The following letter was written by Eliza Parmer of Pittsburgh to President Abraham Lincoln begging his mercy for the desertion of her youngest son, William Parmer of Co. C, 155th Pennsylvania. I can’t find a William Parmer in that company but I do see a William Henry Palmer (1845-1911) who enlisted on 22 August 1862 and was dishonorably discharged on 15 July 1865 from Dry Tortugas, Florida. This regiment was commanded by Capt. James Barclay Palmer (1838-1911) of Pittsburgh.
William Henry Palmer was the son of William Henry Palmer (1814-1864) and Eliza Victor Palmer (1812-1879) of Pittsburgh. In the 1860 US Census, this family was enumerated in Webster, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania under the name Parmer. Living in the household at that time were the parents, William and Eliza Parmer (both age 46), John Parmer (age 24), Alfred Parmer (age 20). Victor Parmer (age 18), William Parmer (age 15), Isaac N. Parmer (age 12), George Parmer (age 8), Alice Parmer (age 6), and Eliza Parmer (age 18).
The muster rolls indicate that William deserted on 4 May 1863 at Sharpsburg, Maryland; this letter was written some six weeks later.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] June 13, 1863
Mr. Abraham Lincoln,
I take the pleasure for the Preside of these United States to infom you about my son. He is sick and was sick before this month. I am most crazy about him. He is very young and is sick now. He got out of heart and tried to get home but he was caught in Washington and taken back. I hope you will have mercy on him—my poor boy—for my sake. I would like for him to come home so I can take care of him till he gets well again. Have mercy on him. I am an old woman and have no one to take care of me now since he is gone. He belongs to the One hundred 55th Pennsylvania, Company C—James Palmer’s Company. I hope you will write to the company if you please…[illegible]. — Eliza Parmer.
His name is William Parmer
I have four sons in the army and William is the youngest of the four and I think it is nothing more than right that I should have him home to be a helper to me in my old age. Yours with respect. — Mrs. Eliza Parmer
[Annotated on back of letter]
Mrs. Eliza Parmer. In behalf of her son, Wm. Parmer of Co. C, 155th Pa. Vol. who was arrested for desertion. Asks that he may be discharged.
The following letter was written by Pvt. John A. W. Hickey (1827-1863) of Co. E, 30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters. According to muster rolls, John did not enlist with the Sharpshooters until 12 February 1863. They also inform us that he died at Emory & Henry College Hospital, Washington county, Virginia on 30 June 1863—just two weeks after this letter was sent to his wife. His cause of death was given as “Febris Remittens” or intermittent fever. An obituary published in the Abingdon Virginian (10 July 1863) states that John Hickey was in poor health prior to the war yet he attempted to volunteer in 1861 but was rejected as unfit. When he was conscripted early in 1863, however, he was accepted for service and ordered to report to Dublin Depot.
Hickey wrote this letter from Dublin Depot which functioned as a vital Confederate logistical and tactical point on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. He wrote the letter to his wife, Margaret Elizabeth (“Betty”) Minnick Hickey (1830-1933) on the farm near Abingdon. They were married in 1847 and had three children at the time that John entered the Confederate service.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Dublin Depot, Virginia June 15, 1863
Dear Betty,
I drop you a few lines to inform you of my whereabouts and health. I am not very well. I have had the diarrhea for several days though I have perfmed [my] duty all the time. The water here is so bad and we have nothing to eat but corn bread and fat meat.
We are at Dublin yet but I think we will leave here before long. Where we will go, I have no idea but it is more than likely we will go to Kentucky. But it is very uncertain. We may go somewhere else. Men are getting very tired of this war. They are deserting from the Army of the Potomac by scores.
As to my coming home this summer, it is very uncertain. But I will come home a day or two if I can. But you need not look for me till you see me. I would like to have some butter if I could get it and a cheese if you had it. You don’t know how hard the poor soldier has to live and if he buys anything, he must pay six prices and a man getting $11 per month can’t stand it.
