Oxford Times, January 22, 1861
Letter from R.L. Stevens
Camp Tenally, Washington, D.C., Jan. 3d, 1862
Friend Walker: When we first came to Washington our Regiment was quartered on Meridian Hill, about two miles from the city, so called from the fact of its being the place from which they reckon latitude and longitude. The house in which we were quartered was a fine, ancient brick building and was occupied by John Quincy Adams as a summer residence, but since we left has been turned into a Hospital, and is now full of sick soldiers, of which there are 1500 in the different Hospitals in and about Washington. From there our regiment moved on the 26th of Sept. five miles farther up the Potomac, where a fort is building called Fort Bolt. On the 11h of Oct. we broke up camp and moved our whole brigade to the vicinity of Chain Bridge which position we occupy at present. Chain Bridge is considered the most important place about Washington, and is guarded accordingly, for if the rebels should succeed in crossing there, the city of Georgetown and Washington, with all its defenses would fall an easy prey. But it is so fortified that I think it would be impossible to pass. Our brigade consists of 62d N.Y., the 13th Pa., the 55th N.Y., which are French, and as fine a regiment as ever shouldered arms and the 21st Pa. all Germans. They number 4000 effective men. The Colonel of the 55th together with a great many of his officers and men, were in the Crimean war, and they are the most perfect soldiers I ever thought of seeing. Every movement they make is like clock work, and if the enemy should cross they would find them a hard snag to run over. There are three forts on this side of the river to defend the crossing, mounting 14 guns each of 24 pound caliber, besides two batteries of 32 pounders each within a few rods of the bridge, and on the other side equal preparations have been made for the defense of the bridge, and in fact, standing in our camp which is the most elevated spot in this part of the country, we can see up and down the Potomac 40 or 50 miles, and as far as the eye can reach nothing but fortifications and encampments can be seen. Washington is completely surrounded by a chain of Forts and I have heard it remarked in Military quarters that they did not think it possible for an advancing army of 500,000 men to capture the city, but you can hardly conceive the damage that is done and the desolation that reigns throughout this section of Maryland and the adjoining counties of Virginia. Whole districts without a fence standing and buildings such as barns, that stand back a little, are completely demolished to get the boards to floor the tents with and the timber for fuel. I was talking with one farmer and he told me it would cost him $400 to replace the fences on his farm, which consisted of but 80 acres, as the rails had to be split from white oak and cost $14 a hundred, and his meadows are trodden down until there is not one spear of grass to be seen, and the ground is bent as smooth and as hard as a marble table by the continual tramp of 4,000 men in their daily parade since last spring, and his is but one case of thousands. Their crops here which consist chiefly of market vegetables, were completely destroyed, not leaving enough in some cases for family use, and peach orchards that would have yielded 200 bushels, the owners did not get 10 from, as they would all be taken before ripe. The officers would issue orders and punish men by the dozen, but it would not do much good. They would forage and take what they wanted if it came in their way. Government has appointed a committee of appraisers to appraise damages, but it never can be half paid for, there will be a thousand things that never can be appraised. In Virginia it is far worse, the rebels have driven the Union men out in the spring, and as our troops crossed over and advanced, the secessionists fled, which left the country without inhabitants, and as for such property as cattle, sheep, horses, mules and hogs, what one army has left, the other had taken and there is nothing but the negroes, who wander about at will. A great many of the houses are burnt, others torn down, others used by the soldiers for quarters, and everything around presents one wide spread desolation from which it cannot recover for years.
Sunday 5th: Today is a little more quiet than some of our Sabbaths on account of four companies being away on picket duty and guarding the forts. Sunday is no different with us from any other day, except being a little more noisy and it is nothing strange for us to lose track of the day of the week entirely. New Years the colonel made the Regiment a present of 20 kegs of lager beer, 100 pounds of crackers, 4 large cheese, weighing 60 pounds apiece, and a large mixture of brandy, which you may suppose made pretty lively times whilst it lasted. Tell Jake that this is the greatest place to sell lager that he ever thought of seeing. A man could sell 100 -?-, as fast as he could deal it out. I do not think that in the brigade which consists of 4000 men, there are over 500 that are not foreigners, and they go in for the lager when it comes on the ground by the hundred, yelling the New York fire cry of hihihihihi repeated fast, which has a thrilling effect when it comes from the voices of three or four hundred men. The country here bears a poor comparison with old Chenango. [...unreadable...] The soil is poor and very thin, the crops light, the country is very thinly populated and such a thing as a new building is not seen, except those that the Government has built lately, and such antiquated tools as they use here would make you insane. Their hoes, shovel, scythes, axes, plows &c. all of the revolution or before. You would not have believed that in our own country men could be found so dead to their own interests as to plod along and do business in the way they do here, and not seem to know that there is a better way. The buildings in the cities and villages are all built of brick and most of them very old, and the villages do not have that sprightly, bright, comfortable appearance that Oxford, Greene, and Norwich have, and one thing I notice that makes me think Clark Lewis would do well here, this is, they whitewash their houses instead of painting, which you know is a fancy idea with Clark.
Tuesday 7th: Have been to Georgetown today, saw 1,000 Cavalry crossing the Chain Bridge into Virginia together with 12 mountain howitzers. We are all looking for a forward movement every day, in fact troops are moving in every direction now, but for what purpose we, of course, are ignorant, not even the officers know an hour in advance, when or which way they are to move. But I must close by asking you to excuse this disconnected sheet, wishing to be remembered to all your family, I remain your fellow citizen.
R.L. Stevens.
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