Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had: The Civil War Letters of Major William Morel Moxley, Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, and Emily Beck Moxley

by Emily Beck Moxley, William Morel Moxley, Thomas William Cutrer (Editor)

Overview

This rare correspondence between a soldier and his wife relates in poignant detail the struggle for survival on the battlefield as well as on the home front and gives voice to the underrepresented class of small farmers

Most surviving correspondence of the Civil War period was written by members of a literate, elite class; few collections exist in which the woman's letters to her soldier husband have been preserved. Here, in the exchange between William and Emily Moxley, a working-class farm couple from Coffee County, Alabama, we see vividly an often-neglected aspect of the Civil War experience: the hardships of civilian life on the home front.

Emily's moving letters to her husband, startling in their immediacy and detail, chronicle such difficulties as a desperate lack of food and clothing for her family, the frustration of depending on others in the community, and her growing terror at facing childbirth without her husband, at the mercy of a doctor with questionable skills. Major Moxley's letters to his wife reveal a decidedly unromantic side of the war, describing his frequent encounters with starvation, disease, and bloody slaughter.

To supplement this revealing correspondence, the editor has provided ample documentation and research; a genealogical chart of the Moxley family; detailed maps of Alabama and Florida that allow the reader to trace the progress of Major Moxley's division; and thorough footnotes to document and elucidate events and people mentioned in the letters. Readers interested in the Civil War and Alabama history will find these letters immensely appealing while scholars of 19th-century domestic life will find much of value in Emily Moxley's rare descriptions of her homefront experiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817387297
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	196
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Thomas William Cutrer is a Professor of American Studies at Arizona State University, West Campus. He has edited two prior collections of Civil War letters, including Brothers in Gray: The Civil War Letters of the Pierson Family.

Read an Excerpt

Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had

The Civil War Letters of Major William Morel Moxley, Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, and Emily Beck Moley

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By Thomas W. Cutrer

The University of Alabama Press

Copyright © 2002 The University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-8729-7

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CHAPTER 1

"For you and them I am willing to die" 10 June 1861–22 October 1861

The military duty that tore William Moxley from his home was typical for an officer of company grade and, later, of field grade in a volunteer regiment. Alabama seceded from the Union on 11 January 1861 and shortly thereafter became "the Cradle of the Confederacy." By October 1861, Governor Andrew Barry Moore had announced that "27,000 Alabamians were enrolled in twenty-eight regiments of infantry and one cavalry regiment," and by the end of the war an estimated 120,000 of the state's men had served the Confederacy in a total of sixty regiments of infantry, thirteen of cavalry, and six battalions and twenty batteries of artillery. Col. William Henry Fowler, Alabama's superintendent of army records, reported that his state had sent more men into military service than any other Southern state and that the men represented a greater percentage of the state's population; in fact, North Carolina held a better claim to this distinction.

William Morel Moxley swelled the tide by helping to raise the Bullock Guards, Coffee County's first infantry company, of which he was elected captain on 4 July 1861. Moxley received thirty-nine of the forty votes cast for company commander. Bowling W. Starke was elected first lieutenant with thirty-eight votes; Joseph H. Justice received thirty-eight votes for second lieutenant; and Samuel J. Pollard, thirty-six for third lieutenant. Joseph M. Harper was elected first sergeant, with sixteen votes to eleven for Joseph Blake and nine for W. J. Howell.

The Bull Pups, as they called themselves, became one of the "twenty companies from South and Middle Alabama" that Governor Moore accepted into state service on 21 July 1861. On 25 July, Moxley was ordered by the state's adjutant general to report with his company to Camp Johnson, Alabama's camp of instruction at Auburn in Macon County. According to Moxley's official report, however, his company had received the order on 15 July and accordingly "took up the line of march July 22," trudging the fifty-eight miles from Elba to Greenville in Butler County, "where transportation was furnished" to Auburn. There, Moxley's Bullock Guards became Company A of the Eighteenth Alabama Infantry.

The Eighteenth Alabama, recruited from Butler, Coffee, Coosa, Covington, Jefferson, Pike, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa Counties, was organized at Camp Johnson on 4 September and was mustered into Confederate service on 16 September by a special order from Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper. The regiment's first field officers were Edward Courtney Bullock, colonel; Richard Freer Inge, lieutenant colonel; and James Thadeus Holtzclaw, major.

Colonel Bullock, whom Pvt. Edgar W. Jones characterized as "the most genteel of gentlemen," was born 7 December 1822, graduated from Harvard University in 1842, and shortly thereafter moved to Eufaula, Alabama, from his native Charleston, South Carolina. There he practiced law until 1857 when he was elected to the first of his two terms in the state senate. With Alabama's secession he volunteered as a private in the Eufaula Rifles, First Alabama Infantry, but soon received his appointment from Governor Moore to be commander of the Eighteenth Alabama.

