Roads to Leesburg

Robert Augustus Moore knew where the Confederate soldiers were. But as he was one that wasn't surprising. As a private in the 17th Mississippi who'd done a lot of marching in a very few days he wondered where they'd be tomorrow.

For months he'd kept track of his travels in his diary, one page dedicated to each day. At the top he'd enter the date and his location, then fill in that day's events. If he ran out of room at the bottom he'd rotate the book and continue up the side rather than move to the next page. If he still needed more space he'd put a line or two upside down when he got back up to the top.

That didn't happen too often, though. For weeks he'd been "in camp west of Leesburg" day after day, and a single small page was sufficient for most every one of them. Camp life had become routine - even picket duty along the Potomac was mostly uneventful. So in the pages of his diary he'd note the weather, or mention letters he'd sent or received... sometimes he'd provide news he'd heard of the war as it was being fought near and far. Sometimes the news was good (he'd heard that his fellow Confederates had soundly whipped Union General Rosencrans in western Virginia - and the General himself had been wounded and taken prisoner), sometimes bad (he'd heard the Yankees had burned Falls Church), and sometimes true (but not in those examples) - and sometimes he heard sounds of distant battle with his own ears.

But mostly things were routine, though on Sunday 13 October he stood guard in town, and was able to attend church there. And once when the girls of the town came out to visit camp he observed that "Leesburg can boast of as fair daughters as any other town in the state." (A wise description that made no mention of Mississippi's belles...)

Democracy was alive and well among the soldiers far from home, too. On September 23rd they'd had a meeting "for the purpose of recommending to the voters of Marshall Co [Marshall County, Mississippi] a candidate from the army for state senator" (they picked Captain W.P. Jones of Company B, the Mississippi Rangers, for the honor) - then a committee was formed "to draft resolutions embodying an address to the voters of Marshall on the subject." Captain Jones "came forth and acknowledged the compliment," Moore wrote, "& said he would serve the soldiers as best he could if elected."

The next day Moore's company had its own election - for a new first lieutenant. Thomas Gatewood defeated his two opponents on the first ballot. On the following day elections were held for a new second lieutenant. There were seven candidates on the first ballot, and none received a majority. So they'd had another, also inconclusive. After two more rounds of voting the next day they'd narrowed the contest down to two candidates, and on the final ballot had a winner by vote of 46 - 40.

There were several such elections in those days. "I believe all our commissioned officers will leave us soon," Moore had predicted on September 20th, "some of them are giving up." But whether they were giving up on the army lifestyle or the future of the Confederacy he didn't say.

There were occasional contentious issues within the unit. (Company G of the 17th Mississippi, though when they'd formed and mustered in back in Holly Springs, Mississippi the previous April they'd called themselves the Confederate Guards, and still did.) "Capt Sears refuses to drill our company today," Moore wrote on October 3rd, "saying that he would not have anything more to do with it as they would not obey him." The problem centered on the captain's planned "new arrangement" for cooking. He wanted to "make the negroes of the co. cook for the whole co. and cook it all together." In response, "The boys say they will send their negroes home" - and the company had "held a meeting to draw up resolutions asking the cpt to let the cooking go on as before." And now Captain Sears, Moore wrote, "was pouting like an old granma."

The resolution of the problem was left unexplained - but the dull routine (and the luxury of time to prepare meals) came to an end in the middle of October, and it likely just no longer seemed important. On the 16th Moore found his friend T.A. (Thomas) Nelms had used two pages of his diary to leave him a brief note.

I'm trying to get Lt Gatewood to get the pass word from the officer of the guard and go out and git some whiskey as I think we will leave this place by 8 o'clock tomorrow AM. Fighting is going on at Fairfax Court House do not know how it may end but suppose it will be all right on our side. We can whip them all the time.

Moore had suspected something was coming. Most everyone had - at least since the first part of October when rumors to that effect had increased in frequency. Then on the 14th Moore reported the Eighth Virginia had marched out towards Harper's Ferry, adding to his entry that "some think they will have a fight up in that section." (A few days earlier the Virginians had relocated themselves from Waterford to a camp site closer to Leesburg - and Moore noted that "Gen. Evans was a little bit fretted about them leaving Waterford & coming down here without orders.")

"Cpt Sears says it is thought there will be a general engagement up and down the river tomorrow" Moore wrote on the day after the Virginians marched back out. Also that "several companies of the 18th [Mississippi Regiment] passed here early this morning going toward Harper's Ferry," too. And even more ominously, Moore's regiment "received orders to hold ourselves in readiness to march on the shortest notice."

They didn't march on the sixteenth - though that day Moore wrote "there is still a good deal of excitement about leaving" - and drill was cut short when yet another hold in readiness to march order came. That was also the day he'd discovered T.A. Nelms' whiskey message in his diary.

Nelms' information - at least the part about leaving this place - was correct. On the 17th Moore began his diary entry as he had on so many days past - from "camp west of Leesburg" - but then scribbled that out and entered his new location. They had indeed marched away from Leesburg that day.

(Part two is here...)