poor chance…I itch all the time and break out. They call it a swamp fever…[January 23] The news here today is that Vicksburg is taken…they have got Negrow Reg’t. here and are forming more as fast as they can…the Portsmouth lays off the Parapet with her old guns run out and nothing can git by…We had 1100 dollars stolen out of the magazine the other night…I shall guard it tonight and the Col. says if anyone troubles me, to shoot them right down and I shall do it. They must look for a chunk of lead in my gun for it is sure every time. The 16th New Hampshire was ordered away and now they are coming back…Company A have just got marching orders to cross the River tonight on picket duty for 10 days…If we get a chance to shoot some of the Devels, they will get it, I tell you…[January 26] I do not think Vicksburg is taken yet…I hear the boys in the next tent telling Dugan that the Col. Has got a ball and chain on his shirt to keep him from running away…We had an order from headquarters to have 7 men…volunteer to join the Vermont Battery…they did not get but 3 to go. The men want to hang together…This morning we bought a corn cake of the black woman that washes our clothes and it was sour and I told her so and tonight she brought me another one and said ‘my heart will not let me sleep until I bake another one and bring it up here’, so we have got our cake…if that rats do not carry it off as they make no bones in running over us nights…[January 30] The Col. got throwed from his horse yesterday…it did not hurt him much…I went down to the Parapet this morning…to see them load more Blacks. There is about 300 & 50 of them coming and I wish you could have seen them…I think all the negrows are coming here…The Doctor was up here last night and said there was more sick in this Company than any Company in the Reg’t…
The steamer that brought the negrows here today, brought all the blacks on the Plantation and about 3 or 400 barrels of sugar and as much molasses. I guess they skinned it. You had ought to have seen the furniture the negrows had, Oh the Lord, how did we laugh, and the rigs they had on. I never see anything beat it in my life. Well, now the old black woman has just come and brought us a hoe cake. She ask us 2 dimes for it. We can trust her. The man that owned her owns the Plantation near by here and his son is in the Rebel Army and she ran away. She has taken my pants to put a new seat on them…The climate does not agree with us here…I would glad as git away if it were honerable…Capt. Maynards Company is over the other side of the river doing picket duty…[February 5] I am pretty well except I am lame in my right leg…We have got our tent raised up and it makes it larger…One of our men fell into the river today but did not drown. The river is very high and the gunboats have got into the cut across the river and they will give Vicksburg a hard one this time…By the middle of June you will see us coming along up the River, then we will march down to Camp Russell to be discharged…This morning there is more n*ggers landed here. Last night 3 or 4 hundred. I hate the sight of them…[February 15 to his son] We had a Brigade inspection yesterday and all the big Generals were here. They praised our Reg’t. for drill and neatness and our Company in particular….Now I will tell you about the Camp…[referring to the drawing included]…
[February 17] They brought in a lot of Rebel prisoners while we were there [in New Orleans]…I want the Stars and Stripes to float over every State and I think they are going to…If anybody wants to know anything about this country down here, let them come down and stay one week…to camp and stand guard…it uses the men up…[February 23] I am weak and pretty yellow now…The doctor keeps giving me quinine…my blister…filled 3 times now and it was very yellow. It is very lame and sore where my liver is…One of the zouaves got shot the other day by a stack of guns falling. The ball went right through his body…One of the New York 128 men was out on Dress Parade at night and in the morning he was dead…[February 24] This morning finds me better…The negroes have got a meetinghouse just below the hospital…I think our men have got ’round the Rebels up to Vicksburg and will starve them out…
