“I will either be Colonel or a Civilian”
By Bruce Allardice and Wayne Wolf · Originally published December 2021 · p. 19
A recently discovered letter reminds us that Civil War soldiers in the field pined for hearth and home, as soldiers have throughout history. Clark Swett Edwards (1824– 1903), a prewar building contractor in Bethel, Maine, raised a company for the 5th Maine Infantry in 1861. He steadily rose in rank, becoming Colonel of the 5th in 1863. At war’s end he was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General. His obituary describes Edwards as a “strict temperance man,” a “pure patriot” of “bravery and gallantry.”
During the war he wrote numerous letters to his beloved wife, Marie (Mason) Edwards (d. 1885). In one letter Edwards displays his longing to return home to Bethel. He obviously wants to take advantage of what he thinks will be a lull in active campaigning. While in his words he expresses no eagerness to be promoted, it is also clear that he desires higher rank. Edwards was careful not to disclose his location, unlike previous letters that were datelined White Oak Church, near Fredericksburg, Va., where the regiment and the Army of the Potomac were camped. Perhaps as Colonel-to-be he was more conscious of security. The “Col.” so often referred to in this letter is Edward A. Scamman of the 5th Maine (1825–1864). A prewar clerk in an express company office in Portland, he enlisted in 1861 and quickly rose through the ranks. Described by one soldier as “beloved…. [but] confined to his sick bed, unable to attend to field duties,”1 Scamman resigned his commission January 8, 1863, with the “prospect of a permanent business connection” “in the more quiet and sedentary pursuits of civil life.”2 Scamman died in late 1864 while in North Carolina on a business trip. “Soldier’s Letter Mrs. C. S. Edwards Bethel, ME Due 3 [cents] Wednesday Evening Jan. 7th, 1863
My Dear Wife, I write from my old place or the place I have written from for the last two or three weeks [White Oak Church, Va.]. In my last letters I have spoken of coming home soon but it is quite uncertain when I shall get away. As I write you the Col. has resigned and leaves tomorrow. I am now in command of the regt. and it will be quite bad for me to leave till the vacancy [sic] are filled up. I was greatly surprised at the Col. resigning but there is some reason for it I presume but I cannot tell what it is now. I have been engaged on a court martial today to try two men for drunkenness. I was pretty severe, as you know I am death on drinking. I have not much news to write tonight, as I am not a little excited at the turn of things. I was expecting to go to Maine the last of this week or the first next, but now everything is knocked in the head. I am again tied up for a while as I was at Harrison’s Landing [in 1862]. I think I shall be Col. of the regt.3 But still I shall not make but little effort about it. If I am jumped [i.e., if some junior officer is promoted above him] I shall have a good plea to leave, and if I am promoted I will have to stay a while longer. So it makes but little difference either way. I presume you hope I may be jumped so to come home but I am in hope to be there soon anyway. I will write more at some other time.
Friday Morning
I am now writing in my new tent. The Col. left at five o’clock this morning for home. I am now in command of the regt. Yesterday I went to Belle Plain and Pratt’s Landing [Belle Plain is near Fredericksburg. Pratt’s Landing was a wharf at Belle Plain] but could not find my clothes or get on track of them in any of lands. So now I have now given up all hope of finding them and I have bought one off the Col. as I could not do without one any longer.4 I have now more to look after than I have of late. I shall try and do the best I can in regard to the welfare of the men. I think if everything moves along aright and no move of the army5 I shall be home in a few weeks at furthest. I will either be Col. or a civilian—one or the other. I think I have got along as well as anyone from Bethel, that is in promotion. I will write more this p.m. as the mail not leave till five this evening. Clark Edwards, Col. 5th Maine”
Endnotes: 1. Portland Press, Oct. 17, 1862. 2. Portland Argus, Jan. 16, 1863, Nov. 15, 1864. 3. Edwards was promoted to Colonel March 2, 1863, to rank from January 8th. 4. In a subsequent letter Edwards gives up on finding the “fatal box” of clothes that his wife sent him, but that somehow got lost in transit. 5. As it turned out, Burnside’s abortive “Mud March” started Jan. 20th.
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.