GEORGE EVANS¹George Evans (c. 1821–?) was a clerk residing in Reading, Massachusetts, on the eve of the Civil War. He joined the First Battery of the Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery on 6 September 1861. Evans remained a private throughout the war and was discharged on 19 October 1864. , 5:347. TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Army of the Potomac—on Rappahannock River[,] Va. 6 June 1863[.]
DEAR FREDERICK.
I suppose you will be surprised to learn that your old friend is in the
Army of the Potomac—and much more to receive a letter from him—
How strangely changing are the things of time—-Human life is indeed a
shifting scene—While all the things that are about us show the works of
Man—Marked with his imperfections and infirmities and often with his
depravity it is nevertheless a great thing to live—in a world like this—

Two years ago the fifth day of next July I went into camp in Massa-
chusetts, to prepare myself for three years service in the field²When the war began, the Massachusetts militia organization the Boston Light Artillery, or Cook’s Battery, was the only artillery command sent from the state under the first call for troops. Cook’s Battery was discharged on 2 August 1861 and promptly reorganized for three years of service as the Massachusetts First Battery, Light Artillery. The unit left Massachusetts for Camp Duncan, Washington, D.C., on 3 October 1861. In the spring of 1862, it joined the First Corps under General Irvin McDowell and was present at the siege of Yorktown. The artillery entered into its first action at West Point, Virginia, and participated in the Peninsula Campaign, including the Battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines’ Mill. It then joined the march to Fredericksburg and was active in the first battle
there. In 1863, the unit engaged in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. It participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and others. The artillery served a short term with the Fifth U.S. Artillery before being transferred to the Ninth Massachusetts Battery, with which it completed its service. The company was mustered out of service on 19 October 1864. Its total enrollment was 8 officers and 261 men, with 7 killed or dead from wounds, 12 from accident or disease, and 1 while in Confederate prison. , 8 vols. (Madison, Wisc., 1908), 1:219. in behalf of
the cause to which I had given a good portion of my lifetime.

I never have yet regretted the step I then took—If My term of service
expired tomorrow, and I could by any effort of mine hasten the over-
throw of the base system of slavery which is the cause of this rebellion I
would re-enlist—I need not say to you that I have watched with intense
interest the movements to organize the colored people of the Country
for active Military service—My mind has often been exercised contem-
plating what is to be the future of the immense Multitudes of the flying
fugitives that have met my eyes almost daily as I have passed over Vir-
ginia—There seems to be no organised system in this state to remove
them out of the reach of the uncertainties of War—(One army occupying
the country to day and the other tomorrow)—thronging the roads with
their bundles upon their heads not knowing which way to go—Many of
them are caught up and sent to the extreme south—thousands of them I
have seen throwing up rifle pits—and building fortifications for the reb-
els³During the Civil War, the Confederacy employed slaves to work on fortifications and other military construction projects. At times, even free blacks were forced to labor for the South, and six states enacted legislation allowing for the impressment of free blacks into labor regiments. Several states passed legislation to compensate slave owners for any slave they handed over to aid the Confederate cause. Virginia passed such an act in October 1862 and immediately put the slaves to work on fortifications. In the same month, the Confederate Congress passed a law declaring that runaway slaves captured by soldiers were to be returned to their masters or placed in holding depots set up throughout the South. The three depots in Virginia were located near army camps at Richmond, Petersburg, and Dublin Station. While in custody, these blacks were put to work on projects, both public and military in nature. As the war dragged on and the South exhausted its manpower, the Confederate government issued quotas to states for slave laborers to dig entrenchments as well as perform other military work. Slave military labor was needed most in Virginia because the majority of battles fought in the eastern theater of war occurred in that state. Stephen V. Ash, (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2010), 9, 43, 46, 88; William Blair, (New York, 1998), 78; James M. McPherson, (1965; Urbana, Ill., 1982), 24–25; Bernard H. Nelson, “Confederate Slave Impressment Legislation, 1861–1865,” , 31:394–95 (October 1946).—Alas many of them—(as the two Mighty contending armies surge
backward and onward) are in —Its an amazing sub-
ject for our thoughts,—and calls loudly for the immediate efforts of the
humane and Christian world—I cannot now while our army is moving
say what I would to you—of the great cause, which has been so near our
hearts in the past—I have lived more in the last two years the than all
my lifetime before. I was in battle of West Point⁴The Battle of West Point, also called the Battle of Eltham’s Landing, occurred on 7 May 1862 on the Pamunkey River in Virginia. Union general William B. Franklin engaged in a heavy skirmish with General William H. C. Whiting’s Confederate forces. The fighting allowed General Joseph Johnston’s Confederates to continue their retreat to Richmond unmolested by Union forces. Stephen W. Sears, (New York, 1992), 85–86; John S. Salmon, (Mechanicsburg, Pa., 2001), 83, 85.—the Seige of Yorktown⁵The siege of Yorktown in southeastern Virginia began in early April 1862 and lasted thirty days before the Confederate troops under the direction of Major General John B. Magruder withdrew overnight, ending the siege on 5 May. While the Confederates lost Yorktown to General George B. McClellan, they used the monthlong siege to shore up their protection around Richmond. Sears, , 66–68; Heidler and Heidler, , 4:2163–66.—battle of Mechanicsville⁶Although McClellan and his subordinate General Fitz John Porter drove off Lee’s attacking Confederate forces at the Battle of Mechanicsville, Virginia, on 26 June 1862, the loss was a turning point in the Peninsula Campaign. Lee’s aggressive style in his first battle as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia caused McClellan to halt his advance toward Richmond and shift to a defensive posture, marking the beginning of the Seven Days Campaign. Sears, , 208; Heidler and Heidler, , 3:1298–1301.
