By Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist

This is the second installment in a series. To read Part I, click 在这里.

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to 霍华德 J. Ford and his 内战 杂志, held by the Massachusetts Historical Society. The MHS holds many collections related to the 内战, 当然, but this 杂志 is truly remarkable. It’s not often we get such an honest and intimate look at a soldier’s inner life.

On 4 September 1862, 霍华德 J. Ford of Cambridge, Mass. enlisted for nine months’ service in the 43rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He started his 杂志 one week later, on the day he reported to Camp Meigs at Readville, Mass. I call it a “杂志,” but it really consists of loose pages of stationery that 霍华德 initially titled “Memoranda” and sent home at intervals over several months.

霍华德 and his younger brother George were mustered in as privates on 24 September. The first few pages of 霍华德’s 杂志 contain brief, dashed-off entries about life in camp, equipment issued, duty details, 和 weather (mostly rain). But the 43rd Regiment was stationed at Readville for just six weeks, leaving from Boston Harbor on 10 November 1862. Their destination was New Bern, North Carolina.

The weather seemed to bode well. As 霍华德 wrote, “This morning the sun shines and he seems almost like a stranger.” The men sang “Home, Sweet Home” as their ship pulled away from shore. And 霍华德 made the following pledge in his 杂志: “I dont [原文如此] intend to come home if I have […] to save my life by being a coward or disobeying orders. 霍华德.”

His ship, the 梅里马克, and two other troop ships, the 密西西比州 和 撒克逊人, 旅行ed as a convoy under the protection of a gunboat, the 休伦. The voyage was relatively uneventful, except for the usual bouts of sea原文如此kness and an accidental shooting. (Lt. 亨利一个. Turner shot himself in the foot “in consequence of carelessly handling his pistol while cocked.”)

When 霍华德 disembarked in North Carolina on 15 November, he was unimpressed, calling it “a mean sort of a place.” Traveling inland, he described the landscape in more detail, including soil that was a combination of “sand & swamp”; architecture (“chimney on the out side of the house”!); and “that peculiar moss hanging [from trees] in pretty festoons.” He also began to see “contrabands,” or enslaved people who had escaped bondage and now worked for or sold goods to Northern troops.

The Union camp, later named Camp Rogers, was located on the southern bank of the Trent River. But even though Northern troops had occupied New Bern for the past eight months, 霍华德 was disappointed to find “no tents, barracks or food ready for us.”

His 杂志 entries at New Bern contain a lot of vivid descriptions, even a few sketches. For example, 在这里’s how he explained a skirmish drill to family members back home:

In this style of fighting the men keep at least 5 paces apart, so that it is more difficult to hit them than in the ordinary way. We also move more rapidly. It is lively work. One minute we are scattered over a long line, 和 next rallied by fours, or perhaps sections or platoons. All up in a cluster with our bayonets looking like a porcupine sticking out in every direction to keep off cavalry. Sometimes we load and fire lying down, kneeling, advancing, retreating.

霍华德 knew Confederate troops were positioned nearby and that the next battle was probably imminent. He told his family that he anticipated having “a chance at the rebels” within the month. When each soldier was issued twenty rounds of ammunition, he wrote ominously, “This looks warlike.”

Stay tuned for more about 霍华德 J. Ford in my next post!