The following letter was written by William W. Aspinall [or Aspinwall] (1845-1921) of Co. H, 47th Indiana Infantry. He was the son of Dyson Aspinwall (1804-18xx) and Sarah Ann Haines (1824-18xx) of Pleasant Mills, Adams county, Indiana. An English emigrant, Dyson made his living as a woolen manufacture. William was born in May 1845 in Mechanicsburg, Champaign Co., Ohio. He became a “woolen worker” until he enlisted in the 47th Indiana Volunteers in 1861. On May 16, 1863, he was wounded at the Battle of Champion Hill, Miss., but served until the end of the war. Afterward he became known as “Roving Bill” because he lived the vagabond life of a hobo. Reverend James McCook of Hartford, Conn., began a correspondence with Bill as he roamed the U.S. from coast to coast. The Reverend published Bill’s letters to him in a nine-part series of articles titled “Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp” from 1893 until about 1901. It’s described as follows: “Born one of 23 siblings, married 5 times, wounded fighting for the Union in one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, kicked out of numerous jobs and soldiers’ homes for drunkenness, and having spent decades wandering as a penniless vagabond, Bill also kept up a 24-year correspondence with John James McCook, Professor of Modern Languages at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.” Bill passed away at the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky on 14 Nov. 1921, and was buried in the Veterans’ Home cemetery.
The 47th Indiana Infantry Regiment moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in June 1862 and served on occupation and garrison duty there through July 1862, before moving onward to Helena, Arkansas, on July 24, 1862. William’s letter includes a description of the 17 June 1862 Battle of St. Charles on the White River in Arkansas. In that battle, a Confederate shore battery fired a 32-pounder shell into the boiler of the Union Gunboat Mound City, causing a catastrophic explosion. The blast killed 125 men. 82 men were killed instantly by scalding or trama. See—The Deadliest Shot: The Doomed White River Expedition, by Donald Barnhart, Jr. on HistoryNet.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Near Memphis [Tennessee] [Probably Sunday, June 22, 1862]
Well Luke,
You say that you get lonesome on Sundays. I think that you will pass away a good many lonesome Sundays before I get back although we may get back before I think we will.
Well Luke, it is a getting most time to go out on Dress Parade. I will finish when we come back. Well, we have come in front Dress Parade. We [had] a very good Dress Parade. We drilled the manuel of arms a little. There is a good many citizens comes to see us. We have good music and they like tto hear it. The 34th has a brass bands. I guess they never heard any music until we came.
There is a good many boats a coming and going. The gunboats is laying before the city—that is, the part of them, the Flagship Benton, the Louisville, and Mound City are here. The others have gone down the river. One of them got blowed up down there. They went up the White River [where] the Rebels had a battery of Parrott guns. They shot a ball into the boiler and blowed the whole top of the boat and scalded 150 men to death. But they took the battery and one thousand prisoners so they didn’t come out so bad after all. The 46th Regiment was done it [attacked the fortifications on land]. Their Col. [Graham N.] Fitch was commander.
Luke, you must take care of yourself and tell Gary to give John Studabaker hell for he is a damned old cheat. He would steal the coppers off of a dead nigger’s eyes.
I must close for Dave Stockham wants to write a few lines. Give my respects to all enquiring friends. — William W. Aspinall
The following letter was written by Mary L. Lewis, a student at Union High School in Rutland, Vermont, at the time she put pen to paper in mid-March 1864, just before the close of the spring term. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to learn anything more about her through census, cemetery, or newspaper records. Her letter gives us a hint of the early-day attempts to advance the cause of Temperance and Ladies’ Rights in Vermont.
Fred Alfred Field (1850-1935) as drawn in 1897, Vermonter Magazine.
Most of Mary’s four-page letter is devoted to describing her current beau named “Fred” who worked as a clerk in the Post Office in Rutland. She never reveals his last name but I believe it was Frederick Alfred Field (1850-1935) of Rutland. He was the son of William Morton Field (1813-1890) and Minerva Kimball Davenport (1816-1886). His father was sheriff of Rutland county and also served as the president of the Rutland Savings Bank. In the 1870 US Census, Fred was still enumerated in his parent’s Rutland home and his occupation was given as “clerk” in the Post Office—the same position identified by Mary in her letter. Fred was married in 1873 to Lillie Clark (1854-1942), the daughter of Henry and Henrietta Clark of Poultney, and the description of his wedding confirms that he still held a “responsible position in the Rutland Post Office” at that time. His obituary, published in the Burlington Daily News in 1935 states that he had long been affiliated with the Rutland Post Office as a clerk, inspector, and eventually as postmaster—appointed by President Harrison in 1889. He later went into the insurance and real estate business.
