Eyewitness to American Civil War: Iron Brigade Soldier’s Wartime Letters

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On December 28, Webster continued his diatribe against officers: ‘This war will never [be] settled by fighting for the reason that our officers will not work together. They want it to last for the sake of big pay. If we had one million of active soldiers in the field we would not whip the south for the reason that the officers would not have a will to bring it to a close. If this was not so, the south would have been whipped a long time ago and time and time again so we might have whipped every reb in the south with our army that we had as we advanced this last time but were defeated on account of the officers not all working together.’

In late January 1863, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, commander of the Army of the Potomac, moved his forces up the Rappahannock hoping to cross the river again and take General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia by surprise. Disagreements with his subordinates, demoralized troops and severe weather doomed Burnside’s plan, which was quickly dubbed the ‘Mud March.’ On January 27, Webster wrote Hattie: ‘Since I wrote you the last letter we have had quite a story here in the army. When we marched was a week ago to day. We had orders to make another attack on the rebs. The roads was tolerable good in the morning when we started but it commenced to rain and it kept up, and the army kept marching until we got to the place where they were to cross the river. One side is held by us and the other side is held by the rebs….I will mention a little of this march….we had orders to strike tents Tuesday last. It was a fine morning and the soldiers of the Potomac were to abandon their huts that they had built for their comforts and they, feeling rather demoralized, commenced to pack their things, and many of them destroyed their huts after taking great pains to build them. We were soon drawn up in a line of march and the army once more expecting to front the enemy, but the rain came on in on the first days march and the whole thing proved a total failure but they kept us going on till everything was in great danger of getting stuck so fast in the mud that it would have to stay till spring. They used 20 horses to one wagon to get them over the worst roads. Well they got us all along on the banks of the Rappahannock where they intended to cross. The rain kept up and we got orders to return to our old quarters. We were all very willing to do that, for fighting is a playing out very fast with the Potomac army, [and the army] is becoming very demoralized and there are many desertions. There has got to be a change soon in the affairs in general.’ Lincoln had removed the luckless Burnside from command of the Army of the Potomac on January 26, replacing him with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.

In April, Webster’s regiment participated in the Chancellorsville campaign. On May 9, Webster wrote a friend: ‘I improve the present opportunity to write a few lines to you to let you know that I have gone through some of the hardest battles that have been fought since the war and still live…I was one of those that first crossed the [Rappahannock] River in the boats at the extreme left. We crossed under a very heavy fire but we came at them like so many wild men. They were scared and left their holes in a hurry as soon as we struck the shore. We all rallied after the rebs without waiting for commands. We did well. We captured about two hundred…Rebs. I hollered to one and told him to halt, and I suppose he thought I could not catch him and he continued to run so I sent a miney ball through his head in a hurry. He never knew what hurt him. I saw him fill a soldier’s grave.’ The Union losses at Chancellorsville were higher than at Fredericksburg, and morale in the Army of the Potomac dropped even lower.

On July 1, the 24th Michigan marched into Gettysburg and was among the first regiments engaged in the battle there. Webster wrote Hattie on July 17: ‘The two armies came in contact with each other and there was 4 days fight. At the first they drove our forces back through the city. Our losses were very heavy the first day, but theirs was much greater before they got through. We turned their whole force on their backward track and followed them back to Williamsport where they crossed the Potomac….I will not mention any horrors of this fight. It could not interest you. I wish it could all be blotted out of my mind what I witnessed.’ Despite his regiment’s 80 percent casualty rate at Gettysburg (the highest of any unit in the battle), Webster’s subsequent letters reveal renewed hope for the Union cause.

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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