Summary:
Union General Robert Milroy writes General Robert Schenck in February, 1863, on a
variety of subjects. He reports on a mother and daughter returning to Herkimer,
NY, from La Grange, GA, by way of Staunton, VA, and the information they can
supply on social conditions in the Confederacy. Milroy complains about prices on
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the lack of paymasters for his command.
Milroy also discusses wheat prices in the Valley.
Maj.-Gen. SCHENCK:
Winchester, Va.,
February 15, 1863.
This will be handed you by Lieut.-Col. Starr, of the Ninth West Virginia, who goes to Baltimore for the double purpose of obtaining some medical treatment that he cannot obtain here (he having a surgeon's certificate showing its necessity), and of escorting to your headquarters two ladies just from La Grange, Ga., by way of Richmond and Staunton, to this place, by means of a pass from the rebel Secretary of War. Mrs. N. A. Wilson and daughter, Miss G. C. Wilson, are the two ladies referred to. The mother brings her invalid daughter North for the ostensible purpose of procuring medical treatment, but more for the purpose of escaping rebel insults, tyranny, and the increasing misery of the South, they being natives of Herkimer County, New York, to which they are returning, having been residents of La Grange, Ga., for a number of years as milliners and dressmakers. They are destitute of funds, except some Confederate scrip, which is worthless, as they leave Dixie, and I send them on their way as far as Baltimore. Mrs. W. can give you much interesting information about Southern society and the extremity and misery to which they have been reduced by the war. She can also tell what she was heard of their general designs and movements, especially against this place. Col. Starr can post you as to matters here. This place being the first place to be attacked (if rebels west of the Blue Ridge in great force), and the key to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, I hope you will soon conclude to let me have at least the whole of my command here.
The letter of L. Th's Prince to you of the 6th instant, referred by indorsements to me, is received. The reports there referred to are reiterated by Mrs. Wilson. I have heard in several different ways that I am to be surrounded and captured . They may come in sufficient numbers to surround me, but they will never capture me. What Mr. Prince said of traitors being employed on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad I have good reason to believe to be true, as I have heard it from many sources and from reliable Union men. That railroad is at this time costing our Government at least $50,000 per day, and yet it is gutting the Government and the soldiers engaged in its defense in every way and occasion that offers. They take advantage of the necessity of sending a dead soldier's body home to extort four or five prices for fare. A short time ago the body of a soldier of the One hundred and twenty-second Ohio was taken from this place to Martinsburg, to be shipped to Ohio. The brother of the deceased who went with it had but $25 to pay charges on the body, contained in a tight box, but when he applied to know and pay charges in advance, as is always required, he was told that he must pay $50 to the Ohio River. Not having the funds, he was obliged to bring the body back to this place for interment. That is the way that the traitor employes of this railroad treat its Union defenders. I understand that many of them are open-mouthed traitors, and that the larger portion of them are secretly sympathizers with the traitors. This Augean stable needs cleaning out badly. I reported a lot of these traitor employes to Gen. Kelley several weeks ago, but the general is one of those good-natured, kind-hearted gentlemen who would much rather at any time meet a traitor with a stick of candy than the sword, and excused them.
Great God! why can we not have paymasters sent here? They have been everywhere else weeks ago. The tales of anguish and misery that come to me from my poor soldiers, whose helpless families are dependent upon their scanty pay, which has been withheld six and eight months, is truly heart-rending. It is very damaging to the morale of the army, as it is very much impairing confidence in the Government among the soldiers, and is creating deep discontent and hatred of the service, and a strong desire to get out of it on any terms, to go home to their suffering families. This evil should be promptly remedied. Our quartermasters and commissaries, too, are and have for a long time been out of funds. There is a large amount of wheat in this Valley yet, and the farmers are anxious to sell it if they can get the money for it. They have saved by not trashing it. Flour of the best quality can be had here from $6.25 to $6.75, while the Government contractors in Baltimore are paying from $8.50 to $8.75. This should be looked after, as it would cost the Government nothing to deliver flour on the railroad by return trains, and we would be exhausting the enemy's country of supplies.
Respectfully yours, &c.,
R. H. MILROY,
Brig.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 25, Serial No. 40, Pages 81-82, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
