19th Ohio Infantry, 78th Ohio Infantry, Battle of Shiloh, Battle of Stones River, Destruction of Bowling Green, Ky., Siege of Corinth

1861-63: Charles E. Koonts to Clara Koonts

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I could not find an image of Koonts but here is a watercolor of Charles W. Sprankle of Co. F, 19th OVI.

Lost his life in the Battle of Chickamauga reads the epitaph on the headstone of Charles E. Koonts (1844-1863) of Co. E, 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). Charles was the son of baker/confectioner Joseph F. Koonts (1819-1891) and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Munch (1822-1904), of Putnam, Muskingum County, Ohio.

Though he claimed to be 18 at the time of his enlistment in October 1861, I believe Charles was only 17. He was promoted from a private to corporal in January 1863 and was killed in action at the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 September 1863.

Charles addressed all of his letters to his younger sister, Clara Koonts.

Over the years I have transcribed a number of letters by members of the 19th OVI but Koonts’ are the first from Co. E. The others include:

Moses L. Hower, Co. A, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Henry Raubenstine, Co. A, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Augustus Dilley, Co. B, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Jesse Smith, Co. B, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Lyman Tylee, Co. B, 19th Ohio (3 Letters)
Marcellus Ovando Messer, Co. C, 19th Ohio (2 Letters)
Ovando M. Messer, Co. C, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Jacob Ruch, Co. F, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Charles Frederick Frink, Co. G, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Henry Clay Elson, Co. H, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Daniel C. Lower, Co. I, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)

Letter 1

Alliance, [Ohio]
October 11, 1861

Dear Sister,

I received your letter of the 7th yesterday and as I was on guard, I had not time to answer it. There is a fair here. There goes the gar. 1 “Hurrah for the gar. P. S. the sarl can’t go at all.

I have nothing of any importance to say as I am here in camp and nothing going on. But I expect that we shall leave here pretty soon as the regiment is about full. Before I forget, I would say that you must write me. And give it in care of Jennings Northup as we expect to leave pretty soon. If he should leave before you receive this, don’t write until you receive my next letter.

It is about dinner time. I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. Please send me a little money to get some washing done. you have no idea how much better I would feel if I had a little money to get some milk now and then. Please excuse bad writing and all other mistakes.

Goodbye. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts

Later. The Boys say that the provisions are all taken away except three days so I think we will soon leave. At least I hope so.

1 We have come to recognize G. A. R. as the Grand Army of the Republic—an organization of war veterans created in 1866. It is reported however that “gar” referred to the grand army of the republic at an even earlier date.

Letter 2

Alliance [Ohio]
October 13, 1861

Dear Sister,

I take my pencil in hand to let you know that we shall stay a little longer than I thought we would yesterday. Some say we will go and some say we won’t. So I shant believe it until we get off. I have nothing to say but I want you to get Pa to send me a little money to pay the postage on my letters. And I need about 15 cents to get my hair cut. I owe four letters—two that I have sent as the tamps you sent are the old ones and they won’t go up here. Goodbye. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts

Letter 3

Alliance Camp Ford [Ohio]
24 October 1861

Dear Sister,

I received your letter of the 22nd and as I have nothing to do this evening, I hastened to answer it. I am well and hope you are the same. The news is now that we will leave Monday or Tuesday for Louisville, Kentucky, but we have been leaving ever since we have been here. But I hope we will leave soon.

I have nothing to say but to let you know that I have everything I need now. I have a double blanket and have ordered a gum blanket and have a nice oil cloth. The gum blanket that we have ordered are to be paid for when we draw our first pay. The captain says that when he was in Mexico, he had one of these gums and when the rest were all wet, he was dry. And he says the oil cloth will do very well until it gets cold and then it will break. But the gum will make a nice dry bed when we have to lay out.

There is that old drum a beating and I have but a few minutes to write so I must bring my letter to a close.

P. S. Here is it Sunday and I have not finished my letter yet. The talk is now that we will stay a month yet. But there is no telling when we shall have to leave. But if we have to stay here long, I think we shall have to come home or at least go down to Camp Dennison for it is so cold up here that we will freeze.

Before I forget it, I wish you to print my name on some muslin and send up to put on my clothes. Oh, there is no use a talking. I can’t write any more for it is too cold this morning.

Give my respects and compliments to all the Boys and Girls and that’s all. So I will dry up. A fine day this morn. So goodbye. Yours respectfully, — C. E. Koonts

Letter 4

Camp Ford [Alliance, Ohio]
Wednesday, November 6, 1861

Dear Sister,

I take my pencil in hand to let you know that I am well and hope you are the same. The rumor is now that we are going away tomorrow morning for Camp Dennison. I must bring my letter to a close as it is time for the mail to leave.

I received the portfolio that you sent me by M. F. and I am very much pleased with it for it is a thing that everybody ought to have a soldiering to carry paper in.

P. S. I must bring my letter to a close. If you could only see the boys a wading in the mud, you would think that we were sick of it. You need not write until I write you again. Goodbye. Yours respectfully, — Charles Koonts

Letter 5

Camp Tod
November 22, 1861

Dear Sister,

I am now in Kentucky six miles west of Louisville and as it is raining, I thought I would improve my time in writing to you. I received the money you sent me to Camp Dennison the evening before we got orders to leave. Last Frday evening we all went to bed and about eleven o’clock we got orders to pack up for to leave in the morning at daylight. So we got up and packed everything up and about two o’clock the Boys were all asleep. I sit up by the fire worried about how I could get out to have my picture taken but as good luck would have it, I got on one of the wagons and went down to the railroad depot and had my picture taken and just had time to get on the car. And now I am bad off as ever as I have the picture and hate to send it by mail for fear it will be lost. I might of had it taken by Mr. Benjamin if I could of seen him on the boat at Cincinnati but somehow it happened that I didn’t get to see him. But I am going to try and send it as a soldier’s package as I think it the best way.

You wanted to know how we live and a little about camp life. We have our tents all put up in regular order and the tents are about ten feet long and eight feet wife for eleven men to keep all their gum knapsacks, blankets, overcoats, &c.,so you can judge how much room we have. But in our tent, we have more room than the rest of them as there is three wagoners in our tent and they sleep in their wagon.

Patriotic image on Koonts’ envelope

We have been getting crackers for the last few days and they are good for the kind, I think, and us Boys growl at an awful rate. But we have nice light bread today and the Boys say that the Quartermaster has made arrangements with a baker in Louisville to make bread for the regiment and send it to us until we get to Nashville. But the meat is the worst we have [had] for it is salty that we can hardly eat it. And the coffee is something like that Gen. McClellan seen in Virginia—a little like slop. It is made in a big iron kettle and they ain’t very clean and in the first place, the coffee isn’t of any account. The beans are scorched one half the time and everything else in about the same way.

We have to get up at daylight to roll call and clean out the tents and wash and comb and by that time breakfast is ready. After that we put on our rigging and go to drilling an hour and a half and then sit around until dinner is ready. But standing guard such a day as this is the worst thing we have to do. Stand two hours and not stop is the rule, but some of the Boys do as they please—just so they ain’t seen is all they care for. There is a regiment of Minnesota Boys i camp just next to our lines and a battery of artillery, and one just came in this morning.

P. S. I must quit writing. I am well and hope you are all the same. I will send my likeness and if you [get] the letter, look for the picture. But I will send them both together and I hope that you may get them both. If you write, direct your letter to me in the same way that you have:

C. E. Koonts
Company E, 19th [Ohio] Regt.
Near Louisville
Care of Capt. [Urwin] Bean, Col. [Samuel] Beatty commanding.

Letter 6

Camp Jenkins near Louisville
November 28, 1861

Dear Sister,

I take my pencil in hand to let you know that I am well and hope you are the same. The weather is very cold and rainy for the last two or three days past and it is trying to snow or rain now. I wonder if there is going to be any battalion drill. Before I forget it, I must tell you that all the Putnam–Zanesville Boys are here now. I seen cousin Louis. He looks as big and hearty as ever. There is two or three regiments coming in every day. The 51st and 19th came together, and since that the 2nd, 21st, 33rd, 59th, 41st, 3rd, 24th, 6th, and 15th Regulars, all from Ohio, and the 3rd Minnesota with three or four batteries of artillery have come in and encamped in sight of us.

I gave my likeness to the mail boy to put in the office yesterday and if you get this letter first, you must look out for it. I suppose you are and have looked for it if you got my last letter for I told you I would send it and neglected it for two or three days. And if you got the last letter, I expect you have been worried about it. But it is on the road now and I hope it will get to you as it is impossible to get one now unless there should be a car come in camp.

P. S. I just this minute thought of my gun. I want you to keep it and tell Pa to not let it go out of the house as I want to keep it as long as I live to remember grandpa. I must close my letter. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — Charles E. Koonts

Letter 7

[Camp Boyle]
Columbia [Adair county, Kentucky]
December 29, 1861

Dear Sister,

I received your letter and was glad to hear from you. I heard some of the Boys say that it was rumored in Zanesville that the 19th Ohio was in a fight and cut to pieces. But we have been in camp and haven’t seen a secessionist yet and the Boys are all a growing [ornery] because they can’t get into a fight. But I hope that we will get among them the next move we make as there has been a little skirmishing about 18 miles from us. We had four farmers take prisoners and five horses and rifles. They kept them three or four days and let them go again. They were taken up on suspicion of killing one of our pickets.

On our last march, we crossed Green river and to my surprise, I seen that the water was as green as some of the ponds in the summer time in our country and several of the branches are green. One of the branches is Russell’s Creek where we go Saturday afternoons to do our washing. It is of a greenish cast but when you get close to the bank, is as clear as a crystal. You can see the bottom and the fish swimming around.

Before I forget it, I will say that this Christmas went off as dry as last Christmas did when I was on the boat tied up in the woods and had no gun caps to go a hunting. And now New Years is at hand and we are in camp and can’t get out and no way to get anything to have a big dinner. But we shall have to do like we did Christmas. We had for dinner coffee, beef stake, hominy, and hard tack—sea bread, as the boys call it. And New Years we will have hominy, beef stake, and coffee.

I must bring my letter to a close as it is about dinner time. You wanted to know the boys in my tent. There is no Putnam Boys to commence with. There is four from New Lisbon and six from Zanesville—all first rate boys. At least I think we have the best tent on the ground. The boys are all well although they grumble about the eatables. I must get ready for my dinner. I am well and hope you are the same. Please excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye. Yours truly, — Charles E.

To Miss Clara Koonts, Putnam, Ohio

Letter 8

Camp Cumberland
January 12, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter of the 5th and was glad to hear from you. We left camp Boyle Tuesday the 7th and had a long and weary march through the mud and over the hills. We marched 5 miles Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday we marched all day and at night we had no provisions or tents with us. And the worst of it was it rained for about four or five hours and we all got wet before the tents came to us. We got in camp Thursday evening and had nothing to eat as the roads was so bad that the teams couldn’t keep up with us. I was on guard that night and after the countersign came out, I went out to get some chickens or anything I could find. There was five of us together and we went to a farm house and got seven chickens for our dinner the next day.

Patriotic image on Koonts’ envelope

P. S. I must leave my writing and get ready for reveille. We are encamped on the bank of the Cumberland river about 4 miles from Burkesville. Before I forget it, I must say that the three months men say the roads we came over beats all they ever saw. The last day we marched was along a creek and some of the boys crossed it 19 times and when we wasn’t in the creek, we was in cornfields wading in mud shoe top deep. I won’t say anymore on the subject as it is impossible for me to give you the least idea how it looked or how we felt.

We had inspection and review today which I think is a good sign of pay day. It if ain’t, I think it is about time anyhow as we [are] to be paid every two months. You said when you got my last letter, it was the first for five weeks but it didn’t surprise me any as I hadn’t written any.