Mary wrote the letter to Maria Sally Lewis (1845-1914), the daughter of Jonathan Lewis (1793-1870) and Amanda Wiggin (1797-1852) of Williamstown, Vermont. We learn that Mary and Maria had become friends while attending school together in Rutland. Maria married Herbert Proctor Martin (1842-1905) on 5 November 1865. Maria’s family papers were donated in 1996 to the Vermont Historical Society, see—Martin Family Papers.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Rutland, Vermont Sunday evening, March 13th 1864
Dear Maria,
I received your affectionate letter. Was glad to hear you was enjoying good health. I was very sorry it was destined that you should not see dear Rutland this winter. I wish your parents would have let you come. It would have been splendid, I assure you. to have seen us all [together] again. We are not much changed, Maria. My heart is still a part reserved for you, unapproachable by anyone. Mr. [Davis Graham] Moore 1 did not overrate your being a good girl at school. He could not. (You are the dearest and best of any I know of.) I am well pleased that you think enough of me to kiss my letters, but I do not think that you love me better than I do you. You asked in your letter if I ever think of you. Of course I do—most every day. That young fellow that I spoke about was not Lewis Clark or Justus Southard—but it was Levi Southard. 2 But that is all played out. We did not think anything of each other, only as friennds. He is too loving and silly at first to last long. Levi likes to go with all the girls—it makes no difference who. When he is with a girl, he is happy. He has been home with me from Singing [School] twice since then but I do not give him any encouragement as I am agoing to be true to my Fred, Maria, as I think he is true to me.
Maria, I am agoing to write joyful news—for me at least—and you will also take part in the pleasure as you think so much of me, and anything towards making your friends happy will make you happy also. Well I hear, or pretend to hear you say, “I wonder what that is?” It is simply this. Fred has joined the Temperance Division. He has now taken oath that no more liquor shall touch his lips. He was taken in or initiated the same night I was and it was partly by my influence that he’s joined. I do not think he would have joined if I had not. My name was carried in one week and Charlie Channell 3 came up for us to go down and be initiated (Lorna and I) but it was so stormy that our Mothers did no tthink it best. The next Monday night, we did not go down to be initiated and that day Charlie told Fred and Fred has his name sent in and that made us both initiated the same night. Oh! I was so glad. But he is a wild boy yet but he grows better, I think, and I hope and trust he may make a trustful man. It is my earnest, sincere prayer.
He is clerk in the Post Office now. The other day I called for a letter and Fred happened to wait on me. He took out the letter and seeing it was for me, opened it, took out the letter and gave me the envelope, and then gave me the letter. But he did not read any of it or attempt to. That is the way the fellow acts. He thinks I and all my property belong to him and if it don’t, my heart does. I guess if he had read the letter, he would have thought it funny that he was “poor Fred” and the rest you wrote. I guess he would have thought that if I loved him, I would not write his faults to others. But he did not read any of the letter. He would not be guilty of such ill manners. He knows better than to do that. Maybe sometime he will have an especial privilege to read the letters written me by my friends. But write freely to me Maria for he will not have that right yet awhile. He never has read any of my letters or I do not expect he will for a number of years at least.
But Maria, I have said enough of him already, only in conclusion I think he is trying to be better and I hope he will succeed for my sake and his. I have tried to stop loving him, tried to love another, but the old love will come back stronger than the new and it seems as if I loved him better than ever. He stays in the Post Office all night generally and I think it is real dangerous too and when I speak to him about it, he says that his Molly would not live a week if he should be killed and then he gives me such a sweet kiss and tells me he is not [at] all afraid—that there is no danger, and I don’t know as there is but I love him so well that if he should die, I do believe I should too. 4
Since I wrote last, I have only been to ride with him one Sunday evening and to two or three parties. I expect to go to another next week. But I shall let him drop now (as to writing any more about him). But we always like to write about those we love, you know. One word more, do not lose a syllable, dearest Maria, and remember it. (Oh, Fred has got a moustache growing for I can feel it when he kisses me!) Don’t tell.
Now, about another one. There is another boy who thinks the world of me and that is James Mussey. 5 He goes up to the Academy. He is Ellen Mussey’s brother. You knew her. He is real pretty but I like Fred the best.