[March 10] I think that this river will be clear through, perhaps by the time you get this letter. There is 13 or 14 Reg’t. gone up the river. The troops have all gone between here and New Orleans and some from the City. I never saw such ships, Men of War, in my life. The Gun Boat Essex went up the other day…We have lost 2 more men out of Co. B…I had the Jaundice…Charley…got a letter from George Commings and…he wants to know how I like the Negrows. If he could hear me talk, I think he would know, but rather he wants to know how I like fighting for negroes. I am not fighting for them but I don’t know but some of the men are, for they go and dance with them and hug them and that is not all…I hear there is a great change of Property at the Falls…Troops are going up the river all the time so look out for a big time. The Rebels will think they are come for, this time. I hear that Geo. Commings thinks of coming home on a furlough…I hope he will…
[March 11] Uncle Sam carries on this Plantation and if I was going to hoe one of them rows, I should want a weeks rations to carry with me…I never saw so much level surface in my life. The railroad is the straightest one I ever saw. You can’t see a crook in it as far as the eye can see and it goes to Jackson. They are getting ready to run again where the Rebels burned it down. Every Carpenter in the Reg’t. is detailed to go to work somewhere…We came by a great many Plantations and could see nothing but negroes. We asked them where their masters was. They said ‘I do no, he gone to fight. I suppose I hain’t seen him for two years.’ What fools they were to leave such beautiful places as I saw there…[March 14] Today the first cars went through on this road. It runs from New Orleans to Jackson and it is the first time a train of cars have been on this road since the Rebels left…We hear they are fighting to Port Hudson and that the Rebs have attacked our men at Baton Rouge and Gen. Dow and Sherman and all the Cols. that are here with him went all ’round here today….he wants the men to be ready at a moments warning and we had orders to turn out at roll call tonight, with all our equipments….but I do not think they will attack us here, but we can’t tell…. [March 15] Last night I lay awake hearing the big guns thundering away all night and the Zoaves were up twice in the night…We have all got our things packed…Some think that they will attack us here for our troops have about all gone up the river…[March 14] Today they are practicing with their big guns on ship and in the Parapet, throwing shot and shell and such a racket…They have built a large earthworks inside the Parapet and if the Rebs ever get inside here, we can sweep the whole lot…It is a hard life to lead but we do it for the good of our Country. I hope we will whip them out of the river and I think there is a good prospect of it now but we lost one of our big ships in gitting by Port Hudson, but the Rebs did not get her…”.
[March 19 to his son] We have got 4 Regiments here now besides the Battery Boys and some of them are Black men but they handle the guns well…”.
Letter 1
Camp Centerville
East New York
November 15, 1862
Dear Wife,
I am sitting down under the fence to write you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along here. We arrived at Williamsburgh about 7 o’clock in the morning without any accident. We had a very pleasant time of it but did not get much sleep. We formed on the dock and there had some lunch and then marched up South Sixth Street to form in line and there waited some time. The people treated us with everything that was good. Then we packed our knapsacks on a truck and started for camp which was nine miles. Me and Sergt. Chapman guarded the load. We arrived at camp about 2 o’clock. Our tent poles did not get here so we struck up our tents and got in under them, ten in number. Charley slept by the side of me. He thought he had lost his knapsack but got it about 10 o’clock.
We slept on the ground and I was cold all night and I am sick of it already. We found a regiment of Dutch men [Germans] here. About 400 of them have deserted. They are from New York and hard tickets. There is two more regiments coming here today, I suppose.
We have not got our tents up yet. The ground is not laid out right yet. Our camp is on a race course—a large level field. I am going on guard today at one o’clock and the order is to shoot if they do not obey and the Dutchmen do not like it very well. Col. Kingsley has full command here now and the first thing he did was to stop them from selling liquor. Perhaps I shall like it better when we get settled down but I never shall like it this sleeping on the ground. I don’t like it.
It is a very cold place here. The wind comes right off the water. A man says the regiments are camping below here [and] they are coming as fast as possible. I can’t think if anything more ot write except I am well and hope this will find you all the same. So goodbye for this time. From your ever true and loving husband, — George F. Edgerton
Write me as soon as you can for I want to hear from you.