P. S. I don’t know whether you can read it or not but I will proceed anyhow. Before I forget it, I will say that I have paper and if I get out, I can get it at the sutlers as cheap as you can send it but the stamps can’t be had. I want you to put a stamp in your letters when I use those you sent me. I must bring my letter to a close and get ready for bed as it is about time for roll call. It just came in my mind—tell Pa that the fruitcake was very nice, I suppose, but that is all the good it done me. I would like to have had the cake if I could of got it but as it is, I am sorry you sent it.

The drum has beat and I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. The name of the camp is Cumberland in Cumberland county near Burkesville, Kentucky.

Goodbye, — Charles E.

Camp Cumberland, January 13th

The weather is very changeable here. THe first day it was very warm but yesterday and today it has been very cold. Last evening it snowed and today the weather has moderated and it is so muddy. There is no drill & it is raining. It is rumored here that we have to go back to Columbia and some think we will and some say we won’t. But the Boys would as leave stay here and live on corn meal as to march back. Goodbye. — C. E. Koonts

Letter 9

Camp Green
January 29, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter of the 22nd and was glad to hear from you. We are encamped on a large hill on the Cumberland River about thirty miles above Burkesville where we were when I wrote last. We are blockading the river and it is thought that we will have to stay here for some time. There is a bettery of artillery and a Kentucky regiment and our regiment here now but it is though that there will be several more here before long.

Patriotic letterhead on Koonts’ stationery

The battle you spoke of the 19th wasn’t in at all. We were on the march and couldn’t get there. But the talk is that there was a big fight about ten miles above where we are now encamped. I haven’t had a true report of it yet so I won’t say anything about it as you will get a full account of it in the paper before you receive my [letter]. So you need not trouble yourself about me as we haven’t seen a secessionist yet.

The weather is very warm and a shower every other day don’t surprise us at all. The Boys are all well and growling because the secessionists all leave about the time the 19th [Ohio] comes around. I just came off guard and have some washing to do [so] I will have to make my letter short. You said that you put a few lines in Ben Drake’s letter. I haven’t received it yet. I told Ben that we might save stamps by putting our letters together and hear from you oftener.

There is a storm coming up and the boys are all at work fixing the tent so that I must bring my letter to a close. Tell Mr. Drake about sending the two letters in one envelope as it will not be any more trouble to you or her. I am well and hope you are the same. Give my respects and compliments to all the boys and girls and I will do the best I can on porks and beans a few months longer. As the happy family are all well but one, he has the measles. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye, — C. E. Koonts

Letter 10

Camp Green
February 19, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received the letter you put in Ben Drake’s letter of the 20th last night and as I had a good opportunity, I thought that I would write a few lines. I received your letter of January 23rd with money and stamps and haven’t received any answer yet. You said that Ben Drake and Mehitable told two or three tales about our camp. The camp is on a hill about four or five hundred feet above the river as near as I could guess. The 6th Ohio Battery commands the river. The 3rd Kentucky Infantry regiment are a few rods west of the battery and we are [ ] north of the Kentuckians. There is a company of cavalry about two miles north of [us]. I expect you think that we are right among the rebels but we haven’t seen one yet and it is doubtful whether we ever will. The Boys are afraid that we will have to go home without ever having a fight or any signs of one. There is about as much danger here as there was up at Camp Ford [in Alliance, Ohio] and hardly that for the officers had a little fight there and haven’t since.

As there is nothing of any importance, I will bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts

Letter 11

Camp Andrew Jackson
March 13, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter dated February 24th and was very glad to hear from you. When I received your letter it was so late that I couldn’t answer it that evening and the next day we removed our camp so that I haven’t had time to write before. We arrived at Nashville Thursday the 6th and camped outside of the town until we got orders to cross the river. The 3rd Ohio Regiment are encamped about a mile from our camp. Luis is in that regiment but I haven’t seen him yet. But some of the boys that have been over say he is well as ever.

We camped out about four miles from Nashville until day before yesterday [when] we marched to the town through the rain as usual for when we march, it always does rain. We marched into the town and crossed the river on a boat and made a fine appearance marching through the city.

I must say something about Nashville and Bowling Green. At Bowling Green the rebels were fortified very strong. They had seven different forts. The strongest one, on the opposite side of the river, mounted nineteen guns, and the one above the town mounted nineteen 32-pound guns. The others were smaller. 1 They burned two bridges and several houses and stores and the railroad depot and round house with four or five locomotives and small arms, camp kettles, &c. They had a great many provisions here as it was one of the main points for stores. Before they left, they set the citizens to work burning pork and beef. Our company being detailed to guard the town while the regiment was there, we got to run over the town for two days.

Our march from there was a more pleasant one that we are use to having. The Boys prefer the pike to mud roads. We got in camp near Nashville Thursday, March the 6th, stayed in camp a few days, and [then] we were ordered across the river. We got orders to get ready to march Sunday morning but as it did not rain, so we didn’t march until Monday morning. We got ready to leave and then it began to rain. We marched to town and crossed the river and marched about two miles out of the town where we are now in camp. The rebels didn’t do as much damage here as they did in Bowling Green as they were pressed so close that they hadn’t time. About all they done was to burn two bridges to stop our men from overtaking them.

We are to be paid off tomorrow, I think, but it is about time as we haven’t had any yet and six months has passed. There was one of the coolest tricks of the season was done by a man by the name of Morgan. He rode into one of the camps and said that he had as good a right to them horses as they had. He took 70 or 80 horses and several men with him but they were all retaken but five or six. There is two or three regiments on guard around and about here now and today there was two or three went out a scouting.

The boys are all well, hearty, and ragged but are expecting some clothing as there [are] but few fit for duty. It is time for dress parade so I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. The drums is beating so I must bring my letter to a close. So goodbye. Yours truly, — Charles E.

1 Another soldier, Lt. David P. Doughtery of Circleville who served in the 13th Ohio Infantry, described Bowling Green in similar terms in a letter to his wife on 16 February 1862: Before leaving they [the Rebels] set fire to the town, burning a great portion of the best buildings. They have been leaving here for a week, or even since they got news of our advance, which was no doubt as soon as we started, as we are in an enemy’s country, and must expect them to have spies. But Kentucky is now ours once more and I don’t know where they will stand and fight if they won’t here. You would be surprised to see the fortifications that they have made around here. I have been in two of the forts. They are very formidable indeed. There are eleven different fortifications in the vicinity of town, and besides those is miles of breastworks strung along the ridges on this side of the river. It certainly does appear to me that they never do intend to give us a fight. I certainly think that twenty thousand good men in these forts could whip one hundred thousand of the best soldiers in the world that would come against them. All I can say in the matter is, “I am completely beat,” to know that they, after so much labor and preparation, have quit them without a fight. The rebels have retreated from here to Nashville, Tennessee, and it is said that they will make a stand there, and I expect that in a very short space of time we will be moving on again after them. If we are successful in driving them out of there, they will have nothing left to do by to “sue” for “Peace,” for they can go no farther….[Source: The Western Theater in the Civil War, by Darryl Smith, 4 August 2021]

Letter 12

Chicksaw Bluffs 1
April 12, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter dated March 20th and was glad to hear from you. The reason I haven’t written was because we have been marching so much that I haven’t had time and when we have time, we can’t always send our mail.

You have told me that I always know where to direct my letters and ought to write oftener than I do, but I never told you that we were in an enemy’s country and it’s very seldom we can mail our letters. This day one week ago we encamped about eight miles from Savannah [Hardin Co., Tennessee]. Sunday morning when we got up the sun was shining and the orders were to pack up our knapsack as it was but a short march to Savannah. We started and about ten o’clock we heard cannonading off at a distance. Some of the officers said it was thirty miles.

The boys were all in good spirits thinking there would be a chance for a fight. We marched very slow till we got very near in town when we marched into a field and got 40 rounds of cartridges and three days rations of crackers and sugar. We started for town and marched very fast will we got to the [Tennessee] river. We then got on a boat about dark and stayed there about an hour or two and then we started for Pittsburg Landing. We arrived there about midnight and then we marched out a half of a mile I suppose and laid down on our arms. We hadn’t laid there but a few minutes till it began to rain very hard which wasn’t very nice as our guns had to be kept dry.

The next morning we were drawn up in line, loaded our guns and marched out on the field and the firing commenced and was kept up all day very hot. Our captain said it was the heaviest musketry he ever heard. think it was as hot as ever was heard at any battle. I am glad to say that all the Putnam boys got through the fight all right and our company got off very well [compared] to what most of the companies in the regiment did. We only had one man wounded in our company. The regiment had 65 killed, missing, and wounded. 2

There is a mail going out and I must bring my letter to a close. I need not try to give you any account of the battle as you will get a full account of it before this letter reaches you. I am well and hope you are the same. I would write more but as the mail is going out now, I can’t. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts

Please give this to Mrs. E. A. Koonts and oblige. — Charles E.

1 The datelining of Koonts’ letter makes no sense to me whatsoever. The 19th OVI remained in the vicinity of Pittsburg Landing until advancing with the army on Corinth soon after this letter was written. Period newspapers refer to “Chickasaw Bluffs (4 different locations!) in the spring of 1862 but these are all in reference to sites near Memphis on the Mississippi river—not the Tennessee River.

2 “The 19th OVI arrived at Pittsburg Landing late in the evening on April 6, 1862, disembarking from the steamer Planet and forming a line behind the 59th Ohio Infantry. On April 7, attached temporarily to General William Nelson’s division within the 11th Brigade under Brigadier General Jeremiah T. Boyle, the 19th advanced under General Thomas L. Crittenden’s orders, shifting front to support Captain Joseph Bartlett’s Battery G on a hill brow [some 250 yards north of the Hornet’s Nest on the Eastern Corinth Road] while deploying skirmishers against Confederate positions in an open field. Facing intense artillery and sharpshooter fire, the regiment delivered volleys, dispatched two companies as skirmishers to aid Nelson’s division, and captured 10 to 12 prisoners while helping repel enemy assaults, demonstrating endurance in its first major combat despite heavy exposure. Losses included 4 killed (among them Major Lyman S. Edwards acting as lieutenant colonel), 44 wounded, and 8 missing, as reported by Colonel Samuel Beatty on April 9.” [Grokipedia]

Letter 13

Camp Childs
May 9th 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter dated April 21st and was very glad to hear from you. We have been on the march for several days and are now about eight miles off Corinth waiting for to make an attack on Corinth. We have been one month now advancing on Corinth and I suppose that our generals must have everything about ready for to commence operations.

Our boys all dread the coming battle but they think if we can whip them out of their entrenchments and take a lot of prisoners, it will be about our last fight and I wouldn’t be sorry if it was all done now for going into a battle is not what it is cracked up to be—especially for them that have never been in a fight, to march all day and get on a boat and be landed within a mile of the enemy about ten o’clock at night after getting on shore and drawn up in line, [and] ordered to lie down on our arms. After laying down about 15 minutes, it commenced raining or rather pouring down and the officers crying, “Keep your guns dry, boys!” You better believe it is a nice job sitting in the rain and mud till morning, get up and eat a piece of hard tack and a little flick [flitch]—if you got it—and then fall in ranks and load our guns and start for the secessioners.

Marching over the dead was about the first thing attracted our attention with the exception of the big guns that were firing all night to keep the enemy uneasy so they wouldn’t sleep too sound on the strength of their day’s work. They had a very nice victory won Sunday night and their intentions were to get up Monday morning and drive the Yankees into the river which would only be a breakfast job. But as it happened, the biggest part of Beull’s Army [of the Ohio] crossed [the river] Sunday evening and I suppose it kind of got them when they found that they were driven over the ground they had taken Sunday. Some of the prisoners said they thought that when they drove our men from camp to camp, all they would have to do Monday [would be] to get up and drive our men into the river. It has always been said that the secesh wouldn’t fight but I think you never will hear a man say that they won’t fite that was in the battle of Chiloh [Shiloh] plains. I guess that I have said enuf about the fite so I will dry up.

