33rd Va. Vol. Inf. Company A,..Inc. Website

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William Montgomery

June 18th, 1861
Dear Brother John,

In great haste I take my pencil in hand to drop you a few lines. I have nothing to write on but the head of the drum. Though a soldiers life is a hard life to live yet I am happy to say to you that I am in better health than I have been for 4 months. I can just eat anything that comes to hand and drink as much coffee as anybody. I will also say that if any of you writes to me that you need not direct your letters to me as Commissary of the company but as Second Sergeant of said company. The boys are all well but all homesick. You ought to see Wm. A. Daily(1). He is as quiet as a mouse. I believe he is satisfied soldiering. I can not say when I will be home to see you all again but I think I will be home this week but I do not know where we will but I think we will march to Romney today or march in the direction of Martinsburg to meet Col. Johnston's regiment. As for today, I was detailed as officer of the day over the guard of both company. I will not be relieved for 24 hours. Do not forget to have our knapsacks made as soon as possible and send them to us and tell Shonse to send that sword on as soon as he can do so. If we come to Romney I will send you word and I want you to come to see us. I must now close by hoping that these few lines will find you all well and in good spirits. I do not hear anything that is going on in the country here. I seen all the troops that came up on Sunday. So farewell friends at present. May the god of battles preserve and bless you all is my peace.
Your affectionate brother,
Wm Montgomery

Camp Johnson Frederick Co. Va.
Sunday morning June 30th, 1861
Dear Brother, Sister, and friends,

As I have a good chance to send you word where we are at this time, we are well this morning and all answered to our names at roll calling. We are in about 1/2 a mile from Winchester in a beautiful cedar and locust grove. For my part I am very much pleased for I get to go to Winchester every day, twice a day. Our forces here now numbers 15,000 men. They are coming in every day from the extreme south. There has been but 15 buryings in this neighborhood since the soldiers came here out of 15,000 men. I was at one burying this week that was buried under the honors of war. John, I want you to see to all of my business and if it is in your power to send to me a little money it would be a great accommodation to me in a few days as I do not know when I will draw my pay in the Army yet. It is said that the soldiers will receive their pay tomorrow but I do not know if we will get any as our month is not out yet. We are still in Col. Cummings battalion(2) yet but we will be put in a regiment in a few days I think. I am sorry that I cannot say yet when I can get home for I do not know but I trust you will all remember the soldier who is true to his country, who has to face sun and storm without any covering day or night but the canopy of heaven. Yet I am satisfied to meet my fate. All I do dislike in the Army is that I cannot get to tend church on Sunday but I have time to read the word of God every day I live. It is a raining now so I must close. If you write to Winchester I can get the letter if I stay here. O that God may bless you all is my peace.
Your Brother,
William A. Montgomery

Winchester Camp
March 1st, 1862
Dear Brother and Sister,

It is with pleasure I seat myself this evening to drop you a few lines. I am right well again as well as I ever was and near as stout. My jaw has got well it got [_?_] and broke and was very painful for several days. We had to leave our comfort abodes on day before yesterday. We are now in sight of Winchester on the Fairground in our little cotton houses again and I had like to as froze to death last night. Our blankets was froze fast to the ground this morning. The yankees is advancing on us here and it is the rumor that we will fall back and give up Winchester. We have not got men enough to make a stand here as their force is very great. General Lander and Banks(3) has threw their armies together. They will attack Winchester in this way they say but I do not believe that they are coming here. It is their object to rebuild the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The news has just come to camp that there will be 15,000 fresh troops here in 48 hours so let the yankees come as they will, we will be gay and happy still. We have to pay 50 cents a pound for butter here and it is hard to get at that. Chickens 50 cents a piece, eggs 30 cents per doz. All other things are as high in proportion. I am detailed for Sergeant of the Guard tonight so I will have to close for the present hoping you are all well. S.W. Grace(4) will stay with us tonight in camp. He has gave out the news today. I hope you will write to me soon as you will have some chances now to send letters out by persons coming down. John, you might come down and you would get to see Winchester. As I wrote to Worttey a few days ago, I have nothing particular to send. I will send you a cap if I can, one that will suit you and I will send you, Mary, some needles if I can get them in town. Ed(5) is going to see. Give my love to all my friends.
Your devoted brother that [_?_],
Wm Montgomery
Comp A 33 Regt Va Vol