Letter 2
Camp Buckingham
East New [York] Long Island
November 23, 1862
Dear wife,
I had just begun to write you this letter when Mr. Wait came into the tent to see me and I was very glad to see him. He said you had not received but one letter from me. I have written three letters to you and this makes four and I don’t know why you do not get them. We expect to go away from here. I can’t tell where we expect to go this week Tuesday & I shan’t be sorry for our fare is hard. Our meat stinks and our cheese is alive and Col. Kingsley says it will crawl off the table. We had a bit of a row [here] this morning where the cooking is done. Col. Bissell drew his pistol and one of our boys took it away from him pretty quick. We are bound to have better food.
This morning I bought some pies for my breakfast. I should liked to have had you sent me something good to eat but it is too late now. I will wait until I get home. We do not want any more bed clothes. We are very comfortable here & we have got to get used to it. The water is very scrace here and we are digging two wells and we have to curb them for it is all sand and no stone to stone them up with.
If we get paid off before we go, I don’t think it safe to send it home in a letter for it will get stole. Charley & George are writing and I suppose you will get all the news. Corp. Avery & John Crary was passed off to get some water and they have not got back yet. Avery was dreadful homesick and I shouldn’t wonder if he had gone home. Well, Hotchkiss has come in eating a whole pie. We mean to live [well] as long as the money lasts.
I suppose we are going to Fortress Monroe. That’s what they say. We have not received our arms yet and perhaps we shan’t get them until we get away from here. I take out the old letters and [read] them over and over again. Then I look at them little pictures and that brings me back home again. How glad I be that I brought them but it makes me feel bad and think perhaps I never shall—I will not write that word—for I mean to come back if I can. I want you to write as often as you casn and I will do the same.
And now, goodbye dear wife, and kiss Albert for me and tell him father loves him. Goodbye for this time.
The Dutch Regiment is filling up fast. It is the 171st. That makes six regiments on the ground.
Camp Buckingham
East New York, L. I.
My dear little boy,
I will write you a few lines to let you know how I get along away off here, 160 miles away from home. I lay on the ground under a test and I wish you and mother could step in and see me. Oh how I wish I could see you and mother but I can’t and I can’t tell when I shall. It rains all the time down here and we can’t drill much.
I want you to be a good boy and mind mother and perhaps I shall come home some day and then I shall clasp my little boy and mother in my arms with great joy. Now I want you to go to school and learn all you can and then I shall be proud of you when I come home.
I can’t write no more so goodbye. Write to me when you can. I shall be glad to hear from you. From your affectionate father, — George F. Edgerton
to George Albert Edgerton
Letter 3
[Steamer] Empire City 1
26th Regt. Co. G.
December 9, 1862
Dear wife,
I have seated myself on a box on the upper deck to write you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along. We started from Camp Buckingham the 4th of December about 12 o’clock in the morning. We marched to the cars and rode within three miles of Brooklyn and then we got out of the cars and marched to the City. There we got some coffee, then we marched down to the wharf. Got there about 7 o’clock, got aboard the steamer about 8 o’clock. There we found poor accommodations. The water was so bad we could not drink it so we went ashore by little Dick and got our canteens filled and paid 10 cents apiece for it.
December 6th, 8 o’clock in the morning, we have started. Can’t tell where we are going. Towards night the wind began to blow & it began to snow and it blew a gale all night and the water came on board clear over both decks & everything was covered with ice three inches thick and it was cold, I tell you. I could not stay down below. They were stowed so thick and about all seasick. Sometime in the night, I began to be sick. I was sick but I hung on with the 25th [Connecticut] for we had four companies of them on boat—1200 in all, I should think. 2
The knapsacks was floating all around and everything else we had to all hang on. It tell you, they would not let us lay down in the cabin to lay on the floor so we were about froze to death in the morning. I think if I can live through the treatment we have, I can live through anything. It is hard.