You said you wrote on the second but I haven’t received it yet. It must be delayed somewhere. Since we landed at Pittsburg, we have been in a wood ever since and every time we move our camp we have about a week’s work to clean out the underbrush and then we cut bushes and brush up the leaves. As we have no drill, I think it is a good idea, for some of the boys would lay around id they wasn’t drove to work or drill. All the Putnam boys that are in the company now are well and hearty.

I saw some of the 78th [Ohio] boys a couple weeks ago and I think they are about as homesick as there is any need to be. I saw Lieut. [Greenbury F.] Wiles and Card. They are both well. Lieut. Wiles is acting captain of Co. C in Capt. [Samuel W.] Spencer’s place. John Weaver, B. Scott, Mr. [William] Roper and [Asuph] Cooper, W. Curtis, [&] Chas. Buncher are all well but tired of soldiering. Jos. Osman wasn’t very well. He had [been] very sick but was better when I saw him.

Dinner is ready [and] I must go for my beans. I am well and hope you are the same. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye, — Charles E.

Letter 14

Camp Battle Creek
August 8th 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your letter of July 30th and was glad to hear from you. We are still at Camp Battle Creek and no signs of leaving yet but there is no telling how soon we may have to leave. You said that Ben Drake said in his letter that we was still on half rations. I told you so in my letter but I expect Ben told you that we were about starved out. Half rations are about as little as a man can live on and do duty but we get along first rate as we were not out of money. We are getting full rations of eatables and clothing and our band has new instruments and we are getting full rations of music. It would be a great expense to the government to furnish each regiment with a band but we couldn’t get along without ours for we have had a band ever since we started and to be without it would make every day as dry as Sunday.

We drawed hats since we have been here and our band new instruments and a nice uniform and with all this, we can put on the style equal to the 78th [Ohio].

Patriotic image on Koonts’ envelope

You said that Ben Drake talked of going in the regular service and that Howard [ ] and I thought of going. I told him about it and he said Howard and himself did talk of going but he hadn’t said anything about me. If he did, he knew more about it than I did myself for I haven’t thought of such a thing nor he has no reason to think I was going for when the the boys were talking about it, I never said I was going or would go as some did. There is a heap of talk about drafting. The boys are wishing that some of the fellows that got them into it and then stayed at home and talk about what we are doing [would be drafted]. There is some talk today of the President ordering three hundred thousand more. This suits the boys from what I can learn for the more the better for us.

You say I never said anything about Uncle Phil. I never did but I thought that I had told you that I had received your letter telling about him being captured.

I must bring my letter to a close as it is about time for dress parade. Before I close my letter I will say to you to direct your letters to the same as I told you before. Never direct them to any town for there is hospitals in most all the towns and no doubt but that is the way they are mislaid. Directions: Co. E, 19th Ohio Vols., USA, Crittenden’s Division, Buell’s Army [of the Ohio], is all that is required. I must now bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope that these few lines will find you the same. Yours truly, — Charles E.

P. S. Tell cousin Sam to write as soon as he is able.

Letter 15

[Murfreesboro, Tennessee]
Sunday morning, December [January] 11, 1863

It is with pleasure that I seat myself to let you know that I am still alive. I may not try to tell you anything about the fight [at Stones River], but I will say that it was a little warmer than I want to see again. Our division was on the left wing and the rebels broke out on the right and captured a battery and set the infantry to flight. Our brigade were sent for and when we got on the pike, our troops were coming on a full run. Our regiment and the 9th Kentucky were drawn up in line and a whole brigade went through our ranks. When they got out of the way, the rebels were right in sight coming full tilt. We let loose on them like a thousand of brick, as the saying is. We fired a few rounds when we got orders to charge. We checked them and drove them out of [the] woods where they had drove our men so nicely. This is the way we passed the old year off and New Years.

We were laying all day in readiness to go to any point that they might attack us. The next day we went a short distance across a creek and about three o’clock they came on us in large numbers. There was a whole brigade in front of us and when the rebels came on them, they fell back and come down through our ranks double quick. Our regiment and the 9th Kentucky were in line at the foot of the hill [when] someone yelled out, “Charge!” ad charge we did. We charged to the top of the hill and held them a few minutes but they were too strong for us. And besides, they outflanked us and we were compelled to fall back. They expected to get a battery of ours that had been wearying them all day but it was ordered back on another hill. But when we finished the work, we were ahead eight pieces of cannon, a large number of prisoners. and five of their men to one of ours on the field.

We had four of our company killed, thirteen wounded. Among them was G. Northup and W. Zigler wounded very slightly. I have no more time so I will bring my letter to a close.

P. S. I am well and hope these few lines will find you the same. Clara, your Benty is the meanest coward in the company. He run away every time. They have detached him to the hospital. The boys say that they hope he won’t never come back. The boys say he is a deceitful pup—that he is a lier and contemptible thief. I got a hold of his knapsack and looking for some paper to write, I seen a letter from you. I was surprised as I thought you knew Ben too well to write to such a contemptible snake as him. Don’t think me hard-hearted for this is my opinion and I hope you will take my advice. Yours truly, — Charles E.

P. S. We are now at Murfreesboro.

Antebellum North Carolina, President Andrew Jackson

1834: John B. Martin to John McNeill

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The following letter was written by John B. Martin who served as the clerk of the court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Montgomery county, North Carolina, in the 1830s. I could find very little else about him. Ironically, this letter may tell us more about him and his political beliefs than any other existing document. He wrote the letter to an old friend, John McNeill, of Washington, Alabama.

Martin’s opening is deeply personal and nostalgic, but he quickly launches into politics which forms the heart of the letter. The election results he reports reflect local and state political contests in North Carolina during the era of President Andrew Jackson. Martin identifies himself as generally Democratic and originally supportive of Jackson, but he strongly criticizes several of Jackson’s actions. These include Jackson’s frequent firing and replacing of officeholders (the “spoils system”), his attacks on John C. Calhoun, and especially Jackson’s removal of federal bank deposits during the Bank War. He also condemns Jackson’s “protest to the Senate,” referring to Jackson’s constitutional clash with Congress in 1834.

One of the most revealing parts of the letter is Martin’s defense of “states’ rights” and partial sympathy toward nullification. Nullification was the controversial idea, advanced mainly by South Carolina politicians like Calhoun, that states could reject federal laws they believed unconstitutional. Martin argues that nullification had done good by restraining the federal government and “northern mad men,” showing early sectional tensions between North and South decades before the Civil War. Although he stops short of radical extremism, he clearly fears centralized federal power and executive overreach. This reflects a growing Southern political identity in the Jacksonian era.

Martin also harshly criticizes Martin Van Buren, calling him a manipulative political schemer who had misled Jackson. His comments show divisions even within Jackson’s own Democratic coalition.

[Editor’s Note: My thanks to Abbey Weber Jones who prepared the first draft of this transcript for Spared & Shared.]

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Montgomery County, North Carolina
Aug 17th 1834

Mr John McNeill,

Dear Sir, I received your letter and I assure you it brought to my recollection the scenes and events of early life and the many hours we have passed together in the good old county of Moore and all that is connected with the bleak Sand Hills of McLendon’s creek.

How it has happened that a correspondence has not been commenced before between us I am unable to state. The only reason, I suppose, is that we both have been too remiss. My remissness has not proceeded from any want of regard or esteem. I love to hear from my friends and of their prosperity but I often neglect to write to them as I often suppose that I have nothing that is interesting to communicate.

It so turns out that I have little or no news to communicate at this time.  Your friends and acquaintances are generally well. Our crops are bad owing [to] a wet spring [and] a severe drought of five weeks without a slight shower.

Our elections are over. Connor Dowd is elected over your friend Neill McNeill by a majority of one hundred votes.  Wm. Wadsworth and Angus McDonald of Carthage are elected in the commons. Rather a poor chance in the commons for old Moore. Our members are the same as last year. Senate R[euben] Kendall, commons, F. Lack + E. F. Seely, John M. Allen elected Sheriff. Our members of Congress have got home [and] left Old Hickory [Andrew Jackson] and Secretary Tanny [Roger B. Taney]  to take care of the concerns of the nation. You have supposed that I never was a true Jackson man. It is true that I am not much of a dealer in politics, but if there is any honesty or sincerity in it, I was a true man and Dem[ocrat] yet as far as I approve his measures. [But] there are several things in his [paper torn] I dislike—his frequent removals from office, his giving [John] Eaton & [John] Branch a place in the cabinet, his foolish war on J. C. Calhoun, his proclamation [for] the removal of the deposits, and his arrogant protest to the Senate. The last is not ________ted by the constitution or by precedent. I believe Jackson went into office with honest intentions but he has not been surrounded by such a set of knaves and demagogs—and especially that wily, cunning, crafting sycophant demagogue [Martin] Van Buren who can shape his cause any and every way that the old General has been led astray.

Our senator B[edford] Brown and your Senator [William Rufus] King I think may hang their harp up for I assure you, Brown is done playing whatever your man may do. As to nullification, I do not look on it in the odious light I think you do. I think it has been productive of much good. It has aroused the states to a sense of their original Independence. It has checked the career of the northern mad men. It will put a check to the usurpations of the general government and of the Executive. There must be a check somewhere and it must be in the states. I am opposed to encroachment from the general government or the Executive.  Likewise to demagogues and aristocrats. I am a states rights man, and if you call me nullifier for this, I will not take it amiss.

My friends LeGrand have given me a second notice to take the deposition of a Mr. McGee at Montgomery in your state on the 11th & 12th of September.  I dislike to be troublesome to my friends, but must ask you again to do me the favor of attending and asking the same questions as mentioned in my former letter. Your attention to this will much oblige your old friend and neighbor. Yours truly, — Jno B. Martin

My respects to your family and all of my acquaintances. I have a boy two months old called and know[n] by the name of Arthur—rather a strange name among the Scotch. I should like to live long enough to see him President of the U. S. but both wants are rather unlikely as by the time he would be old enough, I should be very old.  Have you any children?  Write me.  — J. B. M.

98th New York Infantry, CSS Virginia, USS Monitor

1862: William Hunting Rogers to Edward Rogers

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This letter was written by 25 year-old William Hunting Rogers of Lyons, Wayne county, New York. “Hunt” went into the 98th New York Volunteers (the “Malone & Lyons Regiment”) as a private and worked his way up to Lieut. Colonel. He was a quartermaster earlier in the war. The letter speaks frequently about watching the Merrimac [CSS Virginia] and its crew patrolling on the James River.

Hunt wrote the letter on 10 April 1862, a month after the Monitor and Merrimack dueled at Hampton Roads, and approximately ten days after the regiment arrived on the Peninsula as part of the 3d brigade; 3d division, 4th corps. In the weeks ahead they would participate in the siege of Yorktown and the battles of Williamsburg and Savage Station, but were not closely engaged until the battle of Fair Oaks, where the loss of the regiment was 71 killed, wounded or missing.

Hunt attended the Fort Plain Seminary in Lyons in 1854. He was married to Adele Isabella Mirick (1840-1898) in 1886.

Note: This letter is from the collection of Stephen Sklenar and was offered for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Headquarters Casey’s Division
Newport News [Va.]
98 Regt. N. Y. S.
April 10th 1862

Bro. Ed,

I haven’t received a word from home since I left Washington. I don’t know what it means. Hope I shall have a letter soon.

