December 17, 1861
And it is a pretty day and the cause of our putting on our new blue clothes is that we went on Brigade drill, twenty four files. Last night there was considerable excitement in camp last night by thirty four horse wagon loads of corn coming in from within a little distance of Fairfax Courthouse. It is as follows. There was night before last, a great many cavelry went westward and yesterday morning there was about eighty teams it said went by on a forageing expidition. And in an hour or so Mcdowel went by post haste and then last night about dark some of our boys said they seen thirty four horse wagon loads go by. And that the teamsters told them that there was forty more loads to come tomorrow and that there was a strong guard around the field of infantry and cavelry. And they said that the federal killed one sesech and that the secesh fired ten rounds on them and wounded one horse only a little. And once there was fifteen or twenty secesh cavelry come right on to them but as soon as they seen the federals they broke for the brush as fast as their horses would take them.
Well it will soon be drill time and I am ready for it. Well it is three oclock and we have been on review. We was reviewed by Mcdowel. We drilled in marching, firing blank catridges and a great many different moves.
December 19, 1861
And another pretty day. And we went to Manson [Munson’s] Hill or Baileys crossroads either as it is right between the two and I suppose that all of Mcdowels was there at any rate. I think there was as many as fifteen Regts there and we all had twenty rounds of blank catridges. That is the infantry did. There was one regt of Cavelry and three or four Batteries of artillery, each battery containing from four to six cannon. We were the first regiment to fire and then advanced a little, then fired again and advanced again, fired again, then our catridges give out and we fell in the rear. We went through the whole as near as we could I suppose when we get into the battlefield. And I hope that wont be long. We had our knappsacks on our back all day and them packed. With heavy marching, it was pretty hard days work. But I have had harder at home some days. We are getting used to it and it don’t tire us so. There was cannon and infantry firing, cavelry charging. We was about two hours fighting the battle and didnt kill a man. We got home about dark with keen appetites.
December 23, 1861
And it has been a few day since I wrote any but I couldnt do it any sooner verry well as I have been so busy at one thing and another. Yesterday I wrote a long letter to Newton [older brother, born 1819] and on Saturday I was detailed to carry wood for the cooks and in the afternoon three of my tentmates got excused from drill and they built up the tent or built up a pen the side of the tent with poles about 78 in and banked it and daubed it up and sett the tent on top of it and it makes a great deal more room for we can stand almost straight on the sides. Today we have built up bunks. We had a great time to get started at it for we couldnt agree on it, which to have it. And some wouldnt anyway. At last Olie and I went to work and built us one and they thought that we took too much room. Then James Clark & Garner went work and put one up and they put it so high that Frank and Richard could make theirs under it and they did it and have got the best of any of us. And we have more room in the tent than before and evrything is out of the way. And we have got the bottom of the tent tacked down to the poles and now winds cant get in except a little at the door and I sewed on some buttons and cut holes in my oilcloth and hung it up in front of the door. Well the weather is severe. Last night it rained considerable and it has rained and snowed a little alternately all day and the wind blows verry hard and it is cold and getting colder. I am writing by candlelight. The order read on dress parade last evening were to drill on double quick today and go on a grand review tomorrow. But we havnt drilled and I guess we will not do anything tomorrow.
December 25, 1861
And it is a verry pretty morning, verry. As well as being Christmas as evrybody knows. And there is no drill today in our Co. I don’t know how it is with others. The camp was all alive last night. The officer of day had occasion several times to tell the boys to be still. Cap Callis being officer of the day, he wouldnt be verry hard on them.
We have got our tent fixed up first rate and clean and tidy and plenty of wood to keep it warm. We are going to have a great time I guess today. Everything is lively as can be. I wish I could be at home today for they are enjoying themselves, I hope, and I think so at any rate. Well we didnt drill any yesterday forenoon with the exceptions of going out on the parade ground and coming back and being dismissed. For it was verry cold. We drill in the afternoon. We don’t drill as much as other Companies and have the name of doing as well and sometimes better. We have the best officers of any Co in the Regt for understanding drill. Our second Lieutenant [Henry Young of Lancaster] is the best drill master in the Regt I think. Some of the boys didnt like him at first because he was so strict but as they have more experience in what must be done, they like him verry well now and I like him better all the time.
Our tent works so well that a great many others are building theirs up in the same manner and having good bunks fixed up. We sleep better (but we have never suffered any) at least I sleep well. Well I went last evening and drew $2.50 cts worth of sutlers tickets but shouldnt of if some of them hadnt wanted something to spend today for I loaned $1.50 cts to two different tentmates that had drew all the tickets they could without an order from the Capt and they hated to do that. You see from this that the Capt has given orders to the sutlers not to let his boys have more than eight dollars apiece on their wages. And they having drawn that amount they had to stop until payday. It was James Garner and James Clark that I loaned the money to. I laid in a good supply of paper & envelopes & stamps & mother sent me 16 three cent stamps and there is never a day passes lately but I loan something.
