LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
BEING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
BY ARTHUR P. FORD
AND SOME EXPERIENCES AND SKETCHES OF SOUTHERN LIFE
BY MARION JOHNSTONE FORD
NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1905
COPYRIGHT, 1905
BY ARTHUR P. FORD
Arthur Peronneau Ford
CONTENTS.
| Life in the Confederate Army | 7 |
| Kent—A War-time Negro | 73 |
| Rose Blankets | 88 |
| Some Letters Written During the Last Months of the War | 100 |
| Tay | 129 |
LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
BEING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER
IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
The following account of my experiences as a private soldier in theConfederate Army during the great war of 1861-'65 records only theordinary career of an ordinary Confederate soldier. It does not treat ofcampaigns, army maneuvers, or plans of battles, but only of the dailylife of a common soldier, and of such things as fell under his limitedobservation.
Early in April, 1861, immediately after the battle of Fort Sumter, Ijoined the Palmetto Guards, Capt. George B. Cuthbert, of the SeventeenthRegiment South Carolina Militia. Very soon after, the company divided,and one half under Captain Cuthbert left Charleston, and joined theSecond South Carolina Volunteers in Virginia. The other half, to which Ibelonged, under Capt. George L. Buist, remained in Charleston. Early inthe fall Captain Buist's company was ordered to Coosawhatchie, and givencharge of four howitzers; and thenceforth for three years, untilDecember, 1864, it served as field artillery. I did not go with mycompany, as at that time I was a clerk in the Charleston post-office,and[Pg 8] really exempt from all service. On April 2, 1862, however, thenbeing about eighteen years of age, I resigned my clerkship, and joiningthe company at Coosawhatchie, with the rest of the men enlisted in theConfederate service "for three years or the war."
About May 1st the company was ordered to Battery Island at the mouth ofthe Stono River, where with another company, the "Gist Guards," Capt.Chichester, we were put under the command of Major C. K. Huger, andplaced in charge of four 24-pounder smooth-bore guns in the batterycommanding the river, our own four howitzers being parked in the rear.Cole's Island, next below, and at the immediate entrance of the river,was garrisoned by Lucas' battalion of Regulars, and the Twenty-fourthRegiment South Carolina Volunteers, Col. C. H. Stevens. An exam