Bvt. General Clark S. Edwards—A Personal Side of the 5th Maine

By Bruce Allardice & Wayne Wolf · Originally published November 2017 · pp. 12–14

It is still amazing when a group of letters appears from a Civil War luminary that has previously been unknown and unpublished. Recently four letters of Clark S. Edwards, Colonel of the 5th Maine Infantry, and later Brevet Brigadier General, surfaced spanning the early Civil War months of September 1861 to May 1862. A prewar merchant and builder in Bethel, Maine, Clark Swett Edwards (1824-1903) was elected captain of Co. I, 5th Maine, in 1861. According to a local history, he was “unflinching under fire, often led his men into action, and achieved a brilliant record for conspicuous bravery” (Lapham, “History of Bethel” p. 267). His wartime letters to his wife Antoinette Mason Edwards (1828-85) demonstrate Col. Edwards longing for home and an end to the war, his almost paternal caring for his “boys,” and the anxiety and fear of impending battles. Col. Edwards’ Fifth Regiment was composed of volunteer infantrymen who were one of the first regiments mustered in after Fort Sumter. The regiment consisted of 1,046 men initially but grew by an additional 500 men as new recruits joined from central and southern Maine. Three of the ten companies in the regiment were composed of men from Portland, Maine, thus earning the regiment the nickname of Forest City Regiment, after Portland’s own nickname.

Col. Clark S. Edwards.

The regiment left Portland by train in July 1861, stopping only briefly in New York, where they were presented with a silk flag by Portlanders living in New York. They then went directly to Washington where they were eventually assigned to the Sixth Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The 5th would fight in 22 battles from First Bull Run to Petersburg. The Fifth became known as a fighting regiment, capturing four Confederate battle flags and over 1,200 prisoners, more than the number of men serving in the regiment. After three long years of fighting only 193 men were mustered out in July 1864. The rest had been killed in action, died from disease, wounded, deserted, or transferred to other regiments. Clark Edwards’ first letter to his wife was written from Camp Vernon, near Alexandria, Va., where disease had already struck a member of his company, soldiers were getting disorderly in camp, and drunken officers were resigning. These incidents were all too common during the early stages of army organization. General George McClellan’s ability to instill order and discipline into these troops would be his greatest asset. Camp Vernon Va. Tuesday Morning Sept. 10, 1861 Dear Wife, I thought I would commence a letter this morning as I did not have much to do. Jimmy [a servant] is getting breakfast and Del

[QM Sgt. Adelbert B. Twitchell of Co. I] lays on the floor asleep. We are to have Beef stake(sic) and coffee. I should like to be at home to breakfast this morning but it would not be convenient to go so far for one good meal. Yesterday morning I was in to see Monroe [Cyrus Monroe Wormell, Lt. Co. I]. He is not any better but remains about the same. I am a little scared about him. If he does not get better soon I shall write for his wife to come on. I should try to have him go home if he was able, but he does not set up a minute, but still I think all is done for him that could be if he was in Maine. As soon as I got back to camp yesterday morning I left for the new fort with the most of my company. After my company went to work S.N. Sanborne [Sgt. Simeon W. Sanborn, Co. I] took charge of them, and I left on foot for Mt. Vernon. I walked about five miles and then stopped at an old Farm House and got a good dinner and all the nice ripe peaches I could eat. Left soon after dinner for the House of Washington. Went on about one and a half miles to a place called Gum Spring on Washington Plantation. I did not go to the home of W. as I was alone and did not know who hands I might fall into so I turned back to camp. I had a nice time. It is a beautiful country between Alexandria and Mt. Vernon. Got back to camp safe and sound last night but rather tired. I shall try it again one of these days as I am bound to go over the House of Washington. You need not feel worried about me as I can look out for no one. Tuesday noon. Jimmy getting dinner. We are to have soup, dumplings, pie, coffee &c. I must now leaf (sic) off and eat as Jimmy is scolding me to come to dinner, so I will finish this after I eat. Tuesday afternoon. Col. Jackson has just come. There is a good deal of commotion here in camp but I hope Jackson will straighten them out, and I presume he will do well. [Nathaniel J. Jackson (1818-92) had been brought in to command the undisciplined 5th Maine, to the regret of the officers and men. Jackson’s appointment sparked a near mutiny in the regiment.] Wednesday morning. (11th). I was just in town to see Monroe. He is better. The Dr. thinks he will be able to go home in a week or two. I hope he will on his wife’s account go, as it will take some two or three months before he will get well enough to come into camp again. So you see he can go home as well or better there to stay here. So you can tell his wife that I think he will be at home in two weeks. I was officer of the day yesterday. We got along well last night. The boys in some of the company tried to get up a fuss but they found a hard road to travel. I arrested two boys and put them into the guard house. After they done well and I think that there will not be any more trouble, all will come out right. I think I am glad the other drunken officers are to resign. Our regiment is to move tomorrow about one mile to the new fort. All the boys in my company are feeling well. It is now Wednesday afternoon and I have not got a letter yet from Lieut. Walker [John B. Walker, Lt. Co. I]. When you see him tell him I want a letter as often as three times a week from him.