Well we didnt go on review yesterday as was calculated and I guess and hope that that kind of work is done with. For I think that winter has set in in earnest although it is thawing some already. And it is only about nine oclock. Our street is verry dirty this morning. For it being such bad weather we did not clean it up and today there is as many building up their tents that there is no chance to clean it. But we have the name of having the best and prettiest camp of any regt in the service. This is the statement that several New York papers have made and some of the Washington papers also. That it is the cleanest and the streets are thrown up, that is the Cos streets. Then the General streets are thrown up and sidewalks made also and evergreen trees sett in evry appropriate place to make it look well and each Co vied with the other which should have the prettiest. And it got to be pretty nice.
Well it is candlelight and we have had a good oyster supper and two apples apiece. I never seen a livlier time, especially tonight. I never could eat oysters before but I ate those and ate about one quart.
December 26, 1861
And Christmas is over and we had a great time. Last night our band after roll call went out on the main street and began playing and after a large crowd had collected they went over and serenaded the second Regt and their Colonel and when we got home, the second came and done the same by us. But theirs was a splendid brass band and good players also and many were the hearty cheers that was given. And after the band had played a few national tunes, they went over to the sixth Regt and gave them a round. But their guards would’nt let the crowd in but let the band in and that made a harder feeling than ever existed before. And some of the boys run the guard and at that they called out the guard and that woutdnt suffice. And they called out a lot more from the regiment and came and charged on the crowd which was verry large by this time. And they dispersed it. Our orderly was a little tight I guess, and he went around and got all he could to turn out with guns and bayonets fixed, swearing that they could whip out the sixth Regt but they didnt do anything but talk as is generally the case. But if they hadnt charged on them, the whole of the second regt would have been over here. There was a great many got here as it was and no telling what would have been done. Probably a worse
row.
December 29, 1861
And it is a cloudy day but warm. I think it will rain soon. Well we were out on another division drill yesterday and it went off well with the exceptions of a man in Co C. of the second Regt had his gun burst while in the act of firing it and it injured him some but two of his comrades a great deal more. Quite bad, I understand. The gun bursted from the but halfway up the barrel. It is thought to be his fault. It is supposed he had overloaded it as a great many have in a way of seeing which can get rid of their catridges first and he has been known to do the same thing. And they would put in from four to six catridges. I suppose they think because it is blank catridges they can do as they please with them and not be in danger. I know of a great many of our boys doing the same thing but no accident be happened them. But after they heard of the gun bursting I saw a great many pulling catridges out and grass &c. They do it for fear of their gun. There was men all around me that had in from two to four but I mind they didnt shoot them out from fear. Well we were marched around for about four hours from one place to another and a great deal of the time it was doublequick march. Run to one place and fire a little until the unseen enemy would run then away we would go and fire again in another place where the enemy was likely to break the ranks.
December 30, 1861
And it has been a chilly day but thawed a little. We have not drilled any today. We have just been on dress parade and the order was read that there would be a general muster tomorrow morning by one of General King aids [aides], the second will be mustered in first at 7 oclock and us at half past nine oclock and the sixth regt right afterward. The mustering in consists of the regts forming on their respective parade grounds in heavy marching orders which means to have all our things packed in our knapsacks &c with haversack and knife, fork, spoon, tin cup and plate and evrything must be neat and which I have got. But verry few has them clean. My gun is bright as a silver dollar. My shoes is blacked, buttons and brass shining. In fact, I am ready for I have washed and dried evrything. We will be closely inspected, expically our guns. But I expect to be on guard and then I shall not have to fix for it much. Well after we are inspected they call our names and we answer here just as I used to do when at school. And after that we go to our quarters. Then in a few days we get our pay. The pay roll is made out now in our Co and the first of next month is payday but probably we will not get it for several days after. There one man in our Co by the name of Largeant [J. Wesley Largent]34 is getting his discharge and there is one in the second Regt also that has got his today, his name is Homer Wilcox [William Wilcox, Company D, Second Wisconsin]. He has been unable for duty for 4 months.
Well this book is full and I am not done [with] my story yet. I could have written another. I probably shall send it by Largeant to Henry if he can take it. Well good by old book and you are the second that I have filled.
What I received from the state in clothing.
1 pair of shoes
2 pair of socks
1 cotton coat
1 pair cotton pants
2 shirts
1 cap & cover
1 coat woolen
1 pair of pants
1 overcoat
What I rec from United states
1 overcoat
1 dress coat
1 pair of pants
1 cap
1 pair of socks
1 pair shoes
1 shirt
Written 20 letters
Written 30 letters
Received 15 letters only since I enlisted
1862
The new year brought new uniforms and rising hopes to the Wisconsin and Indiana volunteers of Rufus King’s brigade. The improved morale was due to the steady round of drills, camps of instruction, parades, and inspections ordered by General George B. McClellan, who had replaced Irvin McDowell as overall army commander. With his encouragements and pronouncements, “Little Mac,” as McClellan was affectionally called by his men, made the troops in his new regiments feel they were becoming real soldiers.
