subject index to the Milton H. Boullemet Transcripts
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The University of Michigan Schoff Civil War Collection Soldiers' Letters 46 |
Boullemet, Milton Hyman, 1843-1862? Rank: Pvt. Regiment: C.S.A. 3rd Alabama Infantry Regiment (1861-1865) Service: 1861 April 28-1862 July
Milton Hyman Boullemet, Jr., was the eldest son of the eight children of Milton H. Boullemet, Sr., a merchant of Mobile, Ala. When Alabama seceded from the Union on January 11th, 1861, the intensely patriotic Milton, not yet 18, enlisted as Orderly Sergeant in the Phoenix Rifles, a local militia unit. When the Phoenix Rifles voted not to go to war, Boullemet resigned and reenlisted as a private in the Washington Rifles, which became the color company of the 3rd Alabama Infantry, organized under Col. James Withers, mayor of Mobile. Just how fervent the family were for the southern cause can be judged by the name given to Milton's youngest sister, who was born in April, 1861, and named Sumter to commemorate the capture of the Fort by Confederate forces. Despite his age, Milton Boullemet, Sr., also volunteered for military duty, serving in the militia in Mobile.
Gathering at Montgomery on April 28th, the 3rd Alabama marched for Atlanta on April 30th, and from there moved on to Lynchburg, Va., the whole way cheered enthusiastically by crowds of loyal southerners. Much to Boullemet's displeasure, the 3rd Alabama were not sent immediately into combat, but were stationed first at Petersburg and then at Norfolk, which were strategically important, but under no imminent threat. For almost a year, Boullemet remained at Norfolk, believing that the regiment were being used merely as a scarecrow, warning Federal troops off from the entrance to the James River, and therefore from Richmond.
Frustrated at not finding himself in more active service, Boullemet obtained a 20-day leave to return to Mobile in December, 1861, to request a discharge so that he might reenlist in a front-line regiment. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, but his trip was not without its consolations. On his way back to Norfolk, Boullemet met a young Georgia woman, Sallie Nimms, with whom he struck up a friendly, slightly flirtatious correspondence. Nimms provided a sympathetic ear and encouraging words, writing "I have the consolation of knowing, and it is indeed a sweet one, that you are a faithful 'sentinel' near the 'flashing of guns where men bleed and die' upon the watch-tower of my country's rights and my country's honor" (1862 January 28).
In February, 1862, the 3rd Alabama were briefly ordered out of Norfolk, only to have orders countermanded when they arrived at Portsmouth. There, Boullemet learned of the great Confederate losses at Fort Donelson and Roanoke Island, and witnessed his first action of the war from the banks of the James: the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimack (the C.S.S. Virginia) off Hampton Roads. In March, having given up his attempts to transfer, Boullemet took an oath to serve two additional years, and in May, he received a promotion to Corporal. That month, at last, the regiment were ordered into combat, helping to counter McClellan's Army of the Potomac in the early stages of the Peninsular Campaign. Abandoning Norfolk to the Union, the 3rd Alabama marched first to the critical railroad junction at Weldon, N.C., and from there went by rail and on forced march to Drewry's Bluff, where they were involved in a small skirmish and were fired upon by Union gunboats. Shortly, the regiment were engaged in the Battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) on May 31st-June 1st, and, after a brief lull, in the Seven Days' Battles. At Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days' Battles, the 3rd Alabama suffered great losses. Boullemet was reported as having been wounded by a ball in the hip that travelled up to his spine, and appears to have died later from the injury.
The heart of the Boullemet letters are those written by Milton, Jr., to his father, while serving with the 3rd Alabama Infantry. Boullemet was a well educated man, an expressive writer who was steeped in the southern ideology of "chivalry" and personal honor. His letters provide fine depictions of camp life, roughing it in tents during the summer, and the day to day chores of a soldier in the Confederate Army. The descriptions of the enthusiastic reception the regiment were accorded on their march to the North, and of various Confederate cities (including Wytheville, Lynchburg, and Norfolk) are excellent, and his reactions to events such as the shooting of Elmer Ellsworth and the first Battle of Bull Run (at which the 3rd were not present) provide an interesting Confederate counterpoint to the more common Union reactions. In turn, his accounts of the occupation of Norfolk depict the difficulties faced by southern soldiers in some cities in the south, the mixture of gladness at being protected by the civilians, and resentment at the presence of the soldiers. A few letters are of interest, too, for their perceptions of the Confederate Navy. While at Norfolk, Boullemet visited the Portsmouth Navy Yard, recently abandoned by the Union, and described Confederate efforts to salvage scuttled ships with the aid of a diving bell and the iron-cladding of the old Merrimack (which was recommissioned as the C.S.S. Virginia). His description of the Battle of Hampton Roads and its aftermath is a good first-hand account.
Among the letters received by Boullemet during the war are letters from members of the 21st Alabama Infantry regarding the Battle of Shiloh in which his close friend, Henry Plum, was killed. Boullemet's own letters from the time the 3rd Alabama were called on to join in the Peninsular Campaign through his death provide an excellent picture of an avid Confederate soldier facing the terror of combat for the first time. The few non-Civil War items in the collection include pre-war letters written by members of the Buckley family of New Orleans, who are related to the Boullemets, and a very few miscellaneous post-war letters.
The Boullemet transcripts were prepared by Diane deBlois from originals that have remained in the possession of Aubrey Bartlett, a descendent of the Boullemet and Buckley families. The transcripts have been placed in the collections of the Clements Library with the gracious permission of Mr. Bartlett and Ms. deBlois.
subject index to the Milton H. Boullemet Transcripts
Alphabetic index to the Schoff Civil War Collections
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