Journal of James Edmond Pease, a Civil War Union Soldier

by Jim Murphy

  At the heart of the Civil War was the issue of slavery and whether each state had the right to decide for itself if slavery would be permitted within its borders. To white Southerners, slavery — and control of its 3,860,000 black slaves — was crucial both economically and culturally. They insisted that their farming economy could not survive and prosper without the cheap labor provided by slaves. Besides, they claimed, blacks were inferior and needed to be watched over and cared for by their white masters.

  Most Northern states had already banished slavery and were pressing for its abolition in the rest of the United States and in the two million square miles of land west of the Mississippi. White Southerners viewed abolition as arrogant and a direct threat to their traditions and way of life. After decades of political wrangling, court cases, and compromises, the issue came to a head with the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860.

  Lincoln had declared himself firmly opposed to slavery and its introduction in the western territories, but he was willing to let it exist and die a natural death in states that already sanctioned it. His position did not appease Southerners, especially since a majority of the newly elected Congress was firmly antislavery. It would not be long, proslavery advocates warned, before the new President and his Congress flexed their political muscles and placed more and more restrictions on slavery. They had to act quickly before it was too late. And so, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina passed an ordinance of secession, proclaiming that the union previously existing between it and the other states was dissolved. Within weeks, six other Southern states adopted their own ordinances of secession.

  This move took Lincoln and most Northerners by complete surprise; the bombardment of Fort Sumter three and a half months later sent them into action. Lincoln put out an urgent call for 75,000 volunteers — the first of many such calls — to defend and maintain the Union. Meanwhile, a second wave of secession strengthened the Confederacy, and broadsides and newspaper ads proclaimed the need for able-bodied soldiers.

  Men on both sides rushed to sign up. Would-be soldiers crowded the recruitment centers in large cities or signed on with locally organized units. Emotions ran so high that enlistment quotas were surpassed everywhere. Caught up in the fervor of the moment were boys from both the North and the South.

  No one actually knows how many boys were able to join their side’s army. Record keeping (when it existed at all) was extremely sloppy at the time, and enlistment procedures were so lax that most boys who claimed to be eighteen — which was the legal age of enlistment at the opening of the war — were allowed to sign up unchallenged. One study made by the U.S. War Department at the close of the nineteenth century estimated that of the 2,100,000 who served in the Union Army, over 800,000 were seventeen years old or younger. Of the 850,000 soldiers the Confederacy sent into battle, between twenty and thirty percent were underage.

  Why these boys were so eager to join varied a great deal. Of course, many boys knew what the issues were and willingly put their lives at risk for their beliefs. But a surprising number had little notion or understanding of the political and social implications of the war. They had simply been caught up in the “war fever” that swept the country and wanted to be a part of what they thought would be a brief but glorious adventure. Others enlisted hoping army life would be an exciting alternative to the routine of endless farm chores back home. Still others signed on for no better reason than because their friends had, or because they didn’t want to appear cowardly or sympathetic to the enemy.

  While their motives for enlisting differed, these boys did have one thing in common: They loved to write. Almost every soldier sent letters home, and a surprising number kept detailed journals of their experiences. Usually, their writing styles were direct and simple, and their spelling was often highly creative. What is more, they tended to focus on the everyday events of army life — the bad coffee and lack of food, the tedious daily routine, the hours of marching, and their actions in battle. Yet it is through this intense focus on details that they are able to bring this war so fully alive for us today.

  After four years of civil war, after the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and a massive destruction of property, the Union was indeed restored and the slaves were freed from their bondage. Gone, too, was the idea that any state or collection of states could decide to break free of the others or that the federal government was subservient to the states. In its place emerged a stronger central government, one that would orchestrate the taming and settling of the vast West, become a majority world power, and play a larger and larger role in the lives of its citizens.

  The Civil War also changed the boys who fought in it. It robbed them of their childhoods, forcing them to confront a hateful and violent adult world. But like the Union they fought for, those who survived came out stronger for their scars and wiser for their experiences.

  The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederate army opened fire on Union forces at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Early in the war, volunteers on both sides rushed to join up, for reasons ranging from the defense of their homelands to the assurance of a pair of boots and dinner. The Union soldiers often wore kepi hats, with flat, round tops and stiff visors, like the ones worn by French soldiers.

  To reinforce the regular army, President Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers to enlist for three months’ service, as advertised in this recruiting poster. Few were prepared for the ensuing four-year conflict.

  Each volunteer for the Union army completed an enlistment form (top), and a Declaration of Recruit form (bottom). The legal age for soldiers was eighteen, but some as young as ten years old lied about their ages in order to be allowed to fight.

  After individual companies learned drills, commanders held mass drills to teach maneuvers within larger units of regiments and brigades.

  In its exposed position, the Gettysburg headquarters of Major General George Meade became the center of a terrible artillery fire on July 2, 1863. Several soldiers were killed, forcing Meade, the Commander of the Army of the Potomac, to abandon the building.

  The Springfield musket was the preferred weapon of most soldiers, but it was long (58 inches), heavy (almost 10 pounds), and difficult to use. Even the best soldiers could not load and fire more than three shots per minute. The development of the M1861 Rifle Musket, pictured here, allowed for more shots and a farther range, which forced the offense to a longer charge subject to heavier fire and, therefore, greater losses.