Eli Sims Shorter, who was also a Eufaula attorney, was the second colonel of the Eighteenth Alabama and took command after Bullock's death on 23 December 1861. Shorter led the regiment at Shiloh and Corinth but resigned from the army on 10 May 1862 because of ill health.

The regiment's third colonel, James Thadeus Holtzclaw, was born in McDonough, Georgia, on 17 December 1833. He practiced law at Montgomery from 1855 until the outbreak of war, when he was elected a lieutenant of the Montgomery True Blues. In August 1861, Jefferson Davis appointed him major of the Eighteenth Alabama, and the following December he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Although Holtzclaw was seriously wounded at Shiloh, he rejoined his regiment within ninety days and was promoted to colonel, with the promotion dating to the day of his wound.

Back in Coffee County during the war's first summer, Emily Moxley was finding life difficult in the absence of her husband and brothers. Her corn and potatoes, she reported to William Moxley, "were eat out clean" during a brief absence from home, leaving her "nothing but some side meat and corn meal." She was without funds as well, having even "to borrow money to pay the postage on this letter," and worse, she lamented, "You cant imagin how loansome I am. It look like there is somebody's dead." "It is harde times," she concluded, "but I hope it will get better soon."

[N. Jasper Moxley to William M. Moxley]
June 10, 1861
Jeffison County, Ga.
W. M. Moxley

Dear Brother,

Your letter came to hand yesterday, whitch gave me mutch pleasure to hear from you & to hear you & famly was well. This leave my self & famly all well as common. I saw [Benjamin] Thomas [Moxley] on Saturday; he was well. I saw Jamas Cheatham on Saturday. He said Sarah & Mary was well. The connection is all well as far as I know.

You wrote that Waters was after you for the money you [went] security to for me. I have not got the money at the present. I have due notes on two men that is gone off to war. One note call for one hundred & forty four dollars & fifty cents. The other one call for one hundred twenty eight dollars. If they have the luck to return, I will get it. If not, I fear it doutfull. All they both have some propperty & is very cleaver family of people. When I get it I will try to settle the case.

Times very heard in this county. Corne is worth one dollar therty seven & half per bushel, but crops are very good in general. I have the best corne crope I ever had in my life. I believe my cotton is not so good. Very good wheat crops maid this county. I hope times will be better.

The Jeffeson Geardes will leave Louisvill[e] on the 19 of this month. Thomas & William Godoanes has join the compain. Jamas Cheatham has join. Willaim Moxley, a son of Cousin Eligh Moxley, has join. Edmon Thomson, Leven Tommey, and several others that you are aquainted [with] has all join. Cousin Joseph Parker's son, William [and] Cousin James Parker's son, Solmon, are gone to Virginna, Harper['s] Fer[r]y.

I had a notion going a while back, but has give out going at the present. The big manidgers had junced up things so, I thought I['d] let them mess a while & sea how they com out before join[ing], if I [do] atall. Thomas ses he is not a going to join atall.

I have nothing of interest to write at present. I thought Waters note was settle long a go. I left over two hundred dollars out west and heard that note was settle with a part of. I have not had the chance to get out there to sea about those things.

Mollie joines me in sending our best wishes & respect [to] your self and famley. [Write to me as] soon as [you] get this, whitch I hope will reach you fast & find your self and famly enjoying good health. So fairewell.

Yours as ever,
N. J. Moxley

Excuse all bloches mistake & bad spelling for [word illegible] sake.

~
[George Goldthwaite to William M. Moxley]
Adjt. & Ins. Gen. Office, Ala.
Montgomery, 25 July 1861
Capt. W. M. Moxley

Sir,

Enclosed you have orders to march with your company to Auburn at which point you will encamp with nineteen other companies till further orders.

Your company will have to provide enough cooked provisions to last until it gets to Auburn and for fear of accidents you had better take one day's over.

You will determine the route for yourself, but it is supposed that it will be by Greenville and from that point by RailRoad. You will have to get to Greenville if you take that route, the best way you can. I suppose the neighbors will furnish transportation. You will be sup[plied] with, tents, arms, and subsistence after you arrive at Auburn.

I must urge upon you the importance of starting just as early as possible after receipt of these orders, and also, of the necessity of advising me just as soon as you receive them.

Very respecly
* sent
Geo. Goldthwaite
Adjt. Ins. Gen., Ala.

