A Young Soldier
in the Army of the Potomac
Diary of Howard Helman, 1862
Page 3
way to the railroad, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sweethearts and wives all joined in the long procession with the young volunteers. After a long delay at the depot the train at length arrived, and then came the parting hour, the scene was almost indescribable, and we shall not undertake it, but the usual good wishes and kisses, and the hearty shake of the hand, and then amidst the hubbub and confusion could be heard the command "fall in men, fall in!" The cars at length started 'mid the wild huzzahs of the populace. We arrived safely at Harrisburg and the men were immediately marched out to Camp Curtin (10) and there had a dinner of raw flitch, soft-bread, crackers, etc. We got our Sibley tents, all our cooking utensils and our clothing, and after a sojourn in Harrisburg for a short time we took the cars for Baltimore, in passing along the road we were cheered lustily and especially in the borough of Little York, where the people turned out en masse to see us and cheer us as we passed along.(11) We arrived at Baltimore at an early hour, and got breakfast at the Union Volunteers Refreshment Saloon, when we got on the cars for Washington, we sat soft to Washington and got our Supper at the Soldiers Home, and then started for Arlington Heights.(12) We arrived there in good time and pitched our tents, and spent a very happy time there for one week, our next trip was to our camp near Alexandria, we remained there for a few days, and took up our line of march for our camp near Fort Ward.(13) It was here we spent the happiest time of all. We remained there about one week, and then went about a mile across the country, and done some picket duty,
10 Named for Gov. Andrew Curtin, Camp Curtin was two miles north of Harrisburg. Capt. Joseph R. Orwig, History of the 131st Pennsylvania Volunteers (Williamsport, 1902), 6.
11 The recruits were transported via the North Central Railway. Ibid., 16. Little York is a reference to York, Pa.
12 The Soldiers Home was not the rest house on North Capitol St. established by the United States Sanitary Commission, but the collection of buildings near the depot known as the Soldiers' Rest and the Soldiers' Retreat. Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington. 1860-1865 (New York, 1941),185-186. The recruits were encamped at Camp Chase, Arlington Heights. Lewistown Gazette, Aug. 27, 1862.
13 The camp near Alexandria is unidentified. The 131St Regiment here became part of a brigade consisting also of the 133rd, 123rd, and 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiments. Bates, IV, 224. Fort Ward was one of forty-eight fortresses surrounding Washington, D. C., in 1862. Maj. Gen. John Gross Barnard, "The Defenses of Washington," Washington During War Time, ed. by Marcus Benjamin (Washington, D. C., 1902),36-37.
14 The picket duty in the vicinity of the Leesburg Road and Little River Turnpike involved arresting stragglers from the fields of Bull Run and Chantilly. Bates, IV, 224.