Portrait of a soldier 301The hardships of campaigning and
general military service wore him out, yet he
refused to let them drag his morale down too
far. 'Oh if I ever do get home I know I will
enjoy myself,' he vowed to his mother. 'You
will never hear me grumble.' Food was
always substandard. He estimated to his
sister that rain-soaked clothes, blankets, and
knapsacks weighed about 100lb (45kg), and
that a soldier on the march hauled a woolen
blanket, a rubber blanket, a change of
underclothes, a tent, a knapsack, three days'
rations, a belt, and a rifle. In addition to
combat, everyday duty exacted quite a toll
from the men. As Edgerton walked guard
duty in rain, high winds, and hail, 'I would
satisfy my self buy saing, that it was all for
the union.'
As he traveled more and more throughout
the South, the New Yorker gained greater
exposure to the institution of slavery. 'It
looks horrible,' he wrote his mother. He
detested the idea of people held in bondage,
some of whom were as white as he was.
Slavery, he felt, made Southern whites
somewhat lazy. 'I am and always was an
Abolitionist,' he claimed, 'and I guess I am
on the right side.'
That spring, 1864, the Union army under
the overall leadership of Grant determined to
press the Confederates on every front, with
the two major operations targeting
Richmond and Atlanta. As campaign season
approached, Edgerton did not want to go
forward, but duty compelled him to do so.
'Of course we dont like to fight but then, if
nesesary, why, there is no body knows how
aney better than we do,' he elaborated to his
mother. 'I shant expose myself unnesisaryly,
neither shall I shirk from doing my duty as a
soldier.' Just before the campaign opened, he
and Wiggins had their photograph taken
together. 'I dont feel very patriotic this
morning for we have got to march to
morrow to the frunt & I dont want to go,' he
admitted to his brother. But go he did.
Sherman had to maintain continual
contact with the Rebel army under Johnston,
to prevent wide flank attacks or the
movement of reinforcements elsewhere,
while at the same time enabling the Federals
to turn the Confederates from their defensive
positions. As a result, Edgerton and his
comrades remained under fire nearly the
entire campaign, occupying positions
anywhere from 200 to 500yds (180-450m)
away. In the fight at Dallas on 28 May 1864,
Edgerton declared it 'the hottest plase I was
ever in' - strong words from someone who
had fought in the thick of battle at Antietam,
Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. His
regiment lost 168 men that day. Throughout
June, he reported numerous close calls. 'I
have again been preserved from the leden
missles of death, while so maney of my
comrades have fallen,' he alerted his mother
in late June. After assessing the hardships of
the campaign, he announced, 'It is a
wounder [wonder] to me that I am alive.'
On 14 June, a cocky Wilbur Edgerton
notified his mother, 'The rebls here dont
know how to fight & they never will.' Less
than two months later, a Confederate
sharpshooter drilled him in the right
shoulder with a minie ball outside Atlanta.
Edgerton went to the field hospital, where he
recovered in short order and returned to his
command, just in time to participate in the
fall of Atlanta. When Sherman swung his
army to the southwest of the city, to sever
the last open rail connections, he left the
XX Corps to guard his own railroad supply
line. As Hood vacated the city, the Federals
pushed into Atlanta, with the 107th among
the first to enter. 'Atlanta is ours,' Edgerton
crowed to his mother, knowing full well the
consequences of that victory.
Throughout the Atlanta campaign, the
upcoming presidential election seldom
strayed far from the minds of Edgerton and
his comrades. Nearly all of them supported
Lincoln's re-election bid, even if they were
too young to vote, as was Edgerton. 'Our
army is full of animation, patriotism &c.
[etc.],' he assessed to his mother in early July.
'[We] Have a determination to settle this war
before next Presidential election for fear of
copperhead being elected.' He predicted, 'if
Lincoln is reelected next fall the War will
end.' Several weeks later, he announced, 'I