The volunteers were eager for action—especially with the threat of a Confederate army at the very gates of Washington. Thus McClellan’s lack of offensive activity as the weeks wore on was viewed with no little frustration. Under political pressure and frustrated himself with McClellan’s failure to engage the enemy, President Abraham Lincoln in early March ordered his leading general to move on the Confederate fortifications at Centreville, Virginia. The orders to “be held in readiness to march at a minutes warning with knapsacks packed, and three days rations cooked,” were read to the assembled companies of the Seventh Wisconsin. “Boys, if them orders exactly suit you, you may cheer,” said Colonel William Robinson. One of the Badger volunteers wrote home, “You had better believe we roused him up three times . . .”
The advance, however, proved a bust. The Federals discovered that the vaunted Confederate fortifications were empty, bristling with painted wooden logs in place of real artillery pieces. The Rebels under General Joseph Johnston had slipped away undetected. The newspapers were full of the embarrassment, and the soldiers marched sullenly back to their Washington camps.
Eventually, McClellan decided to launch his effort against Richmond from the east, up the Virginia peninsula. The Western Brigade, part of Irvin McDowell’s corps, was marched overland to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in support of the effort and as a means of protecting the Federal capital. And there it was unexpectedly halted while McClellan fought and lost the first large-scale engagements of the war in the Eastern Theater just a stone’s throw from Richmond. “I cannot tell you how we all felt at being left behind . . . and we were left out of the ranks of McClellan, the idol of all the army,” a young Wisconsin officer wrote home. Rufus King was promoted and Colonel Lysander Cutler of the Sixth Wisconsin became temporary brigade commander.
The grey militia uniforms provided by the states were just about played out (the Second Wisconsin, for example, was taunted as the “Ragged Ass Second”), and Cutler began a policy of issuing the new Federal uniforms of blue. The coat was the dark blue nine-button regulation wool frock, the dress garb of the regulars. But it was the Model 1858 hat of the U.S. Regulars—a showy black felt affair looped up on the side with a brass eagle crest, trimmed with an infantry-blue cord and black plume as well as regimental designations in brass—that brought attention to the Westerners.
In May 1862, West Pointer John Gibbon, who was appointed as the new commander of the brigade, determined to make the tall hat a consistent item for his Westerners. Soon soldiers in nearby regiments began talking of a “Black Hat Brigade.” Born in Pennsylvania and growing up in North Carolina, Gibbon was an unlikely replacement as commander of a volunteer brigade. But the new general noted the “quick intelligence” of his frisky Western men and was determined to make them real soldiers. His arduous schedule of drills and camp duties made him one of the most cordially despised brigade commanders in the entire army. It was not until their first battle that the Western men came to appreciate what he had done for them.
The first serious fighting experienced by William Ray and his comrades came late on the afternoon of August 28, 1862, in the opening engagement of the Second Bull Run Campaign. As the “Black Hat Brigade” marched along the Warrenton Turnpike outside Groveton, it was attacked by a much larger Confederate force under the command of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Surprised, the Western men swung into line and plunged into their first battle. For 90 minutes they exchanged brutal volleys at ranges of 50 yards. When darkness finally brought the bloodshed to a halt, it was discovered two of every five men in the Seventh Wisconsin was dead, wounded, or missing.
One of the first to go down was Private William Ray.
Volume 3
A Wounded Man
January 28, 1862 to March 1, 1862
Wm R. Ray, Co F
7th Regt Wis Vols
[Ed. Note: no entries between December 30, 1861 and January 28, 1862]
Tuesday, January
28, 1862
Well it has been a long time since I have written any and there has some things worthy of note transpired, but to return. This is morning about eight oclock. It commenced raining and is still raining. After breakfast, I put my oilcloth on and went over to the second Regt to see Wm Gleason35 to buy a notebook that he found in a secesh house. It being quite a large book and having some few old accounts in but of no use to me or him either. Well after he got it he commenced to keep a diary of his adventures which is well done and is verry interesting and is of considerable length as he has kept a full detail of the battle of Bull Run or at least what he passed through which makes it verry interesting. And there being a great many pages yet unfilled, I thought it worth $1.00 and gave it for the book and had to leave it with him for one week so that he could copy of what he had written therein to sent to his father and mother. What he wrote is done with a pencil and I shall have to run over it with the pen and ink so that it will not get defaced. There is some of it verry much so now but he will write it over where it is partly rubed out. But it is a large book, at least so much so that I cannot carry it in my pocket and I will be under the necessity of carrying it in my knappsack which I do not like.
Four Years With the Iron Brigade Page 7