Antislavery Movement, Millard Fillmore

1850: John P. Foster to S. B. Foster

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The following letter was probably written by the same John P. Foster (1817-1890) of Lynchburg, Campbell county, Virginia, who married, in 1848, to Susan Ann Temperence (“Tempy”) Holt. He was originally from Charlotte, I believe. Later in life he was a farmer. I was unable to find anyone else by this name in the 1850 census. But I also could not establish a link with his uncle, S. B. Foster.

From what I can gather, John was an itinerant watch peddlar/repairman. His letter speaks of the growing agitation between the North & South over the slavery issue and specially refers to Millard Fillmore’s recent message to Congress urging Texasto give up her claims to parts of New Mexico in exchange for $10 million in federal compensation which led to the Compromise of 1850. (see Speech).

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

Fork Union
Fluvanna county [Virginia]
August 11th 1850

My dear Uncle,

With pleasure I now seat myself to address a few lines to you to inform you of my whereabouts, &c.

I got your letter about two weeks ago & was very glad to hear from you & to learn of my friends in that part of the world & to know that you are yet in the enjoyment of good health & as you say—happy, which is far more than I can say. Although my health is as good as it has been for the last two years, I cannot say that I am happy for I am far from it yet. I think that I am as happy as almost anyone could be in my situation. I find my business very good yet. I am doing well as could be expected. I have taken since last November over three hundred dollars [and] have cleared over and above expenses a little over two hundred besides my horse & clothes. I have just one hundred in the bank which pays five percent [interest]. I have in my pocket about over a hundred & as I am a going on to Washington & Baltimore, I think I will lay it out in Lever Watches. I can get $25 for Harrisons which pays very well as it is no expense to sell them.

I want to see you and others of my friends but it is useless to talk about that as I do not expect to do so for a long time. I am now at Mr. Mann’s. He has given up the business & he has given me a recommendation to all of his former customers. I have been out on his route three days [and] got $9.50 and the promise of $5 more when I come around next time. I think my prospect is far better this year than it was last.

The weather is very warm. For several days the thermometer stood at 104 which you know is very warm riding. Yet I stand it far better than I expected. I am now in what is called a very sickly place at this season of the year but it is uncommonly healthy. I do not know of a sick person about excepting some that are always a grumbling year after year as ther are some in every place. We have had no cholera in this section yet. It is at Harpers Ferry, 30 miles west of Washington—a few cases.

As it regards Miss Martha playing [backgammon?], I think she tried to make it appear a little to smoothe on her part by saying that she had but little knowledge of the play. I think she must have played before to have beaten you six times in succession yet I think that she ought to be credited for the same. I would be very happy to take a game with her myself. I think by the time she had beaten three or four times, that the rest would come out mine, but as you know, it is useless to oppose a woman. We must let them have their own way & say you spoke of my pen making me write strangely as it regards Phebe kissing me. It is no more strange than true. yet I don’t think that it bestows much honor on me. But she did it as though she loved it which you know is natural for her.

Give my respects to Marth T. & all others of my old acquaintance except the man that keeps a preparation for pies (_urber). Peaches are very plenty & beginning to ripen & we have a most all kinds of fruit. The wheat crop is a little short. Corn looks very well. Tobacco is small but very high in market.

There is a great stir about the Abolitionist Question which I think is now a going to soon bring the North & South into a quarrel as I suppose you have seen Fillmore’s message in regard to Texas which if he sends a force there, the South will rise. But I hope it will prove otherwise.

