FIRE ZOUAVES
CAMP ELLSWORTH, ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6, 1861
To the Editors of the Sunday Mercury:
A rainy, dismal morning is not the best time in the world to attempt to give a description of one’s mode and manner of living; but as I must write, in order that your patrons may read, I shall have to go on in the best way possible. It was only the night before last that we moved our camp to a spot about two hundred yards from its former site, in order to make way for the ditch and embankment of the new earth-fort that we are building; and since then, we have had an incessant fall of rain; rain that comes searching into all accessible quarters—down your neck, through the openings of your leggings and into the shoes, along the side of your face, until you begin to think that a channel has been made which connects under the chin and down the breast. And yet in this merciless, pelting storm our lads have had to stand double guard, without overcoats, and otherwise but poorly clad; and they have done it without a murmur? No matter how the wind might blow, or the rain beat, there stood the sentry, all his faculties alive, ready to hail the approach of friend and foe.
Last Sunday we buried our comrade of Co. G—young [Henry C.] Cornell. It was a beautiful, calm morning—the country families around us looking quiet and peaceful, and holy—when the mournful cortège came slowly past, and then through they came. The drum and fife led off with the funeral march, after which followed the adjutant, preceding a corporal and eight men of the deceased’s company. Next came the coffin, covered with the “Flag of our Union,” borne by six of the Co., with crossed muskets, then his friends and more immediate companions of Capt. [Michael A.] Tagen’s command. The members of the regiment, line and staff-officers, brought up the rear. Arrived at the grave, which was under a tree on the brow of a hill, suitable funeral ceremonies were performed by the chaplain, the earth was thrown in, three volleys fired, and we walked away—many, perhaps, thinking how soon such might be their burial.
In the afternoon of Sunday the regiment was formed in a square, when the “Articles of War” were read. That section which prescribes kind treatment to all prisoners of war, particularly attracted the attention of Co. G, and from their significant looks and actions, I could not help imagining that the number of prisoners they will bring in will be very small. The Virginia cavalry—those “chivalrous” gentlemen who boast of the purity of their blood—will have a chance to show their courage when they meet Tagen and his troop, while the memory of Cornell is still fresh in their minds.
J. A. S.
Sources
Styple, William B., ed. Writing and Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury. Kearny, NJ: Belle Grove Publishing Company, 2000.
Spirit of '61 