History

With that, the voice in the darkness goes quiet for a moment, and then I hear snoring. He has gone back to sleep. I do not. This is my first morning as a Confederate private, and I’m wondering if I haven’t made a big mistake. An hour later, I make my way toward the cook tent, hoping to find some coffee, and pass one of our men sharpening his bayonet. It is a grim reminder of what I might face today. It has not dawned on me until now how close I might get to my enemy—and for the first time I realize that I may have to use my bayonet on some Yankee, or some Yankee will use his on me.

We privates don’t get much information, just a lot of rumors, but some of the fellows tell me we are here in New Market to block a Federal army under Gen. Sigel from taking over the Shenandoah Valley. Virginia and the South depend on the valley for its crops and livestock. I am told that if we lose the valley, we lose the war. It is rumored Grant has given Sigel 10,000 men to help run us out. I hope it isn’t true, because our Gen. Breckinridge only has 4,500 Confederates. I don’t know much about Sigel other than he is from Germany, and that he yells orders in German when he gets excited. Breckinridge, on the other hand, must be pretty smart, since he was vice president of the United States before the war broke out.

I was hungry when I woke, but now I have got the jitters. Still, I need to eat. No one is sure of the next meal. Capt. Bunting’s wife, Denise, and two other ladies, Miss Dailey and Miss Todd, are already up fixing food for our men—eggs and maybe some bacon if any is left. I’m handed a hardtack biscuit. My biscuit is so hard that I dip it in my coffee before biting into it. Pvt. Scott Williams tells me that, a week ago, his hardtack was infested with weevils. He still ate it—dipped it in his coffee and let the biscuit fall apart in the liquid. The weevils floated to the top of the coffee, he skimmed them off and then ate his biscuit and drank the coffee. I tell Williams I could never do that. He tells me to go three days without food and then tell him that again. These men are tougher than I am.