I shall be in Washington on the 1st of October. Write me either at Fredericksburg, Virginia, or Washington City. I must now close. Goodbye at present. From your nephew, — John P. Foster

to his Uncle S. B. Foster

44th Ohio Infantry

1862: Joseph H. Corbin to his brother Allan

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A GAR badge of the 44th OVI & 8th OVC

The following letter was written by Pvt. Joseph H. Corbin (1846-1932) of Darke county, Ohio, while serving in Co. G, 44th Ohio Infantry. This regiment was organized in the fall of 1861 and spent the first winter of the war in West Virginia. They moved to Lexington, Kentucky in October 1862 and to Richmond, Kentucky, on 1 December 1862. It was while in Richmond that Joseph wrote this letter. Later in the war, in January 1864, the 44th Ohio Infantry was converted into the 8th Ohio Cavalry. Hence, Joseph finished his term of service in April 1864 in the 8th OVC

Joseph was the son of David and Margaret Corbin. In the 1880 US Census, Joseph was enumerated in Richland, Darke county, Ohio and his occupation was given as physician. His letter suggests that he must have worked in a printing office prior to his enlistment.

Joseph’s letter mentions the local newspaper office in Richmond, Kentucky. A paper was printed there prior to the Civil War called the Kentucky Weekly Messenger but shortages of paper and the ravages of war soon left them without a local paper. It appears that only a single issue of The Kentucky Rebel was printed in Richmond in September 1862 during the Confederate occupation of the town.

The reverse side of Joseph’s letter contains a sketch with no labels to indicate what it depicts. One drawing appears to be a Sibley tent perhaps. The other may represent some type of enclosure or breastworks but there are no landmarks or sense of scale.

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

Richmond, Kentucky
December 22nd, 1862

Dear Brother,

I now take the present opportunity of writing you a few lines to let you know that I am well at present and am having a very good time. I am still working in the printing office. It seems natural to take off my coat and go to work. The office is in a miserable condition. It belongs to a Union man and when the rebels was here, they printed a small sheet called the Kentucky Rebel. It has been a good office once but now it is in a ruinous condition.

Well, Al, they are still fortifying this place. They have put up some splendid breastworks so that cavalry could do no injury. A shell or a cannon ball would not go through it.

Well, Al, the weather here now is not very cold. There has not been any snow since we have been here. The country is more broken here than it is at Lexington. It will not be long till this winter is over. Christmas and new Years is near at hand. Times passes swiftly. Our time of enlistment is nearly half out and I am not tired soldiering yet.

Well, Al, there is no news here ad I have nothing more to write at present. It may be that the next time I write, I will have more to write about. Well, Al, I must bring my letter to a close. Write soon. From your brother, — Joseph H. Corbin

14th Maine Infantry, Ship Island

1862: Charles Barnard to his wife Margaret

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This letter was written by Capt. Charles Barnard, of Bucksport, of Co. A of the 14th Maine Regiment, wrote to his wife, Margaret, about the regiment’s arrival at Ship Island Mississippi.

This letter was posted on Maine Memory and transcribed by crowd-sourcing which did not yield a very accurate transcription. I have reposted it here with a corrected transpription so that it can be referenced. See Maine Historical Society MMN # 79906.

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

Ship Island, Mississippi
March 10th 1862

My Dear Maggie,

I closed my last letter on ship board expecting the steamer would leave Sunday. I find she has not sailed yet.

We landed Sunday morning early in a small steamer (taken from the Rebels) & marched through sand that our feet would sink into six inches every step to the grounds designated for our encampment, We have been shoveling sand to level our grounds & setting tents ever since.

Our food is hard bread, Southern ham uncooked. I made my supper & breakfast on that box of sardines you put in my trunk. We get water quite good by digging a hole in the sand anywhere. The Island, to look at, seems level with the sea. I don’t think it is twenty feet above it in any place. It is fine, white sand. In the center there is a green spot where we get rushes to lay down in our tents for a floor. I send enclosed a few flowers I picked this morning.

We are getting in order very fast. We shall have to cook out of doors. Boards are scarce here. Men will fight for a small pair of board or a few nails & a soldier will steal anything. Even Blodget took a ship scrapper when we packed on board the ship. I asked him what he wants of that. He thought it would come handy. He is human. All I stole was two good frying pans.