I went to Fort Monroe yesterday and had the filling of one of my teeth put in and what do you think he charged me—only $2.50. [It’s] the [same] one that Doct. put in a year or two ago and was glad to find a dentist that could do it at that. Ed, if you were here you could have all you could do in that line, but you would have to take your chance on pay.

While I am writing, there is Capt. [Orlando F.] Miller, Daniel’s brother, & two or three more playing Eucher. Have gay times, I tell you, and Capt. Miller is one of the Boys—the only one of the Malone Boys that knows anything. They are a seedy set of men, I tell you.

Ed, while I am writing, the Merrimack and two others are off the dock a scouting around and we are ordered to hold ourselves in readiness to march at a moment’s warning. The Quartermaster has just come in from Newport News and he says that the Merrimack came out this morning and took two schooners loaded with horses and went off with them.

Ed, I tell you, we are in for it now. I tell you, when I went to the Fort yesterday and passed through Hampton—which was a Union town when the Rebels were in camp—and when they left, they burnt the town. Such a [sorry] looking place you never saw. I should think it was a place larger than Lyons. There is nothing left but the walls of the buildings and the graveyard they have destroyed in such a manner that I was shocked, The tombstones were blown open and the graves dug up, &c.

You can see the Rebel batteries on the other side of the James River today very plainly. I could see them mounting guard today and the boys drilling, the ships of war in the river, and if we had another Monitor we could make them hunt their hole. But she has to lay in the harbor to protect the shipping so she can’t so anything you see.

Ed, Fort Monroe is not such a big thing after all. I have been all over it and have seen much after all, but if they come under her guns, they will want to wish themselves home, I think. And the Rip Raps are nothing more than a pile of stones—nothing on them but a house & guns, but of much consequence in case they undertake to come up to the fort.

What are you doing now, Ed? Are you going with Uncle Kat. I should if I were you. If I can’t find anything to [do] in the business which you [ ], you will find something to do in Sodus, I should think but don’t know.

Ed, the Boys in camp seem to all be sick. I don’t know what ails them. I never saw such works. They will none be ready to move, I am afraid, but hope they will get along. We have had such weather for a few days that it was enough to make anyone sick. But this morning the sun came out and I think we will have pleasant weather now. Breakfast on sweet potatoes and bread, coffee, fried hominy which was bully, I tell you.

Ed, I think I have written quite a letter to you and if you knew how much I liked to get a letter from home, you would write often I think. The Colonel is calling so here it goes. Your Hunt. Direct Fort Monroe

Ed, we had to bury one of our soldiers this afternoon and I tell you, it was a solemn thing. I don’t know what was the matter with him. [He was] one of the Malone Boys. 1

But Ed, the excitement there is in camp about the Merrimack. Why she isn’t more than a mile and a half from here and we can see the whole performance and I tell you, it is shameful. But there is no use of talking. Something is to be done. You can see how it is. The blockade can’t leave this place. If they do, the Merrimack would go up the river and bay and cut off our supplies. That wouldn’t do. I sometimes think the Monitor is afraid of her, but hope not. The Merrimack [Monitor] wants to get to Yorktown as I understand it, but if she does, the Merrimack will walk into Norfolk and shell the town and so they keep matching everything they can get hold of. But I think you will hear of a big thing soon. I tell you, it is a shame to see the [wrecks of the] Congress & Cumberland in the river and that Merrimack running around and we in her power. It has been such a pleasant day. You could see the men on board of her and see the officers on board of her.

Now I want you to write me now. Mind that now and have the others do so [too]. I think I have done my part if I know myself. I shall keep you posted when I can so goodbye. — Your Hunt.

I haven’t received a letter for three weeks. Don’t [know] what is the matter.

1 Possibly John Bassett of Malone who was a private in Co. C although muster records have his death as April 16th 1862 at Newport News, Va.

Weekly Summary Podcast

Podcast Episode: Civil War Letters From Home And Front

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Pip: Spared and Shared arrives with ink-stained fingers and mud on its boots — letters written by men who were either deep in the field or anxiously watching from home, wondering when any of it would end.

Mara: Griff has assembled a set of Civil War correspondence that moves between two distinct worlds: soldiers writing home about what they’re living through, and family members on the home front trying to make sense of what’s happening to the men they love.

Pip: The gap between those two worlds is where most of this material lives — and it’s a surprisingly rich place.

Mara: Let’s start with the home front letters, where the war arrives as news, grief, and local politics all at once.

Home Front Family Correspondence

Pip: The question this set of letters keeps asking is what the war looks like when you’re not fighting it — when you’re in Illinois or Delaware, reading dispatches, burying brothers, and trying to hold a household together.

Mara: Thomas Barnfield’s letter from Vicksburg on January 5, 1865 captures the soldier’s side of that gap perfectly. He’s just ridden out in rain since four in the morning and he drops into pure storytelling: “We ‘wented’ at 9 a.m. yesterday and met Gen. G with 3 brigades of cavalry and 2 or 3,000 contrabands and 800 prisoners about 12 miles from town, badly in need of both food and forage.”

Pip: That word “wented” is doing a lot of work. He’s an officer writing to a fellow officer, and he’s still performing the whole thing as a comedy of exhaustion.

Mara: The stakes underneath the comedy are real. Grierson’s raid had just severed Confederate supply lines badly enough that Hood’s retreating army couldn’t get fed. Barnfield knows he’s describing something consequential, even as he calls it an “entire success” with deliberate lightness.

Pip: His second letter, written around mid-February, keeps the same register — humming “I want to go home” between lines about an upcoming expedition whose details are, he deadpans, “a profound secret only known to the Confederacy.”

Mara: The home front answer to Barnfield’s letters comes in Alfred Matthews Mann’s letter to his brother John Preston Mann — the same John Mann Barnfield was writing to — dated November 1863 from Pleasant Ridge, Illinois. Alfred is reporting on the death of their brother Clinton at Chattanooga, the local elections, and the mood in Randolph County.

Pip: Which was, apparently, a county divided enough that a Copperhead’s complaint counted as a political analysis.

Mara: Alfred quotes one directly: “the damned Union League done it all.” He means it as a victory report — the Union sentiment had just flipped the county by over two hundred votes.

Pip: And then there’s the Smith brothers correspondence — William and Grover writing home to Dover, Delaware across four years, tracking everything from boot sizes to battlefield losses to family farm decisions.

Mara: William was mortally wounded near Petersburg in October 1864. Grover survived and kept writing. Together their letters form a long, plainspoken record of what the war actually cost a single household, letter by letter.

Mara: The field letters carry a different weight — men writing from inside the thing, not around it.

Soldiers In The Field

Pip: If the home front letters are about absorbing the war from a distance, the field letters are about being inside something you can’t fully see — and still needing to write home.

Mara: Thomas Lancaster’s letter from Goodson, Virginia in November 1861 anchors this segment. He’s a Confederate pork contractor, not a soldier, but he’s watching the war arrive in real time. He writes: “We have had very exciting times here for 7 or 8 days. All ready to fight except some that has run away. The Union men in East Tennessee made a rise up for Old Abe, burnt five bridges between here and Chattanooga.”

Pip: The upshot of that passage is that Lancaster is simultaneously processing hogs by the hundreds and watching his region fracture along Unionist and secessionist lines — sometimes violently, across the Holston River at one in the morning.

Mara: His letter also documents something the history books tend to abstract: the logistics of salt. Getting it from Saltville required sending your own sacks, attending the kettle yourself, and paying seventy-five cents a bushel on the branch line. Without it, the pork contract — twelve to fifteen thousand hogs — falls apart.

Pip: Salt as a strategic material is not a glamorous subject, but Lancaster makes it feel urgent.

Mara: James Burton Allen’s letter from Richmond, dated May 1, 1861, sits at the other end of the experience. He’s just enlisted in the 15th Virginia Infantry, one week in, drilling five times a day, and he writes to his father: “I don’t hear anything about war and I don’t think there will be anything of it.”

Pip: One week in. That sentence lands differently knowing what the next four years looked like.

Mara: Edward Bond’s letter from June 1864 comes from yet another angle — a civilian teamster on General Sully’s Northwestern Indian Expedition into Dakota Territory, writing from a camp he addresses as “Camp Demoralization, Iowa.” His fellow teamsters he describes as “the worst of the worst of the dirty, low-lived villains and rascals that you ever saw.”

Pip: Even the logistics of violence had its own miserable supply chain.

Mara: Bond’s letter is the odd one out geographically — Dakota Territory, not the Civil War’s eastern theater — but it belongs here as a field correspondent writing from inside an operation he can barely explain and definitely didn’t romanticize.

Pip: All of these letters share the same quality: they were written before the writer knew how the story ended.

Mara: What holds this material together is the distance — between the front and home, between what soldiers knew and what families understood, between the moment of writing and everything that came after.

Pip: And the fact that someone kept the letters. That’s the whole premise of this site, really — next time, more of what survived.

2nd Massachusetts Infantry, Prisoner of War

1862: John M. and Parney (Hastings) Anderson to John Emerson Anderson

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John Emerson Anderson, 2nd Mass. Vols., taken prisoner at the Battle of Winchester on 24 May 1862 and paroled in June.

The following letters were written by Parney (Hastings) Anderson (1810-1905) and/or her husband John May Anderson (1809-1865) of Oakdale, Worcester county, Massachusetts. The letters were addressed to their son, John “Emerson” Anderson (1833-1896), a boot maker by trade before the war. Emerson enlisted on 25 May 1861 as a private in Co. D, 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. He was taken prisoner on 24 May 1862 during the battle of Winchester but was paroled in June 1862 and promoted to sergeant, mustering out of the regiment in mid-July 1865. The 2nd Mass Vols. participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Siege of Atlanta, March to the Sea, Savannah, and others.

Parney’s letter of 13 June 1862 expresses relief at hearing of her son’s safety following his being taken prisoner during the Battle of Winchester in May 1862.

To read the large collection of letters that Emerson wrote home to his parents, see—1861-65: John Emerson Anderson to his Parents.

Letter 1

Oakdale [Massachusetts]
June 13, 1862

Dear E[merson],

Glad to have the privilege of writing to you once more. Our minds have been greatly relieved by receiving yours of the 6th this morning. I do feel, Emerson, that the Lord is very kind to us. We did not expect to hear directly from you for some time. I said to your father, I think it was last night, that if I could only have the privilege of sending you some little comforts, how glad I should be, thinking you were in the hands of those cold-hearted rebels. I rejoice that you are once more a free man to act for yourself for your country, [and] the best of all, for God. When I think of the past dealings of God with us, I can but exclaim how wonderfully good He is to us. I have been wonderfully supported under these trials of late caused by the mismanagement of someone who thought perhaps they were doing the very best way. I have reference to your being left with so few men when you needed them the most. We wonder here they were were not all taken or killed.

Alfredy Chase has just been in to read us a letter from William. She also brought tidings of you but your letter came a little first, notwithstanding this did not cover their kindness in the least for this is not the first time, nor the second, but the fourth, certain, that they have been here to bring us tidings of you. William took pains after seeing the Major that returned from prison to write all about you to his folks requesting them to let us know immediately to relieve us of our suspense. How good he is. I shall always remember him and his kindness to us. The first that we heard of you that we could rely upon was Billy Beach when he came home. But Emerson, we felt almost sure that you were safe. It seems to me that I never before experienced that implicit trust in our Heavenly Father that I have for a few weeks past. I feel willing he should plan all things concerning my interest.

I received a letter from you the 24th of May—the day you were taken prisoner. In it was five dollars & a precious little bunch of flowers which I value much. I answered that on the Monday after the battle. I did not send you any stamps thinking you might not get them but we will send you some in this. Just write whether you received one wrote the 6th of May with 24 stamps in it. I may be mistaken about the stamps being in the one spoken of. I have sent you three that I have had no answer from. I presume they have fell into your hands ere this. If not, we will not complain for we have been highly favored.

