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Col. G. C. Wynkoop, Commanding.
LETTERS FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS.From the 7th Reg. Pa. Cavalry, Col. G. C. Wynkoop, Commanding. CAMP WORTH. (near Nashville, Tenn.,} March 31st, 1862. } EDITORS MINERS' JOURNAL:--It has been a long time since I last wrote to you in regard to the movements of the 7th Penna. Cavalry. We left Bardstown on the 27th of February, en route for Munfordsville. The boys were all in great glee at the idea of moving forward.--We had a very fine day for the march and made 21 miles, and encamped 31� miles beyond New Haven, Larue County, Ky., with a beautiful stream of water on our front, with gravel bottom, and a fine country around us. On our rear I was shown the spot where once stood the log school house long since gone to ruin, where President Lincoln had received the first rudiments of education, and a mile further on our direct road where had stood the house that he was born in. An old well and a trough for watering horses, are only seen, every vestige of house having long since gone to decay. On the 28th we laid in camp all day. It being the last day of the month the men had to be inspected, and mustered for pay, which was done by our Colonel.--March 1st, we struck our tents at daylight, and prepared for the march. It commenced to sleet and hail before we left camp, and continued on without intermission, all day. This day we marched 19 miles, and encamped at a place called Ships, at 3 o'clock. We put up our tents, and prepared our suppers, with orders to march the next morning at daylight. A man by the name of Caufield, who had been in the hospital for some days, and who had joined Co. A. the day the day before we left Bardstown, was found dead in his quarters in the morning. We made him a coffin of boards; dug his grave by the side of a wood, and consigned him to his last resting place. The Colonel read the funeral service in a solemn manner, over the grave. We then fired vollies, filled up the grave and left our comrade far from his home and friends. This was Camp Lincoln. We immediately took up the line of march, and then commenced one of the most pelting rains I ever experienced, and as we at this point, left the turnpike, we had terrible roads to contend against, and almost incessant thunder and lightning. We made but 3� miles that day, as we had to double all the teams to get them along. Some of them did not arrive that night in camp, and two companies had to rest on the ground, and in the rain without tents. This was camp Stanton, which we left the next morning, at 7 o'clock. Our Colonel directed all the tents to be put on the horses, so as to lighten the wagons as much as possible, and we went along much better, making 9 miles. Our wagons were all in camp by dark. We were now within 10 miles of Munfordsville, but a terrible road to go. This was camp Lyten(?). We left camp at 6 o'clock, the Colonel ordering tents, stoves, poles and picket ropes to be carried on the horses. It is well he did or we would not have travelled the road. We arrived at Munfordsville with the head of the column at 3 o'clock. The men having their tents and stoves with them, on the horses, were soon comfortable in their quarters. The roads exceeded anything I ever saw. On inquiring of a farmer about the roads, he told me they had no road tax in Kentucky, but that the farmers turned out once in five or six years and repaired them. The last of our wagons with the rear guard, came in at 3 o'clock in the morning. Our camp was on a hill overlooking the town, which has about fifty houses and two hundred inhabitants. Green River runs close to the town, and was very high. The river is navigable for light draft steamboats, which sometimes come up the river to this point. The part of Kentucky, through which we had travelled for the last few days, is certainly not very prepossessing, as everything has the appearance of being neglected, and the farmers have the appearance of staying not living. The houses are all dilapidated; are mostly built of logs and very few have windows, only pieces of doors. The produce of the farms, is corn and hogs, and negroes sufficient to consume the whole by the end of each year. This is in the counties of Larue, Grayson and Hart, Munfordsville being the county seat of the latter. The land is good, it being a limestone range. In fact any quantity of limestone lay out in full view all along the road. Bituminous coal is found near this place, but not in large quantities. We arrived on March 4th. We laid there until Tuesday, 11th, the Colonel having received orders on Monday, the 10th, to march his command to Nashville, or within 10 miles of it. The morning was beautiful, and we took up our march at 9 o'clock. The Colonel, who had been unwell since our arrival there, and had been stopping at the hotel, took the head of the column, looking pale and thin from a severe attack of diarrhoea. It was 9� o'clock when we commenced crossing the bridge over Green river, and 2 o'clock before our last wagon and rear guard were over. We marched 17 miles, and encamped on the top of the Mammoth Cave. We called the camp, Wilson, Edmonson County. The rear guard did not reach camp until 11 o'clock the following day. We overtook this day, the Ohio 3d Cavalry a very fine regiment, commanded by Col. Tahm(?).