133

A.S. Bodine.

Three Months Experience at the Commencement of the Union War.

Brooklyn, NY, 5 March 1862
32 manuscript pages, 8 x 6¾ inches, stitched. 4to, original patterned cloth-backed boards with manuscript label, moderate wear, detached from text block; minor wear and toning to contents. With complete typed transcript.
 
Augustus Stanton Bodine (1834-1908) wrote this as a memoir of his service as a corporal in the 71st New York Infantry, one of the first militia units which rushed to defend Washington in the early weeks of the war. It is dated a few months after his return to New York, although the lined paper suggests that it may have been transcribed into this notebook a few years later.

Bodine's regiment mobilized after hearing the news of the attack on the 6th Massachusetts in Baltimore. They arrived in Washington on 25 April, marching 28 miles of the journey because of threats to the rail lines. He comments on one of the most dramatic episodes of this early period: "The remains of Colonel Ellsworth, who was shot by the traitor Jackson at Alexandria, Va., were brought into the yard, casting another cloud over us. The body was taken in charge by our guard, and remained until removed to the White House, where the funeral took place, our regiment acting as a guard of honor." They spent the next weeks occupying Alexandria across the Potomac. 

On the day after their three-month mobilization officially ended, they fought at the Battle of Bull Run: "The Fourth Alabama Regiment made three separate charges upon our lines, but were as often repulsed with great loss, our men loading while lying on their backs and firing on their knees. The bullets fell thick and fast into our ranks, dealing death to some of our brave comrades." On the retreat, Cub Run Bridge was "filled with artillery carriages and ambulances all entangled together. Just at this point a battery opened upon us its belching fire of shot and shell. Many of our men were compelled to wade through the creek up to their waists." A few days later, they were back in New York: "We landed amid cheering and firing of cannon." 

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