How do you and Charlie get along? If Henry is engaged, I should think if Charlie is handsome and good, you would learn to love him. I shall you riding with Charlie so late to Head Quarters or come and see about it myself. You would like that, I know. But never mind, you are safe with those who love you and I know he loves you. One night I got vexed at Fred on account of a little trifle not worth telling and I acted mad at him coming home a little way, and Maria, the tears actually came into his eyes. I felt bad and I had to kiss him a pardon before he was himself again. He calls me his Molly as if we were engaged. Between you and I , Maria, Fred and I think a great deal of each other—as much as you and Charlie do.
School is out next Wednesday. Ain’t that glorious? All the girls are well. Rest Perkins, Carrie Foote, and Nettie Verder & Alzina Foster send their love and I send mine too. Maria, I presume you will have to give all yours to Charlie. If so, you need some others or else you would not have any. We are going to have good exercises at the [school?] this time the last Wednesday afternoon. We are going to have a Ladies’ Rights Convention of which I am a member. I am Miss Gadabout. Also Emma & Louise Frink, Annie Thomson, Hattie Bailey, Cornelia Prout, Lucy Eddy, Alice Pierpoint, Julia Humphrey, Carrie Foote, Alice Merit, Emily Giebeinger, Elisa Barnes, and all the 1st year but the 1st year do not have anything to say except Eliza and Barnes.
We wish you could be here the last day very much. How glad I should be to see your form again. I hope I may some time, don’t you? Also they are going to have another dialogue by three girls and two boys and another by some boys. Those I have not heard rehearsed. Miss [Lucy] Hudson is visiting here now. She has been to school two or three times.
I do not believe I can come and see you this summer. It is agoing to be such hard times. I think I shall take music lessons this summer. I go to Singing School now. Our teacher is Mr. Sherman. I have real good times to school now-a-days.
Have I not written a long enough letter this time? Write soon and write a sheet of foolscap as I have and answer soon. Your true friend, — Mary L. Lewis of Rutland, State of Vermont. R[utland] U[nion] H[igh] School of Rutland Village.
1 Davis Graham Moore was born in Keeseville, New York, on December 15, 1834, the son of Asa Davis Moore (1800-1872) and Mindia Campbell (1801-1884). After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1858, he became principal of Rutland High School, and, in 1865, he moved to Illinois. Moore was a railroad paymaster in Springfield in 1870 and spent most of the rest of his life in Danville; in the early 1880s, he worked for the Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railway in Cairo. Moore married Martha Jane Hudson, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, in 1864, and they had four children: Allen Henry (b. 1865), George D., Olie M., and Emily Lucy. Davis G. Moore died on September 13, 1919.
2 Levi B. Southard (184x-1873) and his brother Justus A. Southard (1846-1925) were the son of Lent F. Southard (1833-1900) and Susan L. Bishop (1xxx-1900) of Rutland, Vermont. Justus was married to Agnes M. Kettles (1847-1930) in 1868. Levi was married to Sarah Garr (1851-1930) in 1873 but died suddenly a few weeks later from some type of paralysis. He had been employed by the Central Vermont Railroad for three years prior to his death.
3 Charles (“Charlie”) Edward Channell (1846-1907) was the son of David Balch Channell and Calista Lucy Bowker of Rutland. He married Ida Laura Riford (1850-1914) in 1870. Charles was employed as a tinsmith for the repair department of the Rutland Railroad.
4 Mary’s concern for Fred’s safety when sleeping in the Post Office was probably well founded. Many soldiers sent their pay home in letters during the Civil War and it’s possible that at certain times the Post Office may have had hundreds or even thousands of dollars in it.
5 James B. Mussey (1848-1911) was the son of Henry Mussey (1795-1878) and Sabra A. Lawrence (1808-1900) of Rutland. His sister, Ellen A. Mussey (1844-1927) is mentioned in the letter as well. James married Frances Elizabeth Claghorn (1850-1933) in 1875. He was a farmer. We learn from the letter that he attended the Rutland Academy in 1864.
The following letter is a true copy of telegraphic correspondence that was sent from Gov. James Youngs Smith to President Abraham Lincoln, and the response by Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. It conveys the anxiety of citizens residing along the coastal regions of Narragansett Bay who felt vulnerable to attack by Rebel cruisers due to inadequate control of the West Passage into the Bay. During 1863 and 1864, temporary earthworks and an eight-gun battery were constructed on Dutch Island by the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored), alongside earthworks and a garrison at Camp James Y. Smith near South Ferry (the Bonnet) on the Narragansett mainland to block naval approaches through the West Passage.
