Its an interesting item, which is not included on my website. Since it falls between May 18, when it was written, and May 31, when it was published, I'll fit it in here! ...and pretty soon I'll catch up to real 'real time.'
WESTBORO TRANSCRIPT
May 31,
1862
Communications
United States Commissary Department,
Winchester, Frederick Co., Va., May 18, 1862
Friend Farwell: - Thinking that a few lines from this hotbed
of secession might not prove uninteresting, I will endeavor to jot down a few
incidents of my observation in the Shenandoah Valley. Winchester,
where I have for some time been stationed, is situated in the lower part of the
Valley, twenty eight miles from Harper’s Ferry, at the terminus of the Winchester and Potomac
Railroad. It is, or rather was before
the rebellion, a large, beautiful, flourishing city, and the county seat of Frederick County.
There is not, perhaps, another city in the Old Dominion where there is
so little of the Union sentiment to be found as here.
The former residents, or the male portion, all who are able
to bear arms, are in the Confederate army, and there are but few left in this
valley to welcome the ‘Yankees,’ as they are termed, but women and negroes; and
such a reception as we receive at their hands!
We are looked upon as vandals and invaders of their homes, and treated
by the women, at least, with perfect contempt.
Mr. Seward, on his return to Washington
from a visit to the battle field here, was asked his opinion of Winchester. His reply was, ‘The men are all away, and the
women are the devils.’ And he spoke but
the truth. Go where you will, penetrate
as deep into the valley as you please, you will see the miserable, bitter
fruits of this wicked rebellion. Farm
houses deserted, fences destroyed, and negroes wandering about in idleness,
enjoying their ‘freedom,’ which is nothing to them but freedom from labor. It would amuse the people at home if they
could see the conduct of the darkies here.
Some of them will come for miles to get a glimpse of the soldiers. There are darkies of all ages, shapes and
sizes, - Ethiops, copper colored, and cream colored, and your milk-and-water
negroes, that come very near being white men, - dressed in all styles, a majority
of them being clad in costume a la
militaire, consisting of the cast-off garments of soldiers, rebels, and
Unionists. The women portion of the
slaves on Sunday are dressed in a perfectly regardless-of-expense style, yellow
being the favorite color, while a plaid of all the colors of the rainbow, like
Joseph’s coat of old, is regarded with envy by the less fortunate of their
class. A frock or bonnet is never thrown
away, for when the lady owner of these articles becomes tired of them, or they
get out of fashion, Dinah secures them for a Sunday suit, and with here
extensive hoops sets to aching all the
hearts of the colored gentry by the grandeur of her toilette. It is a mistake to suppose the slaves accept
the boon of freedom with thanksgiving and praise. When told by Northern troops that if their
masters are in the rebel service they are at liberty to go where they please,
those who have been ill treated will usually pack up and ‘skedadle’ to some
quartermaster or commissary, where they can obtain employment and rations; but
the majority prefer to remain with Missus
and enjoy the listless idleness the rebellion gives to them.
The city is now under martial law, the 10th Maine
Regiment, Co. George L. Beal, doing provost duty. The sale of liquor is strictly prohibited,
and no citizen or soldier allowed on the streets after ten o’clock at night without the
countersign. The hospitals are still
pretty full, there being several hundreds of those wounded in the late battle
here, who have not yet fully recovered.
The rebel wounded were mostly taken from the hospitals, and kindly
treated by the citizens in their homes.
In conversation with a rebel soldier form one of the South Carolina regiments to-day, I asked him
if he had not got enough of this war. He
answered ‘No; I was wounded pretty bad in the battle out here, but when my arm
gets well shall try it again if I get the chance.’
But amid all the expressions of enmity to the law and the
constitution that has met my ears for weeks past, I cannot find it in my heart
to speak a harsh or unkind word to them, for the events of the last few weeks
has caused a despondency of countenance, a lack-lustre expression of the eye,
that speaks a tale full of mighty import.
However much the rebels ma try to
disguise it, thee is no mistake but they are disheartened and discouraged,
though many still persist in declaring that they never can nor never will be
subdued.
A few steps from where I am writing is the former residence
of Senator Mason, the author of the Fugitive Slave bill. His house is now occupied by Union troops,
his family leaving on the approach of the Federal army. Hs slaves, unmindful of the stringent law he
framed, have taken to their heels and sought a more congenial clime. His daughter is now a helpless lunatic,
caused by the rebellion her father was so instrumental in bringing about; and
he an exile in a foreign land, with nothing to recompense him but the knowledge
of the fact that if he ever returns to his native land it will be to meet a
traitor’s doom and fill a traitor’s grave.
Verily, he is reaping his just reward.
I can write nothing of interest in regard to the regiment to
which I belong, having for a long time been detached from it. It was reported here yesterday that it had
marched from Warrenton Junction to Fredericksburg,
and may be ere this reaches you, in Richmond. Officers and soldiers in other regiments who
are acquainted with it, all speak of the 13th as being one of the
best drilled and best disciplined regiments in the service. And it is my earnest hope that the day is
not far distant when that, as well as other regiments can return again to the
loved ones at home, stronger and better men, morally and physically, than when
they left, and that they may meet with such a reception as will amply reward
them for the hardships and privations they have endured in aiding to crush this
unholy rebellion.
With my best wishes for your health and the success of your Journal, believe me,
Very truly yours,
F. H. Morse.
(Frank Morse)
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