Camp near New Market
May 21st, 1862
Dear Brother and Friends,

I will embrace the opportunity of trying to send you a few lines by way of a friend. I am to state to you that I am quite well at present. I have been sick some since I wrote the last time. I was absent from the Company 8 days down in old Virginia at Stanardsville Green County but I was at a private house paid my own expenses but had kind friends to wait on me. Ed is well but he is writing too. I am sorry to tell you dear friends that we have had hard times for the last few weeks but thank God we have got back to the Valley of Virginia. We have marched about 300 miles in the last 2 weeks. We thought we were coming to Hampshire. We marched from near Charlottesville Albermarle County east of the Ridge to McDowell where we had a very hard battle but came out victorious driving the enemy on double quick down the South fork of the South Branch. McDowell is 10 miles from Monterey in Highland County on the Romney turnpike. We captured about 700 tents, other baggage, cooking utensils, etc. and they burned all their commissary stores as they went. But the most horrible they done on the retreat was that they hid some 50 odd dead bodies on or near the field, covered them over with brush and leaves, set the woods on fire and burned the dead and some that was not dead when the fire got to them. Well, on Sunday next, when at Franklin, county seat of Pendleton County(6), we had a skirmish with the yanks. Drove them back but we could not get the artillery to do any service but we were exposed to shell and grape for near 3 hours as we was in front of the Army. I suppose the news you get is very gloomy on our side but it is not so much so here. But when the Southern Confederacy goes down I want to go with it. I am sorry to say that so many of our boys are sick. Charles Perrin(7) is dead he died with the fevers at Stanardsville. I was with him, he was unconscious of his death. Tell his sister he was buried decent. Ralph has been on the sick list for some time but he is getting well again(8). Dear friends, I would like to see you all but there is a blockade between us now but I still have hope if I die in despair. We hear here from Hampshire every few days but I have not heard some lately from you since the 16th of March. I do not know what way we will go next but I think we will go over into Page county tomorrow. I must now bid you farewell for this time. Give my love to all the friends. God bless you all is my peace.
Wm Montgomery
Your Brother
33 Regt Va Vol

Hampshire County, Va
March 16th, 1863
Dear Mother,

I embrace the privilege this morning of trying to send you a few lines by a friend. I am happy to write you that I am right well and have been well and I hope you are all enjoying the same blessings. I have heard that Wortteys family has got the scarlet fever but I did not hear if John's children had it or not. I am on the mountain this morning at [_?_]. I am on furlough for a few days. Now I want you to send me a pair of pants and a pair of socks and Edward told me that I had a pair of boots at old Mr. Nelson's. Now if you can send them to Thomas Cheney's if Miss Tamar does not get them to bring them to me. If you will send them to Cheney's I can get them there myself at night. And I want you to write to me if you can get my boots out over the river. I would sooner have my boots than anything else. I have other clothes plenty as many as I want. You can write to me when you can send them to Cheney's and I can get them at my leisure. I want to see you all very bad but I can not come home yet. I fear the yankees will take me and I will not run the risk. Edward ventured too far and Will Daily but I gave them good advice on Monday before they were taken. I want you to send me what they have done with Ed if they have taken him on to Camp Chase or not. Mother, I have no news to write to you of any interest. If you could come over on the Mountain I could get to see you but if you can not get out of town I can not see you this time for on Sunday next I want to go back to camp. It will take me two days to go back to the Valley. You must not be discouraged we will all be at home at or before harvest in peace. The war must end soon undoubtedly as for other news I will not give. Tell all the friends that I would like to see them but you must give my love to them all. Tell them I am well and hope to see them soon in peace. Now do not neglect to get my boots to Cheney's. If you can not send them to me here but you can write back what you can do for the best. I must now close for this time but
I remain as ever your affectionate son,
Wm Montgomery

Headquarters N.W. Va. Brigade
Camp Hays Creek, Rockbridge County near Brownsburg Va.
Feb 24th, 1864
Dear Mother, Sisters, and Brothers,