Though the messages to and from Washington D. C. are real, the handwritten letters and signatures themselves were no doubt written by unidentified clerks or telegraphic operators.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
State of Rhode Island Executive Department Providence, [Rhode Island] June 27th 1863
To his Excellency, Abraham Lincoln President of the United States Washington D. C.
Great anxiety is felt here on account of the unprotected condition of Narragansett Bay. There is nothing to prevent a rebel incursion through the “West Passage” excposing to destruction this city, Fall River, and other towns on the bay. I respectfully request immediate authority to construct, arm and man suitable earthworks at the expense of the Federal Government and that the plans understood to be in the War Department for such works be furnished without delay. Also authority to cause all vessels to be brought to and inspected before entering the bay.
(signed) — James Y. Smith, Gov. of Rhode Island
[Response written on reverse]
By telegraph (Copy)
Washington June 27th, 1863
Providence, June 27th 1863
Gov. Smith,
I am instructed by the President to inform you that the authority asked for in your telegram of this date is granted to you. The chief of the Engineers Bureau is instructed to furnish you the plans & also an engineer officer to assist in laying out the work.
The following letter was written by Henry Dawson Wheatly (1831-1897) who enlisted in September 1862 as a private in Co. D, 50th Tennessee Infantry. He was taken prisoner in the surrender of Fort Donelson and “released as a doctor from Johnson Island” according to his muster rolls. He was elected 2nd Lieutenant of his company in June 1863 and three months later he was wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga and sent evenually to a hospital in Cassville, Georgia. The amputation of his right leg ended his military service in 1864.
Henry wrote the letter to his cousin, Major Samuel Hollingsworth Stout (1822-1903), a farmer with slaves in Giles county, Tennessee, before the Civil War, who volunteered his services as a surgeon to the Confederate Army of Tennessee. He had an M. D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Sam was a surgeon to the Third Tennessee Infantry from May to November 1861, and to Gordon Hospital in Nashville from November 1861 to February 1862.[4] He subsequently moved to Chattanooga, where he was in charge of hospitals for the Army of Tennessee. By the summer of 1864, his responsibilities had expanded to sixty Confederate hospitals in the Southern states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. By the end of the war, he had lost his Giles County farm.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Cassville, Georgia May 5th 1864
Dr. S. H. Stout, my dear cousin,
I have intended writing to you ever since I have been able to go about, but it has ben almost impossible for me to confine myself long enough. Shortly after you left me, my wound ceased to heal altogether. We soon discovered that the Tibia had necrosis & of course would have to be removed. Dr. Wright performed the operation about six weeks ago since which time I have improved very fast. I am now able to go about everywhere I choose on my crutches. I hope that it will not be long before I am able to go to Atlanta & spend a few days with you. I feel that a short trip would be of great benefit to me now.
I received a letter from my sister, Mrs. Bradshaw, about four weeks since. Her family & my own were all well. She says that the Federals have broken Brother Will completely up. Poor fellow! he has ha a hard time of it. If I am not able to go to Atlanta before long, I do not know what is to become of me for I am pretty near out of clthing. Since you were here I have removed my Headquarters from Dr. Fry’s to Dr. Nichols’ ward, No. 4. It is much more convenient for me. I have a nice little room on the lower floor with the door openings on the street so that I can get in and out without any difficulty. I never can [ ] to thank you, cousin Sam, for sending me to this hospital for if I were an [ ] child, I could not be more kindly treated than I have been by Drs Hunter and Fry. And though I may live an hundred years, I can never remember them but with feelings of the deepest gratitude. If you have any spare time, please write to me. No news from the front.
