Camp Griffin and the 5th Vermont: Yesterday and Today

A few months ago I reviewed an excellent book on George Houghton's Civil War photography. Published by the Vermont Historical Society, "A Very Fine Appearance" covers Vermont soldiers in camp and on campaign in Virginia from 1861-63. The book contains many priceless photographs of the Vermont Brigade at Camp Griffin near present-day McLean, Virginia. As readers are well aware, I've written extensively on Camp Griffin, which was home to Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith's division during the first winter of the war.  

One of Houghton's photographs has won a degree of fame as the cover illustration for the companion book to Ken Burns' acclaimed public television documentary on the Civil War. The photograph, reproduced below, shows soldiers of the 5th Vermont Infantry during a review in the fall of 1861. The troops stand at attention before a mounted officer. Local historian Carole Herrick has identified this officer as "Col. L.A. Grant." (Herrick 41.)*

5th Vermont at Camp Griffin (courtesy of Vermont Historical Society)

The most distinctive natural feature in the photograph is the large rock outcropping visible to the right of Grant.  This landmark remained undisturbed when the area underwent residential development at the start of the 1950s and survives today.  Local historians have used the outcropping to identify the precise location of the Houghton photograph along Kurtz Road in McLean.  (Hatch 89-91; Herrick 41.)  Many local residents are well aware of the existence of this rock and have mentioned it to me in casual conversation or on this blog.  The actual site of the 5th Vermont's camp was not far from Baldy Smith's headquarters at Salona.

Close-up view of the rock outcropping

This past weekend I took my twin boys for a walk in search of the rock outcropping.  A helpful local pointed me in the right direction, and I finally located the outcropping in the front yard of a private residence along Kurtz Road.  A map of the location at the intersection of Kurtz and Maugh Roads can be found here.  The outcropping is now embedded in a hillside and covered with ivy, but the feature is unmistakable.  I snapped a few quick shots on my iPhone to share with readers.  (My digital Nikon would have worked better, but sometimes it's best not to run around suburban neighborhoods toting a large camera!)

Current view of the rock outcropping along Kurtz Road 

Present-day view of the site of Houghton's photograph of the 5th Vermont.  The arrow indicates the location of the rock outcropping.  Today this area is part of a residential subdivision in the Northern Virginia community of McLean. The Google map linked to above contains a street-level view that allows readers to examine this spot in more detail.

Finding the location of Houghton's well-known photograph of the 5th Vermont is a piece of cake thanks to that rock outcropping.  We are not so lucky with many of the other photographs that Houghton took of the Vermont Brigade at Camp Griffin.  The landscape around here has dramatically changed since the Civil War, and many of the pictures hold few clues as to the precise location where Houghton took them.  That being said, I will continue my search for the campgrounds of the Vermont Brigade and other units that occupied the countryside near Lewinsville and Langley.  The closer I get to understanding where those camps were, the closer I may be to figuring out where Houghton may have taken his photos.  As always, I'll be sure to report my findings on this blog.

Notes
*According to the Vermont in the Civil War website, "L.A. Grant" is Lewis Addison Grant, who was a Lt. Col. when this picture was taken in the fall of 1861.

Sources
Winslow R. Hatch, Old Roads and New Insights: Adventures in Discovery (1985); Carole Herrick, Images of America: McLean (2011); Vermont in the Civil War (website).

A Truly Handsome Publication: A Book on the Vermont Civil War Photographs of George Houghton

Many readers may have seen the article in the February 2012 issue of Civil War Times on the Civil War photographs of George Houghton from Brattleboro, Vermont.  Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O'Sullivan loom large in our collective memory, but in comparison few have heard Houghton's name or seen his photographs.  Houghton followed Vermont regiments during the first couple years of the war and and left us a priceless record of Union soldiers in camp and on campaign. 

I first came across Houghton's photographs at the McLean Community Center.  It turns out that Houghton stayed with the Vermont Brigade at Camp Griffin in what is now McLean, Virginia from October 1861 through early 1862.  (As readers of this blog know, I have an interest, bordering on obsession, with Camp Griffin!)  Houghton captured numerous images of the brigade's encampments and the surrounding countryside.  Some of these photographs grace the walls of the Community Center.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that the Vermont Historical Society has published, "A Very Fine Appearance":The Vermont Civil War Photographs of George Houghton by Donald W. Wickman.  Harold Hotlzer contributed the foreword on the Civil War in photography.

