“On last Saturday morning our division advanced some five or six miles,” wrote correspondent “Shoulder Arms” from the forward camp of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves on October 20, 1861 near Langley, Virginia.

As the weather cooled and the forests west of the nation’s capital turned from green to yellows, oranges, and reds, the Coal Region soldiers of Company F, 7th Reserves, drew picket duty at a forward outpost guarding the regiment’s camp while the rest of the regiment marched with the division to probe Confederate defenses on the Virginia side of the Potomac River west of Great Falls.

At the time “Shoulder Arms” wrote to Mifflin Hannum, editor of the Luzerne Union, Confederate forces massed near Leesburg, were readying for a clash with US Army forces poised to cross the Potomac roughly 35 miles northwest of Washington. That clash came the next day at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861, a disaster for Union forces.

But “Shoulder Arms” and the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves saw no action. While the remainder of his regiment marched out looking for rebel forces, the soldier correspondent drew mail duty. After picking up the unit’s mail, he stopped at the home of Jane Jackson, mother of James Jackson, the Alexandria innkeeper who shot Colonel Elmer Ellsworth on May 24, 1861, and was killed on the spot by one of Ellsworth’s men.

At the house, formerly enslaved people were carting away books and furniture following Jane Jackson’s arrest as a secessionist and suspected Confederate spy. He spoke with several of them. They told him what their enslavers had said about US soldiers, and that they believed Jackson’s arrest was justified by her support of secession. Another said he intended to serve as a teamster in the Union Army. The Lincoln administration did not yet enlist Black men as soldiers, but the Army would employ tens of thousands of Black workers over the course of the war as teamsters, cooks, and other support personnel.

The letter is an important primary document of Union soldiers encountering slavery on the Virginia shore of the Potomac. Beyond the people at the abandoned Jackson home, the author also noted that a “contraband” had arrived in camp, the term used for Black refugees from slavery who sought freedom by escaping to the lines of United States forces. This man, whom the author sadly does not name, had escaped from the camp of the 8th Louisiana farther west in Virginia.

As historians have noted, including Kevin Levin in Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, the Confederate army relied heavily on enslaved labor to fill support roles. The man in this letter told Union soldiers that he was from Missouri but had been brought to Virginia and forced to labor for the Confederate army. He fled when the chance came, something that hundreds of thousands of enslaved people would do during the Civil War.

From the Luzerne Union, October 30, 1861

---

LETTER FROM COL. HARVEY’S REGIMENT.

CAMP HUNT, Oct. 20, 1861.

COL. HANNUM—Dear Sir:—

You no doubt have been apprised of our moving into Virginia on the 9th inst. We encamped about four miles from the Chain Bridge. Gen. McCall took up his headquarters at a place called Langley, the principal buildings of which were a deserted tavern, a blacksmith shop, and a few out-buildings. Our boys have been kept either on picket or fatigue duty, cutting up corn or down wood as directed nearly all the time since we came into Virginia.

On last Saturday morning our division advanced some five or six miles further towards Leesburg, and then bivouacked, leaving our baggage, and some their blankets, back at camp. Companies B and F being out on picket did not advance with the regiment, and are still kept on picket, much against their will, as they want a hand in if the rest are to have a fight. 

I went out with the regiment but came back yesterday morning for the mail. On my way back I stopped at the house of Mrs. Jackson, the mother of James W. Jackson, Ellsworth’s murderer. She had been aiding and helping to plot treason, but on Sunday last was arrested and conveyed to Washington, and is now held as a prisoner. 

The house presents a picture of desolation—pictures, books and furniture all scattered about in confusion. The negroes had been and were hauling them away. They said, “Misses had no business to be secessia,” “good enuff for her.” 

One, a strapping fellow about 18, said he was going to drive team for the Union army. 

They say, “Some ob de colored folks am just fool ’nuff to believe dare massas, when dey say de norf want to sell us to Cuba to pay de spenses of dis war, but dey can’t fool us.” 

I picked up some old letters, bills of negro sales, &c., that were lying around, which are quite indicative of southern character; likewise a large pair of saddle-bags, which I think I shall appropriate as U.S. mail bags, if I continue to carry the mail.

A contraband came into our regiment on Saturday night. He escaped from the Louisiana 8th, though his native place is Missouri. He is quite an intelligent negro, writes a fair hand, and tells a straight story. His regiment were on picket, and he ran away from them because his master whipped him so. He says he don’t think there are many rebels this side of Manassas.

Our boys have just returned to camp again. They met with no incidents that I know of while absent. Yours, &c.,

SHOULDER ARMS.

---

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

---

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.

---

---