I could not find an image of George but here is one of his 1st Sergeant, William D. Phillips, Co. E, 27th OVI (Photo Sleuth)
The following letter was written by Corp. George W. Miller (1840-1862) of Co. E, 27th Ohio Infantry. At the time of the 1860 US Census, 19 year-old George and his brother Harvey V. Miller (1839-1862) were enumerated in the household of an older brother (James W.) on his farm near Dawkin’s Mill, Jackson county, Ohio. His father, Adam Miller (1806-1881) was living with his 2nd wife, Patsy Ward (1816-1874) in Lawrence county, Ohio, with at least eight of George’s half-siblings. George’s mother, Elizabeth Hulett (1810-1840) died in Fayette county, Virginia, before the family moved to Ohio. George wrote the letter to his older sister, Nancy Jane (Miller) Ward (1832-1931), the wife of George Ward (1825-1872) of Waterloo, Lawrence county, Ohio.
George wrote his letter in August 1862 from the regiment’s camp near Corinth, Mississippi. By this time the regiment had seen action in Missouri and participated in the capture of New Madrid and Island No. 10. They then participated in the Battle of Iuka and would soon see action in the Second Battle of Corinth where George was killed in action on 4 October 1862 [another source says he died two days later]. His brother Harvey also served in the same company and died in St. Louis on 15 June 1862, presumably by disease.
George’s letter dwells heavily on Negro Emancipation or the “Negro Question” as it was often referred to. His views are consistent with the majority of the Union soldiers, particularly from southern Ohio where the 27th Ohio Regiment was raised.
This letter is from the private collection of Greg Herr and was made available for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp of the 27th Near Corinth, Mississippi August 6th 1862
Mrs. Nancy Ward,
Dear sister—I seat myself to write you a few lines to inform you that I am enjoying a very reasonable portion of health and trust this will find you enjoying good health. I am in camp today and thought that I would write you a few lines for your perusal when you have a leisure time.
I have been in the Army near 13 months and have been in several states since I came out from Ohio. I have been in several fights. I have marched several hundred miles and have seen a great portion of the country. I have seen some as fine farms as could be found in America. I have seen more in the last 13 months than in all my past life before.
I can’t say that I am very tired of soldiering. You only [know] the condition that this war has come to. I know that it is a speculation to some there. I do not like to fight and expose myself for the plagued Negro to be free as I am plaugue on the Negro question. I wish some of the men that is agitating this Emanicipation and Negro Equality had to be in front of the battle.
I think that it will be a long time before this war will close from the present circumstances. I wish it was in some form that we could whip the Secesh and let the Negro stay where he is. I think the Negro has been living for some time with the Southern people and why not let them alone where they are, for I know that I don’t want to stay in the Southern climate any longer than I will have to stay. The country is very rough and not worth anything to anybody. I am tired of this warm state and want to go to a Northern climate where it is not so warm and sultry that a man cannot get his breath hardly. This is a hard place for white men.
I will not write a very long letter this time as it is so warm in my tent. Nancy, I have forgot whether I have ever written to you before or not. I will say that I mean no harm by just writing to you this time as I never have written before. I am well and trust this will find you enjoying the blessing of God who rules on high. I trust you are trying to live for heaven when done with Earth. I want to live right in the sight of my Maker. May God save us in His Kingdom when done with Earth and its cares. Pray for me. Give my best respects to all my friends and relations. I will close by saying oblige me by writing soon. Yours in love. From G. W. Miller
To Nancy Ward
Tell [your husband] George and the children that I will write to them soon. I want to hear from you soon. Tell Cintha Miller I am well.
Francis Stebbins Bartow (1816-1861), killed at Bull Run on 21 July 1861.
The following letter was written by Francis Stebbins Bartow (1816-1861) who had it all before the Civil War—a law career, a senator for a father-in-law, wealth in plantations and slaves, political rank and military ambitions. But he risked it all on the battlefield and became the first high-ranking Georgian to be killed in the Civil War. Bartow was born in 1816 in Savannah. His marriage to the daughter of U.S. Senator and former Attorney General John Macpherson Berrien’s daughter helped launch his political career in the state legislature. In 1856, he was elected captain of Savannah’s Oglethorpe Light Infantry and led the daring capture of Fort Pulaski in early 1861.
“Shortly thereafter, Bartow was elected a delegate to the state secession convention in Milledgeville, where as a member of the so-called immediate secessionist faction he used his great oratorical skills to influence the convention to pass an ordinance of secession. Following the withdrawal of Georgia from the Union in January 1861, Bartow was elected to the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama. There he unsuccessfully schemed with his friends Thomas R. R. Cobb and Howell Cobb to get the latter elected as the new Confederacy’s first president. He also chaired the state house military affairs committee and in this role reputedly selected gray as the color for the Confederate uniforms.