The [Oakdale] Boys have sent on for some things and I will say here that if you would like to have us send you some, we will do so. Tell us what you would like. You have money enough at home to get you what you need so do not want for things to make you comfortable. Well, Emerson, you see I shall have to close. We are all well. Glad to think I may have another from you soon. Friends all well except Lydia. Said she has been sick for some time since. Getting better we hope. From your Parents.

Billy Beach is boot making for Mr. Robert Morrow.

Letter 2

Oakdale, [Massachusetts]
October 24th 1863

Dear Emerson,

Yours of the 18th came yesterday. We had been waiting anxiously for some little time to hear from you. We received the letter sent from Alexandria which you spoke of in your last. I answered it immediately. I directed it to Washington. Perhaps you will get it sometime if you have not ere this. I hardly feel reconciled to your going so far from home when so many soldiers are wanted nearer. But then I have thought that you would have a good chance to see the country and this you no doubt will enjoy although circumstances of a painful nature hath called you there. It has been said since the 12th Corps left, that it was with Burnside so I thought you would stand a chance to find some of your old acquaintances, but I find by sending yours that you are with Rosecrans.

I wrote you in my last that Winser Newton was missing. There has not been anything heard from him as yet. His friends feel very anxious to know what has become of him.

Sister Belle [Isabella (Hastings) Bigelow] had a letter from Lewis Jor last week. He is married. Sent his picture and also one of his wife. She is very smart or her picture deceives her. He and wife are both teaching in an academy now. Isn’t this nice. What a lucky boy. She is a farmer’s daughter. Her name has slipped my mind. He wrote that his father enlisted into the service of his country and they had given him the commission of a recruiting officer. Said we hardly knew him on coming home dressed in uniform—it altered him so. I think he would look well for a field officer—he is so tall and stout built. He has changed his looks since you saw him. He is much thicker, or was when here, than he used to be. He wrote nothing of poor Horatio. Did not mention his name. Rather singular I should think. Must it be they have given him up for loss? If so, I hope they may be mistaken.

Had a letter from Mother last week. They were well but they [said] that Mr. B’s son Prentis was dead so he can have his society nor help anymore. Lizzie’s babe is very sick. Do not think it will live long. It has been sick for three weeks or more. I have been there a good part of the time for two weeks or more. Glad it is so that I can be with her some. She has done so much for me. The rest of our friends are well. Father is better than when I last wrote. You think he will soon be able to work some. My health is very good for me. You mentioned in your last of having a box, if sure of getting it. How much pleasure we would take in filling one for you and if at any time you should send for me, just write what you would like to have put in for by so doing, you would not have to do without the thing you needed most. I sent you but one stamp in the last letter. Did not know as you would get it. Will put but one in this. If you get this, I shall not hesitate to put more of them in my next. I will write often and perhaps you will get some of them.

Mr. Ford has been in [and] has just left. Much love is sent by friends. From your parents, — J. M. Anderson

Letter 3

Oakdale, [Massachusetts]
November 28, 1863

Dear Emerson,

Yours No. 2 came last eve. Glad to know you were so comfortably situated. Still you may not be in those comfortable quarters now for I learn that that there has been a dreadful battle [at Chattanooga] in Rosecrans’ army since your last letter was wrote. The papers state that one division of the 12th Corps was engaged in it [but] does not give the number. But somehow I have felt that it was not the one you belong to. The papers say that our men have been very successful. It is called a splendid victory for Grant’s army. But could one noble victory be gained which would prove the last without the loss of lives, what a wonderful jubilee we should have. Oh that the time may soon come when war shall be known no more forever.

The Army of the Potomac are in motion. The papers say they were expecting a battle yesterday. If you think you could get papers from us, we will send you some. Father got a New York weekly this morning. Said he would like to send you but thought perhaps you might not get it. Said he would send a piece of it in an envelope for he knew that you would take great interest in reading it. It’s the doings of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. I am glad that they are making some provisions for the memory of those brave men that fell in that hard battle. They ought to be honored in this way. Honor is to be obtained.

We held a Union Meeting in the Methodist House on Thanksgiving day. Preaching by Rev. Mr. Holbrook, prayer by Rev. Mr. Abbott. The services were very solemn, after which a collection was taken for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers, Uncle B and Aunt Belle took dinner with us. Sarah and Walon was gone from home or they would have been here too. About 5 o’clock Brother B. went home, harnessed his horse, came up [and] carried us down to his house. We stayed until the next day when he brought us again to our home. We had a pleasant time. But dear Emerson, be assured the long absent one was not forgotten, neither at the Festival board nor at the alter.

Emerson, when you write us again, give us the name of the general of your division, if you please. By so doing, we may stand a better chance in times of battle to know whether you are engaged or not. We are as well as usual. Father is suffering some this afternoon with a pain in his head and neck, but thinks he will be better soon. Mrs. Ford sends with much love. Mt. Ford stamped and backed them. Your parents, Mother

I hope you had your anticipated dinner on Thanksgiving day. I should have liked to sit and see you eat of it. Your parents, — J. M. Anderson

Northwestern Indian Expedition

1864: Edward Bond to a Minnesota Friend

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The following letter was written by a teamster participating on the 1864 Northwestern Indian Expedition led by Gen. Alfred Sully into the Dakota Territory. The expedition consisted of two brigades of cavalry, each with an attached artillery battery. The First Brigade was assembled at Sioux City, Iowa, in May 1864. It consisted of the: 6th Iowa Cavalry Regiment, 3 companies of the 7th Iowa Cavalry Regiment, 2 companies of the 1st Dakota Cavalry Battalion, Brackett’s Minnesota Cavalry Battalion, and 1 artillery battery of four M1841 mountain howitzers under the command of Captain Nathaniel Pope. The Second Brigade, dubbed the “Minnesota Brigade”, was an all-Minnesota brigade led by Minor T. Thomas which consisted of: the 8th Minnesota Infantry Regiment (mounted), six companies of the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment, and the 3rd Minnesota Light Artillery Battery under the command of Captain John W. Jones. Weeks later the expedition would engage in the Battle of Killdeer Mountain (pictured in header) and the Battle of the Badlands.

The author of this letter has signed his name but I can’t be certain I’ve transcribed his surname correctly. It looks like Edward Bond. Based on the content of the letter, it seems that Edward was hired on with the expedition as a civilian teamster—one among fifty so hired whom Edward described as “among the worst of the worst of the dirty, low-lived villains and rascals that you ever saw.”

Camp of the 6th Iowa Cavalry on Sully’s Expedition of 1864

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Camp Demoralization, Iowa
June 8th 1864

Dear friend,

I expect you think I acted rather strangely in not letting you know about my sudden departure so I will just make you acquainted with the circumstances that you may not be laboring under any mistaken as to my promtness in fulfilling agreements. It is like this.

When I arrived at Minneapolis, I asserted that it took men that knew their business to go as scouts—that Sibley’s Expedition was likely to failure and that [Major Alfred B.] Brackett was going to send 50 men the next day to join Sully’s Expedition as teamsters. But he was not sure whether he had enough or not until he got them together. I thought it would be imprudent to take father measures or uncertainties so I let the matter rest until the appointed time when I found a chance and accepted it. I hope these facts will satisfy you.

Now I will say a word in regard to the crowd I am connected with although it will be impossible for me to give you much idea of them much less express my contempt. But perhaps I can get your imagination running in a direction that will give you some idea of them. Pick from among the worst of the worst of the dirty, low-lived villains and rascals that you ever saw and imagine them too as much worse than Bill Blake as he is [nothing more] than an ordinary villain and perhaps in this way you will get some idea of them though very distant. I assure you, their villainous tricks on the way are entirely too numerous to mention. You will dispute the whole story when I tell you I have as yet had little difficulty with them but I am all the time expecting it. If you should see Old Sturdevent, please start Ol___ on this subject and perhaps he would say something that would be very soothing, whatever it may be, to be sure.

We will get to Sioux City tomorrow, no preventing Providence. I have no more time to write although I have not wrote one-fourth I would like to. It may be that I will have another chance to write at Sioux City. I cannot tell you where to direct. Meantime you will observe this is from your friend, — Edward Bond

Illinois Homefront, Union League

1863: Alfred Matthews Mann to John Preston Mann

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This Illinois home front letter was written by Alfred Matthews Mann (1837-1912) to his brother, John Preston Mann (1822-1908) who was serving in the 5th Illinois Cavalry. They were the sons of John Beattie Mann (1796-1881) and Albina Bloomer Balch (1797-1882) of Randolph County, Illinois. The letter was datelined from “Pleasant Ridge” near Kaskaskia on 27 November 1863.

John and Albina had five sons that volunteered to serve the Union cause in the Civil War. They were John Preston (“J. P.”) Mann (b. 1822) of the 5th Illinois Cavalry—to whom they addressed this letter, Robert “Clinton” Mann (b. 1824) who served in the 22nd Illinois Infantry and was mortally wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga, James “Luther” Mann (b. 1826) who served briefly in the 80th Illinois Infantry, Jonathan [“Jonta”] Balch Mann (b. 1828) who served in the 80th Illinois Infantry, and Calvin Anderson Mann (b. 1833) who served in the 5th Illinois Cavalry. All survived except Clinton.

When John and Albina settled in Randolph county in the late 1820s, Kaskaskia was the county seat. It remained so until the flood of 1844 forced the relocation of the county seat to Chester—a Mississippi river port about halfway between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis. During the Civil War, the citizens of Randolph county were deeply divided, many of the residents having come from and still had relatives living in Kentucky or other slave-holding states. Located in the region called “Little Egypt,” Randolph county was characterized by strong Democratic (“Copperhead”) sentiment and anti-war agitation. A sizable German population helped to turn public sentiment around in the middle of the war, as stated in this letter.

Alfred became a Presbyterian minister and later moved to Osawatomie, Kansas. He was married to Sallie Hood.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Addressed to Lieut. John P. Mann, 5th Illinois Cavalry, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Pleasant Ridge, Illinois
November 27, 1863

Dear Brother,

Your kind letter of 6th has come to hand and I will try to answer it. I will commence by answering your question. You will doubtless hear before this reaches you of the fate of Clinton but I will rehearse the sad story. He died October 2nd (the same day you, Father, Mother, & Nancy went to Huston’s) in the hospital at Chattanooga—the same day that he was exchanged, and was buried in a Presbyterian graveyard. The full particulars we have not learned yet but I think we will receive more information soon. Lieutenant Hood wrote to us a long letter about his death but the letter never came to hand. We have written to him and I know he will write again. Martin Ireland told me that “Clinton fell while in the act of crossing a fence and was on the next panel to the one he was on” and that he “never saw him afterward.” Sam Hood sent home all his things, the most valuable of which was a journal from Sept. 1862 to February 1863 which is very interesting. You will be glad to see it when you get home.

Huston has administered on his estate which is insolvent. The boys are still with “Old Ann” and I do not know what disposition will be made of them. They will have a “hard row to hoe” I am afraid. I believe they are entitled to a pension. Sale of property is 5th of December.

You next ask how the “traitors” feel since the election. Well Sir, they feel most awfully used up. We “flaxed” them over 200 votes in Old Randolph County and they are badly whipped. The reason for such a change in our county may be briefly expressed in the language of a prominent “Copperhead,”—“the damned Union League done it all.” That is just the opinion of your humble servant and we will “do it more” next time. I will enclose you a ticket—a real Union ticket. The Union sentiment is stronger in this county than ever before and we intend to keep the wheels rolling till we roll up a large Union majority for President in 1864 (God grant that it may be “Old Abe”).

