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From New Hampshire, they moved to New York City in less than 2 days time. He describes how he moved with the group and what they did while traveling. He tells us how they move and what they plan on doing next.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York_in_the_Civil_War -
He mentions how he is cold at night and he has gotten sick. getting sick in these times was really bad because your body will focus more on killing the sickness and less on keeping warm. https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/weather-and-the-civil-war.html
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Charles woke up to find out 30000 soldiers of his regiment had gone to fight and he sees smoke in the same direction as they went. He knows his friends are most likely dying.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3070083 -
When the Vermont snow storm passes over Charles's camp, The snow piled 16 inches high. Charles was freezing cold all night and he almost got frostbite.
https://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/01/10/cold-wars-some-of-military-historys-most-frigid-battles/ -
Cumming builds a temporary hut for him and one other person. They had a small stove and the cabin-like home was made of logs and metal.
https://ahec.armywarcollege.edu/trail/CivilWarCabins/index.cfm -
He says that he was not paid on time and that he will have to wait at least a month to send his wife money. He sounds disappointed because his wife may not be able to pay for herself.
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/equal-pay.html -
Charles was ordered to march the 16th regiment. This was a big deal because he had never marched in lead before. He wrote very fondly of this moment.
https://www.britannica.com/biographies/history/civil-war -
Mother dot sick and died. Charles glossed over this fact and moved on to other things.
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/09/a-worthy-death-how-civil-war-families-made-sense-of-suffering/262566/ -
Charles merely escapes capture riding away on his horse. This was a scary event to read about because I didn't know if he had escaped or not until the end.
https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/lifestyle/jim-wofford-horses-and-war -
His horse ran into some twigs and a twig got stuck in his eye. It lost sight in that eye and had to get it cut out. This was a gross moment to read
https://www.americanfarriers.com/articles/12850-how-horseshoes-helped-win-the-civil-war -
When Charles Found out about 15000 troops marching towards his group to fight, he wrote his wife. He most likely didn't know if he would have a chance to write her again, so he took it and wrote her then.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00523/full -
When he heard of the troops coming to fight, he left on horseback with his group. He travels for 14-16 hours a day on horseback with nothing but salt preserved pork. I think this would be so tiring, and it would use a lot of energy to stay away riding a hors for that long.
https://www.civilwarmed.org/quick-facts/onthego/ -
They collected more troops and marched for a long time. They ended up marching 17 whole miles. This is impressive because 17 miles is a lot to walk. If walking with a group it would be even more tiring and boring.
https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/road-trips/articles/civil-war-road-trips -
He mentions how in battle his group killed 300 people, and captured 400 as prisoners. This puts in perspective hoe many family are going to be sad after that day. Truly heartbreaking.
https://www.britannica.com/video/195089/lot-military-prisoners-American-Civil-War-Andersonville -
At night while guarding the gate, skirmishers shot at him from 400m away. They were to far for it to kill him but it hurt him greatly. He described it as a hornets nest inside his head.
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Charles Cumming got captured on 9/30/1864 and got killed later that year.
https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/npsprisons.htm -
There were no further letters because Charles got captured and killed in the 17th regiment. This was the last time he ever sat down and wrote a letter.
battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-prison-camps
