This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[252]
on the “sacred soil of Virginia,” because Virginia was now in open rebellion, and encamped my troops there, soon having seven or eight thousand men. The camp was on the borders of that stream, and just above it a number of wells were dug to supply the troops there with water.
These wells drained the stream and cut off my water supply, which was quite seven hundred gallons a day. Then, to supply the fort, we were obliged to bring water from Baltimore which cost us as high as two cents per gallon.
But that supply was a meagre one, so we erected a plant to distil seawater taken from the moat, by converting it into steam and allowing the steam to condense.
Thus we supplied the fort at the expense of a pound of coal for a pint of water.
Among the regiments that came to me was the First Vermont, under the command of Colonel Phelps, formerly of the regular army.
He was one of the best soldiers I ever saw, and the finest man in every relation of life that I ever met, except one.
He was an abolitionist of the most profound, energetic, and forth-putting type.
As soon as he was fairly settled in camp I ordered him to make a reconnoissance with his regiment across Hampton Creek into the village of Hampton.
In it had been collected a few Virginia militia.
As soon as Phelps got near the bridge crossing Hampton Creek, the rebel militia attempted to burn it. He made a charge upon them at double-quick, drove them off the bridge, and saved it. Crossing over, he occupied the town for a while, and then returned to camp about half way between Hampton and Newport News.
This was organized as a camp of instruction and was named Camp Hamilton.
At the same time that General Phelps entered Hampton, myself and staff made a reconnoissance about seven miles into the country, turning off at the road running up to Back River, and then skirting around until we struck the shore and then coming back to the fort.
By this means I got full knowledge of the country within actual striking distance of the fort, except of that portion beyond Hampton Creek, and then onward to the mouth of the James, a distance of about eleven miles.
I had some knowledge of the point of junction of the north side of the James with Hampton Roads.
I had given very studious
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.