University of Vermont Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives

Item Description

Title: Solomon G. Heaton to Mother

Author

• Heaton, Solomon G.

Source Document

Description

With Heaton's words, "the great Army of the Potomac has at last started," we get a sense of impatience, on the soldier's part, with Gen. George McClellan's well-known reluctance to send men into battle. The date of this letter coincides within the beginning of the Peninsula Campaign, which deployed over 121,000 Union soldiers. Perhaps Heaton's regiment, camped somewhere in Virginia, is about to meet up with this "offul Army down on the co[a]st it numbers 90 thousand men" as part of the Campaign. He notes some of the destruction left behind by retreating rebels, most notably the burned homes near Fairfax courthouse, supposedly where George and Martha Washington were married. (The home owned by Martha Custis, Washington's betrothed, was indeed burned in 1862 because of the war. This is believed to have been a likely site of the marriage in early January, 1759.) Other place names mentioned: Mannassas, Centerville.

Genre(s): correspondence

Subject/topic

• Contraband of war
• Military camps -- Virginia

Subject/geographic

• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Destruction and pillage

Language(s): English

Note [Digital Version]

2011-05-17, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries

Type of Resource: text

Parent Collections

• Vermonters in the Civil War
• Solomon G. Heaton Correspondence

Access Conditions

Requests to reproduce this item should be sent to the UVM Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives at cdi@uvm.edu. For more information, see http://cdi.uvm.edu/about/rights.
More information.