It being bitterly cold and me doing some reading about the Battle of Fredericksburg, I went back to a letter written soon after the battle by Alfred Davenport of the 5th New York (Duryea’s Zouaves). The main of the letter describes his regiment’s role in the fighting.

It is the letter’s closing that strikes home and must have spoken for so many men in the Army of the Potomac as they recrossed their pontoon bridges to Falmouth:

“We shook hands all around, and bivouacked for the night, thankful for safety;

and now here we are, on the same ground we started from seven days ago, having accomplished nothing, our confidence gone, fifteen thousand men less at least! Is it big enough to make us sick of the war, to see how we are experimented with satisfy popular feeling?

I wonder who will be the next man to try experiments with us? By the time they have killed off a lot more of us, they may find a man who can face Lee with more success. I still hope on, but I do not much think that I shall live to see you all again;

I have had many narrow escapes, and I begin to feel worn out for want of a change of food. I eat very little, and what keeps me alive must be the coffee. I must now bid you all good-by, and may Providence favor our cause, and give to us the victory.”

Contrary to his expectations, Alfred Davenport would survive the war. Mustered out after the Battle of Chancellorsville, he would author a history of his regiment, ‘Camp and Field Life of the 5th New York Infantry.’

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