Tuesday the 9th. Have not seen land for two or three days. There is a steamer in sight but can’t tell what it is. It is very warm and pleasant and don’t want overcoat. The deck is crowded with men and a great many of them are writing home. If it had not been for Capt. Bentley—God bless him—we should have all starved to death, The officers live good but the privates fare hard. I don’t think I shall ever complain about my living to home after this. Mr. Noyes sits writing by the side of me. I don’t know him but he spoke to me and said that you got safe on the cars and I suppose you arrived home safe. The boat has stopped now for something, I can’t tell what for. I suppose to sound & see how much water there is.
The Colonel was dreadful sick and we did not see him much for two days. Now we start again but can’t see no land. We have got six 20-pound guns on board and 60 tons of powder in the hold and I felt afraid we should get blowed up before we get where we are going, [as] there is so much smoking on board.
December 10th. Today is pleasant and warm ad we are sailing along nice. The boys divert themselves by shooting porpoises. I think the handsomest sight I ever saw was the moon rising out of the water. We are on the coast of Florida and no land in sight. I am sitting on the wheelhouse now writing. Just took a peep at them pictures. Oh how good they did look. How glad I am I did take them [with me].
The captain of the boat says he will bet $500 against $50 that he will bring us back in less than 3 months. I hope so. Twelve hundred men. What a crowd of men. I think this is a nice little pond—four days out and can’t see no land.
December 11th 7 o’clock in the morning on the Florida coast. Land in sight. Trees look green for miles. Pretty rough all night but pleasant this morning. Half past three in the afternoon we are now passing Cape Florida Light House. Beautiful all day. Two meals a day—rice and tea tonight. Couldn’t eat rice. Lamb and I bought each a pie. Then I found Charley and the way we eat them was not slow. Then we went up on deck to sleep. Got on to a coil of rope between the stack pipe and the wheel house and all curled up together and slept all night. Didn’t want no blanket—so warm.
December 12th. Beautiful sail all night. 6 o’clock in the morning saw Sombrero Light House. 9 o’clock, pilot came out and asked us if we were going into Key West. Did not take him on board. 10 o’clock, passing Key West. Pleasant sail all night.
December 13th. Been plwing through the Gulf all night. Sails all set and steam on and on we go, not knowing where. Men begin to get lousy. Expect we shall all be. Shall be glad to get off this ship. Men sleep on the deck so thick that we can’t get around. I shall love my home ore than ever and them that love me. Seven days out and no stop yet.
December 14th. Sunday morning. 7 o’clock, 8 days out. No land in sight for two days. Got my canteen full of cold water. It is all made from salt water but this time we had ice in it. This is the biggest pond I ever sailed on. Some of the men are picking lice off from them. We shall be glad to get off this ship. Came to and anchored at 6 o’clock at night.
December 15th. Started again at 7 in the morning. Came in sight of a transport loaded with soldiers. The boys like to catch flying fish. Now here comes a flock of large birds. They say they are pelicans. We are feeling our way into some port. Arrive at Ship Island about one o’clock. Found a great many transports here.
Have not got paid off yet. Shall have it when we get it. Hope that will be soon. Excuse all blunders.
Address to Mr. George F. Edgerton, 26th Regt. Co. G, C. V., Banks Expedition, via Washington
Give my love to all hands and take a whole lot for yourself.
1 The Empire City was a wooden side-wheel steamer launched in 1849. She was built for speed and was said to be the first ocean vessel to have a deck house extending from stem to stern. She saw regular service between New York City, Havana, and New Orleans before the Civil War when she was chartered for the Quartermaster’s Department.
