Brush Sheds and Bravery: A Hot Summer Afternoon with Andrew Millburn

“i will send you som cedar from ala”

Pull up a chair, friends, because I have something truly special to share with you today. Nestled in our archives is a humble piece of lined paper, yellowed by time and worn thin along the fold lines where it was once tucked away in a pocket or a small envelope. It was written by a man named Andrew Millburn on a sweltering June day in 1865. You can still see the dark ink of his cursive hand, and though his spelling is phonetic—the way a man might write who spent more time with a plow than a pen—every word carries the weight of a soldier just waiting to go home.

Down at Stevenson Station in Alabama, Andrew and his boys were grappling with a heat like nothing they had ever seen. To keep from being sunstruck, they actually built a brush shed sixty feet long just to find a sliver of shade. It is a vivid image, isn’t it? A group of tired men huddling under cut branches while the Alabama sun beat down with no mercy. He even jokes, in his own way, that the place is just too hot for any use at all, longing for the cooler air of the north.

But life in camp was not all just sweltering in the shade. Andrew tells us about a ‘pole raising’ they attended on a Saturday. Imagine the scene: the local ‘Union Girls’ bringing out the old stars and stripes, two cannons from Winchester firing off rounds, and the infantry joining in with their own volleys. There were speeches by the officers and cheers that Andrew says went up ‘with all of its fury.’ It is a rare, bright moment of celebration in a time that was otherwise filled with great uncertainty.

You see, by June of 1865, the major fighting of the Civil War was over, but Andrew and his comrades were stuck in a kind of restless limbo. He mentions the ‘considerable confusion’ about their bounties—or ‘bonets’ as he calls them—and the rumors that they might be cheated out of their pay. You can feel his frustration when he says they are nothing but a ‘bill of expense’ to the government. Two of his friends had already deserted, and Andrew himself was worried about staying until the fall. It reminds us that history isn’t just about the big battles; it is about the long, dusty, and anxious wait that follows.

What strikes me most is how Andrew ends his letter. After all the talk of heat, money, and cannons, he tells his loved one he is sending along ‘som cedar from ala.’ It is a small, tangible piece of the world he was standing in, sent back home as a bridge between his hard life in camp and the family he missed so dearly. Today, we look at this stained, fragile paper and see more than just a military record. We see a man who was tired and hot, yet still reached out to connect with the people he loved. It is a gentle reminder that no matter how much the world changes, the human heart remains exactly the same.

Original Transcription

Wednesday
Stevenson Station June the 8
this day fines me in good
helth and the rest of the
boyes I received yore leter last
night with plasure and red
it with Joy I have Just
come in from drill i conklud
to write to you i have and
obJect in writing to you
so soon i dont know what
you ment a bout Chap
Cook what he has been
doing in burlington with
Jane brown i want you
to write me the full de
tails a bout it we have
buill a sheds out of brush
sixty feet long in lenth
to keep from being sun
struck in the heet of the
day it is the holest

place i ever saw it is
to hot for any use
i want to go futher
north than this we are
going to have a general
Review to morrow at 10 o
clock we have quit drilling
so much it was killing
the men their was one
man died out of Co C
day be fore yesterday he
was beried to day you
said in yore leter that
you dident look for us
home i have come to the
conklusen that we will
stay till fall but i dont
know what they want
with us for my part
i cant see the nub to it
we are nothing but a
bill of expens to the
Goverment and no

profit to it i will
have to tell you somthig
a bout the pole raising
that i was at the other
day we went to one last
Saturday we had a nice time
they give us our diners
and then we went and
raised the pole the union
Girles bought the old stars
and strips and tied them
on their was two canon
from winchester they was
fired them several times
their was two company
of infantry they was fired
several times then we
went to the house then
we had several speeches
by the officers the cheers
went up with all of
its fury

their has been considera
ble confusion a bout
the bonets some sware
they ont stay and
bee cheated out of them
two of the boyes have
left and lots more
will leave if they hant
no bonnt it is in the
paper that their is 25 cen
disbonnt on them here
if that is the case it
will bee a bad go on me
shore i will have to
quit for this time write
as soon as you git this
Direct as you did before
Andrew Millburn
i will send you som cedar from ala