"A Very Fine Appearance" covers Houghton's three separate stays with Vermont regiments in the field: at Camp Griffin from 1861-62; during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign; and along the Occoquan River during the winter and spring of 1863.   The book presents full-page reproductions of Houghton's photographs; a caption and related quotation from a diary, newspaper, or other source are provided on the page opposite each photograph.

Camp of the 5th Vermont at Camp Griffin, Virginia (courtesy of Vermont Historical Society).  This photograph is featured on the cover of the companion book to Ken Burns' The Civil War.

Maj. Charles B. Stoughton, Col. Edwin Stoughton, and Lt. Col. Harry N. Worthen on the Peninsula, 1862 (courtesy of Vermont Historical Society).

Houghton had a way with subject and camera.  His images pull you in and transport you back 150 years.  I spent over an hour just glancing at one photo after another, and by the time I was finished, I felt that I had visited the men in the field.  Perhaps most powerful are the posed images of the soldiers and their officers in camp.  Study their expressions and body language, and you come away thinking you've met these men.  The book is filled with page after page of such photographs, from the lowliest private to generals like "Baldy" Smith and Winfield Scott Hancock.  Houghton's images of Union Army camps are alone valuable for what they tell us about how the soldiers organized and lived their lives when not on the march.  But Houghton has given us more.  He captured not just the look, but the feel, of the camps.  Some of his images of Camp Griffin, for instance, convey the starkness and loneliness of winter camp in a barren, distant countryside.

"A Very Fine Appearance" belongs in every Civil War enthusiast's library alongside other photographic collections.  Although the hardcover carries a rather hefty price tag, owning a copy of Houghton's masterful Civil War photography is well worth the cost.  "A Very Fine Appearance" is a handsome publication in its own right, and reminds us once again that there will always be room for "real" books in an age of e-readers.

The Sickliest Soldiers in the Army: The Vermont Brigade at Camp Griffin

Fall colors dot the landscape this time of year across Northern Virginia.  But feeling a little scratch in my throat, and hearing co-workers cough and sniffle, I am reminded that fall also brings colds and flu.  Our contemporary sickness, however, is nothing compared to what young soldiers experienced during the first autumn and winter of the Civil War.  The Union Army camps around Washington were breeding grounds for disease, which spread rapidly from one person to the next in unsanitary and crowded conditions. 

The Vermont Brigade suffered from a relatively high rate of illness during its stay at Camp Griffin near Lewsinville, Virginia from October 1861 to March 1862.  The outbreak of diseases became noticeable starting in November 1861, as typhoid and other fevers, measles, pneumonia, and diarrhea spread through Camp Griffin.  State authorities in Vermont soon became aware of the epidemic, and the governor dispatched Dr. Edward E. Phelps to investigate.  In December, he observed:

. . . of the men of the five regiments, numbering 4,939 on the ground, no less than 1,086, or about one-fourth, were excused from duty in consequence of sickness. Of these, 201 were sick in hospital, 245 sick in their tents, and 550 able to be up and about though unfit for duty. (Benedict 237.) 

Dr. Phelps considered that the rate of illness was possibly due to the fact that "the regiments had been too long stationary in their camps, on soil which had became saturated with noxious elements."  (Benedict 238.)

By January 1862, the Army of the Potomac's medical director, Charles S. Tripler, reported:

[T]he Vermont regiments in [Gen. W.T.H.] Brooks's brigade give us the largest ratio of sick, of all the troops in this army, and that ratio has not essentially varied for the last three months. They suffered in the first place from measles. Since then they have been and are the subjects of fevers, remittent and typhoid. (in Benedict 238-39.)

The reasons provided by doctors for this high ratio is laughable by 21st century standards.  Because food and clothing were allegedly adequate at the time, Tripler attributed the disease among the Vermonters to some ill-defined "nostalgic element" that affected them "unfavorably."  (in Benedict 239.)  The confidence of the Union Army's doctors in the Vermonters' constitution never rose very high.  In an 1863 report on conditions during his time as medical director, Tripler noted that "[t]he frequent alarms in some portions of our lines were considered by some of the medical officers as a cause of disease. This was particularly the case in front of some of the Vermont troops in Brooks' brigade."  (OR, 1:5, 83.)  So much for Yankee toughness.