--We were on the camp hill, encamped with them. They left 9 o'clock on the morning of the 12th. We waited until 1� P. M., for our wagons, and left, having six miles of terrible roads, before we would reach the pike. We reached the pike at 3(?) o'clock, in the rear of 3d Ohio. At Bell's Tavern we waited for our wagons to all come up, then moved 2� miles on the pike, and encamped � mile beyond the Ohio 3d. We called the camp Scott. Left camp in the morning at 4 A. M., in advance of the 3d Ohio, and arrived at and crossed the Pontoon bridge into Bowling Green at 10� o'clock A. M., marching 16 miles. The road was good. Here we took rations for men, and provender for horses, for six days, as the country through which we were travelling, afforded nothing for either man or horse. Bowling Green is very beautifully situated, on rising ground, which is a very handsome location for a town. The town contains about 1000 houses, and from 6 to 8 thousand inhabitants.--It contains some very beautiful houses. The country around for a mile or more is surrounded by high bluffs, all of which had been fortified, and which could have held a very large army in check, as these fortifications command all the roads leading into the town. Yet the rebel army evacuated without firing a gun. Before they left they burnt some very large houses in the town, and completely destroyed the fences and outbuilding in the suburbs. There they buried a large number of their men, and some of them so shallow that coffins can be seen sticking out of the ground.--The destruction of the rebel army has been terrible, and it will require many years for the people to recover from it. On the 14th we left Bowling Green at 2 o'clock, with the weather quite pleasant. Before we had marched 3 miles, it commenced to rain, and continued on very hard until the next morning. We marched 12 miles, and took up our quarters in a large church, the up stairs of which was a plain floor, and fully accommodated the whole command. We left our tents on the wagons, the men having dry quarters to sleep in. Left Camp Church at 4 o'clock and made 17 miles, 6 miles of which were over a very bad road.--We stopped at Mitchelsville, having crossed the line into Tennessee, Sumner County. The land and the country from Bowling Green to that place is good, and the houses much better built, though the farming will not compare with Pennsylvania farming. We left Mitchelsville at 7 o'clock on a good road, and made a march of 21 miles. We put our camp at the foot of a bluff of high hills, called by some the Cumberland Ridge. Our camp was called Washington. We left camp at 6 o'clock A. M., on the 17th of March, and after marching 7 miles through a very beautiful country, arrived at the Junction of the Bowling Green and Nashville turnpike and railroad, our place of destination in the order received from the department by the Colonel. We encamped in a beautiful place of woods at 9 o'clock A. M., both men and horses a little the worse for their long and tedious march. But not one word of complaint was heard from a single man in the regiment. The 3d Ohio cavalry passed us and encamped half mile farther on, at 2 o'clock. The Colonel immediately sent an orderly to Nashville, to report, and received orders to move in the morning to Nashville, and encamp on the Franklin pike. We had passed through Sumner County, and into Davidson, Tenn. An incident happened while laying at camp at the Junction, worth recording. At 10� o'clock the Colonel received an order from the General, to detail a company and send it to Springfield, to arrest a Captain Lowe. Company A, Capt. Jennings, was selected, and in 30 minutes after they received the order, were in the saddle, and off on the expedition.--The regiment left at 2 o'clock the next morning except two companies that were left to guard the railroad and Bridges. We arrived at the Cumberland River, at daylight; crossed the river, and encamped 2 miles from Nashville, on the Franklin pike, at 10 o'clock A. M., March 18th. At 7 o'clock that evening, Capt. Jennings returned to camp with his prisoner, having performed the remarkable ride of 60 miles, and fulfilled his mission. The Colonel at once detailed a guard, and sent the prisoner to Head Quarters.--The health of the regiment is good, there being but few cases of sickness.--Many thanks are due to our estimable surgeons Dr. Spehm and Dr. Scharck, who have been unremitting in their attention to the sick. Better surgeons could not be in a regiment. We had but Col. Wynkoop and Major Given with the regiment, during this long and tedious march. Major Seibert was sick, and left at Munfordsville, and Major Wynkoop left on furlough the morning the regiment moved from Munfordsville, to visit his wife who was very ill. Lieut. Col. Sipes has not yet joined the regiment, or been mustered into the service. He has been laying for a long time sick at Philadelphia. He has come on here, but does not feel able yet to do duty. It was not expected when we left that Colonel Wynkoop would be able to stand the march, having just left a sick bed, yet contrary to all expectations the further he marched, or the harder it rained, the more staunchly he bore up against all. He improved every day. In fact he was always among the first up in the morning, to urge the men on. Our regiment is now divided, the 1st Battalion under Major Given, being at Franklin; two companies under Capt. Andreas at Murfreesboro and two companies under Lieut. Umplebee at Lebanon. The Second Battalion is at this place with the Colonel. Respectfully yours. 7TH PA. CAVALRY.
Source: 7th Pa. Cavalry, "Letters From Our Volunteers, From the 7th Reg. Pa. Cavalry, Col. G. C. Wynkoop, Commanding," The Miners' Journal and Pottsville General Advertiser, Pottsville, Pa., Saturday, 12 April 1862, page 3, col. 2.
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