Check back here regularly for a growing set of accounts from several journals about the experiences that men had training at Fort Wayne and other military forts as they prepared for service with the Union army in the Civil War. Got a favorite account? Share it with us by clicking on the Contact button on the main page. Be sure to provide full references for the source of the account. No accounts will be put on this site without proper credit be given to the author.

From "For Country, Cause & Leader: The Civil War Journal of Charles B. Haydon" edited by Stephen W. Sears:

"May 21 [1861] - I go on guard duty to day. I do not like the business very well. We took in 12 fine recruits last night & shall to day have a full company.

I was called off guard duty abt 10 A.M. to act as Marshal of the Court Martial to try a soldier for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.  He was convicted & sentenced to wheel dirt for two days & be confined during the nights in the guard house.  They use on of the sally ports for a guard house & it is not a pleasant place to stay.  It is all stone & brick except the doors which are oak plank 8 inches thick.  There is no light in it when the doors are closed. Standing guard is a very necessary duty but by no means a pleasant one.

May 22 - 10AM I am sitting on a stone wall of the entrance to the east sally port of Ft. Wayne waiting for the morning guards to bring in my relief so that I can march them to quarters. I slept very little last night. The weather was sharp & frosty so that I preferred to be up most of the time.

We had a passably quiet time & took only four men whom we retained. Two men sentinels were found asleep on their posts & nailed. Two boys engaged in the unprofitable enterprise of stealing soldiers' shirts which were hung out to dry. They were taken." (p. 10)

From “Dear friends at home: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Sergeant Charles T. Bowen, Twelfth United States Infantry 1861-1864, " ed. Edward K. Cassedy. Charles T. Bowen enlisted in Company G, 1st Battalion, 12th US Regular Infantry in New York on August 16, 1861.  He wrote home on his second day at Fort Hamilton, the Battalion’s place of organization.  The Following is from his August 26, 1861 letter:

“We rise in the morning at sunrise or rather we are called by “tap of drum” at that time, & after washing ourselves we are drilled two hours we then wash again & then march to the cook house and take breakfast we are then at liberty until 9.  the drum again beats fror drill & we drill another hour. then we do as we wish until dinner time.  after dinner we form in line & each one is expected to answer his name. then another two hour drill, && until supper we are free. after supper another muster & free until 9. then another muster & to tents. Three times we answer our names, you see, in a day & after taking our meals, a drill time muster & so we are left without restraint 9 hours in a day of 16. & the rest for sleep & many of course sleep in the day. Now if a man in as pleasant a place as this cant enjoy themselves they are not fit to life. There is only 140 in camp & so we have plenty of room for it is calculated for 800.  By rising early & passing the sentinal on plea of “nessary business” we can go to the pier & see all mighest great fish (or whatever they are) floundering about sometime throwing themselves out of the water & splashing around in all directions.” (p. 9)

James A. Foreman was a private in the 5th Michigan Infantry, Company D.  At age 25, he enlisted in the 5th and left his wife Dollie, son Paul and an unborn child to fight for the Union.  He was a carpenter by trade.  His letter are in a private collection in North Carolina and were printed in a master’s thesis entitled “A Regimental History of the 5th Michigan Infantry Regiment From Its Formation Through the Seven Days Campaign” written by Thomas E. Sebrell II. This is a letter he wrote home while stationed at Fort Wayne.

Undated Early September, 1861
My dear
I thought I would not write until I heard from you but we shall go for Washington Tuesday next and I suppose you do not get your mail but once a week.  Consequently I write you at this time.  We are all well and enjoying ourselves very well.  We get our uniforms next Monday.  We will not get paid until we get to Washington.  While writing this I am on the ferry boat gong up to Detroit. A lot of the boys have passes to go up to the city.  We are to be back by four o’clock.  It is pretty hard to drill about 7 hours each day.  We have to be up at 5 o’clock and be in bed by 9 P.M.  I will write again before leaving.  There the boat has just landed and I will close.  I wish I could sent you and Paul kisses