All For The Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes

All For The Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Language: English

Pages: 255

ISBN: 0517584271

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


All for the Union is the eloquent and moving diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, who enlisted into the Union Army as a private in 1861 and left it four years later as a 23-year-old lieutenant colonel after fighting hard and honorably in battles from Bull Run to Appomattox. Anyone who heard these diaries excerpted on the PBS-TV series The Civil War will recognize his accounts of those campaigns, which remain outstanding for their clarity and detail. Most of all, Rhodes's words reveal the motivation of a common Yankee foot soldier, an otherwise ordinary young man who endured the rigors of combat and exhausting marches, short rations, fear, and homesickness for a salary of $13 a month and the satisfaction of giving "all for the union."

Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis

Gettysburg--Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill

The March

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

reinforcements to come up; the second regiment being somewhat in advance of the main army; we stay here for three days and Sunday the 21st about 2 o’clock the drums beat the assembly and in ten minutes we were on our march for Bull Run having heard the enemy were waiting to receive us, our troops then numbering 25 or 30 thousand which were divided into three columns ours under Col Hunter taking the right through a thick woods. About eleven o’clock as our pickets were advancing through the woods a

of it, but when the Union army abandoned the White House Landing as a supply base on June 28, 1862 the White House was burned. Harnett T. Kane, The Lady of Arlington (New York: Doubleday, 1954). 18Harrison’s Landing was the location of the famous Byrd family’s manor house Westover and also Berkeley Hundred, also called Bermuda Hundred. Berkeley Hundred was patented in 1618 and claims the first celebration of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States. This historic house was the birthplace of

of us. Lieut Edward A. Russell Near Downsville, Md., Sunday Oct. 5th 1862—On Friday last our Corps (6th) was received by President Lincoln accompanied by General McClellan. In spite of our old, torn and ragged clothes the troops looked well as the lines stretched over the hills and plains. Chaplain Jameson has gone to Rhode Island, so we have had no service today. We expect the Paymaster in a few days. Oct. 8/62—Our camp is in a fine oak grove near Downsville. This town boasts of a church,

June the 2nd R.I. has lost killed and wounded twenty-five men. There is some talk of detailing the 2nd R.I. as Provost Guard at Corps Headquarters. I hope this will be done but cannot tell for we never yet had any safe duty to perform. We expect to go to the front tonight or tomorrow morning. Officers who returned to Rhode Island on June 6, 1864. Lieut. Stephen West; Capt. John R. Waterhouse. Below, right; Lieut. Henry K. Southwick. Veterans’ Den, Underground, Cold Harbor, Va., June

for rain to cool the air and lay the dust. The wagon train has arrived, and as we have not seen our baggage in many days we were glad to get our fresh clothing. We hope to remain in this camp for a few days for rest. General Russell commanding our Division has said some kind things about me, all of which is pleasant for a soldier to hear. Buckeystown is the nearest settlement to our camp, and we send our letters there to be mailed. It is quite a village for this part of the country. Near

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