The day before the 20th Maine Infantry broke camp to head into the Wilderness, Pvt. Alonzo Z. Parsons of Co. B wrote a letter to his father, William, knowing full well that his mother, Eliza, would read it, too.
We pick up where Alonzo left off last week.
A devout Christian, “I have tried to live near God and serve Him as I ought; but it [the army] is a hard trying place for a Christian, surrounded with evils and sins of all kind,” Alonzo noted. “There are some living a very wicked life in the army. There is a vast deal of wickedness in the army.”
Disturbed by the worldly behavior that he refused to describe, he assured William that “I have enjoyed my mind first rate this spring.”
The 20th Maine had “no chaplain yet, but we hold our little prayer meeting every evening and there is quite an interest felt,” Alonzo said. “There are some[,] I think, who have met with a change, and there is quite a number who were going astray, who have been brought back to the fold of Christ.
“Pray for us, dear father, and tell the church to remember us in their prayers,” Alonzo said, thinking of fellow believers in Foxcroft. “Tell them they are not forgotten. I should like to be with them, but as I cannot they will ever be remembered in my prayers.
“Remember me in your prayers, and remember us all who are far away from our homes[.] fighting the battles of our beloved country—pray for our bleeding country—that God may crown us with success, and that peace may soon be restored to our now distracted Nation,” Alonzo wrote.
“We feel the need of your prayers as we are now about to go into battle,” he said. “O, may the God of battles attend us—may we trust in Him; for we know not what we may have to pass through, for some must fall and we know who it may be.
“But O, are we prepared to meet death?” Alonzo asked. “This is the great question.”
He placed “my trust in God” as the campaign approached; “if he sees fit to spare my life and bring me out safe,” he would give “thanks to His great and holy name.”
But if Alonzo did “fall upon the battlefield, and to give my life for my country’s cause, do not mourn for me[.] dear father and mother, but thank God you had a son to give in so good a cause and noble a cause as the one in which we are engaged.”
After asking God to bless “my dear wife and [two] children,” Alonzo composed a last prayer in his letter. “O God, spare my life for their sakes if it can please thee, but if not I hope soon to meet them in heaven, and meet you all where parting is no more.
“So may the blessings of God now rest upon you all, and may your last days on earth be your happiest,” Alonzo told his father.
The 3rd Brigade left Rappahannock Station on May 1 and advanced with the army into the Wilderness. Thursday, May 5 found the brigade and the 20th Maine “on the right of the 5th corps[,] resting on the left side of the main road [Orange Turnpike],” said William N. Jackson.
“At a given signal” the 3rd Brigade “charged down through the woods[,] driving the enemy nearly three fourths of a mile,” he said. Bartlett took his brigade in two lines across Saunders Field, sloping slightly upward to the southwest. The brigade charged in two lines; the 20th Maine on the right in the second line, with “company B being the second company from the right,” according to Jackson.
The company “suffered severely, losing the captain and twenty-six men in a short time,” he reported. The Orange Turnpike separated V Corps from VI Corps, advancing on the right side of the road; there strong resistance stalled the attack as the 3rd Brigade pounded through Confederate defenses to its front.
Soon “we were receiving the enemy’s fire in front and on the right and rear,” and the 20th Maine and the 3rd Brigade ultimately withdrew, Jackson noted. “We had to leave some of our wounded companions behind and save our own lives if possible.”
Walter Morrill escaped, “wounded seriously in the face,” Jackson reported, 1st Lt. William Griffin of Stockton, was wounded “slightly in [the] face,” and 2nd Lt. Frederic W. Lane of Milo was wounded “seriously in the head and left on the field.” Evidently recovered by comrades, Lane died on May 14.
Jackson identified Co. B’s casualties, including “Alonzo Z. Parsons, Foxcroft, killed.”
Alonzo’s April 30 letter arrived home, and William and Eliza let publisher George V. Edes publish it in his Piscataquis Observer. “This letter breathes the spirit of a true Christian, a brave soldier, and a just and valuable citizen,” Edes praised the fallen hero. “Let the names of such be held in perpetual remembrance.”
Sources: Alonzo Z. Parsons and Walter G. Morrill soldiers’ files, Maine State Archives; U.S. 1850 Census for Foxcroft; Maine Marriages, 1771-1907; Piscataquis Observer, Thursday, July 21, 1864; Army Correspondence, Piscataquis Observer, Thursday, June 2, 1864
“Swartz delves into the personal stories of sacrifice and loss…” — Civil War News
If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–
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Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.