Next question. Luther is buying produce in Chester and shipping down the river—doing fine. He was out last night and we had a long chat about old camp scenes. Huston has been engaged for the public for the last 15 years and will “cap the sheaf” next week by taking our District School at $30 per month. He will have his patience tried “a few” or I’m much mistaken. You speak of “helping him within the year—as well as me.” Thank you—“Go in Josh, you shant be hurt.” Suit yourself and take your own time and youwill suit me (unless I get i a pinch).

Papa has bought a fine mare—very strong and very lazy. Just suits him. He is very proud of her. I work her when I wish. Mother’s health is good except a severe cold. She has borne the death of Clinton with Christian fortitude and all her anxiety is about the “boys” that still are alive. She got a good letter from Calvin yesterday. He is well and has received supplies from home. Jonta is in the mountains near Chattanooga. Says he “don’t mind wolves howling half as much as bombs bursting.” He is not very well. Sis is having tall times at Ellis Grove. She had a “hot engagement” a few days ago with one Jake Roberts and gained a “signal victory.” Took some prisoners and never lost a man.

We went to Chester to church Thanksgiving. Heard “Bro-Ben” preach a strong Union sermon after which the Ladies of Pleasant Ridge joined the “Ladies Union League” en-masse as they were holding a meeting at the residence of James H. Jones. I spent some time chatting with Uncle B. He takes his election very cooley. Mr. Conant & wife have been spending the day with us today. The old man is getting very feeble. His sands are almost run, I think. The old lady will run sometime yet. Aunt Jane has been spending a few days with us. She returns home tomorrow.

It is going to 10 o’clock p.m.—all asleep but me. Has been raining very hard since noon. The wind has whirled from the northwest—will be snowing before morning and I must close. I hope you will remain in good health till you can come home—be protected from all dangers incidental to a soldier’s life. May we all, by the mercy of God, through Christ our Savior, meet in Heaven—the home of the righteous—to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb, to all eternity.

P. P. Sallie sends her love to you. Your brother, — Alfred

Write as often as you can. Good night.

15th Virginia Infantry

1861: James Burton Allen to William Allen

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I could not find an image of James but here is one of Thomas Lee Alfriend (1843-1901) who served in Co. B, 15th Virginia Infantry

This letter was penned by 21 year-old Pvt. James Burton Allen (1840-1910) of Co. I (the “Hanover Grays”) of the 15th Virginia Infantry. The regiment was raised in April 1861 and James enlisted on 23 April, just one week prior to the date of this letter. It was organized in May drawing in recruits from across Richmond, Henrico, and Hanover counties. Its first colonel was Thomas P. August. James was detailed as an ambulance drive in February 1863.

James was the son of William Allen and Nancy Hooper of St. Paul’s Parish, Hanover county, Virginia. James survived the war and was married in 1867 to Lucy Ellen Earnest (1848-1923) in Hanover county. James and his wife are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

[Richmond, Virginia]
May 1st 1861

My dear Father,

I have seated myself down to write you a few lines to let you know that I am well and I hope that these few lines will find you the same. I have no news to write but we are drilling five times a day and we are learning very fast and I am more satisfied than I was at first and I hope that it will not be long before we will [get] out of the encampment. But I don’t hear anything about war and I don’t think there will be anything of it. The boys are very charming at the present time and they had meeting last Sunday and I was on guard for twenty-four hours but tonight is a pleasant night and the lights from the camp [are] pretty and you ought to come over here to see us drill. We are going through the tactics first rate and I do wish that you would get me some money from Dale Wicker. And if you can’t get it, I do wish that you would send me the amount by the first [man] that comes over here. And I do wish that you would send me my carpet bag.

And I have nothing more to write. I must close by saying give my love to all of the family and to Ma and tell her to write to me. And Pa, you must write me word how that are all and tell Benjamin Tucker 1 to write to me. Your most humble son, — James B. Allen

Answer this as soon as you get this.

1 Benjamin H. Tucker also lived in St. Paul’s Parish in Hanover county, Virginia, as did James Allen in 1860. He was three years older than James and the son of Henry Tucker and Sally Barker. Henry owned seven slaves in 1860.

1st Delaware Infantry

1861-65: William Francis Smith & Thomas D. “Grover”) Smith to their Parents

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The following letters were written by William Francis Smith (1840-1864) and his younger brother, Thomas D. “Grover” Smith (1843-1915), the oldest sons of John W. Smith (1817-1878) and Sallie Turner (1817-1903) of Dover, Kent county, Delaware.

William enrolled as 2nd Lieutenant of Co. D, 1st Delaware Infantry on 10 August 1861 at Milford, Delaware. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 21 December 1861 and wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862 of which he wrote afterward: “We were halted and ordered to fix bayonets. We began to think something was to do … We marched in line some mile and a half, when the Rebels made their appearance on our left … We still continue to advance, the shells coming over our heads, till we got through a cornfield that Rebels had to hide in, we drove them out of there. They fell back to a ditch [the Sunken Road] at the foot of the hill … as soon as we got through the corn field, the Rebels poured a volley into us. We got over the fence and up to the top of the hill, and there laid down and fired at the Rebels after firing some ten minutes, we received orders to charge. All the color guard was either killed or wounded. The state flag was almost shot to pieces, the staff cut in two by a ball. The fire was so hot we had to fall back with a great loss. It was here that Capt. Watson & Leonard was killed. Capt. Yardley, Woodall, & Shortledge was wounded. The regiment fell back to form, but got mixed up with the different regiments. Major Smith and about 150 men went up a lane and got on the Rebels right where we poured a directed fire upon them. Capt. Rickards was killed up here and Lt. Col. Hopkinson was wounded in the knee at the same place. We fought here sometime till we got relieved, then tried to reform the regiment, which we found very difficult for they were in all the regiments around fighting. We however got about 150 together and encamped for the night …“

This CdV of Capt. James L. Rickards was taken at Garrett’s, in Wilmington, Delaware, about 1862. He was killed at Antietam and William F. Smith promoted to take his place.

William was promoted to Captain of Co. C on 24 September 1862 to replace Captain James L. Rickards. William was wounded by a gunshot to the chest at Fredericksburg, VA in December and in the leg at Gettysburg in July 1863, and was promoted to Major on 6 November 1863. He was on recruiting duty in Delaware early in 1864 but returned on 23 April and was mortally wounded in the leg on the Boydton Plank Road near Petersburg, VA on 27 October 1864 and his leg was amputated, but that didn’t save him. He died on 6 November 1864.

Grover served the entire war without injury but was occasionally sidelined by disease. He mustered out of the regiment as 1st Lieutenant of his company in 1865. Later in life he became an electrician and died in 1915. It should be noted that Grover’s handwriting was atrocious and transcribed with some difficulty. As an officer, I can’t imagine how he managed to fill out any of his reports without the aid of a clerk. Only 6 of the 21 letters were written wholly or partially by William; the remainder by Grover.

Letter 1

Camp Hamilton, Fortress Monroe
December 16th 1861

Dear Parents,

I have not received any answer to the last two letters I have sent. I do not know what is the matter—whether the letters have not gone or you have neglected to answer them. I received the box on Saturday 7th. Everything was very nice. The boots were too small. They would not fit Grover. He could not get them on. They were too small in the instep. I wrote the same day that I got the box and in the letter I sent my measure. Grover wants his pants—the one that he had in the Home Guards.

Colch Brown has been discharged for disability. J. B. Mahan has been discharged for the same cause. They both left here yesterday for home. They will be home before this letter reaches you. Grover sent a letter by C. Brown. I have been sick with the diarrhea but have got better and ready for duty.

There is nothing new about here. The health of the regiment is very good. Weather is rather cold. There was ice in the tent his morning. From your affectionate son, — William F. Smith

Camp Hamilton
December [1861]

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that you are the same. We were on picket on Tuesday and there was a scouting party went out by us of about 600 men. They went out to [ ] bridge on the Back River but the rebels had gone about an hour before they got there.

We think that we will get new guns next week of the best and they say that they are in the fort now. The small pox is broke out here in a cavalry regiment and the typhoid fever is broke out here.

I wish that you would send my pants as soon as you can and send my scarf to me. Tell Sam Lathebury that I would like to hear from him. That box that you sent to us was nice for we can’t get any here now—there is so many of them sick that he has stopped them from coming into camp. — Grover

Letter 2

Camp Hamilton
March 28, [1862]

Dear Mother,

I have just come off picket and find a box for me. I have opened it and it contains all the articles that you name in the letter. I received a letter from you yesterday, date 23rd. I had no chance to write yesterday or I should have done it. The shirts are very nice. Grove has not had them on and I do not know how they will fit. he mail will close very soon and I will have to close. Give our love to all. I remain your affectionate son, — W. F. Smith

Letter 3

In camp near Warrington
November 1, 1862

Dear Mother,

I sit down to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you the same. We have been a resting here for a few days so that we are a little rested but we don’t know how long we will stay here. We will leave very soon, I think. You wanted to know what hospital I was in. I am in none. You need not send the box for we don’t know when we will go into winter quarters. Some says that we will go to Washington but that is all you can hear. But we never go where they say so that is [ ].

You asked if I got the money that you sent to me. I have got $1.80 cents. I got 1 dollar and ten cents one time and 50 cents another time and 20 the last time. That was in the last letter so that I guess that it has come all right. You say that Frank has got the ague. If she has it like I had it and the same, it will hurt her for it took 14 lb. of flesh off of me. I was weak when we marched but I kept up and by the use of the money that you sent me, I am a getting a great deal stronger. Was there a corporal with captain when you was up there by the name of Wolf?

It is a getting dark and I cannot see so that I will stop. We leave tomorrow. That is all at present. — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 4

Camp near Falmouth, Virginia
June 9, 1863

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that thew few lines will find you enjoying the same. We have a very nice time here. We are encamped in a woods so that we have not to walk far to get in the shade. We think that we will have some more fun here very soon. They say that the Rebels a leaving so that if they do, we will get some hard marching this summer. But I would as soon be a marching as a laying here for the drill and picket is very nice but we do not get any fruit here and on the march we get plenty.

You asked what I would like you to send me by Ben [ ] Caboon. You can send whatever you think that you can get for it will be very nice down here. I wish that I was here to get some strawberries for they are very scarce here. You say that you had a plenty of them home. I wish that you would send me a paper of tacks and a tooth brush for I cannot get them here. And a lead pencil—a good one.

I would like to see Lew’s boat, but as Pa used to say, we have something else to think of besides sailing. But I will get a sail in here this summer. That is all at present but remain your affectionate son, Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 5

Headquarters
Camp near Rapidan
October 3, 1863

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same health. My hand is somewhat better but I cannot use the three fingers yet. They feel weak and I think that they are a coming to. If they don’t. Bub was a talking to me this morning about being worker. I think that I shall take it if I can get it. We was paid off this morning and I gave Bob 170 dollars to send home so that [you could] keep it until] we get home to vote. Send me some postage stamps and send me one of the smallest files that you can get—a three-cornered one. Send it in a newspaper. That is all at present. — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 6

Camp near the Blue Ridge
November 3, 1863

Dear mother,

I sit down to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you the same. I got yours of the 25th the first of November and was glad to get the dollar for it is very handy to have money on a march for you can get something to eat. You talk about me a coming home. There is no more sign now than there was three months ago so that you need not fret about me a coming home without being wounded. I would like to come home very well but there is no chance for me. They are a going to beat [the drums] to fall in so that I will have to close. — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 7

Camp near the Rappahannock
Headquarters, 1st Regt. Delaware Vols.
November 15, 1863

Dear Father,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same. We have been at rest here all week but there has an order come o us to be ready for to move at a minute’s notice. But we don’t know where to for the railroad is not up here yet as it has set in to rain. We don’t know where we are a going but we are not a going far for the Rebels are not far off from here. But they will not make a stand before they get to Richmond for they are afraid to pick a battle. They are afraid to pick a battle with the Army of the Potomac for they have whipped them so often here of late that they are played out and the people want all of the officers burned out that was engaged in the last [paper torn]. The papers say that they have hauled down the flag more than any other Nation ever did in their years so that they are very near played out so they will not make a stand—only in their forts and they will have to fall back from here.

