Head Quarters 31st Regt. Wis. Vols.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
February 7th, 1864
Dear Father, Mother and Friends,
Months have elapsed since I've heard from you; and as I am not altogether unmindful of my duty, I sit me down in my room surrounded by more that the ordinary comforts of the soldier, to once again address you. Varied and changeable as has been my lot, I have lived through all; and although the end is not yet, still I have abundant reason to be thankful and glad that my condition and prosperity today are what they are. However much I may have deserved the title and name of "Prodigal Son" yet I trust in my past life, or future career I will have done no dishonour to your name. I hardly know where to begin or what to say to you at this time:- Perhaps I cannot interest you any better than to give you a brief outline of my life, or rather what I have seen and participated in for the past nearly three years. My connection with the U.S. Army dates back to June 7th, 1861: - Follow me through the different campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and I will have given you a brief abstract of the history of the glorious old "2nd Wisconsin": - As it would require a much larger space than is usually allotted to a communication of this character to give you a bird's eye view of the many wearisome marches, privations and sufferings of the regiment during my connection with it; I must skip over all that past and make mention only of the part they took in different actions giving the simple figures showing the amount of casualties on each occasion: - First in the order comes the sharp skirmish at Blackburn's Ford, lasting some two hours on the 18th July, 1861. Killed 1. Wounded 5. Second, the battle of Bull Run July 21st, 1861, where we left 30 dead on the field, 105 were wounded, and 65 missing, and prisoners: - Third, skirmish on the Rappahannock August 23rd 1862. Wounded 7. Fourth, the battle of Gainesville, August 28th, 1862. Killed 70. Wounded, 196, prisoners 31. On this occasion we lost our Colonel who fell mortally wounded with three bullets through him and died in about an hour afterward: - Fifth, the battle of Bull Run August 30th, 1862. On this occasion we escaped as by a miracle with only 6 wounded, and at the same time acted as rear guard to the army on the retreat to Centerville: - Sixth, the battle of South Mountain, Maryland, September 14th, 1862. Killed 9. Wounded 18: - Seventh, the battle of Antietam. Sept. 17th, 1862. Killed 29, Wounded 49. On this occasion we had only 165 efficient men to go into the fight: - Eighth, the battle of Fredericksberg, Dec. 13th, 1862. Here again we escaped very fortunately losing only 2, Killed, and 9 wounded: - Ninth, at the battle of Chancellorsville May 3rd, 1863. Again lucky, having but 5 men wounded: - Tenth, the battle of Gettysberg,(sic) Penn. July 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1863. Our available force on this occasion was 302. Of this number, 37 were killed, 144 were wounded and 52 made prisoners: - Our entire loss here occurred on the 1st day and very early in the battle. It was on this field as you are aware that Lieutenant W. B. Winegar fell: - here also our Colonel lost his arm. Our Lt. Colonel received a mortal wound and died July 4th. Our Major and Adjutant both severely wounded. Our Sergeant Major killed: - All within the space of two hours: - Here ends the battles in which my regiment participated during my connection with it: - When mustered into service we numbered over 1040. On the 10th day of December 1863, the regiment mustered only a little over 200: - the bullet, the bayonet and disease has disposed of the balance: - A better class of men never drew the sword or shouldered the musket; saddened does it make me feel when I contemplate the end of many a good and brave fellow and comrade; nearly every battle field in Virginia is made memorable by some of our fallen heros. On several occasions the fortunes of war has even denied them the common burial of the soldier: - So far as the wounded were concerned I have the pleasing reflection of having done my duty toward them. During my connection with it I have never once failed to be with it on every battle field, and at Gettysberg I laboured incessantly for one month and six days, toward relieving the wants and sufferings of my fellow man, often too when I felt more like exchanging places with my patient.
My limits will not allow me to say anything more of them at this time: At some future day I hope to see you when it will be my pleasure to give you a more detailed account. For the present I must bid the old 2d good bye and pass to my new field of service: - On the 27th of November 1863 I received a promotion with rank and pay of Major of Cavalry, was transferred from the Army of the Potomac to the Army of Cumberland and assigned to duty in the 31st Regt. Wis: Vols: I left the army of the Potomac Dec. 10th, made a short visit to my family and joined my Regt. now stationed at Murfreesboro, Tennessee on the 14th ultimo.