~
[George Goldthwaite to William M. Moxley]
Adjt. & Ins. Gen. Office of Ala.
Montgomery
25 July 1861
Orders

Captain W. M. Moxley of the Bullock Guards, will within three days after the receipt of this order, take up the line of march with his company for Auburn, Macon County, Alabama, where the company will be encamped till further orders.

On arriving at Auburn, Captain Moxley will report to the Officer acting as Quarter Master at that point, who will assign the camping ground and prov. with subsistence.

Capt. Moxley will advise this office of the exact day he will start with his company and as near as possible the day he will arrive at Auburn.

By order of the Governor.
Geo. Goldthwaite
Adjt. & Ins. Gen.

~
[William M. Moxley to Emily Beck Moxley]
Camp Johnson,
Aug. 22, 1861
E. A. Moxley

Dear Wife,

According to promise, I am in my tent seting on wheat straw 1/2 past 8 oclock writing to you. I will first comment where we parted in Tuschegee. I walked to the corner and looked after you as long as I could see the carriage. Then I returned to the upper part of the Court Square, took a chair, and waited for the Gentleman who promised to carry me to Nautasulga, which he did. We left about 12 oclock and he carried me to his house. He changed horses a carried me within 4 miles of Camp Johnson. Then I took it a foot for the Camp, at which place I arrived about 6 Oclock in the evening.

I am certain that Gentleman is a friend to the soldier. He sent us some corn, peas, & cabbage, which was thankfully received.

Night before last, a short time after dark though the moon was shining as bright as ever it did, [I heard] some holloring from the boys. At first I paid but little attention to it, but soon I heard fife & drum. Then I thought it was a company coming. The noise increased untill acceeding the noise you heard when the man rode out on [a fence?] Rail. Well, I became anxious to learn where they were from, but owing to the crowd that geathered a round I could not reach them untill the crowd was dispursed by the Office[r] of the day. I am certain there were 1200 men arround them, but soon I found out they were from Barber. The next thing I found some of my old aquaintance. I will give you the names of some of them. First, Columbus Reaves, George Dubose, Council Bushe's Oldest Son, Green Gubbs, Joe Parmer, Dr. Welborn, Henry Smith, and others of my old patrons.

Our Regiment will be full to morrow, but [we] see no more prospect of leaving now than when we first came.

Not much sickness. No bad sickness. I feel very well to night.

Tell Mat [Madison Lewis Beck] to write to me. You answer this as soon as you can, for it will afford me great satisfaction to hear from you & the children often. Give my best wishes to all Enquiring Friends.

Yours as ever,
W. M. Moxley

~
[Emily Beck Moxley to William M. Moxley]
Pike Co., Ala.
Sept. 1, 1861

My Dear Husband,

I now seat my self to write you a few lines to let you know that we are all well at present and I hope these lines may find you the same.

Well, I have just returned from the river, and I am very tired, for I walked home. The Pike Company is gone. They left this morning. I can tell you we had a trying time of it, but you can gess at that. You cant tell how I feel this morning. My Dear Husband and Brothers are gone. It seems to me that we are all nearly heart Broken. It nearly killed Allen to part with us this morning. He cried like a child, but I did not see Tom [Charles A. Thompson Beck] shed a tear, but I exspect he felt the more. Allen says he never will get over not going with you. He done all he could do to get Tom off with him to go in your Company, so Pa says. He rather be with you than any body els.

You know not my feelings this morning. Oh, if I could just see you I would be so happy, but I shall have to submit to my fate. I went home from here last Monday morning. I found all right except my corn and potatoes. They were eat out clean. Not a thing to be seen. The place does not look right. There is something wanting to make it look right. Oh, what a loansome time I had there this week. It looks like I can never stay there. You cant imagin how loansome I am. It look like there is somebody's dead, but I hope it will not be so long. I trust in providence for better.

The [Pike County] Company is gone without any money or only 40 dollars [and] no uniform. They found there own blankets. Newton [Moxley] made three days trying to borrow the money but failed. I saw him this morning. He is well. He says he going down to my house to morrow. I shall be glad to see him come, all though I have but little to eat. I have had nothing but some side meat and corn meal. [Appleton H.] Justice brought 1 ham from Greenville with him. It is harde times, but I hope it will get better soon. Justice says he will get me somthing as soon as he can. He told me if I needed any to let him know, but I do hate to be so dependent. It is not like haveing you to go to. I shall have to borrow money to pay the postage on this letter, but I hope for the better.

