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American Civil War ➔ Civil War letter William H. Holmes 1st N.Y. Light Artillery to Uncle E.S. Holmes and Aunt Ori Holmes
Identifier:
135470.3Description:
Letter from William Holmes to his Uncle and Aunt from Dallas Georgia . William has joined the "Northern Black Horse Cavalry Regiment" which becomes the 1st New York Light Artillery Regiment. The Regiment is part of the Army of the Potomac seeing action at Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Atlanta. Holmes is discharged in Raleigh North Carolina April 28th, 1865.; Near Dallas Ga.June 21, 1864
Uncle E & Aunt Ori,
Kind Friends,
As we are today having rather unexpectedly a little quiet time at rest, I guess I will spend a little of the day in writing a little to you. I have often thought of you, & of how lonely you must feel, since Freddie's death, & have thought of writing you before, & probably should only that we have been so busy for the month past. Though Freddie was supposed pretty sick when I came away I had no idea that he was at all dangerously so, & little thought that almost the first thing I should hear from home after my return to the Army would be news of his death. But so it is we little know what awaits us in life. In the midst of life we are in death & the opposite also seems true, for it sometimes seems to me , as if there were more deaths, at home where there is no apparent danger, than in the Army where the danger is visible-where shot & shell- the " missiles of death" fly about " seeking whom they may devour" - knock over! But mysterious as all this seems, we have the assurance that an all wise God governs & controls all these things, & that however strange, mysterious, & sometimes unjust even they may seem to us now, they will be in the end all for the best- are all the carrying out of the great plan of Providence. It must be very lonely for you - you Ori in particular since little Freddy is gone. The house must seem desolate-almost empty without the voice & the loved presence of the loved little one. These things you must feel as only parents who have lost an only child can-, But in this great affliction you can have the consolation of the earnest sympathy of many friends, & the much greater consolation that God doeth all things well. Though you feel and mourn his loss- the blasting of all the plans you have formed for his future- we can believe that it may be for the best for the dear boy, that he has in mercy been removed from what may have been much harder to endure than thus to see him taken we trust to a better world. It will seem strange & sad to me, if I ever live to come home, to find no Freddie at your house, & though now far away- to return no knowing when, I often think of you & sincerely sympathise with you in your loneliness.
We have been pretty busy since our return from home- we got horses within a few days & after a little time spent in drilling we started off & have been on the move almost every day since. We were at all the skirmishing & fighting at & around Resaca. There was but very little hard fighting there, but a great deal of skirmishing. Our Corps was engaged somewhat saturday & sunday, the battery on sunday P.M. & night. We next halted at Cassville near Kingston & Rome- where we had a little skirmish & afterwards a rest. We then came on crossing the Etowa river, & the Altoona Mts.& were pressing "on to Atlanta" when we suddenly a week ago yesterday- found " breakers ahead" in the shape of Jo Johnson's army strongly fortified in a strong position. The Infy of our Div. had a hard fight that night losing some 1500 men in an hour or so. Our line of battle was then formed, & the breastwork thrown up within a short distance of the rebel breastworks. Our guns & many other batteries were put behind the work with the Infy., & we remained there continually under a skirmish fire from friday morning till yesterday noon, when we were relieved by Gen. Logan with his 15th Corps & our Corps moved further to the left of the line. We have not gone to the front yet here, I don't know whether our infy. has or not. We have had but one man wounded so far, & he not seriously & one horse killed & several wounded. Friday morn a heavy thunder shower put a stop to my writing yesterday & now I will try & finish it .There are near us, quite a number of graves of men "killed" by rebel shots during the last few days & yesterday another grave was filled , its occupany being "killed by lightning" on a hill a little way from here,- we were allowed to sleep quietly all night last night, & there are yet no signs of our moving this morning. We have a long & strong line of battle here, our line & that of the enemy are very close together, where we lay a week, they thought it , not over 200 yds. We fired mostly 1/2 sec fuses & 1 sec is 350 yds. There has been constant skirmishing, picket firing with musketry & occasional arty. all along the lines ever since they were formed & once in a while there is quite a little fight at some place or other along the line. Our losses though not heavy are considerable in the aggregate, most of the men are wounded in the rear of the 1st line by chance shots.Gen. Sherman is the "He biddy chicken" of all here, assisted by Gen's Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, Hooker, Howard, Palmer, Logan & c. All these I have seen except McPherson. The enemy seem to have a strong position here , one which was fortified by the Gov. of the state 1st in 62 when Buell threatened the state & again last fall when Rosecrans was coming this way & now their continually strengthening it more, & from all accounts seem to consider the holding of it absolutely necessary to the defense of Atlanta, which is some 25 or 30 miles distant. What our future movements will be I can't imagine of course, we get but very few papers lately & hear but little of what is going on in VA. & elsewhere. As you are P.M. I will send you a couple C.S. P.O. Dept. blanks taken out of a ransacked P.O. on the march here, But I have already written enough & will close. Give love to all the friends & accept much yourselves from your nephew & sympathizing friend.
Will. Holmes
I shall be very glad to hear from you at any & all times, Will