I am not doing much today as I was up about all night and am off of duty today. I shall go in to town again this afternoon to see Monroe. I cannot write you much about going home till John [B. Walker] and Monroe get back. If they were here well I should went this week but as it is it looks a little like stopping here at present. Yours, C.S. Edwards Col. Edwards’ next letter relates horrible rainy weather and his concern for his family back home. Playing the instructive husband he gives his wife advice on preparing the house for winter, repairing the cistern, and providing herself and children with all they need. Soldier’s letters are replete with advice to their wives on how to maintain the home front in their absence. Saturday Noon Nov. 2nd 1861 My Dear Wife, I take this time to write you again but have not rec’d any letters from you this week. The last one I recd. was the one you wrote that snow squalled day. I hope you will write the rest of your letter in pleasant weather so the tone of them will be different. Now if I should write you a letter and temper my feeling with the weather it would be a rather of a rough one for it pours down in torrents and the wind blows like a hurricane. I never saw a worse storm in Maine. I fear the result of our large fleet a great deal hangs on the way it turns. If it is successful all right but if lost all my hopes are gone. The fleet probably cost this government more than one hundred millions of dollars, and twenty thousand troops. I think two of the Maine Regts. are in it, the 8th & 29th. I tremble to hear the result. It seems that fortune is against us but I hope all will come out well. I have just been to dinner. We had hash, coffee, bread, honey butter, pie &c. So you see we do not live so poor after all. I have got to visit all the camp in this brigade once this P.M. and once this evening. So you see I have something to do. Let the weather be what it may. I have to fill the place of Maj. and senior Capt. of the Regt. I am Field Officer of the day I get it about twice a week. It is pleasant to fill the place in good weather hut not nice in such a day as this. I have not got my pay yet but shall get it next week. I shall send you the most of it. Keep but a little for myself. I want you and all the little ones to have all you want. Saturday afternoon. It rains very hard and the wind blows hard. It is one of the worst days I have ever seen since I left home. I have just been into two of the Regts. The wind has blown down a good many of the tents. The Sutler tent has just blown down. They will lose part of their stuff by the rains. Our mail has just come in. I expected a letter from you but none came. I do not hear anything from Monroe. I thought he would write me before this. He ought to know that it is very much as I say about his cousins into the company again. If he intended to come back why has he not written to me or some of the company. The Col. told me that he got a letter from him a few days ago but he told me he should not give his consent to have him stop a single day and finally he would hire him back soon after he left for home. They all know he was not sick when he went home, but I think he was some sick before he went but was getting over it at the time he left. You think I can leave at any time by the way you wrote the last time but it is not so, but it will hardly pay for me to go if I have to pay my fare both ways. It will cost me at least forty dollars. I should like to go home if I could get away without a fuss but it is not so easy to leave. You wrote me that there was to be a muster at B. [Bethel] this afternoon if the weather is the same that it is here they must have a grand time. I promise it will be a grand time. We had a muster here this week. Some fifteen thousand troops were present. I presume it was as grand as the one they will have at Bethel. John’s box has not got along yet we have never got any thing from Maine only what John brought with him. John got a letter from home on Thursday saying they had sent him a box of things but they do not come yet. I should like to be at home and stay till after Thanksgiving but it is a little doubtful if I get away but will do the best I can to go. I hope you will not’ think but what I want to go. There is not but two officers in this Regt. that has been to Maine and come back to stay in the company and Lieut. W. [Walker] is one of them and Capt. Dagett of Lewiston [Aaron S. Daggett, Capt. Co. E]. So you see that but a small part of the officers has been home on furlough and I do not believe there is a man in the Regt. that has wrote home so many letters as I have. I have never missed two a week since I carne to the one by the 21st of July and you know how that was or why I did not write. If I do not get home this month or next you can hire the wood hauled and get some one to bank up the house. See and have it done well as it will keep the house a good deal warmer and save the stuff in the cellar. Let your father have money to fix the cistern, put a pump in the kitchen so your water will come easy. I shall keep you in money or at least try to. I save as much of my pay as anyone in the Regt. Some of the officers does not pay their bills. You can do all most any thing if you have money and I want you to use enough to live well and dress well and as for a man I think you can stand it a few months more. John just got word that his box was in town. The express bill on it was four dollars so you see that it cost all it come to to [sic] send stuff from Maine to Va. I hope I shall get a letter from you from the box as you wrote me in the last but it has been wrote so long that it will be outlawed but an old letter is better than nothing. Sunday morning. 3rd. It cleared off beautiful last night but it is very muddy in camp this morning. I have not been to breakfast as yet. Jimmy is a getting it as fast as possible. I should like to be at Bethel to day with you. If you had as much rain at B. as we got here you must have a great freshet. The water is very high in the river here. Write me all the news in your next. Good Bye C.S. Edwards As Edwards laments the high cost of living, lodging, and clothing himself in Washington, he nevertheless is concerned about dressing up to the standards of other officers. This desire to “fit in” to the officer corps is his justification for sending only the remainder of his pay home. He comments on living conditions in log cabins, some with brick chimneys, etc., are testimony to the ingenuity of soldiers in war time. His last remark about the “devilish” wife of Charles Crosby is unusual for soldier’s letters and is backhanded praise of his wife. Wednesday Evening Dec.4/ (18)61 My dear Wife, Having a leisure time to night, I thought I would write you so my letter would go in the morning. I wrote you in my last about going to Washington to hear the President’s message but will not hear it as it was not delivered till yesterday. I left our camp on Monday morning. Went over in the boat for Alexandria. Got to W. about eleven o’clock and then fooled around after noon pay till near two o’clock P.M. Then got a dinner at a restaurant and then went to the Capitol but they adjourned. So I did not see all of the sights of the day. Staid at the Capitol till near dark and then found Freeman. Went to his boarding place, stop(p)ed a short time and then went to the theatre. Had a nice time. Got out about half past eleven. Then went to the National

