Duty and Disease

Letters also served as a way to positively utilize the little leisure time available to the soldiers. Many soldiers carried a portfolio, a folder where the soldier stored his paper, envelopes, stamps, and writing instruments. Woodworth used every spare opportunity afforded him to write to his wife and friends. When idle in camp after the daily drill and parades, a soldier's activities typically turned to either reading and writing, resting, singing, or gambling. Each soldier chose his own activity, and Woodworth's choice always included the nobler activities. He made his decision not only for the time just before a battle when a soldier disposed of vice to cleanse his soul and make peace with God, but for his entire time of service. He never gambled, rarely used profane language (even when quoting Joe Hooker in a letter, he censored his d-n), and drank only when issued as a ration (rarely) or offered by an officer. Instead of farming land in New York, he cultivated his soul in Northern Virginia, considering it "atonement" for his past ignorance and irregularities. He spent much time writing, even at the expense of his dinner or sleep. Many of the men spent time singing hymns and popular songs of the day, sometime among themselves or to their visitors, and other times to the rebels. Guarding a ford of the Rappahannock River against the Confederates, when the enemy sang a song such as "Dixie" the Union soldiers respond with their own patriotic favorites. Woodworth, apparently of "fine voice," led a serenade of "Red White and Blue." ⁽¹⁾

But not all soldiers maintained the convictions of Woodworth. Many soldiers, even in a model regiment as the 44^th NY, and in as well educated a company as Company E, still fell to vice. Gambling became quite prevalent, primarily on the days immediately following the pay musters. Woodworth mentioned few names of those involved in gambling, but told his wife "you can imagine who some of them are and some you would not think would stoop so low." Drunkenness sometimes occurred when sutlers lurked near the camp. Some soldiers lost nearly their entire wages to better (or shiftier) gamblers. Others spent large sums with the sutlers, and certain others engaged with prostitutes, the "meanest, nastiest" ladies according to the moralistic Woodworth, though he considered the number engaged with prostitutes as surprisingly few, considering many men in the regiment had spent more than 2 years away from home. While some soldiers turned to religion in the army, others attempted to live each day as their last and sank to the level of the depravities they faced every day. ⁽²⁾

Woodworth discovered that his new outlook, "a good constitution and hard work," allowed him the ability to withstand long marches of 20 or even 30 miles on even the hottest of days. But not all soldiers possessed the physical or mental capabilities to withstand such a march. Many soldiers, on the verge of falling out of the march, sacrificed long-term benefit for short-term comfort and threw their equipment away along the side of the road. The tired soldier disposed of knapsacks, overcoats, suitcoats, blankets, boots, and basically anything short of his gun (probably more valuable than the soldier) and his haversack (containing his food). But the sturdier soldiers, including Woodworth and his early tentmate Albert Smith, aided their troubled companions and carried their possessions for them through the remainder of the march. ⁽³⁾

Tiredness brought on by night duty, such as digging trenches after a regular day's duty or starting a march late at night, or by marching for consecutive days, all increased the likelihood of sickness. Disease harmed more men than the bullet. While the bullet spared many men, almost no soldier escaped serious sickness. Woodworth managed to escape serious illness until the weeks after Gettysburg, catching nothing but a bad cold in his first 10 months in service. He attributed his success to his sturdiness and his renewed faith in God. ⁽⁴⁾

A sick soldier often created a burden upon his fellow tentmates, creating a duty that many soldiers accepted reluctantly, though dutifully. Officers assigned each tent specific maintenance duties to perform, both within the tent and in maintaining their part of the company street. When Woodworth's tentmates Albert Smith and James Sperling were both taken ill in late November 1862, the situation forced him to assume all the duties assigned to their tent. He cooked all their meals, performed all the cleaning, maintained the camp fire, and even constructed their shanty, a combination of a dirt floor, log walls, and a tent cloth roof. But he also went above his required duty to specifically care for the men themselves, especially "poor Smith," debilitated with typhoid fever. He washed their clothing, bathed them if necessary, sat with them, and gave them medical care. Having just concluded McClellan's campaign in western Virginia, the surgeon had not yet reestablished the regimental hospital, forcing even the sickest of men to remain in their assigned tents, the sole responsibility of their tentmates outside of brief visits from the surgeon. ⁽⁵⁾

Woodworth admired Smith's qualities, except for one, his stubbornness. Smith, ill for a short while, had kept to his duty, refusing to report sick until the disease progressed to a point almost beyond cure. Smith soon fell into periods of dementia and required 24-hour care. The requirements of constant care cost Woodworth much of his sleep during this period, although he depended upon Sperling, not nearly as ill as Smith, or one of his fellow soldiers to spell him for brief periods. A guard found Smith one night lying on the ground after he wandered from his tent after Woodworth had dozed off. Vomiting and diarrhea forced Woodworth to clean him regularly. And during one episode of delirium during one of Woodworth's absences from the camp to perform picket duty, Smith attacked Sperling with a hatchet, severely cutting his hand and returning him to the sick list. Despite the discouragement of the situation, Woodworth performed and exceeded his required duty. Within a day or two of his death on December 7, the surgeon finally placed Smith in the hospital, where he died. The doctor appointed Woodworth a hospital steward in recognition of his tender care of Smith, for a period that lasted until after Fredericksburg. Smith's mother and sister, grateful for the kindness Woodworth showed their loved one in his last difficult days, sent him several letters and a couple of large boxes (one exceeding 140 pounds), and requested a meeting with him in Washington in late March 1864. ⁽⁶⁾

1. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, April 5, 1863, May 8, 1863, June 1, 1863.

2. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, January 28, 1863, April 10, 1863, October 18, 1863, January 29, 1864.

3. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, November 4, 1862, November 27-28, 1862.

4. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, November 15, 1862, December 19, 1862.

5. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, November 27-28, 1862, November 30, 1862, December 3, 1862.

6. Woodworth Papers, James Woodworth to Phebe Woodworth, November 27-28, 1862, November 30, 1862, December 3, 1862, December 10, 1862, March 2, 1863, March 27, 1864.

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