Private George Alphonso Gibbs, 18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment

You my boys...know that war is not the fine adventure it is represented to be by novelists and historians, but a dirty bloody mess, unworthy of people who claim to be civilized.

Emily Le Conte April 16, 1865

For four years there has been throughout this broad land little else than the anguish of anxiety--the misery over dear ones sacrificed--for nothing!

 John S. Wise 14 years old, son of the ex-governor of Virginia and nephew of Union General George Meade

I had become rampant for war, but never until then had I fully realized that this step involved making the old flag under which I was born...henceforth the flag of the enemy.... Across the harbor at the Gasport Navy Yard, the United States flag still floated from the garrison flagstaff, and from the ships.... Upon those ships, lying there, were many men, who, but a short time before, were welcome visitors at our home. It was almost incredible that they were now and were to be henceforth, enemies, or that they might at any time open fire upon the town which they had originally come to protect.

 John Stuart Woolsey Boston, May 10, 1861

We all have views now [on the war], men, women, and little boys--"children with drums betwixt their thumbs"--from the modestly patriotic citizen who wears a postage stamp on his hat to the woman who walks on Broadway in a "Union bonnet," composed of alternate layers of red, white, and blue.... So much intense emotion has been crowded into the last two or three weeks that the "time before Sumter" seems to belong to some dim antiquity. It seems as if we never were alive...never had a country till now.

 Elisha Stockwell, Jr. 15 years old, Alma Wisconsin

We heard there was going to be a war meeting at our little log school house. I went to the meeting and when they called for volunteers, Harrison Maxon (21), Edgar Houghton (16), and myself, put our names down.... My father was there and objected to my going, so they scratched my name out, which humiliated me somewhat. My sister gave me a severe calling down...for exposing my ignorance before the public, and called me a little snotty boy, which raised my anger. I told her, "Never mind, I'll go and show you that I am not the little boy you think I am."

The Captain got me in by lying a little, as I told the recruiting officer I didn't know just how old I was but thought I was eighteen. He didn't measure my height, but called me five feet five inches high. I wasn't that tall two years later when I re-enlisted, but they let it go, sot he records show that as my height.

 Elisha Stockwell Spring, 1862. Last survivor of Company I, 14th Wisconsin Volunteers, Shiloh

As we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away to get into such a mess I was in.

 John A. Cockerill 16 years old, regimental musician

I passed...the corpse of a beautiful boy in gray who lay with his blond curls scattered about his face and his hand folded peacefully across his breast. He was clad in a bright and neat uniform, well garnished with gold, which seemed to tell the story of a loving mother and sisters who had sent their household pet to the field of war. His neat little hat lying beside him bore the number of a Georgia regiment.... He was about my age.... At the sight of the poor boy's corpse, I burst into a regular boo-hoo and started on.

 Edward W. Spangler 130th Pennsylvania Regiment Antietam The bullets flew thicker than bees and the shells exploded with a deafening roar. I thought of hoem and fiends,a nd felt that I surely would be killed, and how I didn't want to be!"

The sight of hundreds of prostrate men with serious wounds of every description was appaling. Many to reliee their suffering were impatient for their turn upon the amputation tables, around which were pyramids of severed legs and arms.... Many prayed aloud, while other shrieked in the agony and throes of death.

 Charles Bardeen 15 year old drummer boy, 1st Massachusetts Regiment December 14, 1862

Dear Mother, My first battle is over and I saw nearly all of it.... Saturday the hardest fighting was done. I saw the Irish Brigade make three charges. They started with full ranks, and I saw them, in less time than it takes to write this, exposed to a galling fire of shot and shell and almost decimated.... I saw wounded men brought ino by the hundred and dead men lying stark on the field, and then saw our army retreat to the very place they started from, a loss incalculable in men, horses, cannon, small arms, knapsacks, and the implements of war, and I am discouraged. I came out here sanguine as any one, but I have seen enough, and am satisfied that we can never whip the South.... Let any one go into the Hospital where I was and see the scenes I saw....

 William Burgwyn Second Lieutenant, North Carolina December 16, 1862

Dear Mother, The day before yesterday I don't suppose this continent ever has, or will soon, witness such a day's fighting.... Musketry came over us so fast that it made a complete tune, and the air seemed as full of minie balls as it ever was of snow or drops of rain.... From the commanding position we hold, I see the dead Yankees strewn around where they were in deadly conflict, and hte Yankees have not endeavored to bury them.... I think because they are evacuating the town... they appear to be leaving in great quantities. I never expected to see such a sight.

Susie King 14 years old

It is strange how our aversion to suffering is overcome in war--how we are able to see the most sickening sights, such as men with limbs blown off and mangled by the deadly shells, without a shudder; and instead of turning away, how we hurry to assist in alleviating their pain, bind up their wounds, and press cool water to their parched lips, with feelings only of sympathy.

 Marinda B. Moore The Geographical Reader for the Dixie Children, 1863

In the year 1860, the Abolitionists became strong enough to elect one of their men for President. Abraham Lincoln was a weak man, and the South believed he would allow laws to be made, which would deprive them of their rights. So the Southern States seceded, and elected Jefferson Davis for their President. This so enranged President Lincoln that he declared war, and has exhausted nearly all the strenght of the nation, in a vain attempt to whip the South back into the Union. Thousands of lives have been lost, and the earth has been drenched with blood; but still Abraham is unable to conquer the "Rebels" as he calls the South. The South only asked to be let alone, and to divide the public property equally. It would have been wise of the North to have said to her Southern sisters, "If you are not content to dwell with us any longer, depart in peace."

Evelyn Ward Bladensfield One brother died in 1862, another in 1863

We felt thrilled though and through by the accounts of the brave fighting our dear people were doing. We children were always drilling, marching, fighting--the whites as officers int he front rank, the blacks coming behind. The cows were the Yankees,a nd I am afraid we didn't always drive them as slowly as Father wanted.

Edward W. Spangler Pennsylvania Regiment Chancellorville

It was the most frightful and terrible night I ever experienced.... The opposing lines in many places in the total darkness nad thickets of the woods ran against each other at haphazard; disorder reigned supreme among the intermingled contestants and the din was appalling. In the fitful intervals of fire arose the groans of the wounded.... Finally, about 2 a.m., from sheer exhaustion, the combat languished, and finally died away--the forest strewn with the dead and wounded.

Tillie Pierce Gettysburg

I fairly sharnk back at the awful sight presented. The approaches were crowded with wounded, dying and dead.... By this time amputating benches had been placed about hte house.... I saw them lifting the poor men upon it... I saw the surgeons hastily put a cattle horn over the mouths of the wounded ones...and learned that was their mode of administering chloroform, in order to produce unconsciousness. But the effect, in some instances, was not produced; for I saw the wounded throwing themselves wildly about, and shrieking with pain while the operation was going on.... Just outside the yard I noticed a pile of limbs higher than the fence. It was a ghastly sight.

 Emma LeConte daughter of a chemistry professor in Columbia, S.C.

How dreadfully sick I am of this war.... It commenced when I was thirteen, and I am now seventeen and no prospect yet of its ending. No pleasure, no enjoyment--nothing...but the stern realities of life. We have only the saddest anticipations and the dread of hardships and cares, when bright dreams of the future ought to shine on us.

Emma LeConte

The streets and vacant lots were filled with homeless families, many...having nothing but the clothes they wore; when bringing bedding, raiment or provisions out of their burning homes, these were destroyed by the brutal soldiers. They stole much that was useless to them, for even Bibles were taken.... The yards and gardens wee perforated with bayonets, men searching for buried treasure.

Emma Le Conte

Hurrah! Old Abe has been assassinated! It may be abstractly wrong to be so jubilant, but I just can't help it.... This blow to our enemies comes like a gleam of light. We have suffered till we feel savage.... The first feeling had when the news was announced was simply gratified revenge. The man we hated has met his proper fate.... What exciting, what eventful times we are living in!

Celine Fremaux 12 years old, Baton Rouge and Port Hudson

In these few months my childhood had slipped away from me.... Necessity, human obligations, family pride and patriotism had taken entire possession of my little undersized body.... If father could suffer [from dysentery] and do his work, we could suffer and be silent when [we were] cold or hungry or in the dark.

 Carrie Berry August 1864

I was ten-years-old today. I did not have a cake. Times are too hard.... I hope by my next birthday, we will have peace in our land.

John Delhaney Delhaney was a sixteen year old Confederate soldier.

Day after day and night after night did we tramp along the rough and dusty roads, 'neath the most broiling sun with which the month of August ever afflicted a soldier; thro' rivers and their rocky valleys, over mountains--on, on, scarcely stopping to gather the green corn from the fields to serve us for rations.... During these marches the men are sometimes unrecognizable on account of the thick coverings of dust which settle upon the hair, eye-brows and beard, filling likewise the mouth, nost, eyes, and ears.

Elisha Stockwell, Jr. Stockwell describes his first battle. We had lost all formation, and were rushing down the road like a mob. When we got to the foot of the hill, there was a small stream of water from the rain of the night before. We stopped there and got behind a small tree. I could see the little puffs of smoke at the top of the hill on the other side some forty rods from us, and I shot at those puffs. The brush was so thick I couln't see the Rebs, buyt loaded and fired at the smoke until a grape shot came through the tree and knocked me flat as AI was putting the cap on my gun. I thought my arm was gone, but I rolled on my right side and looked at my arm and couldn't see anything wrong with it, so got to my feet with gun in my hands and saw the Rebs coming down hill just like we had. The road was full for several rods, and I shot for the middle of the [charging] crowd and began loading. But as they were getting so close, I looked behind me to see what the rest [of my friends] were doing. I saw the colors going out of sight over the hill, and only two or three me in sight. As I started to run, I heard several shoult, 'Halt!' But I knew it was the Rebs, and I hadn't any thought of obeying them.

Charles Nott Nott describes how he and three friends spent a snowy night.

We managed to find four blankets,two of them wet and frozen, and a buffalo skin. The snow was scraped away from the windward side of the fire, and the frozen blankets were laid on the ground--a log was rolled up for a wind-break, and the buffalo [skin] spread over the blankets. On this four of us were stretched, and very close and straight we had to lie.

E.D. Patterson Patterson was a wounded Confederate soldier.

I thought of home far away.... I wondered if my fate would ever be known to them. I had a horror of dying alone.... I was afraid that none of my regiment would ever find me, and that with the unknown dead who lay scattered around me I would be buried in one common ground. The thought was terrible. How I longed for day. Just that some one would see me die.

Union Boy's Diary September 13, 1863

Rats are found to be very good for food, and every night many are captured and slain. So pressing is the want of food that nearly all who can have gone into the rat business, either selling these horrid animals or killing them and eating them. There are numbers in the drains and under the houses and they are so tame that they hardly think it worth while to get out of our way when we meet them.