Bub has gone to Washington on some errand of business. He don’t come back before the 21st of this month. He will be home before he comes back, I suppose. We are all under the impression that he has gone for transports for us to come home. That is all of the talk here now. I wish that you would send me some postage stamps for Bub went away with all of them that you sent for he got the letter and got the stamps.

I send you a [ ] that I got off of the battlefield of Bristoe Station. It is from Rebeldom as you can see. The Rebels say that they don’t know where the rest of the army was for to let the two brigades get up so bad. A prisoner that I captured told me that all of A. P. Hill’s Corps was engaged there.

That is all at present but remain your affectionate son, — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 8

Camp near Stevenburg, Va.
December 6th 1863

Dear Mother,

I arrived in camp this morning after a long and tiresome ride and march. I expected to get down last Thursday but I heard that communication with the army was opened. I thought my best chance was to get down as quick as possible.

I regard to the farm, I am still in the notion of taking it and I think it will suit you better for you cannot get a house in Philadelphia for less than one hundred & forty dollars and Wilmington is not much better. Frank has been looking around and she says that she would not live in a house that rents for less. The horse I think you had better keep this winter—[even] if you have to get someone to winter her. The colts I do not know what to do with. You can do as you please with them. I think Mr. Woodall can winter Yan or he can direct you where to go. You will have to keep a horse for it will cost you more to hire a horse to make a crop than to keep a horse all the year. I would like to keep the youngest colt, if possible. One cow, I think, would be as much as you could attend to as L___ ought to go to school this winter. Please let me know how much fodder you have on hand—if enough to last all winter, and if Father will let you keep it.

Let me know how the strawberries and clover patches are—whether they will pay to cultivate or to be put in grain. Tom is well and sends his love to all. He thought the cake & pie very good. No more but I remain your affectionate son, — William F. Smith

P. S. Enclosed you will find my photograph.

Letter 9

Camp near Stevensburg, Virginia
December 22, 1863

Dear Mother,

I received your letter last night containing the receipts. I think Father is acting very strangely toward both of us. I know he has cheated me in the building but have said nothing about it.

We expect to be home this week as our regiment has reenlisted for Veteran Volunteers for three years or the war. I am mustering officer of the regiment and am kept very busy. Last Friday I mustered two hundred in. It only required one hundred and ninety-four to take the regiment home so we expect the order every day to report home.

I will take the articles at the price you named. We are both well and send our love to all. I received a letter from Frank but she said nothing about Father. From your affectionate son, — Wm. F. Smith

Letter 10

Alexandria, Virginia
February 11th 1864

Dear Mother,

We left Wilmington Tuesday afternoon at three o’clock and arrived in Baltimore at nine o’clock at night. Left there at ten the next day. Arrived in Washington at three in the afternoon of the 10th. Saw Mr. Smithers and Fisher. They are both well. We leave here tomorrow.

When I left Philadelphia, Grandmother was very sick. Aunt Caroline said she intended to write but had not had time. We are both well and send our love to all. I remain your son, — W. F. Smith

My horse arrived safe. Also one bottle of wine. — W. F. Smith

Letter 11

Camp Stoney Mountain, Virginia
February 19, 1864

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same health.

We have been busy at building winter quarters and I have not had time to write before and Bub going home, I thought that it would do so that I was not very anxious about it, so then I thought that I would get up my tent before I wrote. We have got our camp fire up a little and are waiting for spring to open and then we will have to go with active operations. Then we will see what rebellions are good for. They say that they are a going to take Richmond from the Peninsula and that we will only make a feint over the river.

There is not much news around here for we are hard at work. I have been at putting up a chimney for one of the officers. I wish that you would send me some postage stamps for I forgot to get some before I came away. Send it along with that needle case of that Frank was a going to make for me and send me, and some pins and a [ ] I cannot get them down here. That is all at present but remain your affectionate son, — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 12

Headquarters 1st Delaware Detachment
Camp near Stoney Mountain, Virginia

Dear Mother,

Chaplain Thomas Grier Murphey of 1st Delaware Infantry

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same blessing. I received a letter from you last night and am very sorry that Lew went away. If I thought that he would a went, I should have served out my time and have enlisted again but it is done and there is no help for it. I wish that he would get in our company for then I could take care of him. We have a very nice church down here that we put up. We have church every night so that it makes the night go away very nice. There is a great many a getting religion for there is a couple goes off to Mister [Thomas G.] Murphey every night.

There is nothing new down here so that there is not much to write about. I sent $60 by Adams Express for that is the safest way and I have not heard from it yet. The house that I meant was the one that Hotster lived in.

That is all at present but give my love to little Johnny and tell him that I will get him his horse when I come home again. I sent the money in Frank’s name. That is all at present but remain your son, — Grover

3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps, Detachment at Stoney Mountain

Letter 13

Camp near Stoney Mountain, Va.
March 27 [1864]

Dear Brother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same health. We had a very deep snow down here last week. It was the deepest that I have seen in Virginia. Your horses look very bad and if you don’t get someone to look after them, you will lose them for the man that is attending to them is good for nothing for he does not care about your horses but he takes good care of the Colonel’s. Mr. [Thomas G.] Murphey called me up to look at them and told me that I ought to look after them. I told him that I would but if I did that they would say that I was a trying to put on airs, but that I would write home to you and let you know how they were a making out. You had better send an order on. Let Bill McCoy take care of them. You had better send some horse [ ] down here for them. They say that Col. [Thomas Alfred] Smyth is a going to command the Irish Brigade. Their brigade headquarters is a going to be broken up and the men ordered back to their regiments. There is nothing new down here. That is all at present but remain your brother, — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 14

Camp near Stoney Mountain, Va.
March 30, 1864

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am in the land of the living and hope that you are but I don’t know for I have not heard from you since the 9th of this month. You say that I never write but I think that the table has taken a turn for I have wrote four or five letters and have not received an answer from them yet. Johnny Smith got a letter from home and his father says Lew had gone to Wilmington to enlist. He had better stay home for he cannot stand it for he is not strong enough. I would get Bub to go and take him away and fetch him over the coals for two hours.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Alfred Smyth of Ireland. Was promoted to Brig. General upon Hancock’s recommendation following the Battle of Gettysburg where he was wounded.

A [ ] in the army wrote to Bub on the 20th and have not received an answer from him. They have made a great change here. Col. [Thomas Alfred] Smyth commands the Irish Brigade and Col. [Edward Brush] Fowler commands one. We are the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, and 2nd Corps so that we are only a detachment here.

They say that a great many are enlisting around Dover. I wish that all of them would but they think too much of themselves for they are afraid of getting a button hole work through them.

There was a big snow down here today but it is all washed away or it is a raining fast enough. There is [ ] down here so that I shall have to come to a close. I wish that you would send me some postage stamps for they are very scarce. Your son, — Thomas D. G. Smith. Direct your letters to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps, Detachment at Stoney Mountain, Va.

Thomas D. G. Smith, Comp. D, 1st Regt. Del. Vet. Vol.

Letter 15

Camp near Stoney Mountain, Va.
April 3rd [1864]

Dear Brother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same blessing. We have very bad weather down here for it is a snowing down here so that it is a very disagreeable. We got some recruits. Some of them were from Dover. They were Ezekiel Butler and Charles Rork and a young fellow by the name of Still. You did not say what regiment Lew has enlisted in or if he has enlisted in the cavalry. He had better get Sam McCalister to swear him in our regiment for then we can be together.

You say that you will get Johnny’s broken horse. Very well, you can get it for I guess it will be a good while before I get home again. I have got an easy job here. They have made a colored guard and I have been picked out for one. We have no duty to do so that we have a very easy time of it. I forgot to tell you before. It was made as soon as we came down so that I have not done much duty. There is so much a going on down here so that I shall have to come to a close by giving my love to all. Tell Lew that he had better come down here. When you write again, let me know what regiment [ ]. –Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 16

Headquarters 1st Regt. Delaware Vet. Vol.
[Spring 1864]

Dear Mother,

I have received two letters this week—one today which had ten dollars in it and some stamps. I was very glad that it came for I was very much in need of it. And with it came the paymaster which makes the boys feel lively.

The shirts I want to be flannel or something like them we got last summer a year. I wish that you would let Johnny Smith bring that valise, that of N that came here last—that is, if I don’t get there before he comes away. and my blue coat—that is, if Lew has not taken it with him. And then black pants that I bought when I was at home. But you need not send the sash for I do not want it. Johnny Smith will bring this down and I am in a hurry [so] I shall come to a close by sending my love to all.

I remain your affectionate son, — Thomas D. G. Smith

Letter 17

Headquarters 1st Regt. Delaware Vet. Vol.
Camp near Petersburg, Virginia
July 6, 1864

Dear Mother,

I seat myself to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same blessing. We have very dry weather down here and water is a getting very scarce. The Sanitary Commission is a doing a great thing for the soldiers. They have given us a great many things such as lemons, pickles, cabbage and other things too numerous to mention.

We have been a laying here in the breastworks for a week or two. There is rebels in our front now. There is some in front of the 5th Corps. There is a rumor that Harpers Ferry, Va., was captured and seven thousand prisoners with it but there is so many rumors afloat that we cannot believe one half of them.

Sgt. Samuel Morris Letherbury (1843-1864) was shot in the stomach during the final charge on the Dimmock Line outside of Petersburg, Va. on June 18th and died in a field hospital from his wound.

I seen John the other day and he was well as ever. He says that their [4th Delaware] Regiment was very cut up in the battle of the 18th [June]. They have lost more [ ] proportion than wounded. Sam[uel Morris] Letherbury was killed and L. Stevenson was wounded in the thigh. [ ] John if he was that lucky. I don’t think that he was for he was for he will not be able to walk for a good while and maybe he will [ ] for it is in the thick part of the thigh.

I have not received a letter from home since the 24th of last month and I have not heard from Lew since about the 1st of last month and then John seen him. He says that he was a making out very well. There is not much to talk about so that I shall have to come to a close by giving my love to all. I remain your affectionate son, — T. D. G. Smith

Dear Mother,

I wish you would send me a tooth brush. You can send it in a newspaper. Yardley came to the regiment last week. John K. is well. I saw him on Saturday last. — Wednesday. F. Smith

Letter 18

Camp near the Parkersburg [Petersburg] Railroad
July 17, 1864

Dear Mother,

I now take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same blessing. We have had a very nice time of it for a good while and have forgot how powder smells like. There is now rebels in our front and we have our pickets out about a mile from us so that if they does come, we will have time to get in line before they can get up to us. They say that they fell back 9 miles in front of us. The 4th Delaware [regiment] lays about one mile from here. I was over to see John and all of the Boys from Dover. They are few and far between. They are a [ ] them over like they did in our regiment. I have not heard from Lew since he left here. I wish that you would send my furlough as soon as you can. There is not much to write about from here. That is all at present but I remain your affectionate son, — T. D. G. Smith

P. S. I wish that you would send me some money for things are a getting very thick around here and no money to buy them with.

Letter 19

Headquarters 1st Delaware Vet. Volunteers
Camp before Petersburg
[September? 1864]

Dear Mother,

I received your letter last night. I think Father has not treated any of us as he should. I wrote to him today and told him about the sale. I expect he will think me very saucy. But I could not help telling him what I thought.

