Submitted by Lane Cheney
[Letter written from Stephen Wilcox to his brother-in-law Walter Clark]
General Hospital, Gettysburgh, PA, August 1, 1863
Dear Brother Walt,
I read your kind and ever welcome letter yesterday and I am glad to hear
from you that you are all well. I hope that you may be fortunate enough not
to get drafted. I expect that they will have some fun in Norwalk when they
commence to draft which I suppose has commenced this week. I hope that
Rhodes will not have to come. If he does, I would like to have him in my
regiment. The 11th Corps is broken up and our division I hear will go in the
2nd Corps under command of General Howard. The 2nd division is going in the
12th Corps. Three division is to be under command of General Carl Schurtz.
It is an independent command. He is to guard the railroad from Manassas to
the Rappahannock.
I have had the office of Ward Master in a ward of Rebs but there was so much
work to do that I gave it up. I felt sick. I feel rather weak. I don't have
any appetite and don't feel well myself but my drink-atite is as good as
ever. Yesterday I went to town and got all the whiskey and gin
cock-your-tails that I wanted and felt better.
I should like to be in New York with you again. I think that your young
Steve Wilcox and myself would have a jolly good time.
I think I shall not stay here long. I shall get on the regiment if I don't
find something else that suits me better to do.
You say that you don't know how I was wounded nor how bad. I was wounded but
only slightly. I was on picket. I went out at dark the first day and at
daylight the second about three o'clock. I could see the Rebs moving about
over in the wheat and grass fields. We commenced to point our rifles at them
and send them a message of lead. As soon as the balls began to fall thick
around them they would drop down in the grass out of sight and whenever one
of them showed himself we fired at him. There was one of them coming across
the lot on horseback. I put my rifle to my shoulder and fired and Mr. Reb
rolled off like a pumpkin. I don't know whether I killed him or not but his
horse made tracks and got out of the way. Every once in a while you could
see four men carry a wounded one off the field on a stretcher. Pretty soon
they began to shoot right, I reckon out of the houses and everywhere they
could get under cover. They shot one of the 107th Ohio boys right in back of
me and then in a few minutes another was wounded close on the other side of
me. I sat close by a fence like this [small sketch of fence] with no
protection but one of the posts. They shot the fence all to pieces and the
post that I was behind was hit four times. When they hit me I was sitting at
the foot of the post loading my last round of cartridge. The Rebs had the
range of me from the houses and had me in a crossfire. I was turned a little
to one side. The ball went thru my [rubber] blanket and just grazed my back
in two places. It struck just below my shoulder and went in and cut four
holes in the back of my blouse. It cut my cartridge belt almost in two. If I
had been turned a little further around it would have went right straight
thru me and that would have been the last of our Steve for it would have cut
my gizzard string and started the claret.
There was another Corporal hit by a ball and it went thru this thigh. He was
close to me when I was hit. I left and it was not long before they hit him.
I went back where we lay before we lay on picket and the small balls rained
around and passed me with a whiz.
I went in the house and got the chance to make me a cup of coffee, the first
thing I had eaten in thirty-six hours. After I got the coffee down I felt
better. I went into the next room and one of the boys helped me to dress my
wound. I never had it dressed but twice, but my back was so lame and stiff
for three or four days that I could hardly stir. I was sick before we got
here and then they marched us twelve miles in the morning and never gave us
but one rest and that was for about twenty minutes. We marched right thru
the town and filed thru the lot and unslung some of our knap sacks and put
them in a pile. Then Lieut. Col. Fowler asked who would volunteer to go out
as skirmishers. Capt Allen marched his men right out and then called for
Company A and K. We then went up the road and filed off into a lot and
deployed as skirmishers and advanced to a stream and forded it. It was about
up to our knees and then we stopped where we was for further orders. In a
few minutes we got over the fence and advanced across a wheat field and got
almost on the batteries of the Rebs when the Rebs made a charge on our
division and our skirmishers were ordered back. We fell back a little ways
and I saw the Adjutant coming towards us. He said that the Lieut. Col. was
dead and showed us where his brains were spattered on this arm. He said that
Capt. Moore was dead, the two best men in the regiment. We could see the
Rebs coming out of the woods and they drove our men and then in a minute I
saw our men charge on them but they was to much for us and we had to fall
back fighting, as we fell back in good order, what little there was left of
us. Some of the companies came out with four men and some of them with more.
There were a great many wounded and taken prisoners. We fought well and
bravely but the 11th Corps never gets any credit for what it does. The 11th
and 1st Corps done the most of the fighting and lost almost all of their men
but the 11th Corps is no more and I wish I could say that by the fighting.
I am glad to hear that Frank Gilbertson is safe and well. I have a very bad
headache today and do not fell very well but I think I shall feel better in
a day or two.
I got a letter from Rhodes and Mary. She says that they had some fun there.
I should like to be there to see the fun.
Well, Walt, I think I have scribbled enough to keep you busy reading for
some time. Write soon as you hear from me again, and believe me ever yours.
Brother S.R. Wilcox
[From the margins of the letter]
From your humble servant, Steve Wilcox