This little Island is very thickly settled now. There is quite a large fort, a light house, and any quantity of large guns and a large fleet of armed vessels and transports. The day we arrived, a few officer & men took a small steamer which was a privateer & taken a few day since & went over to Mississippi City about thirty miles from here, then got fired into & was obliged to return. They intend to send a gun boat and shell them out. We are midway between New Orleans & Mobile, 60 miles each way.

I received [your] letter giving an account of the murder of Crocker. I think those fellow had better enlisted. It does no good to work up that lasy Fogg. He pretends to be sick when we call on him for duty. I enquire at his about his appetite & then put him over the road. He can’t get clear. He must work and we have plenty of it. I don’t think I was ever so completely exausted as I was last night. I put some bed sock on Blodge’s chest & my trunk and slept soundly until morning. The sound of beakers as they come in on the shore is grand & soothing. I think this is a healthy place & a good chance to learn the Military.

Brig. General Phelps who made the Abolition Proclamation is in charge. Maj.-Gen Butler over the whole Battalion has not a [ ].

Goodbye darling one, — Charles

12th Maine Infantry, Ship Island

1862: Unidentified “William” of 12th Maine Infantry to his Father

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The following letter was written by a member of Co. K, 12th Maine Infantry from Ship Island on 14 February 1862. Troop movements place him in the 12th Maine; his reference to their 1st Sergeant Samuel Fernald leaves no doubt that he was in Co. K. However, he only signed his name “William” and as you might image, there were at least ten in the company with that name. He refers to an Aunt Rhody but that doesn’t help much. The description of his voyage from Fortress Monroe to Ship Island and the events that occurred there since landing are consistent in every detail with the content of a diary by another member of the regiment in Co. G, soon to be published.

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

Ship Island
February 14, 1862

Dear Father,

I take this time to write you a few lines. You may get them and you may not. After so long a time, we have arrived. We broke camp at Fortress Monroe a week ago last Sunday and went on board the Constitution but owing to foggy weather, did not sail until Tuesday morning. That night [we] fell in with a disabled gunboat, took her back to Fortress Monroe where we arrived Wednesday about noon. Thursday afternoon about four o’clock, we started again [and] just at dark, run into a schooner but I guess it did not damage her much for we kept on our course. We had a very fine passage—pleasant all the way. I was glad to land somewhere, even if it was Ship Island.

This island is seven miles long. On the [west] end where we are camped, there is not anything but sand. On the other end there is a few trees. It is a little the warmest February that ever I experienced in my life. I like [it] very well as far as I have seen. The troops that was here when we came say it is quite healthy here. We left a few sick at Fortress Monroe. The day that we came on board, Sam Fernald—our 1st Sergt. [of Co. K]—fell down the main hatch and struck on the top of his head. I suppose he is dead before this time. There is quite a fleet here. Two or three days before we arrived, they took an English steamship—one that had run the blockade twice. She is a fine steamer ironclad. The ship Black Prince which started from Boston with one hundred and fifty-five horses, when she arrived here, had [but] five of them alive. 1

Write to me as soon as you get this and tell me all the news about the war for we can get no news here. It is the opinion here that they don’t want us to hear much news. We heard when we left Fortress Monroe that the 13th [Maine] was coming here. I hope it is so. It seems to be the talk here that when we move from here, we shall start for New Orleans. I have written all the news I can think of just now so I will close.

Give my love to Mother and Mon and sis. the kiss as usual. Give my respects to Aunt Rhody and all the rest of the folks. Be sure and write. From your son, — William

I did not get your last letter. I suppose it is at Fortress Monroe.

1 The horses belonged to the 3d Mass. Mounted Rifle Rangers (Read’s Company). The men shipped out of Boston, headed for Ship Island, Mississippi aboard the steamship Constitution. They sent their horses aboard the transport Black Prince. While enroute, she encountered a severe gale and the ship pitched so badly that the horses spooked and became hysterical, causing them to tranple each other to death.

