Well Satisfied with My Position: The Civil War Journal of Spencer Bonsall

by Michael A Flannery (Editor), Katherine H. Oomens (Editor)

Overview

Well Satisfied with My Position offers a first-person account of army life during the Civil War’s Peninsula Campaign and Battle of Fredericksburg. Spencer Bonsall, who joined the 81st Pennsylvania Infantry as a hospital steward, kept a journal from March 1862 until March 1863, when he abruptly ceased writing. Editors Michael A. Flannery and Katherine H. Oomens place his experiences in the context of the field of Civil War medicine and continue his story in an epilogue.

Trained as a druggist when he was in his early twenties, Bonsall traveled the world, spent eight years on a tea plantation in India, and settled in Philadelphia, where he worked in the city surveyor’s office. But in March 1862, when he was in his mid-forties, the lure of serving his country on the battlefield led Bonsall to join the 81st Pennsylvania Infantry as a hospital steward.

Bonsall enjoyed his life with the Union army at first, comparing bivouacking in the woods to merely picnicking on a grand scale. “We are about as jolly a set of old bachelors as can be found in Virginia,” Bonsall wrote. But his first taste of the aftermath of battle at Fair Oaks and the Seven Days’ Battles in Virginia changed his mind about the joys of soldiering—though he never lost his zeal for the Union cause.

Bonsall details the camp life of a soldier from firsthand experience, outlines the engagements of the 81st, and traces the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Peninsula Campaign. He records facts not available elsewhere about camp conditions, attitudes toward Union generals and Confederate soldiers, and troop movements.

From the end of June to late October 1862, Bonsall’s illness kept him from writing in his journal. He picked up the record again in December 1862, just before the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in which the Union suffered a staggering 10,200 casualties and the 81st Pennsylvania lost more than half its men. He vividly describes the bloody aftermath. Bonsall’s horse was shot out from underneath him at the battle of Gettysburg, injuring him seriously and ending his military career. Although he was listed as “sick in hospital” on the regiment’s muster rolls, he was labeled a deserter in the U.S. Army records. Indeed, after recovery from his injuries, Bonsall walked away from the army to resume life in Philadelphia with his wife and child.

Published for the first time, Bonsall’s journal offers an unusually personal glimpse into the circumstances and motives of a man physically ruined by the war. Seventeen illustrations, including some drawn by Bonsall himself, help bring this narrative to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809387694
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Michael A. Flannery, associate professor and associate director for historical collections at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is the author of John Uri Lloyd: The Great American Eclectic (SIU Press, 1998) and Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy, and co-author of America’s Botanico-Medical Movements: Vox Populi and Pharmaceutical Education in the Queen City: 150 Years of Service.