Having campaigned vigorously to create a new nation ruled by slaveholders, Bartow then decided to fight for it. After the Civil War began in April 1861, he rushed home to take the “Oglethorpes” to the front in Virginia. He became embroiled in a confrontation with Governor Brown when he armed his unit with muskets that Brown claimed belonged to Georgia and were intended strictly for state defense, not for troops going into Confederate national service. A heated exchange of letters followed, in which Brown demanded the return of the muskets and Bartow not so politely told him he had no time for such foolishness. At the close of one letter to the governor, Bartow declared, “I go to illustrate, if I can, my native State,” a bombastic yet wonderfully turned phrase that would later adorn his tombstone.
After arriving in Virginia, Bartow was elected colonel of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment. By July 1861 he was in command of a brigade, which he clumsily led into combat at the First Battle of Manassas. On July 21, during a critical moment, he seized the regimental colors and attempted to lead a charge on a Union battery, but he was shot through the heart. He died moments later, supposedly uttering the oft-quoted last words, “They have killed me boys, but never give up the field,” which, along with his earlier quip to Governor Brown, are inscribed on his tombstone.” [New Georgia Encylopedia]
Note: The image in the header of this web page is Don Troiani’s Painting entitled, “Never Give up the Field.” Bartow (wearing a blue uniform) is depicted at center, sitting on the ground clutching his wound, surrounded by his men in gray.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Montgomery [Alabama] March 9, 1861
My dear Henry,
I received your letter yesterday. I am about to set out for Savannah this evening to attend the [Georgia Secession] Convention. I assure you that attention of this government has been directed to the condition of Fort Pulaski and the defenses of Savannah. I have not been [indifferent?] of these important interests, and [emissaries?] were sent there for the very purpose of reporting to the President [Jefferson Davis] the exact condition of things there. I have read to the Secretary of War, several portions of your letter as I thought important to communicate. [ ] has been ordered to the post & to assume charge of its defenses. The President has sent to Gov. [Joseph E.] Brown for 200 volunteers — also for Savannah. I will see when I get home if we cannot furnish you a regiment from that place.
Permit me to say that two governments cannot better have control of military operations. You are mistaken in your estimate of the power and resources of this government. We have plenty of money & our state ought to be relieved of the cost of supporting an army & providing munitions, as soon as this can be done consistent with our safety. All the apparent conflicts can be easily [furnished?] by a clear understanding of the true position of affairs. I should exceedingly regret in the very commencement of our independence, any misunderstanding between the State of Georgia and the Confederate Government.
I am so sure of the intelligence of our state to harbor any doubt. I hope I may see you in Savannah. Give my regards to Gov. Brown.
The following brief letter was written by Oliver Paul Gooding (1835-1909) of Greenfield, Hancock county, Indiana. At 18, he entered West Point and graduated in 1858. After various assignments to military posts, he entered the Civil War as an officer in the 31st Massachusetts (converted to 6th Massachusetts Cavalry), and then was promoted to command the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Division, 19th Army Corps. On the Red River Campaign, in 1864, he commanded the Fifth Brigade, Cavalry Division, Department of the Gulf, and at the end of that campaign was assigned to the command of the division. In command of the Union Troops at Campti, on the north bank of Red River, the 4th day of April, 1864, General Gooding, in a hotly contested cavalry action, defeated the enemy under General Siddell. At the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, in command of his brigade, the 9th day of April, 1864, General Gooding gallantly fought and held the enemy in check till the Union Army came into position, his hat being shot off his head, the bullet grazing his scalp.
Note: This letter and image is from the personal collection of Kyle A. Williams and was made available for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Headquarters 5th Brigade, Cavalry Division [Dept. of the Gulf] Morganza, Louisiana May 26th, 1864
Officers & Soldiers of the 2nd N. Y. Veteran Cavalry,
It is with extreme regret that I part with you. Though not of a personal nature, still there are few associations in life more dear than that between a commander and his command, formed during a campaign in a common cause. Such has been our association. For the gallant fighting you have done under my command, accept the grateful thanks of a soldier. And wherever the fortunes of war may lead you, rest assured that my heart will follow you, my comrades of the 2nd New York—farewell.
Spared & Shared 23 