see page 106.

DETAILED MINUTIÆ

OF

SOLDIER LIFE

IN THE

ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA

1861-1865

BY

CARLTON MCCARTHY

PRIVATE SECOND COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS, CUTSHAW'S BATTALION ARTILLERY, SECOND CORPS, A.N.V.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BY

WM. L. SHEPPARD, Esq.

LIEUTENANT SECOND COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS, A.N.V.

RICHMOND
CARLTON MCCARTHY AND COMPANY
1882

Copyright, 1882,
By CARLTON McCARTHY.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Printed by H.O. Houghton and Company.

To

THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER,

EDWARD STEVENS McCARTHY,

CAPTAIN FIRST COMPANY RICHMOND HOWITZERS:

WHO FELL AT COLD HARBOR,

June 4, 1864,

A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

A Voice from the Ranks

CHAPTER II.

The Outfit Modified

CHAPTER III.

Romantic Ideas Dissipated

CHAPTER IV.

On the March

CHAPTER V.

Cooking and Eating

CHAPTER VI.

Comforts, Conveniences, and Consolations

CHAPTER VII.

Fun and Fury on the Field

CHAPTER VIII.

Improvised Infantry

CHAPTER IX.

"Brave Survivors" Homeward Bound

CHAPTER X.

Soldiers Transformed

CHAPTER XI.

Camp Fires of the Boys in Gray

CHAPTER XII.

The Battle Flag

SOLDIER LIFE

IN THE

ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER I.

A VOICE FROM THE RANKS.—INTRODUCTORY.

We are familiar with the names and deeds of the "generals," from the commander-in-chief down to the almost innumerable brigadiers, and we are all more or less ignorant of the habits and characteristics of the individuals who composed the rank and file of the "grand armies" of 1861-65.

As time rolls on, the historian, condensing matters, mentions "the men" by brigades, divisions, and corps. But here let us look at the individual soldier separated from the huge masses of men composing the armies, and doing his own work and duty.

The fame of Lee and Jackson, world-wide, and as the years increase ever brighter, is but condensed and personified admiration of the Confederate soldier, wrung from an unwilling world by his matchless courage, endurance, and devotion. Their fame is an everlasting monument to the mighty deeds of the nameless host who followed them through so much toil and blood to glorious victories.

The weak, as a rule, are borne down by the strong; but that does not prove that the strong are also the right. The weak suffer wrong, learn the bitterness of it, and finally, by resisting it, become the defenders of right and justice. When the mighty nations of the earth oppress the feeble, they nerve the arms and fire the hearts of God's instruments for the restoration of justice; and when one section of a country oppresses and insults another, the result is the pervasive malady,—war! which will work out the health of the nation, or leave it a bloody corpse.

The principles for which the Confederate soldier fought, and in defense of which he died, are to-day the harmony of this country. So long as they were held in abeyance, the country was in turmoil and on the verge of ruin.

It is not fair to demand a reason for actions above reason. The heart is greater than the mind. No man can exactly define the cause for which the Confederate soldier fought. He was above human reason and above human law, secure in his own rectitude of purpose, accountable to God only, having assumed for himself a "nationality," which he was minded to defend with his life and his property, and thereto pledged his sacred honor.

In the honesty and simplicity of his heart, the Confederate soldier had neglected his own interests and rights, until his accumulated wrongs and indignities forced him to one grand, prolonged effort to free himself from the pain of them. He dared not refuse to hear the call to arms, so plain was the duty and so urgent the call. His brethren and friends were answering the bugle-call and the roll of the drum. To stay was dishonor and shame!

He would not obey the dictates of tyranny. To disobey was death. He disobeyed and fought for his life. The romance of war charmed him, and he hurried from the embrace of his mother to the embrace of death. His playmates, his friends, and his associates were gone; he was lonesome, and he sought a reunion "in camp." He would not receive as gospel the dogmas of