2 “The men of the 26th [Connecticut] were in the hold of the vessel while the 25th [Connecticut] men took a deck passage which we didn’t appreciate especially at this season of the year, December 6th. We left the Atlantic Dock, Brooklyn, at six o’clock that morning. We hadn’t been out long before the water became quite rough and the steamer plunged and rolled dreadfully which made the soldiers very sea-sick. December 7th was dark and boisterous and the good old ship creaked and swayed on the mighty deep. By the way, I hadn’t been sea-sick since we left the Atlantic dock, but I could not help laughing, the first day we were out, to see the guards of the vessel from stem to stern lined up with anxious sea-gazers, their knees knocking together, their countenances ashen and a very intimate connection evidently existing between the stomach and the mouth.” — Samuel K. Ellis, Co. G, 25th Connecticut Infantry
Letter 4
Camp Parapet. Louisiana
December 20, 1862
Dear son,
I am sitting down in camp now writing you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along here. Well I am pretty well now but do not like to live in this way. I have to sleep on a hard board and I am sore all over now. We were on the boat 14 days and I slept anywhere I could get to sleep—on deck most all the time. We have got a shade in front of our tent made of cane poles. I wish you had one for a fish pole. They are good ones, I tell you.
If you could see the oranges growing here, I think you would like to pick some of them. They look nice. I have got to do my washing today and got to keep my gun clean. I have got my hands full. We have got some big guns here on the fort and plenty of men to work them.
Can’t write any more now so goodbye for this time. From your father.
Letter 5
Camp Parapet, [near] New Orleans, La.
26th Regt. Co. G
January 9, 1863
My dear little boy,
I received your letter and was glad to hear from you and know that you was well and happy at home with mother. I want you to be a good boy and not go on the ice unless it will hold you. You can tell Mary Ann that we have got bobtailed mules down here and negroes too, if she wants one, and they are coming here all the time. I am sorry I can’t write this letter so you can read it but it takes so long to print it. Mother must read it to you. I can see just how you look to home, if I be 25000 miles away from home.
I suppose you would like to see the boats running up and down the [Mississippi] River all the time for they keep them agoing all the time. Tell Granpar that he would like the warm days down here but not the nights. They are so cold.
I think sometimes when I am on guard walking back and forth with a bullet in my gun to fire through anybody that dare run by me that I should like to look in and see my little boy asleep all cuddled up in a little heap but I could not. It is hard to be away from home but we try to be as happy as we can and by and by we will come home if our Father in Heaven is willing.
Give my love to mother and Grandmother and Grandfather and keep a share for yourself. Goodbye for tonight. From your father.
It is late and the rest are all asleep.
Letter 6
Camp Parapet, Louisiana
26th Regt. Co. G
January 11, 1863
Sunday at 12 o’clock
Dear wife,
I have said that I would not write again until I got a letter from home, but as I have got all washed up and expect there is a letter at the city for me, I thought I would write a few lines and let you know the news as it comes along.
It is a warm spring like day—so warm that we want to get in the tents. It was cold this morning sp that I got up and made a fire about five o’clock. Our stove is made out of a camp kettle with a hole cut in the back of it and fastened to a pipe. We got a cover from the cook’s stove and put on top. Then we plaster most around it. That makes it all tight. We have built an oven outside the cook house where we bake our beans & they are good ones, I tell you. Our living is a little better than it has been. I think if we confine ourselves to it as much as we can, and let the pies alone, we shall get along better. But our men are dying pretty fast. We have lost three already—Smith, Barnes, and Church. This man was found dead in his tent in the morning. It was close to us. He was buried here. The others was sent home. I expect we shall lose more if we stay here.
But there is some misunderstanding about this regiment and we are not known in Washington and it is all the talk all around here and the paymaster told the Colonel he might go to hell with his regiment. Almost all the other regiments have gone from here so we don’t know where we shall go to. The officers are all mad and want to resign. So you see we are in a fix.
We are encamped on a large plantation. It is level as far as the eye can see with ditches dug the whole length. There is ditches dug both sides of the road here. You had ought to see the mud here when it rains. We carry about 3 or 4 lbs. of mud on our feet all the time. It is like clay.
