Click here for this soldier’s biography:
https://micivilwar.com/authors/burge-caroden-s/
Regiment: 2nd Michigan Infantry
Battles Mentioned: Williamsburg, Virginia
Historical Figures: George B. McClellan, Hiram G. Berry, Joseph Hooker, Philip Kearny, Schuyler Hamilton
Camp of Mich. 2
nd, Five Miles from
West Point Va., May 12th 1862.
Dear Mother & Sisters:
I take this opportunity
to send you a few lines. You must
give my letters to the girls &
tell them that each must con-
sider it to herself as I have
very little time now for writing
& generally when I do have time
I am tired out with
with the
days march & do not feel like
writing. Tell them they can
each answer my letters as
though they were directed to them
as I can
read letters if I
am
tired.
Hamilton is not now our
Division commander & was not
at the battle of Williamsburg.
For some reason he was
removed just before we left
Yorktown. Kearny is now our
Division Commander. So if you
wish to find where we were in
the fight you will look for
Kearny’s Division. Our brigade
commander is Genl Berry. If you
read where Berry’s brigade was in
the fight you may know we
were there.
When we came up on Monday
at 3 P.M., Hooker’s division was
out of ammunition & the enemy
was driving them back & in
another half hour our center
would have been broken & our
army routed. We came up after
a forced march of eleven miles
through rain & mud (having
come most of the way at double
quick & until the last three miles
with our knapsacks on our backs)
& drove the enemy back &
save the day. Gen. Mc-
Clellan thanked our reg.
through our Col. saying that our
Brigade saved the day & that
our reg. had helped to save the
army from a defeat. We see that
New York & Penn. papers try to
claim the honor but we have
this from McClellan himself.
Our Brigade is compose of four
regts. viz: 2
nd, 3d & 5
th Mich. &
27
th New York. The 5
th Mich.
fought gloriously & lost in killed
& wounded one hundred & forty
three. The 3d Mich. was not
not in the fight but supported
a battery acting as reserve. Our reg.
lost (sixty nine in killed, wound-
ed & missing. Our Brigade lost
two hundred & thirty one in
killed & wounded. The rain
poured down all through the
fight, & in fact all day, drenching
us to the skin. When we came up
to the battle ground we we wet with sweat
& then having to lie down flat on the
ground for some twenty minutes it set
many of us to cramping. My lefs cramped
so badly for some minutes that I could
hardly get along over the fallen timber.
On account of the fallen timber we
were deployed as skirmishes (i.e. drawn
out in a line placing each man some
two or three paces from the next so that
we could pick our way through the brush
& fallen pines. Somethings the balls came
minutes behind the logs and stamps, &
then the five would slacken a little &
we would advance or retreat & fire.
It was about forty rods across the fallen
pines. The rebels had an open field
to fight in & so could thus bring a large
body of men to bear upon our scattered
line of skirimishes. We advancd clear
across the fallen pines three times & were
three times driven back by their flank-
ing collumn. Sometimes our lines were
only a few rods apart. But at last
about dark we drove them back entire-
ly & they never advanced again. We fought
full four hours advancing & retreating
by turns through these pines. Our boys
fought nobly keeping cool & collected through
the whole fight emboldened if anything
by their hair breadth escapes.
The rebels fought with despe-
ration. The next morning we
entered the works. As we passed
over the battlefield I saw rebels
& federals lying dead with a few
feet of each other. Knapsacks,
guns, haversacks, canteens, & clothing
of all descriptions lay in every di-
rection. I went over a part of
the battle field where the rebels
had fought. On one knoll where
this seem to have made a stand
I saw eight dead rebels on a piece
of ground not more than four rods
square. I was told by those who went
over the whole field that this was
not the scene of the bloodyiest
fight. They lay just as they
had fallen shot through thir
head or breast. Some had fallen
in the act of loading. There was
even expression of counternance.
I was on guard in Williamsburg
on Wednesday. There are many
of the inhabitants here yet but
they are
strongly “
secesh”. Talking
with some women I thought I would
find out whether they knew what
they were fighting for. So I said
“Do you not think the people of
the South would have been
satisfied with the old Union as
it was if they had not been told
that by their leaders that they were
to be interfered with in their right?
They replied “We don’t know any-
thing about it”. I said “What
then are you fighting for?” They
replied “We don’t know anything
about it. What our leaders tell us
we believe”. And this was all.
I sent my diary home last
Friday. I wish you would tell
me in it gets home safe.
These green leaves in the pocket
are leaves from the live
oak & holly, evergreens. The
holly leaves are those with the
thorns on the edges. I picked
them near Fortress Monroe.
I halted to risk my diary bu
mail but I could not carry
it in my pack so I was forced
to send it. I do not know
but I had better risk my
money in a letter.
Do not be too anxious about
me. God protected me in the
first battle & can in the next
if he sees fit.
Love to all. Write often.
Your Son & brother,
Caroden
The rebels must be greatly
demoralized. We are driving them
& taking prisoners & arms &c about
every day C.
[Leaves included with letter]
