Ninth Regiment New Hampshire Soldier Lost Everything At Antietam
4 pp, 5 x 8, October 11, 1862, Rockville [Maryland], WILLIAM METCALF from New Hampshire, includes details about the Battle of Antietam and the stress of being a soldier. He was in the Ninth Regiment of the New Hampshire Infantry. Metcalf enlisted on August 19, 1862 and was mustered out on June 10, 1865. The 9th New Hampshire fought in nearly 20 battles, including Antietam, Siege of Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, Siege of Petersburg, Wilderness and many others [Research included]. Writing "from Camp near Rockville" to his sister Mary in Keene, New Hampshire: I place my paper upon a cheese box today and write you a few lines. Since I wrote last we have moved seven or eight miles nearer Harpers Ferry. We are camped in a valley entirely surrounded by hills.
There are nearly sixty thousand troops in this valley and I love to go out about nine o'clock at night after our camp is still and look off and see the many camp fires and hear the drum beat and the roll call. We marched from our last camp over the'Blue Ridge' in some places it was as steep as the roof of a house.
Some of the time we were marched on'double quick' and it was terrible hot. Some of the old Regts. Said they were so exhausted before in a march. Some were sun struck and hundreds fell out. You can imagine how tired we were when we got into camp.
I will tell you how many things we carried. Our gun and saber, cartridge box with forty rounds of ammunition, canteen, haversack, blanket and half of tent each. I lost all my things in the fight [Battle of Antietam] but have got a blanket and half a tent again. Sometimes when our men are sick, they go to the Surgeon & he will swear and curse them and say they are lazy. I was reading in the paper a few days after the fight that the men are rested and ready for another fight.
It is not true there never was a soldier yet who wanted to be in a second battle. I have seen enough since I came out here to convince me that no 1/10 part you see in the papers are true. Soldiers say that the Rebs fight as well as we do and the Infantry better, and I have no doubt that during my last battle [Antietam] we lost nearly if not quite as many men as few did and I have heard many officers express the same thing. Our goal is to please every customer.