Christmas in the Ellsworth Regiment - 1861

Letter from the Ellsworth Regiment - Christmas in 1861

Chenango American, January 9, 1862

(From a recent letter from D.J. Wilson, of this village [Greene, Chenango Co., NY], now of the Ellsworth Regiment, we make the following extracts, showing how the boys spent Christmas)

Hall's Hill, Va.
Dec. 27, 1861

Dear Friends:....We had great fun on Christmas day.  The day before, the Col. gave orders that there should be no drill and no reveille in the morning, and that we could do as we had a mind to all day.  We therefore went to work to devise some means to have fun.  All the officers were reduced to the ranks, and persons who were full of fun elected in their places.  Bob Hitchcock, cymbal player in the Band, and full of fun, was elected Colonel.  He is fat as Henry Whittenhull, but not as tall.  Charley Hane, bass drummer, was elected Adjutant.  He has been a comic actor on the state at Albany, so you can judge what he is.  New officers were also elected throughout each Company.  The new Colonel gave orders that no two persons should be dressed alike at dress parade, and I must say that his orders were fully executed.  The Colonel appeared dressed in a uniform which I shall not try to describe.  He sat astride the poorest specimen of horseflesh that I ever saw.  The saddle was placed well to the rear, and the Colonel sat in front of it with his face towards the horse's tail.  He was armed with a wooden sword of huge dimensions, and had on his feet wooden spurs about a foot in diameter, though he was so fat that they did not come within quite a distance of the horse's sides. The adjutant was dressed in red throughout.  The markers, which are usually small boys, were two of the largest men in the Regiment.  The Regiment was armed with sticks and clubs so crooked they would not lay still, and two of the boys had live possums tied to their sticks for bayonets.  they were dressed in all manner of shapes. The Adjutant read quite a string of orders which would make a man laugh if he was going to be hung.  There was quite a crowd of spectators present and among them was Benj. Rexford from Norwich.  The Band consisted of about 40 instrument of any kind that would make a noise--15 snare drums (the players of which knew no more about music than Dr. P:---) old pans, trumpets, bugles, etc. etc.

In the forenoon we had a game of foot ball.  This was great sport, although there being so many men and only three balls, a person was in danger of getting his shins kicked.  I know I did mine. Thus we spent Christmas.