As an opportunity presents itself today of a little leisure time, I take up my pencil to pencil you a few lines. As my inclinations naturally lead my wandering mind towards parents and friends and a once quiet and happy home that I could call my own. But now I am, as it were, in a foreign nation debarred from all communications from home and from friends by a horde of Northern vandals who inhabit my once loved abiding place Springfield. Mother, I love you as dearly as I did when I was but an infant when you dawdled me upon your knee and clasped me to your breast. But now I have grown to manhood and my assistance is needed to defend our cause and rights. Therefore, for the love of my Country and my Countrymen, I leave all the home tithes that is sacred and dear to me, prefer the hardships, toils, and exposures of a camp life. Yea, more than that, my life I sacrifice on the battlefield rather than submit to Northern tyrants, Northern despotism, and Yankee domination. This is my sentiment and the sentiments of all true Southern soldiers so you can see it is not for the love of money that we are fighting but for our independence, liberty, and national rights. The Yankees are giving from three to five and as high as 7 and $8.00 for reenlisting while we get nothing though Congress has appropriated $1.00 for all who have served three years but we will not get it before August. I am very sorry that I have no chance to send you a paper or a copy of the Tax Bill and Currency Bill which our Congress has recently passed. In fact, it is all that our Representatives have ever done for us since the war. All Confederate money of the present issue has by an act of Congress been called in by the first day of April of the present year 1864. If not in by that time 33 1/3 cents discount to which they give Confederate Bonds bearing 4 1/2 percent interest payable in twenty years. So speculation is now stagnated in the South during the war I hope. There will be a new issue of Confederate money out by the first of April that one dollar will be worth 3 of the present issue. As orders has just come to be ready to march by eight o'clock tomorrow morning, we have been here just one week last night in this county and I suppose the move will be down into Rockingham or Shenandoah County as Gen. Roper is going to make a move some where but what point I do not know but perhaps you will hear before you get this letter for I do not know when I will get to send it in. The situation that I am in at present is rather precarious. At present I do not know whether I will remain in this Brigade any longer or not. I would rather remain in the Cavalry(9) but if General Lee thinks I can render better service in the Infantry in my old Company in the 33rd Regt I will have to go back to old Co. A Potomac Guards Stonewall Brigade. The Cavalry in one sense is an easier branch of service than Infantry but it has it's disadvantages as well as Infantry for I have suffered more this winter than I have done since the war commenced in regard to cold and exposure. But my weight is still the same as it was in the fall. I weigh 176 lbs have stood at that weight since October last and my health is still very good.
Sunday Feb 28th, '64
My health is still good. Our camp now is near Bridgewater, Rockingham County, Va. We still have nothing to do but picket down the valley near Strasburg but our company has not been down yet. This is a beautiful warm day and I hope it will remain warm through March but we have had a very often favorable winter on our army. The army is in good health and more than that they are all in good spirits. Prospect still brightening for peace in the coming summer campaign but the struggle will be a sever one but as sure as there's a God in heaven victory will perch upon our banner. Never can such a nation as this rebel nation be subdued by a band of Northern thieves raised on codfish and molasses. Perhaps all of this is not interesting to you so I must close for the present by saying that Washington is right well and has been all winter and he is going to write a letter home too as soon as he has an opportunity of sending one in. I suppose Ed told you of something that happened a short time ago in regard to a young lady which in the past was my intended [_?_] friend but now forsaken forever. May this teach me better and prove a blessing in the end. I send my love to all great and small.
Your Son and Brother,
Wm Montgomery Co. C 18th Va Cavalry
P.S. Please read this to all the family and friends who may inquire.

Footnotes:
1. William A. Daily; enlisted 6/6/1861 in Co. A and was wounded around Manassas 8/25/1862. He's reported as deserted 12/25/1862. Back to letter
2. Cummings was still recruiting for a regiment at this time. Once at the proper strength, around July 15, 1861, his battalion was officially organized as the 33rd Regiment of Virginia Volunteers. Back to letter
3. U.S. Generals Frederick Lander and Nathaniel Banks both held commands in the northern Valley area. Lander commanded U.S. forces around Bath and Romney during Jackson's Romney expedition in the winter of '61-'62. Back to letter
4. Stephen Wheeler Grace; enlisted 6/6/1861 in Co. A then furnished a substitute on 6/25/1861. He died in 1907 in Missouri. Back to letter
5. Throughout Montgomery's letters, he mentions a person named Ed quite often. There was a Edward Allen and a Edward Montgomery enlisted in Co. A. Due to the frequency of his mention and concern after Ed's capture, it may have been Edward Montgomery - a possible brother or other relative of William's. Back to letter
6. Pendleton County and its county seat of Franklin are now in West Virginia. Pendleton and Hampshire counties were largely loyal to the Confederacy but were lost to the Federals. Back to letter
7. Charles W. Perrin; enlisted 6/6/1861 in Co. A. He was reported sick with fevers at the Charlottesville hospital but returned 8/5/1861. He is reported sick on two other occasions and eventually dies in the hospital. Back to letter
8. Ralph G. Perrin; enlisted 6/6/1861 in Co. A and brother to Charles Perrin. He is reported sick at the Charlottesville hospital 7/24/1861 with measles. He returns to duty and is killed in action 8/26/1862. Back to letter
9. A look at the service records for Company A shows a large amount of men who are listed as "deserted". Upon further investigation, however, most of these men had left the infantry and joined various cavalry and other units who were operating in or from their hometowns in Hampshire County. This is likely due to the fact that several counties in the northern Valley, including Hampshire, fell under Federal control early in the war and, despite Jackson's desire, was largely ignored by the Confederate authorities. These men, in particular, felt a need to protect their hometowns in face of the federals. Back to letter

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