"In Their Own Words" is a blog series featuring excerpts that represent the soldier's experience. Thanks for joining us as we celebrate the American men and women of service this Veterans Day.
The Fremantle Diary: A Journal of the Confederacy edited by Walter Lord
The diary of an Englishman who spent three months behind Confederate lines, The Fremantle Diary offers an unparalleled glimpse into the life of a soldier during the Civil War. In this passage, Fremantle describes his experience at Gettysburg.
Every now and then a caisson would blow up—if a Federal one, a Confederate yell would immediately follow. The Southern troops, when charging, or to express their delight, always yell in a manner peculiar to themselves. The Yankee cheer is much more like ours; but the Confederate officers declare that the Rebel yell has a particular merit, and always produces a salutary and useful effect upon their adversaries. A corps is sometimes spoken of as a “good yelling regiment.”
As soon as the firing began, General Lee joined Hill just below our tree, and he remained there nearly all the time, looking through his fieldglass—sometimes talking to Hill and sometimes to Colonel Long of his staff. But generally he sat quite alone on the stump of a tree. What I remarked especially was, that during the whole time the firing continued, he only sent one message, and only received one report. It is evidently his system to arrange the plan thoroughly with the three corps commanders, and then leave to them the duty of modifying and carrying it out to the best of their abilities.
When the cannonade was at its height, a Confederate band of music, between the cemetery and ourselves, began to play polkas and waltzes, which sounded very curious, accompanied by the hissing and bursting of the shells.
At 5:45 all became comparatively quiet on our left and in the cemetery; but volleys of musketry on the right told us that Longstreet’s infantry were advancing, and the onward progress of the smoke showed that he was progressing favorably. About 6:30 there seemed to be a check, and even a slight retrograde movement. Soon after 7, General Lee got a report by signal from Longstreet to say “We are doing well.”
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