Captain Alfred Dart had a busy Fourth of July.

Writing in pencil with only minutes to spare, the 51-year-old Carbondale lawyer and commanding officer of Company K, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry reported that the holiday had opened with a firefight across the Potomac – Confederates on the far bank, his men and two companies of the 9th New York exposed in the open. Two New Yorkers were dead, four wounded.

They were camped opposite Harpers Ferry at Sandy Hook, where John Brown had raided the U.S. Arsenal in 1859. Much of that arsenal was rubble now, blown up by retreating Union forces in the war’s opening weeks. Dart’s regiment had been pushed here from the camps around Washington as the army prepared to move into the interior of Virginia.

The day before, Dart had nearly not made it to the Fourth. He and the regiment’s surgeon, Dr. Joshua Owen, had slipped away to pick cherries when a rebel cavalry patrol thundered past. Owen bolted back to camp convinced Dart had been captured. Dart strolled in shortly after, unhurried, having finished his cherries.

Readers of the Carbondale Advance already read public letters from Dart, including his June letter describing the looting of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia – site of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth’s murder – and the ransacking of a secessionist newspaper still mid-press when Union troops arrived.

This letter captures Dart reckoning with the realities of being close to the enemy and the likelihood of impending battle on the horizon.

From the Carbondale Advance, July 13, 1861:

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OPPOSITE HARPER’S FERRY, 

July 4, 1861. 

MR. EDITOR- Dear Sir: 

I have but a short time to write and that only with a pencil. We are here at last on this ever memorable day all alive and pretty well as far as my command is concerned; but others who are with us cannot say so. Two companies of the New York 9th are with us, and two of them have just been killed and four wounded. 

We had a skirmish, shooting across the Potomac. The rebel men were covered while ours were in full view. We very foolishly stood fire for a long time and formed by platoons. 

Whether any of the enemy were killed I know not. The N. Y. 9th were the most exposed and only ones injured. We expect a battle soon. We shall be General joined by Col. Stone’s command and General Patterson. 

Our 5 companies and the the 2 of the N.Y. were the first here since the evacuation.  We are called Cameron’s pets and I think we are, we have been about petted to for death so far – I would sooner be anything than a pet of the government, if this is their way of showing affection. We have had a very fatiguing march. Nothing new occurred of much interest.

A Lieutenant and Surgeon of the Regiment were out yesterday  viewing the country a few miles. The Lieutenant after walking a mile or so gave out and went back. The Surgeon and myself kept on, desirous of procuring some cherries. We each of us climbed into a tree. He became satisfied first and requested me to come down; said he must go if I did not. I was anxious to procure some for my son. He remarked that he would go on and stop at a house we had passed on the road out. 

Soon after he had left I heard the rapid tread of horses; on they came at the fury of race horses, and passed me. The Surgeon seeing them some mile or so in the distance, he says he ran for two miles into quarters – stating that I no doubt was a prisoner of killed. 

After I had finished my cherries I went leisurely into camp and found him in exhausted condition upon his mattress. 

The country through which we have passed is a beautiful one indeed, but such countenances as the people wear! Not a cheer or smile for us up to within the last hour, with I think a single exception, since we left Washington. But all are for the Union here. 

We are now among friends. I have been up to their fortress this afternoon. It was a stronghold – but death to themselves to occupy it – no water but to be drawn for about four miles up a very steep hill such as our people never saw travelled with a team. 

Yours truly,

Alfred Dart

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Read the previous letter from the Letters from War: 1861 series.

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This is part of an ongoing series called “Letters from War: 1861” that will share correspondence written on the front lines during the turbulent first year of the Civil War.

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