Hotel. Stopped till morning. Paid one dollar for lodging. Left yesterday morning for camp. Got back at ten o’clock. John was with me on the route, Had a nice time. The mail has just come in but no letter from you. So I do not have much to write. I bought me a hat at W. the other day. Paid twelve dollars for it. So you see it cost all I earn to live and dress. I have got to buy me an overcoat that will cost me about fifty dollars. That is the rest of the officers are to have them, so you might as well be out of the water as out of fashion. I do not know when I shall go home but shall go as soon as I can leave. I shall not set any time to be at home so you will not be disappointed. I was in hope to go home this week but no prospect of it now. We have been moving again as usual. Moved here last night. We are in a few rods of our last ground. My company all have bottoms to these made of logs and walls built up about three feet high so the boys have nice tents now. All of them have fires in the tents. Some of them have stoves. Some of them build brick fire places. They all get along well. Now I have about 70 in my company but quite a number of them are detailed for other duties. We get along first rate, but do not live very well. We have to pay $1.33 cts. for potatoes, 30 cts. flour, 15cts. sausage, 75 cts. apiece for chicklings, 2 dollars a bush, for apples. Everything is high. It cost a great deal to live here. I have not heard from the money I sent yet. Write me as soon as you get it. Use all you need to make you comfortable. Also look out well for the little ones. Keep them to school all you can. You had better keep Kate with you this winter as you will need some one to help you get along this long cold winter. If she wants money to buy her clothes let her have some and if you do not need her work send her to school as she will not probably have a chance to go to school much more. I think will need her to help you. I shall send you I think two hundred dollars on the next pay day after I get me an overcoat. I shall not have to lay out much for clothes, but it cost a good deal to live here now at the present time. I am a writing here alone. The boys are all abed. The camp is all quiet. Everything is all still around. I hear the guard pass the word around from sentinels to sentinels. Occasionally, I now hear the bugle sound for taps. That is for all to go to bed in the different camps. It is getting late and I must soon close. The Bartlett’s (sutlers) have been notified to leave tomorrow. I do not know what they will do about it but presume they will leave. I think they have made a good deal of money here this summer as they have had a large trade and sold very high. I wish Chrs. & Co. could get the place but I think that a young fellow by the name of Warren will have it as he has been trying for it for some time. Write me if Chas. Crosby has got a Lieut. place yet or what he has done with those recruits he got some time ago? I hope he will get a Lieut. commission so to get away from that devilish wife of his. Write me how you get along for water of [sic] if there is any in the well or if you have got the cistern fixed. Also how have you got along with the cow, and finally how you get along in everything. I should like to be with you a few weeks but I do not know how it will be about getting away at present. I will close this in the morning. So good night. Clark Thursday, Dec. 5th A beautiful morning. I have just come in off dress parade. Am going on drill in a few minutes so I cannot write. … Yours in a hurry, Col. Edwards’ last letter of this early war period reiterates the common perception that the war would be overly quickly but the reality of this folly was beginning to become apparent. While he reports on the capture of Yorktown and Gloucester as well as the taking of prisoners and arms, he also observes Confederate graves and, in his fatherly fashion, laments how sad this would be if they were of his boys from the 5th Maine. Finally, his troops are still