Here too as in Virginia I find myself surrounded by many of the sad momentos (sic) of the War: Here it was as you are aware, that a little over a year ago was fought a very bloody battle: Nothing now remains to point out the position of the two contending armies except the shattered timber, pierced and torn by cannon shot, and the thickly scattered mounds of hillocks of earth, beneath which repose in dumb silence the dust of friend and foe. As far as my observations have extended the ruthless hand of war has more surely and effectually done its work in Tennessee than in Virginia: - Like the sirocco blast that withers and destroys whatever it touches, so hath the breath of war worked out its woeful destiny: - Vesuvius with her burning lava is not more destructive than the march of fiendish Wars.
In years agone, and not long ago, Tennessee was a paradise: - Peace and plenty smiled; law and order reigned; How is it now? - To the East, to the West, to the North, and to the South, the sights are saddening, sickening: - Verily we can say, the beasts of the field have their lairs; and the birds of the air have their nests, but the son of man knoweth not where to lay his head: - This is bitterly true of many a Tennesseean today: - Government mules and horses are occupying the homes, yea the palaces in which her chivalric sons were wont to slumber: - The monuments of her taste, the evidence of her skill, the characteristics of her people are being blotted out of existence: - Her churches are being turned into houses of prostitution, her seminaries shelter the sick and wounded, whose griefs and groans reverberate where once the flower of her youth were wont to breathe poetic passion, and dance to the music of her summer sun: - Her cities, her towns, and her villages are draped in mourning.
The country over which the armies have marched and contended, presents our wild and dreary waste so to speak: - The fences are all burned down; the apples, the pear and the plum trees, burned to ashes long ago, the torch applied to dwellings and splendid mansions - the walls of which alone remain; even this is seldom so, and where it is, their smooth walls are covered with base and vulgar epithets: - Federal and Confederate warriors have left rude jack knife stereotyping on the doors and casings where these in their fewness remain: - The pickets and the railings - where are they? Where are the orse bushes and violets? But above all, and beyond all and dearer and more precious than all else, where are the once happy and contented people fled who lived and breathed and had their being here? Where are the rosy cheeked cherubs and blue-eyed maidens gone? Where are the gallant young men? Alas they are sleeping in their graves at Shiloh, at Fort Donnelson, at Corinth, on yonder battle field not one mile distant, and on still other fields of so called glory, more remote: - the women, old and young have died of grief or are broken hearted, the children are orphans: Poor little things. I pity them from my heart as I look upon them - black and white, for they seem to have shared a common fate, and look like dying a common destiny: - In many cases you will find two or three white children whose parents are dead, left to the mercies and care of their slaves; and again you will find a number of negro children whose parents are also dead nestled in the bosom of some white families who my a miracle were spared from the vandalism of war. Truly may it be said that the South are reaping a most fearful retribution for the sin of cesession (sic) and rebellion. -No greater scourge can ever visit a country than war, and although there seems to be no arbiter short of the sword, yet it seems a pity that there is not. -Napoleon once said that man would die of effeminacy if wars should ever give up the ghost: - Well since poor unhappy man must die, would not effeminacy be a gentler and more soothing death, than that his mangled corpse should lay upon the gory battlefield and be the food upon which vultures fatten.
But we have but one consolation left, and that is that the darkest night must have its day, that the heavens are not always black, and that sometime or another (God grant ere long) the sun of Hope, and the bright Star of Peace will again shine upon us and forgetting the sad memories of the past, we shall again clasp our hands, and unite our hearts over the green graves of our fallen countrymen, and in the union cemented by brothers blood, evermore dwell in peace. -
I had nearly omitted saying anything about my family: - I found them all well. I can't say but that they have been cared for as though I had been with them: - This of course reflects great credit upon my Wife, if it does not detract from me: -
"Sibbie" has grown to womanhood; her education although not complete, is very fair: - and she is making fine progress in playing the Piano: - "Cassie" is a sprightly little girl, goes to school and behaves very well: - "Charley" has grown to be quite a boy, if not altogether a Captain. Perhaps if I should call them smart you might consider me egotistical; I may however be allowed to say that I am proud of them. I hope some day to give you an opportunity to see them. - It has been a pretty hard thing to school myself to a separation from them; but all things considered, I trust it will be for the best, and if I live to see the end of this war I shall return to civil life non the worse for having served my country, and pecuniarilly (sic) much better off than at any period of my life. -
Hoping that a kind providence will abundantly prosper you, and bless you with many years of comfort and happiness, I remain with kind regards to all.
Truly yours,
P. S. Arndt
Here is a picture of Major Ardnt which I inherited from my grandfather.
