A Civil War Journal. (original) (raw)

In early 1861, W.W. Heartsill of Marshall, Texas, marched off to war with W.P. Lane�s Rangers of the Confederate Army. During the four years, one month and one day that he spent at war, Heartsill managed to keep a diary of each day.

Throughout his service, he carried with him a small memorandum book with this notation on the flyleaf: �If I am killed, or if by any mishap this book is lost, please send it to my father, A. Heartsill, Louisville, East Tennessee.�

When Heartsill filled up one of the books, he sent it home to Marshall for safekeeping. �Scores of times, I was as wet as water could make me, as these books bear evidence. Sometimes my book would come all to pieces after a soaking, and as it was being written with a pencil, I had to retrace with a pen when the opportunity was offered.�

Heartsill�s journals are mirrors of camp life and the trials and pleasures he endured as a private in the Confederate ranks.

When he came home, he began printing the pages of his diaries, completing the work in 1876.

Heartsill�s recollections show war in its horror and occasional moments when the soldiers in Lane�s Rangers laughed at the antics of their fellow soldiers.

In November of 1861, Heartsill wrote: �Today, we attended the funeral of a soldier, a solemn, sad duty.�

On Sunday, July 11, Heartsill wrote that Confederate and Union troops clashed near the Arkansas River with only 4,000 Confederate soldiers facing �70,000 of the Yanks.� During the battle, the Confederates� hospital was set afire, �killing two of our surgeons and a wounded man who was being operated upon by the surgeons.�

�Such agony, such, such horror and so many deaths; how many of our brave comrades perished in this frightful tragedy, heaven alone will reveal.�

During the battle, Heartsill wrote than Lane�s Rangers �are not recognized as Confederate soldiers, but will be teated as guerrillas from the fact that we are an independent company.�

On July 12th, Heartsill wrote that,�oh, how hungry we are.� He said �we all are supplied with a liberal breakfast composed entirely of river water.� At noon, he said, �we receive the same for dinner that we got for breakfast� and in the evening, the Rangers finally got �a good supply of fat bacon and hard tack, which is the only food that we have had for 84 hours.�

The Rangers were captured by the Union troops and loaded aboard a ship with Arkansas soldiers. �Every man is looking for news about an exchange (for Yankee soldiers held by the South).�

Heartsill made it through the war and he and his fellow soldiers were mustered out of service on May 20, 1865, in Harrison County, Texas.

©

Bob Bowman
Bob Bowman's East Texas March 7, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers