Writing

Some soldiers wrote additional text beyond their names, regiments and dates. In one case, Andrew Shull turned his signature into a piece of writing, prefacing it with "I wrote my name here the first Day of June 1863"

Most writing was addressed to the enemy, as were some of the political images. In other cases its meaning is less clear.

At Morgan Chapel, for example, an extended piece of writing notes that two Union regiments ate dinner on different sides of the creek here:

• "The 91st Ohio got dinner on the opposite of the creek here, July 19th 1864"
• "The 9th Va Regt got dinner on the other side of the creek July 19th 1864"
• "This is the [illegible - right?] and left [illegible] of Jones [illegible] wiscon[?] Brigade"

The significance of the writing for this soldier is likely lost in the illegible section. But we do know that the day before the graffiti was written the two regiments had fought with Confederate cavalry near the chapel in Bunker Hill, and the soldiers likely knew that further fighting was imminent. The next day, July 20, the brigade would engage a much larger Confederate force at Stevenson's Station and again a few days later at Winchester,and suffer significant casualties.