150 years ago tonight Walter Taylor began another letter[1] to his girlfriend. “Lee’s Adjutant” didn’t have to endure life in the trenches, but the intense heat and omnipresent insects were getting on his nerves.
Camp at Violet Bank:
Sunday night 7th Aug ’64
The time is propitious Bettie and as the flies have retired for the night, I think I may attempt a letter to you without danger of losing my temper, though even now it is being subjected to a pretty severe trial by the numerous candle bugs and other plagues that are hovering around my light. We have here every variety of insect that ever was heard of, & these together with the scorching sun constitute a thorough destroyer of the last lingering spark of amiability that an Adjt General may have once possessed; still i am able to report myself jolly even under these adverse circumstances. …
I wish I had remembered to check out this book last week. In an August 1st letter Colonel Taylor wrote about the Battle of the Crater and then his impression of what he saw under the flag of truce on August 1st[2]:
It was a strange sight to witness Federals & Confederates commingling together between the lines; in some cases there was too much intimacy. I could not have approached the creatures whilst immediately before my eyes were hundreds of black soldiers, no doubt the majority of them having once owned masters in happy Virginia homes. There was but little mercy shown them in the engagement. They first cried “no quarter” and our men acted upon this principle. What is the next play we know not, perhaps another mine. Of course everybody will hear mining now along the entire line – but our troops will become used to this mode of warfare as they have to all others. Grant has much yet to accomplish. …
General Lee’s headquarters at Violet Bank