45th Massachusetts Infantry

1862: Charles R. Codman to Lucy Lyman Paine (Sturgis) Codman

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Colonel Charles R. Codman

On March 12, 1861, Charles Russell Codman (1829-1918) enlisted in the Union Army as captain and adjutant. In 1862 he was commissioned into the Boston Cadets at Fort Warren. Following President Abraham Lincoln’s July 1, 1862, call for three hundred thousand soldiers, the Cadets began recruiting a nine month regiment. Codman was selected to be commander of this regiment, which was to be known as the 45th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Codman led the regiment during the Battles of Kinston and White Hall, as well as in skirmishes in and around New Bern, North Carolina. On July 21, 1863, the 45th Massachusetts was discharged from service.

Directed to Mrs. C. R. Codman, 7 Park Square, Boston, Mass.

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

New Bern, [North Carolina]
December 21st 1860

My dearest wife,

I returned this morning in safety to New Bern with the regiment. God has spared my life through many perils and I hope to show my thankfulness by being hereafter more devoted to His service. As the mail is about closing, I cannot now give you a detailed account of the expedition which has been completely successful throughout. Our regiment has suffered severely and behaved bravely. We had ten killed and 40 wounded at Kinston and 4 killed & ten wounded at White Hall.

Our brave relative Theodore Parkman was killed at White Hall. I have written to his father a detailed account of how it happened. I will only say to you here that it was not at all on account of his being color bearer that he was struck. The regiment was entirely out of sight of the enemy and Theodore was killed by being struck upon the head by a fragment of a shell that burst near us. I feel his loss keenly for I had learned to admire his unselfishness and manliness of character.

Dearest Lucy. The news that I receive in my letters from you which I find awaiting me here are mournful indeed. My dear friend and cousin and sister has passed from earth. She was more ready to go than most of us and yet it seems a severe dispensation. I feel it very deeply and can hardly realize it. Tom Russell. With all my heart I pity him and yet he seems to have the only consolation possible—and happy is he that it is so.

My darling Lucy, how much we all need to trust in God. I never felt it so much as when I went into the battle the other day. I believe that I was calm and my men say that I was brave, and I was myself surprised to find how cool I was when there was anything to be done, and yet men about me were killed and why should I not have been struck as well as others? I can only feel that God did not will it so. And I pray that through all my dangers, He may restore me to my dear wife & children. But at any rate, may you and I, my Lucy, both be prepared for the worst, by trusting in God. I will try to do so. Do you the same.

By the next mail, I will try to give you some account of our expedition and will answer many. Most fondly, your Charles

155th Pennsylvania Infantry, Desertion, President Abraham Lincoln

1863: Eliza Parmer to Abraham Lincoln

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The following letter was written by Eliza Parmer of Pittsburgh to President Abraham Lincoln begging his mercy for the desertion of her youngest son, William Parmer of Co. C, 155th Pennsylvania. I can’t find a William Parmer in that company but I do see a William Henry Palmer (1845-1911) who enlisted on 22 August 1862 and was dishonorably discharged on 15 July 1865 from Dry Tortugas, Florida. This regiment was commanded by Capt. James Barclay Palmer (1838-1911) of Pittsburgh.

William Henry Palmer was the son of William Henry Palmer (1814-1864) and Eliza Victor Palmer (1812-1879) of Pittsburgh. In the 1860 US Census, this family was enumerated in Webster, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania under the name Parmer. Living in the household at that time were the parents, William and Eliza Parmer (both age 46), John Parmer (age 24), Alfred Parmer (age 20). Victor Parmer (age 18), William Parmer (age 15), Isaac N. Parmer (age 12), George Parmer (age 8), Alice Parmer (age 6), and Eliza Parmer (age 18).

The muster rolls indicate that William deserted on 4 May 1863 at Sharpsburg, Maryland; this letter was written some six weeks later.

