“Little Doctor on the Black Horse” Post #15 – Heading Home –

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Little Doctor on the Black Horse

Heading Home

by Harriott Benedict Wickham Barton

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“Page’s Station, N.C., Apr. 29, ‘65 – Know you that we have started for home as it is said that Johnston has surrendered. We are now in camp on the railroad running from Raleigh to Greensboro, about 7 miles from Raleigh. The order has just come for us to be ready to start at daylight. We go to Oxford and right up to Richmond. I think you will next hear from me at that place. It is said we go to Richmond to be mustered out. I wish you would get together all my papers that pertain to anything that I have done in the army, especially those that pertain to the receiving and turning over of property. Put all in a bundle ready to end a moment’s notice, as I shall not be able to draw any pay until all my accounts are settled. There are some pertaining to some tents that I drew at Tullahony and certificates that relate to their being turned over. They may be useful. I am well and happy at the thoughts of going home. I wonder if my wife and babies will be glad to see me? And to you, my dear, dear wife, – say be of good cheer as Sherman says we are coming.”

 

Sherman’s Army on the march in the Carolinas (Harper’s Weekly, March 4, 1865, page 136)

 

“Richmond, Va., May 8, 1865 — We expected it would take us two weeks to come here, but we have come 180 miles in 8 days, bringing along our entire army with all its transportation. This will be an unprecedented march in history. I got the hat you sent by mail, also the express receipt for the clothes but have no heard of the box yet. It is said we shall go from here to Alexandria, there to turn over all surplus property, and be sent to Camp Chase as soon as possible. We are to be reviewed here tomorrow, as we pass through the city. We will not make any more big marches, if we average 15 miles a day we will do well. Our men are pretty stiff and sore footed. I myself am well and in the best of spirits at the prospect of going home.

We were the first in here from Sherman’s army. The 1^st Division of the Army Corps got in here about noon. We about 4 P.M. Our 2^nd Div. About 7. The 20^th will come in sometime during the day. The Army of the Tenn. will be in tomorrow. They camped near Petersburg last night. Gen. Howard won’t march on Sunday unless absolutely necessary.

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About the Author: Harriott Benedict Wickham Barton   (1890-1981) was born in Norwalk, Ohio to Frank and Agnes Wickham. Her father was the youngest of twelve children of Frederick and Lucy Wickham, early settlers of the Firelands, and her mother was the great-great granddaughter of Platt and Sarah Benedict, who founded the city of Norwalk. Educated at Norwalk High School and Wooster College, she became a teacher. She marched as a suffragette and worked for the Labor Department during World War I. After the war, she went west to teach school, and became one of the last homesteaders, proving up a property near Wheatland, Wyoming. She married Angus Barton in 1924 and they raised four children on the homestead through the Dust Bowl and World War II. In the late 1940s, she and her Angus moved to Ohio, where they spent the rest of their lives. During the 1950s and ‘60s, she wrote “Little Doctor on the Black Horse,” poetry, and short stories, some which were published in various journals and magazines.

© 1961 by Harriott Benedict Wickham Barton. All rights reserved.

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