Katherine H. Oomens, formerly a Library Associate for the Reynolds Historical Library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a graduate of Cornell University and holds master's degrees in museum studies (George Washington University) and library science (University of Alabama). She currently lives in Charlottesville, VA, with her husband and son.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations 00 Preface 00 Introduction: Spencer Bonsall¿s Life and Times to 1863 00 The Journal Peninsular Campaign: May 6 through June 22, 1862 00 Editors¿ Note on the Interlude of June to December 1862 00 Fredericksburg: December 5 to December 16, 1862 00 Windmill Point and Falmouth: January 6 to March 26, 1863 00 Editors¿ Postscript on March 1863 through War¿s End 00 Epilogue 00 Notes 00 Bibliography 00 Index 00 list of illustrations Illustrations 1. Sample of journal letterhead (John B. Hall Apothecary) 00 2. Map of Virginia, 1862 00 3. Pennsylvania infantry in parade formation 00 4. Bonsall¿s transcription of the Botetourt monument 00 5. Bonsall¿s drawing of Virginia houses and barns 00 6. Federal troops at St. Peter¿s Church 00 7. George B. McClellan 00 8. Supply ships at White House Landing 00 9. Union battery at Fair Oaks 00 10. Hospital at Fair Oaks 00 11. Hospital steward chevrons and quinine medicine bottle 00 12. Fredericksburg 00 13. U.S. Sanitary Commission depot near Alexandria, Virginia 00 14. Bonsall¿s map of Falmouth/Windmill Point 00 15. Ambrose Burnside 00 16. Joseph Hooker 00 17. Winfield Scott Hancock 00 2d half-title page (recto) Well Satisfied with My Position backmatter title page (recto) Notes Bibliography Index index (recto) Index Preface Bonsall¿s journal, which he sent home to his wife in batches, is filled with anecdotes about camp life and battle experiences. Yet, at times it reads more like the travelogue of someone on holiday rather than an account of war. He clearly had an itch to roam and spent much of his spare time wandering the Virginia environs in which he found himself, taking detailed notes on the landscape and people he met along the way. Indeed there is often a light and even humorous tone to his journal that is only occasionally interrupted by the realities of war. Therefore, we selected a phrase used by Bonsall himself as the title: ¿Well satisfied with my position.¿ Satisfied or not, Bonsall is constantly aware of his home audience; indeed, he is quick to clarify anything that might be unappreciated or misunderstood and has a tendency to grandstand. Yet, while Bonsall¿s worldview may not always be to our liking and can offend modern sensibilities, accounts like his are what give a human¿sometimes all too human¿face to the Civil War. We learn the intimate details of camp life, of the simple pleasures of a warm tent, of the near reverence of that ¿Idol of the Army of the Potomac,¿ George B. McClellan, of the importance of the U.S. Sanitary Commission in providing for the men in the field, of hospital arrangements, and much more. Yet even these useful and interesting first-hand observations are of little value unless we know more about the man and war in which he fought. Therefore, we have endeavored to give context to the Bonsall narrative by conveying to the reader as much of his life as can be gleaned from the extant record and (where appropriate) more about the battles in which he participated. Here it will be seen how life prior to the war often informed one¿s activities in service and moreover how America¿s crucible left a lasting impact upon its participants long after that service had concluded. By recounting the impact of this bloodiest of American conflicts upon the life of Spencer Bonsall with an eye toward the larger historical landscape, we may look sympathetically upon the thousands more who were likewise affected in similar ways. While this is but one voice among many, it echoes the experiences and attitudes of many more. The editors extend their thanks to Jack Gumbrecht, archivist for the Pennsylvania Historical Society, for ferreting out valuable information on Spencer Bonsall in the Society minute books and other materials in their rich historical collections. We also thank Dr. Gregory Higby and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy for permission to use portions of Michael Flannery¿s ¿The Life of a Hospital Steward: The Civil War Journal of Spencer Bonsall,¿ Pharmacy in History 42.3¿4 (2000): 87¿98. Housed in the Arnold G. Diethelm American Civil War Medicine Collection at the Reynolds Historical Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Spencer Bonsall¿s journal is 56 pages long and is on a variety of stationary papers, the smallest measuring 20cm x 25cm and the largest 20.3cm x 33.3cm. To the delight of the transcriber, Bonsall¿s script is neat and almost artfully done, as are his drawings of Virginia houses and the Fredericksburg area, both of which have been included for the reader. To preserve the true essence of Spencer Bonsall¿s voice, the following transcription is as literal as consistency and readability will allow. Word emphases have been retained and grammatical errors have been left intact. However, at times punctuation has been normalized and modernized to enhance clarity and flow. Also, words of sufficient importance that Bonsall mistakenly left out have been added and are nestled within square brackets. In cases of obvious spelling mistakes, odd phonetic liberties, or dated conventions, corrections were made (e.g. mooving becomes moving; holliday becomes holiday; segars changes to cigars; York Town becomes Yorktown; earth works becomes earthworks; no body becomes nobody; frequent use of & and &c has been removed; abbreviations have been extended into full words, etc.). We divvied up the transcription, explanatory notes, and introduction as well as time and logistics allowed and trust that this collaboration meets with the reader¿s approval.