Colonel Clark Edwards 5th Maine Infantry Letter Harrison\'s Landing 8/7/62 For Sale

Condition as seen.
Camp 5 Maine VolNear Harrison LandingAug 7th, 1862
My Dear Wife,
I thought I must write you a few lines this morning to kill time as I am not doing much just at this time and Regt is still out on Pickett but will be in soon. I have to say to you with a painful heart that David? C. Ayers died this morning at one o’clock. I wrote you a few days ago of his being sick but he was very much ____ then the Dr. thought him to be. He died with the disentary , sort of run down. One of our Drs. yesterday thought he was not dangerously sick. It is quite sickly here in camp, many here done their last duty in this company. I know the papers talk of it being very healthy here but in fact it is not so. We have but about fifteen (15) in the Hospital, but about seventy (70) in quarters unfit for duty so you can judge something of us, one to every five that is sick but I hope it will not remain so long but it will be very sickly here I expect for the next month or two as it is so awful hot and our waters is so bad. Ayers will be buried this afternoon at four o’clock. Jim has gone to the landing after a coffin for Ayer’s but if he find none we shall take some rough boards and make a box but hundreds are buried without any. That is only their blanket wound around them as a winding sheet. His wife lives at Portsmith NH I think. She has three children. It will be sad news for her as I do not know that she knows he was sick as he has not been in the Hospital only a few days. He was a very fine man, one of those good steady men. He never used any liquor nor I do not know that I ever heard him use a profane word in my life. He will be a great loss to the company. I think Jim will be at home in a short time. He is quite slim no better than he was last fall or winter when at home. He rode my horse to the landing as he was not able to go a foot. I pity him as he is one of those that want to stay and see this last of it. But if he stays here much longer he will never see it. It is now nine o’clock am. I shall not close this letter till just before the mail leaves tonight, unless we are called out. We are now under marching orders and have been for three days. Last night I got ready to take what well men we had in camp and join my Regt or the three hundred on Pickett as we expected a fight but as yet all is quiet here but perhaps within ten minutes we may be called out. I expected the Col & Lieut Col last night sure but they did not come. I think they both are a little afraid of the bullets or they would come back. I do not think much of the pluck of any of them. I will let this go now til something new turns up. (Six o’clock) PM. I have been very busy in fixing for the burial of Ayer’s. The same great trouble is now that was some days ago that I wrote you that is there is some lack in the Government in not sending boards or coffins to buyer our poor soldiers that die in the Hospital. I sent Jim to the landing after a coffin or board but he could not get either. So I had to send a team out into the country and tear down and old buildings for boards. Since noon another has died by the name of Morgan. He was from Greenwood. He was one of the recruits of Patch’s that come out last winter. Both are to be buried at seven o’clock so I must close this soon. Both are to be carried in one ambulance, buried side by side. It is a sad sight to see the poor fellow but such is the way. In am still alone in regard to help as the field Officers have not yet come but perhaps will come tonight. I heard the Col was sick at ___ but do not know if it is so. I shall send home ten men to recruit and two (2) officers out of this Regt which will go the day after tomorrow morning, that is Saturday morning. There will be two out of company I. I think I will send Su Sawyer & Jim but you need not tell Mrs. S as probably he will not go. I am in a hurry and cannot wore more ___.Regards to AllClark
Clark Swett Edwards
Residence Bethel ME; 37 years old.
Enlisted on 6/24/1861 as a Captain.
On 6/24/1861 he was commissioned into \"I\" Co. ME 5th InfantryHe was Mustered Out on 7/27/1864Promotions:* Major 7/1/1862* Lt Colonel 11/22/1862* Colonel 1/8/1863* Brig-General 3/13/1865 by BrevetIntra Regimental Company Transfers:* 7/1/1862 from company I to Field & StaffOther Information:born 3/26/1824 in Otisfield, MEdied 5/3/1903 in Bethel, ME
Sources used by Historical Data Systems, Inc.:
- Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine- Dyer: A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion- Heitman: Register of United States Army 1789-1903- Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue