January 1863 saw the 19^th Indiana and the Iron Brigade in winter quarters, camped at Bella Plain, VA, on Potomac Creek. Still smarting from the defeat at Fredericksburg, many referred to the winter of 1862-1863 as “the Valley Forge of the Army of the Potomac”. The soldiers built wooden cabins that they fitted with fireplaces and covered with their field tents, then settled in for several months of inaction.

With little to do, talk among the soldiers turned to the recent Emancipation Proclamation. Most were against it, in the respect that they thought it changed the course of the fight. A Captain of the 19^th wrote “I dont want to fight to free the Darkeys.  If any body else wants to do so, they are welcome to come and do so.(sic)”  The near-general consensus throughout the unit and most of the army was that they had signed up to restore and preserve the Union, not free slaves. Obviously little thought was given to the main reason that had caused the war and brought them to that place. Still, others welcomed the proclamation and couldn”t wait to get freedmen Continue reading →

After the Battle of Antietam, the Union Army took time to lick its wounds. President Lincoln and many in the Washington command structure champed at the bit and wanted McClellan and the army in pursuit of the Confederates to follow up on the victory. McClellan, though, stood by his decision to rest his battered forces and regroup.

The men of the 19^th Indiana and the Iron Brigade rejoiced at the break. They’d been roughly handled in their first three battles, and their numbers depleted drastically. Immediately after the battle the unit camped on the battlefield near the Dunker Church, their objective the morning of the battle. As the fortunate began to trickle in from the hospital, the survivors walked the fields, burying the dead men and feeding huge bonfires to burn the dead horses and mules; inky black smoke towered skywards for weeks afterwards, while Gardner’s photographers walked the battlefield and photographed the carnage.

As they sat in camp, Continue reading →