Gen. Banks and Sherman was up here the other day and the way the big guns did go was a caution. One of his staff was John Abbott and he kept close to him all the time. I was down to Carrollton at the time so I did not see him. This is the greatest place for flood wood that ever I saw. The river is full of it all the time now it is rising. It rises very fast now and the boats are going up and down the river all the time, night and day. I am to work down to Carrollton yet and have been for 17 days and shall be for three or four days more, I think. We walk up and down morning and night. I have not been on guard yet nor had any duty since I have been to work down there.
The river is full of steamers today. The boys think there is something up and I think so too. You must write and let me know whether you got that ring all safe or not. I pity anybody that is sick here for thy get no care. The doctor sent Church back for duty and he was dead in the morning so you see how it is. If I was sick to home, I should have care and that is everything. We all wish ourselves to home and we would never go again, I tell you.
My money is all gone but five cents but I will have some more soon. That is the report here.
Letter 7
[partial letter, mid January 1863?]
…The big guns are manned by a company from Vermont and Wisconsin boys. They tell us to be careful what we eat and we will get along here. Some of the men go after the Negro women but the Lord knows I would not.
John is well I think for he fell down with a pitcher of tea and spilled it. I had to laugh at him, I do not know whether he has written or not. We draw our bread one loaf a day for a man and sugar so much for each one. Charley and I have got ours in a box right to our heads. It iquite a little confectionary, I tell you. I believe I will stop now for I am sleepy and if there is any more news in the morning I will write it.
Today is the 17th and I lost the chance of sending this letter so I shall have to wait until Monday and perhaps I shall have another before that time. I have been out on drill today for the first time and like it very well. The Vermont Battery have gone from us today and a 15th New Hampshire Regiment have come here today. They are brigaded with us, I think. I feel as well today or better than I have been since I have been here and I hope I shall keep so.
THe 12th Regiment is up above us. The name of the place is Lafourche, I think. I do not know whether I shall see them or not. If I do, I will try to find him Commins.
Now then, tonight I have received another letter, January 4th, and was glad I got it but the tears came into my eyes, You speak of sustaining the stars and stripes.. .
..[there is no danger that I] shall grow fat as long as I am in camp here. The living is bad sometimes. It is salt beef with the sour bread and sometimes it is salt pork fried without potatoes for supper. It is strong coffee with bread and sometimes tea. I have spent all my money but five cents and run in debt 75 cents besides. I have got a pound of butter that cost 45 cents per pound, crackers 20 cents. I do not know how you will get along this cold winter. I can’t sed any money yet. As quick as I get it, I will send it. I think of home a great deal and can’t help it. If you think there will be no trouble in sending money in a letter, I will send if I ever get any to send. So good night and I will go to bed. The rest are all asleep. This is from your most affectionate husband, — George F. Edgerton
Letter 8
Camp Parapet, Louisiana
New Orleans
February 17, 1863
Dear wife, and as good a wife as any man ever had,
I received your kind and lengthy letter today and was glad to hear that you were all well but it did not find me so well as I should wish to be for I have got a hard cough and the doctor says my liver is affected. I do not like to write anything to worry you but I do not think you will blame me for writing just how I be. My appetite is not good but I am in hopes it will be before long.
Charley and I got back from New Orleans today. We stayed all night so we went down and see the steamer that brought your letter. I bought a paper the same date as the one you sent me but it made no difference. It only cost me 10 cents. Charley and I walked to Carrollton Station, a distance from two to three miles, got into the cars and half an hour we were in the great city. It costs 15 cents each way. The first land we made was to go to the park all fenced with an iron fence and six brass cannons inside. Then we went everywhere I should think and brought out in the same place every time. Finally we went and got something to eat in a restaurant. It was got up in god shape, Oysters was 40 cents a dozen but they were large ones. Things are very dear. They come from the North but the oysters did not. They can get them here in the river.
The streets are very long and some of them are wide and well paved. I think I never saw better. There is many noble houses but some of them with the stores are shut up and if Butler had not come here as he did, more of them would have been closed, but there is a great many gone as it is. They brought in a lot of rebel prisoners while we were there and the people gathered around a good number but the guard charged in them and drove them back again. They have to keep pretty still here. If they do not, they will catch it.
