Love Under the Canvas: A Civil War Camp Wedding Story

 The alter was made of drums...

"A Wedding in Camp" - 7th New Jersey Volunteers
This Alfred Waud sketch ran in the
April 4, 1863, issue of Harper’s Weekly. 

"It was rather cold, windy and threatened snow," wrote Alfred Waud in March, 1863, "but the ladies bore it with courage, and looked, to the unaccustomed eyes of the soldiers, like real angels in their light clothing."[1]

At the time, Waud - Harper's Weekly's famous wartime sketch artist - was an uninvited guest at a wedding - a camp wedding. The location of these nuptials was Falmouth, Virginia - in the winter camp of Major General Joe Hooker's Army of the Potomac. 

Originally, Captain Daniel Hart of Co. E, 7th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment and his fiancee, Ellen "Nellie" Lammond, were supposed to be married in early March in Washington, D.C. 

But Abraham Lincoln and the Army of the Potomac had other plans.

In January, Lincoln replaced General Ambrose Burnside - whose dubious leadership produced the Fredericksburg debacle and the failed "Mud March" - with "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Because of the reorganization Hooker was implementing, Hart's commander refused to grant him the furlough in March; so his determined fiancee simply packed up the wedding and brought it to him!

The ladies Waud mentioned - there were twenty of them - all accompanied the bride. Waud called it simply, "A Wedding in Camp".

But what a gala! 

The men of the 7th New Jersey decided to go all out for their Captain and his bride-to-be and stage a lavish wedding on March 12, 1863 - complete with decorations, food, music a ball, and fireworks for the couple. The war reporter for the Washington Evening Star called it an "interesting marriage ceremony" and noted: "The camp . . . had been decorated [by the soldiers] with evergreens and every preparation made to to give eclat to the affair." [2]

Lt. Stephen Austin of the 5th New Jersey Regiment described the ceremony in a letter home:

 

"The marriage of Capt. Hart . . . yesterday in the camp of the 7th, in front of the Reg't, which formed three sides of a square. Present- Gen. Hooker and staff- about 5 regiments (officers and men) as spectators. A brass band [from the 1st New Jersey] was in attendance. A dinner (dance, and fireworks at night) formed part of the progamme [sic]." [3] 

Pvt. Heyward Emmel, of Co K, 7th New Jersey also wrote about the wedding in his diary. He gave a description of the "church" in which Lammond and Hart were married:

"There was an awning of canvas about 6 feet square with small flags festooned around it & a desk [alter] made of drums, before which they were married. The awning was between Co F & K Company . . .around this [alter] stood the committee of officers who had charge of the affair with the ladies . . . Dr Rose married the couple with the Episcopal form. " [4]

However, Col. Robert McAllister of the 11th New Jersey was not quite so enamored of the doings. He wrote to his wife: "The big wedding has come off today in the 7th NJ . . . I suppose they are having a good time . . . The novelty of the thing causes a considerable excitement." [5]

Novelty or not, the guest list was still impressive, with over 200 people in attendance. In addition to the brigade commander General Gershom Mott, the guest list included General Hooker, with his staff, followed by III Corps Generals Daniel Sickles, Hiram Berry, David Birney, Joseph B. Carr, Joseph W. Revere [**], J.J. Bartlett, J.H. Hobart Ward and others. [2]

The March 15, 1863 edition of the New York Herald reported:

"After the marriage ceremony had been performed . . . the whole party adjourned to a dinner which had been prepared by the officers of the regiment – a dinner that would vie with the finest . . . The sight of the table would have surprised those who expect to find nothing in the army but “hard tack” and salt pork. [Then] the tables were cleared and the pavilion prepared for a grand ball in the evening . . . The festivities continued until 'the wee small hours,' and the company separated . . ." [6]

But the war still lurked on the edges of the excitement. Waud called it the added "dramatic force":

"To add to the dramatic force of the [wedding], the rest of the brigade and troops were drawn up in a line of battle not more than a mile away to repel an expected attack from Fredricksburg." [1]

Then he added, "Few persons are wedded under more romantic circumstances than Nellie Lammond and Captain D. Hart." [1]

Nellie and Daniel Hart
(Library of Congress)

Captain Hart was wounded less than two months later at Chancellorsville and again a year later at Spotsylvania, but he survived to be mustered out in July 1865.

Hart continued to serve in the Army after the Civil War. He was an officer in the 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (the Buffalo Soldiers) and commander at Forts Quitman and Stockton in Texas. Nellie accompanied him. [7]

She and Hart had one child, Harry Lammond Hart, in 1876. 

Sadly, two years later - while commanding Fort Stockton in Texas - Hart, 39, died of malaria. Nellie Lammond Hart passed away fourteen years later in 1894.  

But for that brief, shining moment, on a cold and windy spring day, the world was their oyster.

"The novelty of the affair and the magnificent scale upon which it has been conducted have made it one of the events of the war, and an event that will long be remembered by those who were participants."[2]

This was one of the millions of forgotten stories from the Irrepressible Conflict.

Mac

═══ ⚔ 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 ⚑ ═══  

Works Cited

[**] As an FYI: The "Revere", that Pvt. Emmel mentioned in his diary as part of the wedding guest list, is Brigadier General Joseph Warren Revere, - a former member of the 7th New Jersey and one of Paul Revere's three grandsons who fought in the Civil War. At the time of the wedding, Revere commanded the Excelsior Brigade. Two months later in early May during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Revere failed to obey Hooker's orders, and afterwards, he was court-martialed. Revere, however, was allowed to resign from the army. Revere's other two grandsons - Joseph's cousins - were killed in action - one at Antietam and the other at Gettysburg.

[1] Waud, Alfred. "A Camp Wedding." Harpers Weekly - April 4, 1863 from Newspaper Archives.com Retrieved January 21, 2025

[2] "Interesting Marriage Ceremony in General Hooker's Army". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) - Tuesday, March 17, 1863. p. 3. from Newspapers.com Retrieved January 21, 2025.

[3] "Lt. Stephen Austin 5th NJ on the wedding". Civil War Talk.com - February 2, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2025.

[4] Emmell, Heyward (2011) The Civil War Journal of Private Heyward Emmell, Ambulance and Infantry Corps: A Very: Disagreeable War. Ed. Jim Malcolm. Madison. NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.

[5] McAllister, Robert. (1965) The Civil War Letters of General Robert McAllister. Ed. James I. Robertson, Jr. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

[6] "Wedding in Camp: Interesting Marriage Ceremony in General Hooker's Army". The New York Herald. (New York [N.Y.]), 15 March 1863. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1863-03-15/ed-1/seq-1/>

]7] "United States Census, 1870".  FamilySearch. Retrieved January 22, 2025. Nelly Hart in entry for Daniel Hart, 1870.