2nd Rhode Island Infantry | Spared & Shared 23

*I could not find an image of Ezra but here is Pvt. John Ryan of Co. H, 2nd Rhode Island Infantry (LOC)*

The following letter was written by Ezra Greene, the son of Lawton Green (1811-1861) and Sarah Ann Card (1813-1904). Ezra learned the carpenter’s trade from his father and was a 22 year-old house carpenter when he mustered into Co H, 2nd Rhode Island Infantry on 5 June 1861. Company H was known as the Kentish Guards (being from Kent county) and were issued blue coats and grey trousers that no doubt added to the confusion in the fight at Bull Run.

Disenchanted with infantry service and disliking his commanding officers, Ezra shortly after the Battle of Bull Run volunteered for duty in the navy and was soon transferred.

See also—1861: Ezra Green to Susannah (Westcott) Greene published on Spared & Shared 13 in November 2017.

Transcription

Camp Sprague ¹
July 2nd [1861]

Dear Parents,

I have written once and must write again to let you know we are all longing for action. The first battery where George belongs left here yesterday not expecting to return and I expect we shall go soon. Where, I know not. Some say to Sewall’s Point but we shan’t know until we get landed. Where the first battery stops, you will know as soon as we.

*The unfinished Washington Monument as it appeared during the Civil War. (LOC)*

Company H was on guard yesterday and I got a bad cold going after supper in the rain. Peleg [Card] ² has been sick three or four days but is better now. I went to the City last Wednesday and it will be the last chance, I think. George went with me to show me the big buildings and the way into them. We went into and all over the Capitol which is all a splendid affair. Then to the Smithsonian Institute where we saw all kinds of birds and animals stuffed. Then to the Washington Monument which will be a failure on account of the great weight of stone which is crushing the foundation. ³

If anything is wanted to draw my pay from the town, just let me know. The government pay will be all I shall want which I can get after next Thursday. I have wrote several letters since I arrived and have not received one. Write soon. — Ezra Greene, Camp Sprague, Washington D. C.

Professor [Benoni] Sweet ⁴ will walk the rope here 4th of July.

¹ Camp Sprague was located near Gales’ woods or G. Keating’s Farm, east of North Capitol Street in Washington D. C.

² Peleg Card was Ezra’s cousin and served in the same company. Ezra was severely mortally wounded at the Battle of Bull Run some three weeks later. In a letter dated 4 August 1861, Ezra described returning to the battlefield during a lull in the fighting to find Peleg with a wound so severe that he made no attempt to remove him, electing instead to remain by his side until he expired. Remarkably, as he lay by his mortally wounded cousin, Ezra fell asleep from exhaustion only to be awakened by a renewal of the battle an hour later, at which time he retreated from the field and followed the remnants of his regiment as they straggled back toward Washington.

³ Construction on the Washington Monument was begun in 1848 but halted in 1854 when the Monument Society ran out of money. It was apparently widely known at the time of the Civil War that the foundation was suspected to be inadequate to support the weight of the stone and so before construction could resume in 1879, the first task was to strengthen the foundation. Lt. Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey, the engineer in charge, devised a way to underpin and widen the base. Construction was finally completed in 1884.

⁴ “Benoni Sweet” (b. 1840) of Phenix, Rhode Island, began performing feats of danger as a tight rope walker in 1859. “The year following his debut as a daredevil, Sweet was married on January 19, 1860, to Susan Colwell of Cranston. The newspaper announcement of the marriage referred to him as Professor Benoni Sweet. The title of Professor may have been intended to distinguish him from another Benoni Sweet in Rhode Island. Dr. Benoni Sweet, born in South Kingstown in 1840, came from a family that gained renown over generations for practicing the unique skill of setting broken bones (called bonesetting). Dr. Sweet too reached some acclaim for his ability to set broken bones. In 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Sweet enlisted in the Union army. On July 4, Independence Day, just weeks before the disastrous battle at Bull Run, Rhode Island military units were encamped near Washington, D.C. at Camp Clark. Sergeant Elisha Hunt Rhodes noted in his diary, “Prof. Benoni Sweet, a member of Company H, Second Rhode Island gave an exhibition of tight rope walking.” (See Robert Hunt Rhodes, ed., All for the Union, The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes (New York, 1991), page 13). In August 1861, Sweet walked across Pennsylvania Avenue from the National Hotel to the Clarendon Hotel. The walk was witnessed by President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary. Appreciating the welcome distraction from war, Lincoln reportedly presented Sweet with a gold dollar.

The author of this letter is identified only by the name of “Henry.” I have a hunch that he served in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry which was performing guard duty in Fort Slocum in October 1861 but I can’t narrow his identity down any further than that.

Transcription

Washington
October 19, 1861

Dear Brother,

I received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear that you were all well at home. I am much obliged for the stamps you sent. They are very acceptable. I received all the papers. Do you get the papers I send? I get them every morning. They come in camp. “Franked” mails are played out. Can’t get anymore.

There is considerable in the different encampments of the old excitement which I used to see at home about election. The troops will vote just the same as though they were at home. Well, how would you like to vote this year?

I wrote in Anna’s letter about them nuts. They are chinquapins. They grow like chestnuts in burs only the burs are about half the size of & grow on bushes like hazelnuts. Plenty of them and chestnuts here. I was out yesterday and got about a quart.

There is artillery passing down the road toward Washington. About 15 pieces have passed & there seems they are not half passed yet. Did you not get the paper with the names of the forts in? It had the names of about half the forts which are around Washington. One of the forts is Fort Slocum & the other is Fort Massachusetts. Last night our company was on guard there. I slept under of the 24-pounders with eight 24 balls for a pillow. About 4 this morning, about 50 of the boys got up and took double quick around the inside of the fort to keep warm. At first I heard the trotting around and could not make out what it was, but when I found out, I must say I had to laugh. I was warm enough so I did not join the crowd. The wind was pretty sharp & a pretty white frost on the grass.

I went fishing the other day. After traveling through the woods & over hills for 4 miles to get to a sort of a brook, I catched 1 eel, 7 little fish similar to the little stone fish we used to catch, & one little catfish about the size of my finger. This was fisherman’s luck, wet ass, and hungry gut. But on the way home made out to steal 4 big beets and a head of cabbage & got a pocket full of hazel nuts. When I got home, I was pretty tired. I think if you once put on a knapsack, you would think it grew heavier faster than you reckoned it.

We had a storm here night before last which wet everything through. Some of our forts almost come down & the water went through all ways. I never saw it rain harder. It was a pretty looking sight to see the boys creep out in the morning. Most of them looked like drowned rats. Well, this is a soldier’s life.

Monday after we were to have a review by Gen. McClellan so in the morning all hands—that is, the whole regiment—marched down to the quartermaster’s to get their whiskey and go to work on the whole camp. Some [were] sweeping, others cleaning up around the tents and making things look shipshape. Our company were among the sweepers. There was at least 600 who had cedar brooms in their hands at once. It would make some of you folks at home [laugh] to see some of the performances we have to go through. I have learned many trades since I have been here. I was over to the fort with the company & 4 of us started a well & dug it four feet in three hours. It was 8 feet in diameter. You had ought to see me handle the pick & shovel.

Don’t send the Budget of fun. It is full of darn’d nonsense & nothing else. I will send for what I will want, I think, after it gets colder. I will let you send me a box. There is some little things I will want when it gets a little colder. — Henry

I received a letter from Hon. Hueston. He is well. I will see him as soon as I can.