All we ate was at one place so if anything happened, we should know where we got it. So after we wandered around all day, we went to find a place to tie up to all night. We found it after a while and I thought it was a pretty good place. Then out we went again and got some supper. Then we went to the theatre or the variety. Then I was away from camp and it seemed as if there was no war and that I was going straight home when it was out. I wish they would stop it. I am sick of camp life. I want the stars and stripes to float over every state and I think they are going to.
There was a large gun boat and mortar boat went up the river today and I think they will get some this time for troops are goin gall the time. We have got o move our camp a little ways from here but not off the lot. I think if we moved around more up the river or somewhere, it would be better for us but perhaps we will stay here all the time. But it is so unhealthy here but not so bad until August and September and then I hope we will be at home. It rains as hard as it can pour down here now and it is about 4 o’clock and we are all in here writing.
I pity poor Sarah for I know how she feels. Confound the Rebels. I wish the devil had the whole of them and I think he will have some of them when our men get to work up the river again.
By the way, I forgot to tell you about our sleeping arrangement [on New Orleans]. Well, they put us in a room up three story with three beds in it and I never slept in such a nasty bed in my life but Charley made a short prayer, then we went to bed and made the best of it. But it seemed to me as if I did not want to touch the clothes. We got up in the morning pretty early and went down and paid $1.50 for the bed and went off. Got some breakfast, then started for camp to get back by 10 o’clock for our pass was out and we got back all safe. If anybody wants to know anything about this country down here, let them come and stay one week. That will satisfy them. If they do not want to go back, I am mistaken. I mean to camp and stand guard and lay out in the night air. I tell you, it uses the men up—stout ones and all. The officers are very kind to me. They do not require me to do duty when I am not able, but if a man can get round the men are apt to think he is making it to get rid of duty for there is some that will.
As you said nothing about directing the letters to Hartford, I will direct the same as I have done. When anyone is sick that I know of, I will write to you about it. I think I send a letter every mail that goes and perhaps two sometimes. I never shall see those letters you sent at first. There must be four of them. I wish I could get them but I get them now right straight along.
Now then, today is the 18th and I have eaten my dinner. I had a cup of tea and one raw onion in vinegar & bread. The doctor told me to eat onions and vinegar and suck lemons. I eat a whole one this forenoon and my appetite was better after that. He says that I am going to have the jaundice. I have got a blister salve to put on my side tonight. I think it will be hard to take care of here in the tent but I shall get along somehow. Now you must not worry about me.
Some of the boys think we ought not to write just how we be because it would only worry them to home, but if it is not right, I will not write anything more. I do not want you to be in trouble about me but I want you should know how I am.
Now then, I have just got all my back letters and I had to stop to read them and wasn’t I glad. I was glad that Mr. Green thought of me and was so kind. It made tears come into my eyes. You warm me to take good care of myself. I try to as much as I can. You did not tell me whether you paid for the coal I got before I came away or not but you will do what is right and I will leave it all to you. I do not know how long the jaundice will last. Some last longer than others do. When I get well of that and this cough, I hope I shall be better. You may be looking out for news from this quarter for there is going to be some fighting up here. We are going to clear off the ground where our tents are so that if they drive them rebels out up the river and they come down here, we will have room to work for there is danger here. But we are ready for them any time.
I shall want you to send me $2 if you can for I have not got but 5 dollars and that will be gone before I get paid again. Everything costs so much down here.
Today is the 19th. My blister did very well. Charley dressed it this morning. Martin spread some mutton tallow on a rag and I have got it on but it feels pretty sore. I believe we have not got but one man in the hospital but Chapman, our assistant cook, is going this morning. He has got the jaundice as well as myself. I do not think that I am blessed to stand camp life out here. The climate is so different from ours and I shall be glad when the time comes for us to go home. Some say that they are going to have us home in May so to get us to reenlist again and there is a good many that will.