  The battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania cost both sides dearly. More than 35,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. Confederate losses were estimated at about 18,000. The above shows the Battle of the Wilderness.

  Union soldiers used mortars to bombard the Confederate lines. The largest of these guns could hurl a 220-pound missile larger than a basketball a distance of two and a half miles.

  Breastworks made of stone, soil, or timber were sometimes constructed to protect soldiers from incoming fire. This photograph by Matthew Brady shows a Union battery lined up in breastworks at the Battle of Virginia, 1864.

  Surprisingly, Union and Confederate soldiers often gathered together after a day of battle. Soldiers traded food, coffee, tobacco, and other useful items between the lines.

  Every week, thousands of letters passed through the post office at the Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac.

  The U.S. Mail Service, which served the Union Army, was reliable; the Confederate Postal Department, however, was sometimes a source of great frustration to Confederate soldiers and their families.

  Almost every soldier sent letters home. The letters tended to focus on the daily routine of army life, with its endless hours of marching and drilling. Here, Union soldiers read letters and play cards to pass the time during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia.

  Some soldiers recorded their experiences in journals. The above entry is from the journal of William Cline, a soldier in the Union Army, and describes the day-to-day movements of
his unit.

  A jonah, the ill-fated fumbler found in every company, angers his fellow soldiers by spilling their coffee, dousing their fire, and wasting their meager rations.

  Bad coffee and lack of food were common complaints among the soldiers. Here, a group of Union soldiers lines up for a serving of soup.

  About 600,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives in the Civil War, which resulted in the end of slavery and a more powerful federal government.

  Modern map of the continental United States, showing the location of Virginia, as well as which states were Union and which were Confederate in 1863.

  This map includes the sites of several significant Civil War battles, including Gettysburg, Petersburg, Bull Run, and Cold Harbor.

  Jim Murphy confesses that he never found the Civil War very interesting when he was in school. “The politicians and generals all seemed to write in the same stiff, florid style, and the war was always described in overly complex military terms. Then one day, while researching another book, I came across the diary of a soldier, Elisha Stockwell, Jr.

  “My first surprise was to learn that he had enlisted when he was just fifteen. Until then I had never realized that someone so young had been a part of such an important event in American history. My next surprise was how much I enjoyed his writing. He was direct, honest, wonderfully detailed, and very, very funny. Even at the worst of times, he always seemed to find something humorous about the situation.

  “In preparation for writing this journal, I went back and reread Elisha’s diary. I also read the journals of Thomas Galway, who enlisted in the Union Army when he was fifteen and rose in rank to first lieutenant, and Benjamin C. Rawlings, who was the first Virginia volunteer for the Confederacy, at age fifteen, and had been promoted to the rank of captain by the time of Appomattox. Each of these boys had unique and exciting Civil War experiences and were witnesses to many unusual events on and off the battlefield. In addition, each lived through the frightening experience of being routed by an enemy charge and finding himself trapped behind enemy lines. Inspiration for James Pease’s encounter with Sally and subsequent escape through enemy lines are based on a real incident involving a nineteen-year-old lieutenant from Missouri, George W. Bailey.”

  Jim Murphy is the author of over thirty-five award-winning books for children. His many critically acclaimed titles include The Great Fire, a Newbery Honor Book, a NCTE Orbis Pictus Award winner, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book; Across America on an Emigrant Train, a NCTE Orbis Pictus Award winner; Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting, a NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Title; The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution; Savage Thunder: Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom; Blizzard!: The Storm that Changed America; The Real Benedict Arnold; A Young Patriot; An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, which received the Sibert Medal, a Newbery Honor, and was a National Book Award finalist; and SCBWI Golden Kite Award winners The Boys’ War and The Long Road to Gettysburg. His books often appear on innumerable best book lists from organizations and journals such as the American Library Association, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist.

  Mr. Murphy lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his wife, Alison Blank, two sons, and their seven-month-old puppy.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following:

  Cover art by Mike Heath | Magnus Creative.

  Interior illustrations copyright © 1998 by Jim Murphy.

  Union soldier, Library of Congress.

  Recruiting poster, ibid.

  Enlistment forms, National Archives.

  Mass drill, Library of Congress.

  Meade’s Gettysburg headquarters, ibid.

  M1861 Rifle Musket, Armed Forces History Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Photo No. 37692-C.

  The Battle of the Wilderness, Library of Congress.

  Union soldiers with mortars, ibid.

  Breastworks, National Archives.

  Soldiers, ibid.

  Post office, Army of the Potomac, Library of Congress.

  U.S. Mail Service, ibid.

  Union soldiers, National Archives.

  Union soldier’s journal, Department of Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries of the University of Notre Dame.

  Jonah drawings by Charles W. Reed from Hardtack and Coffee or The Unwritten Story of Army Life, by John D. Billings, George Smith & Co., Boston.

  Union soldiers lining up for soup, Library of Congress.

  Dead soldier, ibid.

  Maps by Heather Saunders.

  While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, James Edmond Pease is a fictional character, created by the author, and his journal and its epilogue are works of fiction.

  Copyright © 1998 by Jim Murphy

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-46963-0

  This edition first printing, September 2012

  The display type was set in Wells Grotesque Medium.

  Cover design by Steve Scott

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