Wednesday, July 13th.
After having been in the field hospital ever since Monday, the 11th, I rejoined my company to-day, feeling somewhat better for the rest and treatment I have had, but still very weak. It continues very hot and the dust is floating in clouds about us, and the deaths from sunstroke continue to be numerous. I found my company still with the infantry on the firing lines in the woods, but was rejoiced to learn that we were, or were to be, transferred to the Siege Train, and a preparatory inspection was had.
Monday, June 11th.1
Since the 2nd we have lain in the rifle-pits with the infantry, sweltering in the sun in the day time and doing quite our share of picket duty at night. The dust, fine as ashes, is at least four inches deep in the trails and covered ways used by the troops, and at midday it is no uncommon thing to see the thermometer mark 110 degrees in what little shade there is. There has been no rain for weeks, and heat is killing more men than the “Johnnies” are. I have met Harry Hopkins, son of Rev. Dr. Hopkins, President of Williams College, who was on the front line with the regiment of the Excelsior Brigade of which he is Chaplain. He was a senior in college when I was a freshman. When the Sixth Corps went to Washington to defend that city, our Second Corps became the left of the line, and Grant seems to be now building field forts all along the line.
Not having felt at all well for some time, I determined to-day to act on the advice of the surgeon and go to hospital for a few days.
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This diary entry is for July 11th, not June. It follows the entry for July 2d. In the next entry, dated July 13, the author states that he had been in the field hospital since the 11th. – Mike Goad, October 19, 2013.
Saturday, July 2nd.
In camp all day. Am not feeling at all well. That persistent Virginia diarrhœa which has afflicted me more or less ever since we left Culpepper, aggravated, no doubt, by the intense heat we have had to endure, and by the coarse and scanty fare upon which we have been compelled to subsist (for I actually lived for nearly two days at one time on half an ear of corn which one of my men stole from the manger of a mule), seems at last to have perceptibly affected a naturally strong constitution. I think I’ll see the surgeon to-morrow.
We hear that many heavy guns have been put in position and that a regular siege of Petersburg has been decided on. Why don’t they give us some of these guns instead of muskets?
Friday, July 1st.
Private Carman shot himself in the head at 4 o’clock this morning. He is thought to have been rendered insane by a sunstroke. During the day a communication was sent by the officers of the regiment to President Lincoln through Governor Morgan, reciting the facts of which we complain—our fraudulent enlistment and perfidious treatment, and asking that justice be done us, but none of us entertains much hope of a favorable result. In the afternoon our battalion joined the First Battalion now with the First Brigade.
Thursday, June 30th.
There has been great dissatisfaction among, and some outspoken complaint by, both officers and men at the cutting up of the regiment and the sending of its battalions to different infantry commands, and, in company with some of the officers, I to-day called on Colonel Tidball about it at the Headquarters of the Second Corps. The Colonel was very polite, and particularly complimentary about the charge made by the five companies on the 18th, though in the newspaper accounts the name of our battalion was not mentioned. He said that he and General Hancock had watched us with their field glasses; that he had observed that the troops engaged belonged to his own regiment, and had even recognized me and some of the other officers on the field, and he insisted on taking me to General Hancock’s tent and introducing me as the officer whom they had seen leading that charge. The General was always stately but, with a very gracious bow, he said: “Yes, I saw that charge; it was gallantly made, very gallantly made,” and I won’t deny that the commendation of that distinguished officer quite compensated for the hazard of that diagonal trip across the cornfield, which was an exhibition of most inordinate vanity rather than genuine heroism on my part.
After a conference between Col. Tidball and General Hancock it was arranged, as I was informed, that the regiment should be brought together again and be brigaded with the Regular Engineers. Subsequently and during the same day, we learned that Col. Tidball had been relieved from active service in the field and ordered on duty at West Point.
Wednesday, June 29th.
All quiet along the lines to-day. Joe Solomon, my acting assistant bodyguard, fell over a stump and broke his arm, and promptly, and I may say very cheerfully, went to the hospital. Lieut. Edmonston returned from the picket line with his men at eleven o’clock to-night.
Tuesday, June 28th.
We joined the Infantry Brigade to which our battalion was assigned, while it was on the march to relieve a part of the front line, and after halting a while to rest, moved into some woods and threw up breastworks at right angles with the former one. It looks as if we may remain here for some time. Lieut. Edmonston with a detail from the company was ordered out on picket, and during the day King, the regimental sutler, put in an appearance, and those of us who have money are enabled to vary a little our rations of pork, hardtack, coffee and brown sugar, and that abominable combination known as “scouse.”
Monday, June 27th.
Captain Eddy of Company B resigned to-day, and I would resign also were it not for the fact that I induced so many men to enlist in the battalion or the Eleventh Heavy Artillery, which was consolidated with the Fourth, and it would seem like deserting those men, instead of standing by them as I am in honor bound to do, though I do not now command the company which I recruited. As expected, details from the battalion were sent out on picket in the afternoon.
Sunday, June 26th.
Orders were received to-day assigning our First Battalion to the First Brigade and the Second Battalion to the Second Brigade of Birney’s Division of the Second Corps. There seems to be no salvation for the “Fourth Heavy.” Heretofore, though nominally brigaded with the artillery, we have not only supported the artillery and furnished men to fill up the batteries, but have been detailed to guard wagon trains; to build roads and earthworks as engineers; to occupy breastworks; to do picket duty and make charges as infantry, and, in short, to perform every kind of military duty except that for which we were enlisted, but now, with the battalions again separated, we are infantry with no longer any disguise about it. General Pierce assures our battalion commander that the companies will have no picket duty to perform except in very urgent cases, but we know, of course, that that is all humbug, for in military operations all “cases” are “urgent.”
Saturday, June 25th.
Remained in the same camp all day. About half-past nine in the evening the enemy felt our line, but finding us at home withdrew.