“anxious for a fight” not yet fully exposed to the horrors of war. On Board the steamer John Brooks Sunday Afternoon May 4th 1862 My Dear Wife, You see by the date of this that we are still on the Brooks, but we just come aboard. We left here yesterday at one o’clock and went ashore at Ship Pt. and pitch our tents. I got our tent in fine shape, fitted up well for a month but at ten o’clock this forenoon orders came to leave at double quick for our steamer again as the Rebels had left Yorktown last night, so we got no dinner to day nor do I expect to get a supper. It is now three o’clock and we are all aboard again and are to leave in a few moments but I do not know where our destination is but heard it is up the York River in pursuit of the devils. I received my back mail a few moments ago, but have not time to answer your letter …. I had a pretty good night rest last night but the gun of our battery kept me awake about half the night as they were in about two miles’ of us I could see the flash of the cannon and could see the shells burst. I could but laugh at some of gunners logic. He thought it too bad for our gunboats to keep them awake all night with their noise. It was a continual fire all night. After I got up this morning, I took a stroll around a little. I found within a few rods from my tents a little patch of ground enclosed with a new picket fence by our soldiers which held the remains of nine of the La. soldiers and five of them I see was from Co. I. 14th Regt. There was a plain white board with their names painted on it. I thought I should feel sad to lose as many from Co. I 5th Me. I see by the inscription that they all died in the month of January & Feb. I just heard that our army took nine thousand prisoners at as [sic] near Yorktown. I am so much excited that I cannot write all is confusion on this boat. Hundreds of stories going. One is that Norfolk is taken but I do not believe all I hear in such a time, but I hope it is thus. I am in hopes I shall have a chance to send this tonight to you but do not know how. I received a letter from Oliver [Oliver Hale Mason, his wife’s brother] tonight written at Washington. He was intending to come to see me but as we had left I expect he gave up the chase. You say to him that I did not get his letter till the late day so I could not write him. I am now writing in the upper cabin with my boys as we are assign[sic] to those quarters. My boys are all well and feel first rate. I just heard we are a going to Yorktown to take care of the captured store, but our boys are anxious for a fight. I will close this after we leave here. So good bye. (Sunday Evening) I still am on board of the Brooks and in our old place here at Pequeon River or Flats [Poquosin Flats, near the mouth of the York River]. He shall not leave here till sometime tonight or early in the morning. I hear nothing new from the Battle only our troops are after in hot pursuit. One year ago today I was elected Capt. of Company I., but it does not seem to be a year but still it seems long enough but this winter has not yet come or it seems so. I did not at that time expect you to be here now. I thought the war would not last more four or six months but I fear not. I received a very good letter from you last night. It was dated Apr. 29th. You say you think if we had some ladies in our dance that we should have enjoyed it better. I think we should but then we should not thought much of dancing but something else. You ask if I sent my trunk to Benj. Freeman [Sgt. Co. I]. I did not as I had no chance. It is at Alexandria. I shall send and get it if I have a chance and then send it home from here in some of the schooners. I cannot tell where we shall be in a few days as everything is uncertain in war. You ask who our Genl. are. We have Genl. Slocum with us yet but I am afraid he will leave us as I hear he is a going to be a Major Genl. We are in Franklin’s Division. But Franklin is not attached to any corps. He is a sort of reserve but if we have a hard fight we are in the thickest part of it. But perhaps we shall not get into any at present. I will give you a history of our moves. (Monday morning). We left Poquosin Flats at five o’clock this morn. Got here to Yorktown at six. One hour in corning. It rains hard so we cannot see much. I am in a hurry to get this off as the mail leaves in a few moments for Ft. Monroe. All I know is we are in possession of Yorktown & Gloucester with a large lot of cannon and munitions of war of all kind. I do not know how many prisoners we have but they are now corning in. Yours in haste, Clark It would not be long before the 5th Maine would see battle at its worst. Col. Edwards would lead his men through the horrors of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and finally Petersburg. By the end his men had seen the elephant and over eighty percent of the 5th Maine were no longer available for service. For Further Reading: • • •

Edwards’ war reminiscences, online at Bethelhistorical.org Lapham’s History of Bethel Obituary on the Bethel News, May 6, 1903.

Bruce S. Allardice is Professor of History at South Suburban College in Illinois. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago. Wayne L. Wolf is past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable and a Book Reviewer for Civil War News.