—Gaines Mills⁷The Battle of Gaines’ Mill, in Virginia, was fought on 27 June 1862 between Lee’s Confederate forces and Union troops under the command of McClellan and Porter. This engagement was the second of the Seven Days Battles, and one of the bloodiest, with 15,587 casualties. Gaines’ Mill revived Southern hopes and was a disappointment for the North, which viewed McClellan’s change of position as a retreat. Heidler and Heidler, , 2:799–803.—the seven days battles
in front of Richmond⁸The Seven Days Campaign was a series of battles in Virginia between Lee and McClellan. The battles, beginning on 25 June 1862 with McClellan’s first push toward Richmond and ending with the Battle of Malvern Hill on 1 July, were the climax of McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. Suffering losses equaling a quarter of his troops, Lee was disappointed by his failure to destroy the Union forces, although the campaign marked McClellan’s last serious attempt on Richmond. Heidler and Heidler, , 4:1732–35.—the second Bull Run⁹Union forces under Major General John Pope met Lee’s Confederate troops in a battle from 29 to 30 August 1862 in northern Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Union army, suffering almost twice the casualties of the Confederate forces, retreated toward Centerville. The Southern forces occupied Henry House Hill, but because of disrupted organization and oncoming darkness did not pursue Pope’s men. Heidler and Heidler, , 1:316–21.—South Mountain¹⁰ McClellan’s Union forces pushed back Lee’s men in the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland. Taking place on 14 September 1862 between the Catoctin and Elk mountains, this battle was the opening engagement in the Antietam Campaign. Heidler and Heidler, , 4:1830–32.
and
Antietam¹¹The Battle of Antietam took place between Lee’s and McClellan’s forces outside Sharpsburg, Maryland, on 17 September 1862. The bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War, with a total of 22,719 casualties, Antietam was a strategic success for the North, proving the military advantage of its greater population. Stymied in his plans for a Northern invasion, Lee retreated back to Virginia. This battle was followed by Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation six days later on 23 September. Heidler and Heidler, Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, 1:55–67.—twice at Fredericksburg¹²Lee met General Ambrose E. Burnside on 13 December 1862 on the Rappahannock River in Virginia at the First Battle of Fredericksburg. This key battle between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac was Lee’s most one-sided victory. The following month, Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker. The Second Battle of Fredericksburg, part of the Chancellorsville Campaign, was fought in Virginia on 3 May 1863 between a Union army commanded by Major General John Sedgwick and Confederate forces led by Major General Jubal A. Early. The Union forces took Marye’s Heights outside Fredericksburg. Heidler and Heidler, , 2:774–81. and again today June 6th we are
driving them again from their Works around the fated City¹³Major General John Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps conducted a reconnaissance in force across the Rappahannock River just southeast of Fredericksburg on 5 June 1863. Sedwick hoped to test rumors that Confederate units around that city were withdrawing from defenses to participate in an invasion of the North led by General Robert E. Lee. The Confederate defenders drove regiments from Vermont and New Jersey back across the river after several hours of moderate skirmishing. E.B. Long and Barbara Long, (Garden City, N.Y., 1971), 362.—If the hour
for criticism had come I might say something of the causes of so much