Now then, be sure and not worry about me. I will write too as often as I can. I am glad to hear that Albert is a good boy all the time. I don’t think this letter will go before Sunday. I will stop writing now for I am writing too much now. From your affectionate husband, — G. F. Edgerton
Letter 9
Camp Parapet, Louisiana
Co. G, 26th Regt. Conn. Vol.
Match 1, 1863
My dear wife,
I take great pleasure in writing to you and I do not think there is a night that I go to sleep without thinking of you and our boy and knowing how good and kind you have always been to me. I was looking at your picture today and I wanted to get right hold of you for I know you will stick to me when all my blood relation have deserted me, I know I have been unkind sometimes but you know that was my temper so you must forgive all that and I know you will for I know that no man never had a better wife than I have got. Let a man stand guard a mile away from camp in the woods and everything still but the screech of the owl and other insects and liable to have a ball put through him at any moment, if he does not think of his home and dear ones that he left behind, then I am mistaken.
As regards sickness, I think the men are a great deal better than they were. We did not have but 2 go to the hospital this morning and they came back again. As for myself, I am getting along nicely but am not strong enough to do duty yet but expect to be in a few days. We were mustered in for our pay yesterday so I had to put on my traps and shoulder my gun and answer to my name so I could get my pay. But as quick as I had answered to my name, they told me I could go to my tent. But I am gaining strength now. I weigh 125 lbs. now and my appetite is good.
Today is Sunday but they seem all alike to me for we have about the same to do and the day passes away about the same as any day. I notice that there is a great many white children that come to beg bread and they are an object of pity. Perhaps their fathers are in the Rebel army but we give to them what we have to give. Things remain about the same here as they have done. Some say that we are going to New Orleans and then we are going up the river but still we remain here. There seems to be no fighting down this way and I don’t know but they are going to stop it without fighting. We had a deserter here the other day from Port Hudson and he said it was as much as they could do to keep the men there and they would desert if they could get a chance. They have got tired of the war and I believe it is so. They are making great preparations all along the parapet to receive the Rebels if they come this way but I think they had better keep their distance from here is they want to save their heads. I hear that there is another steamer in so I will wait until I get a letter. Then I will finish.
March 2nd. Today I have received your kind letter written February 15th and it was No. 12 so you see I get all of your letters but I think I made a mistake in the number of my letters but I will keep on the same and not date back. I was surprised to hear that you had so much trouble about your house. I did not think Mrs. Reynolds was such a woman and take the advantage of you when I was gone from home. But I want you to pay them every cent that you owe them. I want you to get someone to help move you in good shape and not work too hard yourself. I think you did perfectly right in doing as you have done in hiring Mr. Lamb’s house and I will try to pay the rent as I always have done. George said he knew you was going to move there some time ago but he did not tell me for he thought I knew it. He says I was the best tennent they had ever had in there to pay rent.
What has Mr. Brown got against us and all of them that they should treat us in this way? I am sure I can’t tell but we expect to be home in June sometime. Then I will find out all about it. When you move, I want you to get everything that belongs to us in the cellar and all around the house and have help to do it and not work too hard yourself. I did not think that you would go to Hartford in another such an occasion but you know best about it. I suppose it is all right. I want you to do all the good you can and help them all you can for we have no care taken of us here when we are sick.
Letter 10
Camp Parapet, La.
March 3rd 1863
My dear son,
I thought I would write you a few lines to let you know how I was. I have been sick but am better now. I hear that you are going to have a vacation. I expect your little heart will leap with joy for you can run all around and have a good time but you must think of Father away off down here that go unless he has got a pass to show the guard. Now I want you to be a good boy and mind your mother and grandmother and all that have charge of you and I will bring you something when I come. From your father
[more not yet transcribed]
Spared & Shared 23 