I bought 4 meat hogs from Tom [Beck] for 13 dollars, which I promised to pay as soon as possible. They will weigh 100 punds a piece. Newton told me to get them. Justice allso advise me to get them. Tom told me if I could get 10 dollars for him, it would do. I takes the not[e]s and told J[ustice] if he could spare the money I would give him notes to hold untill I could pay him back the money, but he said he could not spare it, so Tom had to leave with out any.

I hate his going off with out any money, for he could have sold the hogs to others for the cash, but for my sake he left with out it. You musst remember him. He left with only 1 dollar in his pocket. I am sorry for him becaus he had no money.

Well, it is now evening and I have gust eat a harty dinner of kid. I thought of you while I was eating and wished for you to help me eat it, but it was all in vain. My wishing done no good, but I hope the time will come when we can eat together and live to gether in peace.

I tried to get that q[ua]rt[er] of beaf that Mr. Tomme borrowed from us before you went off, and he would not pay it. He said he had paid you for it, but I did not believe it, for I think you told me he had not paid it. I may be mistaken, but I don't think I am. I want you to write to me and let me know the strait of it, and I want to know how much salt Elis borrowed from us. I sent to him for it the other day, and he sent 1 peck and let me know how much more salt is loaned out and who borrowed it, for I do not know any thing about it and I am needing of it bad.

I received a letter from you last Wednesday, and I was more than glad to hear from you for I was very uneasy about you for you was not well when I left you, but I hope this may find you well.

I must close, for I have wrote all that I can think of that would interest you and a great deal more, I expect, but if I could see you I could tell you a great deal more. I want you to write often, for it is a great satisfaction to me to read a letter from you. The children send their love to you, and Ma [Elizabeth Daniel Beck] sends her love to you and says she wants you to live a Christian and prepare for a better world than this. She says that is her weak prayer. Robin sends howdy to you and says he thinks a heap of Mass William. He says I must write something for him ever time I write. Sis [Mary Verlinda E. (Beck) Stinson] sends her love to you. Her and Ma is in a great deal of trouble to day.

You must look over bad writing and spelling. You must receive a good portion of love and respects from one that thinks more of your wellfare than anyone els could do.

Yours untill Death,
Emily A. M. Moxley
to W. M. Moxley

Pa has just returned from New Providence. He went that far with the company. He says if I had not wrote to you this week, he would. So you need not think hard of his not writing to you this time. He thinks there is no use in his writing now. He send[s] his love to you.

So farewell for a while, goodbye.
E. A. M. Moxley

The Pike Company, in which Emily Moxley's brothers Allen D. Beck and Charles A. Thompson Beck enlisted as privates, was locally known as The Pike Guards. It was mustered into Confederate service at Mobile in December 1861, however, as Company B, Twenty-fifth Alabama Infantry. Recruited in Coffee, Pike, St. Clair, Talladega, Pickens, Shelby, Calhoun, and Randolph Counties, the regiment was formed by the consolidation of the First (John Q. Loomis's) and Sixth (William B. McClellan's) Alabama Infantry Battalions. It took part in every engagement of Army of Tennessee from Shiloh to Bennington. Its first colonel, John Q. Loomis, was succeeded by George Doherty Johnston, with whom the regiment was most closely identified. William B. McClellan served as the regiment's first lieutenant colonel and Daniel E. Huger as its first major.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had by Thomas W. Cutrer. Copyright © 2002 The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. “For you and them I am willing to die,” 10 June 1861–22 October 1861
2. “Good news as well as bad,” 23 October 1861–22 November 1861
3. “How dreadful is war,” 23 November 1861–28 December 1861
4. “You have no idea how much trouble this settlement is in,” 1 January 1862–7 February 1862
5. “Oh, what a sudden death,” 10 February 1862–25 February 1862
6. “As well as common,” 28 February 1862–2 April 1862
7. “It really seems that we have worse luck than any other set of men in the known world,” 3 May 1862–17 December 1864
8. “A prettie wild country” 6 September 1870–20 April 1891
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Well, my Dear, I am home by my lone self to night except the children, and they are all a sleep and know not what trouble is. You cant imagine how I feel. It is so lonsome. If you could be with me to night, how diferent I would feel but that can not be. I have been at work on the door to night, trying to fix it so I could bar it up, and I got it fixt so I could fasten it. I have been propping it up until I got tired of it, and I was afraid to lie down at night with the door open.”
 —Excerpt from a letter written by Emily Beck Moxley


“Cutrer uses a good mix of primary and secondary material to annotate the collection. The introductions to each of the eight chapters . . . provide a short but useful guide to the letters that follow. Cutrer has left the letters as he found them. His editing explains content and does not detract from the feel of the collection. . . . For the scholar or popular reader who understands the connection between home front and battlefield, this collection is a gem.”
—Military History of the West

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