The Dark Clouds of War -- Part Five

 

“The Dark Clouds of War”

The Civil War Diary of John Zimmerman of Alexandria, Virginia (1861-1865) 

Transcribed, Edited and Narrated by Jack Sullivan

Foreword:  Beginning in 2012, I was tasked at the Historical Division of the Alexandria VA Library with transcribing into a computer the hand-written diary of John Zimmerman, a local confederate soldier who kept a diary throughout the five years of the Civil War.  While it was anticipated that the diary would be put on the library website, that did not occur and the sesquicentennial of the conflict has passed.  Believing that this fascinating document is worthy of more attention, I have prepared a summary in seven parts that will be posted here every four days  throughout April.

Part Five:  Paroled with a Secret Message;  Protecting Richmond

Zimmerman’s concerns about his guards soon receded behind his desire to be paroled, that is, to be exchanged and able to go South to rejoin his beloved 17th Virginia Regiment.  The release came for him on March 14, 1864, and the next day he with other prisoners in the exchange was put on a steamboat and taken to City Point, a base the Federals had established on the James River in Virginia.  There under a flag of truce the newly freed prisoners were picked up by Confederate ships and taken to Richmond.  Only then, six days later, was the Alexandria private willing to disclose, even to his diary, his secret role as a courier:

Now that I am safe and on Southern soil, I must record my experience at Pt Lookout the day we were ordered to pack up to go South, which I did not think wise or prudent to do at that time.  On hearing I was among those who were to go South for exchange my friend Mr. Atty Edey gave me two papers which he charged me to deliver in person at Richmond - one to Gen SW Randolph, Sec of War, and the other to Surgeon Gen Moore.  These papers he had obtained (how I do not know) while he was visiting a friend then at Gen Butler Hdqrs while he was held there a prisoner awaiting an agreement between the two Commissions of Exchange.  

So after we were all in line and Capt Patterson had ordered Sergt Finnegan “to have the prisoners searched and all blankets taken away, to see that there were no cases of smallpox, and to turn back into Camp all who had letters,” I thought I was in for the war and possibly worse trouble if the papers I had in my pocket were discovered and I was greatly puzzled what to do, as I was told by Mr. Edey they were of importance to our Government and I was anxious to deliver them as I had promised.  I did not read them as I did not want to know their contents and could plead ignorance if they were found on me.    

After Capt Patterson kindly said I could go to my tent for the night I racked my brain for a plan to conceal them and after much thought I remembered two straps and buckle on the back of my pants, so I took off my pants and then the buckle and opening the two ends of the strap, and folding very small the two papers and pushed one in each end of the strap.  And sewing up the ends and then on the buckle and buckling the ends together I was ready for Mr Yanks search.  But must say I was somewhat scared and puzzled for the safety of the papers till I thought of the buckle and the two straps. 

General Randolph

 Will add, delivered the papers to the Sec of War, General Randolph & Sur Gen Moore.  The orders were issued by Gen Butler and were in regard to rebel prisoners of war.  How Edey managed to get them I do not know, but I suppose through his friend who was in Gen Butler's office, but do not know in what capacity.  The less I knew of it just then, I thought, the better for me, so asked no questions.

While Zimmerman was in Richmond he was able to draw back pay for his eight months in the prison camp as well as clothing and rations.  Although he had been paroled, he had not yet been declared officially “exchanged.”  As a result he could not immediately resume a combat role, leaving him relatively free to set his own course.  He visited his brother in Clarksville, Virginia; then traveled down to see his old comrades now encamped near Kinston, N.C.; returned briefly to visit relatives in Richmond; hied off to Gordonsville to stay with friends, and finally returned again to Richmond.  There he obtained a permit from the War Department to visit the Tredegar Iron Works and State Armory, prime sources of war materials for the Confederate Army.  He was much impressed with the facility.  Although intermittently reporting to military authorities, Zimmerman did not receive the official notice of exchange until May 2,1964, fully six weeks after his release from the prison camp.  It allowed him to rejoin the 17th Virginia and he hastened back to the regiment’s encampment near Kinston.  

Shortly after he arrived there his brigade was ordered north into Virginia to provide protection for Petersburg and the railroad lines between Petersburg and Richmond that were being threatened by Union forces.   Almost immediately the regiment was deployed west of Richmond to counter a Yankee cavalry raid against the Richmond & Danville Railroad at a place called Flat Creek Bridge in Amelia County.  There, for the first time in months, Zimmerman would encounter what he often called “hot work.”  On May 14, the Union cavalry attacked with the objective of burning the railroad bridge, but the 17th held steady and repulsed the Yankees after a fire fight of four hours.  Describing the action in detail, he expressed satisfaction with the outcome to his diary:

We have had a pretty lively time today but we got through with the work much sooner than I expected and we beat the Yanks bad at their own game - and that with fewer men....They have paid dearly for their attack on us and from the rapidity of their movements on the ride, I think them a greatly demoralized force & broke down and [we] killed many horses and expect a large part of the command will have to be remounted should they succeed in regaining their lines.

Two days later on May 16, the 17th Virginia would be deeply involved in another fight, this one more serious, known as the Battle of Drewery’s Bluff. Although a Southern victory, Zimmerman’s regiment lost a significant number of officers and men.  As usual, he seemed to lead a charmed life.  He was struck in the chest by a nearly spent bullet that fell off his jacket and, as he recorded, “no harm done.”  He described some of the action:

Battle of Drewery's Bluff

Just then, off to our left, we saw very weird & novel sight:  A long line of legs moving in unison and in battle order to their line of works.  The dense fog prevented our seeing their bodies above their waist, so making a rather uncanny scene.  But soon the mist began to lift and revealed their line of uniforms, and we were ordered to throw off our knapsacks & blankets and prepare to charge, followed quickly by the order from Gen Corse, who had mounted the parapet of our works, “Foreward…Charge.”  And away we went over the top with a loud wild ringing yell such as only Confederates can give and on through the felled timber rifle pits and entrenchments of the enemy, driving them from all and then across a large field to a distance, I think, of full three quarters of a mile, killing and wounding many in our charge and capturing over a hundred Germans who could scarce speak a word of English. 

This would be Zimmerman’s last direct combat for almost a year.  Although the 17th was engaged in the bloody battle at Cold Harbor and again suffering significant casualties, Zimmerman was in the Chimborazo Military Hospital in Richmond.  Beginning on May 23, he was in great pain with his face swollen and one eye shut by what appeared to be an abscessed tooth. He was sent to the hospital where the abscess was lanced and he began to feel better, but again was struck by another violent pain in his face and head.  Doctors diagnosed it as “neuralgia,” the name given to a wide range of symptoms.  Recovering slowly he was not released from the hospital until June 7.  By that time Cold Harbor was history.  [End of Part Five]