Company G

by A. R. Barlow

At Stafford there were frequent desertions among the men. Several left the good society of Co. G. The men were discouraged like the chaplain, and many of them would have resigned were it not that they thus would desert their officers.

The officers of the regiment were getting discouraged also, some of them because they were homesick, some because they were better off at home, and many because they were sickened of warfare. They had marched over one hundred miles, saw the smoke of a terrible battle, and their ardor was appeased. By the middle of January sixteen of them had resigned from discouragement and one from disability. Twelve left at one time, and later on others resigned, until Capt. Frank Place of Co. C, was the only one left of the original ten captains and he returned with the regiment as major. His first lieutenant, J. A. Coffin, after serving a long term in rebel prisons, returned and was mustered out as captain of that company. Captain Dunbar died, of disease, Capt. Adams of wounds, Captains Frank and Backus were killed in battle and Capt. Stone died in prison at Macon. Thus accounting for the original thirty line officers. In spite of such terrible temptation, Co. G were true. "Guide North!" exclaimed one of the departing captains, as he mounted a baggage wagon; and quite a number of his men soon followed him. Similar changes were going on in all of the new regiments.

Sickness prevailed alarmingly at Stafford. A crowd of men attended surgeon's call each morning and kept three doctors busy until long into the night. Fortunately the serious cases were comparatively few. The illness resulted from exposures and the inexperience of the men, in most of the cases.

For the information of any persons who are ignorant as to knowledge of the shelter-tent it may be said that this kind of a tent is used by troops in the field in active service. Each soldier draws one piece of tent,—a piece of white or unbleached twilled cotton cloth about one yard and a half square. In two corners of the cloth are loops of light rope to be used when the tent is held to the ground with stakes; around the margins of three sides of the cloth are button-holes set at regular distances, and two inches above each hole is a bone button. As they are exactly alike, any two soldiers may join their pieces and thus raise a shelter, or three or four, by uniting and pitching the tent at a right angle, can close the tent ends, using two of the pieces cornerwise. Buttoning together the pieces for roofing only, they could be extended to any length, and sometimes, by exercising a little ingenuity, they were made to cover quite a large building. Thus is space devoted to this subject because the shelter tent was an important article in the outfit of Co. G.

What is called the Mud March began January 20th, 1863, when the Army of the Potomac was ordered out of their snug huts and started on a campaign against the enemy.

Before daylight on the 20th, Co. G were routed out and ordered to strike tents and take the road. Old Ziba had cooked beef and pork and the boys carried, also, three day's rations of coffee, sugar and hard-tack.

Lieut. Bailey had been transferred to Co. K, as captain, Lieut. Frank was promoted in Bailey's place and Sergeant Hemstreet was made second lieutenant of Co. G.

That particular morning Capt. Tuttle was not in very good humor and the boys of Co. G were hustled around lively; and they were all ready and waiting in good season, for the order to move.

They had quite a tramp of ten or twelve miles, halting at Hartwood Church, near night. Soon rain began to fall and at dark was coming down quite briskly.

A pontoon train that was drawn up waiting for the arrival of Co. G and the other troops, as soon as darkness came on, started for the Rappahannock river a few miles distant, where engineers were to lay a bridge, that in the small hours of the night Co. G (with other troops) could be slipped over there quietly and as the daylight returned the astonished rebels were to find they had work cut out for them. Unfortunately, the rain softened the roads and the wagons bearing the pontoon boats stuck fast in the mud. The artillery that was to cover the laying of the bridge also stuck in the mud, and horses and mules stuck in the mud. And it became necessary to send men with ropes to pull the wagons, artillery, horses and mules out of the mud.