Our Corps had a very hard time at Reams Station last Thursday afternoon but our loss is very small in comparison with the force engaged against us.

Enclosed you will find a list of articles if I have left anything off, you can add it on to the list. We are all well and send our love to all. From your loving son, — William

Letter 20

Headquarters Ambulance Train
December 23, 1864

Dear Mother,

Yours of the 13th came to hand this morning and I was very glad to hear from home. I began to think that you had forgotten us down here. We don’t hear very often from Dover. John Smith says that he never gets a letter from home—only every now and then. I wrote for Lew to send me a box and for him to put in [ ] paper, He need not for I have some. Will had some in his valise. Send a bog box for I am mighty hungry. Put in plenty of eating things. I would like to have it done by New Year’s Day for you can’t get anything down here. We have run all of our money out. I wish that you would send me some money. I had to get some things in the train that we did not think of before. Tell Lew that he had better stay at home and go to school this winter and then be a farmer for he will have it harder than he had before. Tell him that I can’t send his overcoat yet but I will bring it—that is, if I come home this winter and I think that I will. You can go to Sam Herrington and get him to get in [ ]. I can get one on account of me being the oldest child, that is by sending the money as soon as you get this. No more at present. Give my love to all of the family. I remain your affectionate son, — T. D. G. Smith

Direct your letters to Ambulance train, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps. Send some thick envelopes.

Letter 21

Headquarters 1st Regt. Delaware Veteran Vols.
March 18 [1865]

Dear Mother,

Having a few leisure moments I thought that I would drop a few lines to inform you that I was enjoying good health. It was quite a lively time down here yesterday. They had horse raising and a great many other kinds of sport. I suppose that you have seen Charles Cooper by this time. If Jerry Smith did not bring my valise down, send it by Charley.

Is Lew home yet? If he is, ask him what he is a going to do. For my part I think that he had better stay at home and go to school. If will be better for him, I suppose, that the news from Sherman has been received down there. The sutlers has been ordered away from here and I suppose that we shall soon have the pleasure of sharing the honors of the Army of the Potomac. The rebels will not stand in our way this summer here. We intend to put this war of the campaign. The army is in the best of spirits now.

I do not feel like writing this afternoon so that I shall come to a close by sending my love to all of the family. I remain your affectionate son, –Thomas D. G. Smith

5th Illinois Cavalry, Battle of Egypt Station, Illinois' Black Laws

1865: Thomas Barnfield to John Preston Mann

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The following letters were written by Thomas Henry Barnfield (1833-1920), a native of Kentucky, who resided in Randolph county, Illinois, at the time of the Civil War. He served four years in Co. K, 5th Illinois Cavalry, rising from the rank of private to 2nd Lieutenant. He mustered out of the 5th Illinois Cavalry on 17 March 1865. Soon after, he reenlisted as a private in Co. I, of the 8th Regiment US Veteran Volunteer Infantry. 

Thomas wrote the letter to John Preston Mann (b. 1822) who served with him in the 5th Illinois Cavalry. After mustering out of the regiment, John began practicing law in Rockwood, Illinois. John was married to Nancy Clendening. In 1867, Henry Barnfield married Nancy’s sister, Martha Alice Clendenin (1836-1890). After he left the service, Henry farmed in Randolph county for a while and then relocated to Bartlett Springs, Lake county, California, where he died in 1920.

Barnfield’s first letter describes the Battle of Egypt Station that unfolded as follows: “Grierson’s raiding cavalry left Memphis, Tennessee on 21 December and first demolished a Confederate supply depot at Verona. Moving south while wrecking bridges and track along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the Union raiders encountered the Confederate defenders at Egypt Station. After their victory, Grierson’s cavalry headed southwest to Vicksburg which it reached on January 5, 1865. The raiders destroyed a large amount of Confederate supplies and also damaged the Mississippi Central Railroad. Some of the men captured by Grierson’s raiders proved to be former Union soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy rather than languish in prison camps. When John Bell Hood’s army retreated into northern Mississippi after the Battle of Nashville, it was unable to obtain supplies because Grierson’s raiders had damaged the railroad so badly.”

To read other post-war letters by Barnfield, see 1865-66: Thomas Henry Barnfield to John Preston Mann.

Letter 1

Vicksburg [Mississippi]
January 5, 1865

I’m sitting by the fire to “Dry out” for it is 2 p.m. and I have been out in the rain and mud ever since 4 this morning. I’ll tell you how it was. The day before yesterday (at night) information reached Gen. Washburne’s Headquarters that [Brig. Gen. Benjamin] Grierson—the “Raiders”—was “coming” and to send him some grub out to “Oak Ridge.” The post train, 27 wagons, was loaded at once and the 5th [Illinois Cavalry] detailed to go out with it. We “wented” at 9 a.m. yesterday and met Gen. G[rierson] (with 3 brigades of cavalry and 2 or 3,000 contrabands and 800 prisoners) about 12 miles from town, badly in need of both food and forage, Col. [Embry D.] Osband’s Brigade, 1 Col. [Edward Francis] Winslow’s and another was along. We camped with them last night and came in before them this morning. I’ve just got in and found your letter of the 26th December ’64. Now I want you to know that I’ve quit answering last year’s letters. I may answer yours and John’s and Mollie’s, and any others I may chance to get, but, I’m not going to make a practice of it!

But about Grierson’s Raid. I suppose the Vicksburg Herald will give a detailed account of the whole affair. If it does, I’ll send you the paper. In the meantime let me say it was an “entire success.” The expedition left Memphis 16 days ago and stretched eastward far enough to strike the “Ohio & Mobile” [railroad], forty miles of which they destroyed. They took not a wheel with them (nor gun nor ambulance) and left their killed and wounded behind them except the adjutant of the 3 niggers was brought in dead—a carriage having been pressed into the service for the occasion.

Lt. Col. [Henry W.] Funk of the 11th [Illinois Cavalry] was again wounded (in the same shoulder too). The wound is however very slight. The destruction to property has been immense. An officer told me that at one place they killed several hundred hogs and piled them up and then carried rails and made a huge fire burning “Hogs, Rails, and Any.” They destroyed 13 railroad bridges and an immense quantity of “trestle-work,” besides three locomotives and twenty cars, one wagon train—several wagons of which were loaded with ammunition.

The Chicago Tribune, 14 January 1865

These are some of the outlines: Just an index, if you please, to the contents. But I will be sure to send you the paper and if it and I do not agree, then the chances are that it is right and I wrong. I will mention, however, that at Egypt they had quite a fight. We lost 108 men killed and wounded—mostly from the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry. The Rebs lost 600 prisoners, killed and wounded—slight loss. So much for the raid. Oh the Corn-fed-eracy’s busted.

So you have had a “party” at your house and didn’t even give me an “invite?” Oh (I beg pardon) it was a “Surprise?” Where were your pickets? And “wouldn’t I like to have been there?” (Can a fish swim?) Don’t you know I would. I’d give half a month’s pay to be at a “Party” in Old Randolph. So don’t tease me about it. You will confer a great favor by observing a stubborn and persistent silence concerning any parties at which you know I’d give my ear to be. Except—mark you—I want you to tell me all about the “Liberty Ladies—Union League—Candy-pullings.”

I saw a letter from “R” lately to “Enrey.” He wants a “position.” Enrey showed the letter to Nisbet and Nisbet to me. He says, “have you any of Commissary Mann’s Whiskey?” Whit. says to tell you the Rebs have loaned us 1500 mules and niggers, and Johnnies—not a few. This is in reference to the Grierson Raid.

[Unsigned or incomplete but the distinctive handwriting is clearly that of Tom Barnfield]

1 Grierson sent Osband’s brigade to the south with the mission of tearing up additional railroad track. The remainder of Grierson’s column moved southwest to Lexington and then Benton. On January 1, 1865, Osband’s brigade marched south through Vaiden and West Station, destroying an estimated 2.5 mi (4.0 km) of track, plus bridges, culverts, stations, and water tanks. The following day, a Confederate force was reported assembling at Goodman so Osburn moved his brigade southwest toward Ebenezer. Near Franklin, the 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry ran into a Confederate force led by Brigadier General William Wirt Adams. The 11th Illinois took position on the right flank while the 4th Illinois supported the 3rd U.S. Colored. After a struggle lasting one hour and a half, both sides disengaged. Osband lost one officer killed and one wounded, and three enlisted men killed, seven wounded, and two missing. Two enlisted men were too severely wounded to be moved and were left at Franklin. Osband’s brigade moved through Ebenezer and joined Grierson’s main column at Benton at night on January 2. Adams reported 22 casualties: two officers and five enlisted men killed, and three officers and 12 men wounded.

Letter 2

[probably written in mid-February, 1865]

…is very naturally attracting some attention here. The soldiers think it best to not to “slack up” yet, but to continue the war (with energy) until the “Confederacy” is knocked into a “Mess of squirrels.” They literally wish to “crowd the mourners.” If “fortune favors the brave,” then Sherman’s all right and the Confederacy’s gone to the Devil.

Capt. [Kendall B.] Peniwell and Lt. [Clement] March [of Co. B, 5th Ill. Cav.] are mustered out and gone home. “I want to go. I must go. I want to go there too.” These are the words I keep humming. I tell you, my symptoms are alarming. Is there no balm in Gilead? Where is the Christian Commission? Where is the Liberty Ladies Union League Candy Pulling Society? Can they give no comfort nor consolation? No candy? But alas! at the very mention of its name, my disease is aggravated a thousand fold. “Wound open afresh which time nearly had healed, and the ills of this life at a glance are revealed.”

Now can you keep a secret? “Yes?” Well hold your ear a little closer. There’s an expedition afoot (a horesback, I mean). We are to take 100 rounds of rations nd 15 days ammunition. We go “in light marching order.” No soldier will be allowed more than 1 pack mule. There shall be no pillaging. Private property (including chickens) will be respected. The “General Orders” from “These Headquarters” are very heavy indeed. The particulars of the expedition are a profound secret only known to the Confederacy. Gen. Dana, Col. Orbund and the “rest of mankind.” When we go is a “question of time” but from the energy and activity exhibited in our Quartermaster Department, it is hoped the expedition will be ready to sail by the middle of the summer.

I hear that our [Illinois] Legislature has repealed “the Black Laws.” 1 Well the next thing is Negro Suffrage. I am opposed to it. I think the Negro has suffered enough already. Most of our Boys are in favor of it on the ground that they’d rather a Nigges suffer than for them to.

But I must bring my letter to a close. I see the toe of Lt. Col. [Abel Hildreth] Seley’s boots. It’s likely he will be here in a few minutes. Judging from appearances, I think he’s even “drunker” than “usual.” 2

Give my respects to all my friends. Tell Minnie I can’t see her Christmas gift yet. No more. Very respectfully yours. — T. Barnfield

P. S. James Hindman is not expected to live till morning. His brother is here. — Tom Barnfield

1 “Illinois was infamous throughout the free states for its anti-Black policies. The Illinois legislature updated and intensified the state’s racist laws from the 1820s through the 1850s. In addition to requiring that Black people register with local officials and criminalizing African Americans’ public assembly, state laws barred Black people from testifying in court cases involving whites and promised public education to white children only….The Illinois legislature updated the black laws many times, and in 1853 it attempted to bar Black migration into the state. Black Illinoisans fought these policies for decades. The legislature finally repealed the black laws on Feb. 7, 1865.” (Source: Slavery and Racist Laws.)

2 LTC Abel Hildreth Seley (1821-1886) must have had rather large feet. Seley was working for a railroad company in Nashville when the Civil War began and left immediately to return to Illinois (where his family resided) to “put down the Rebellion.”