Disease affected the various regiments of the Vermont Brigade differently.  Benedict's account of Vermont in the Civil War records that before the end of November 1861, the 6th Vermont had around one-third unfit for duty due to disease, with forty felled by sickness each day.  (Benedict 211.)  Tripler reported that in January 1862, "the Fifth Vermont, 1,000 strong, had 271 sick; the Fourth, 1,047 strong, had 244 sick; while the Second, 1,021 strong, had but 87, and the Third, 900 strong, had but 84."  (OR, 1:5, 92.) 

The exact cause of the variation in rates of disease within the same brigade is the subject of speculation.  The 4th Vermont, which suffered from a great proportion of sick, was encamped near a brook that received runoff from ground where the cavalry had kept about one thousand horses.  (Benedict 160-61.)  When the 4th Vermont moved to a better spot in December, the disease rate began to drop.  Benedict attributed the lower overall rate of illness in the 2nd Vermont to the "more healthful location" of its camp and the "excellent care taken of the men by its colonel and his medical staff."  (Benedict 100.) 

Hospital tents in the vicinity of Washington, DC (courtesy of Library of Congress)

The dreadful conditions in camp had a profound impact on the men.  They never quite knew whether they would be next to fall ill.  As one soldier of the 2nd Vermont remarked upon the appearance of smallpox, "I hope and pray that we shall not be visited by this awful disease." (in Zeller 52.)  And pray some of the men did.  The 6th Vermont, surrounded by the death and suffering associated with disease, held well-attended prayer meetings every evening.

The state and federal authorities took various steps to remedy the dire situation faced by the Vermont Brigade.  Tripler felt that removing the sick Vermonters from the view of their fellow soldiers would boost morale and lessen susceptibility to illness.  The medical director therefore sent convalescents to Philadelphia to free up room for the Vermont Brigade in the general hospitals around Washington.  Five additional surgeons were sent to the brigade, log cabins were built to replace hospital tents, and soldiers were supplied with adequate clothing.  Officers also worked to improve camp sanitation.  In all, these palliative measures helped to decrease the sick rate by the time the Vermonters moved out of Camp Griffin in March 1862. 

Sources
Aside from the OR, the following sources were helpful in compiling this post: George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, Vol. 1 (1886); C. Keith Wilbur, M.D., Civil War Medicine (1998); Paul G. Zeller, The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865 (2002).

Letters from Camp Griffin

While undertaking some research on the Union Army camps around Langley and Lewinsville, I came across an interesting website published by Saint Mary's College Library in Moraga, California.   "The Civil War Letters of Forrest Little" contains links to transcriptions of 23 letters written by Private Forrest Little of the 5th Vermont Volunteer Infantry between October 1861 to July 1862.  Although Little's letters are not as well written as other soldiers' writings that I have encountered, they nonetheless offer us a view of life in Camp Griffin during the winter of 1861-62.  Little continued writing home during the Peninsula Campaign and later died of typhoid fever at Harrison's Landing, Virgina in July 1862.  An article by Professor Carl Guarneri of St. Mary's College does a good job of placing Little's letters in context.

The Army of the Potomac-Scene In Camp After Evening Parade, Harper's Weekly, November 2, 1861

The Army of the Potomac-The Picket-Guard, Harper's Weekly, November 2, 1861

Camp Griffin was as far as a young man could get from the comforts of home.  Little complains about the weather, which was cold, rainy, and sometimes snowy.  He writes often of the excessive mud that the soldiers had to contend with.  Not surprisingly, many soldiers fell ill, and Little notes that at one point, 34 of his company of about 100 were on the sick list.  Daily life in camp was relatively dull.  Little served as the company cook, drilled and paraded with the men of his regiment, and was detailed to picket duty.  Despite any boredom, he resisted the temptations of "rot gut," or so he told his parents.  In one of his letters, Little describes a foraging expedition during which soldiers bayoneted the pigs of a local farmer, who could do nothing but "stand by and grate his teeth."  However, not all relations with  the civilian population were so acrimonious.  In fact, Little was invited to supper with a local female, whose company  he undoubtedly enjoyed.  Little, like other soldiers that winter, was itching for a fight and frequently worried that the war would end before he could have the chance to take on the Rebels.  That opportunity would soon come on the Virginia Peninsula.

These letters are just a start for understanding the experiences of soldiers encamped at Langley and Lewinsville in the winter of 1861-62.  I hope to locate and read many others as I continue my research on the life of common soldiers posted to Camps Griffin and Pierpont, and I'll be sure to write about other finds.