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

Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania]
June 13, 1863

Mr. Abraham Lincoln,

I take the pleasure for the Preside of these United States to infom you about my son. He is sick and was sick before this month. I am most crazy about him. He is very young and is sick now. He got out of heart and tried to get home but he was caught in Washington and taken back. I hope you will have mercy on him—my poor boy—for my sake. I would like for him to come home so I can take care of him till he gets well again. Have mercy on him. I am an old woman and have no one to take care of me now since he is gone. He belongs to the One hundred 55th Pennsylvania, Company C—James Palmer’s Company. I hope you will write to the company if you please…[illegible]. — Eliza Parmer.

His name is William Parmer

I have four sons in the army and William is the youngest of the four and I think it is nothing more than right that I should have him home to be a helper to me in my old age. Yours with respect. — Mrs. Eliza Parmer

[Annotated on back of letter]

Mrs. Eliza Parmer. In behalf of her son, Wm. Parmer of Co. C, 155th Pa. Vol. who was arrested for desertion. Asks that he may be discharged.

30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters

1863: John A. W. Hickey to Margaret E. Hickey

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John A. W. Hickey (1827-1863)

The following letter was written by Pvt. John A. W. Hickey (1827-1863) of Co. E, 30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters. According to muster rolls, John did not enlist with the Sharpshooters until 12 February 1863. They also inform us that he died at Emory & Henry College Hospital, Washington county, Virginia on 30 June 1863—just two weeks after this letter was sent to his wife. His cause of death was given as “Febris Remittens” or intermittent fever. An obituary published in the Abingdon Virginian (10 July 1863) states that John Hickey was in poor health prior to the war yet he attempted to volunteer in 1861 but was rejected as unfit. When he was conscripted early in 1863, however, he was accepted for service and ordered to report to Dublin Depot.

Hickey wrote this letter from Dublin Depot which functioned as a vital Confederate logistical and tactical point on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. He wrote the letter to his wife, Margaret Elizabeth (“Betty”) Minnick Hickey (1830-1933) on the farm near Abingdon. They were married in 1847 and had three children at the time that John entered the Confederate service.

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

Dublin Depot, Virginia
June 15, 1863

Dear Betty,

I drop you a few lines to inform you of my whereabouts and health. I am not very well. I have had the diarrhea for several days though I have perfmed [my] duty all the time. The water here is so bad and we have nothing to eat but corn bread and fat meat.

We are at Dublin yet but I think we will leave here before long. Where we will go, I have no idea but it is more than likely we will go to Kentucky. But it is very uncertain. We may go somewhere else. Men are getting very tired of this war. They are deserting from the Army of the Potomac by scores.

As to my coming home this summer, it is very uncertain. But I will come home a day or two if I can. But you need not look for me till you see me. I would like to have some butter if I could get it and a cheese if you had it. You don’t know how hard the poor soldier has to live and if he buys anything, he must pay six prices and a man getting $11 per month can’t stand it.

Write soon. So goodbye. — John A. W. Hickey

[to] Margaret E. Hickey

47th Indiana Infantry, Battle of St. Charles, Memphis, Tennessee

1862: William W. Aspinwall to Unknown “Luke”

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The following letter was written by William W. Aspinall [or Aspinwall] (1845-1921) of Co. H, 47th Indiana Infantry. He was the son of Dyson Aspinwall (1804-18xx) and Sarah Ann Haines (1824-18xx) of Pleasant Mills, Adams county, Indiana. An English emigrant, Dyson made his living as a woolen manufacture. William was born in May 1845 in Mechanicsburg, Champaign Co., Ohio. He became a “woolen worker” until he enlisted in the 47th Indiana Volunteers in 1861. On May 16, 1863, he was wounded at the Battle of Champion Hill, Miss., but served until the end of the war. Afterward he became known as “Roving Bill” because he lived the vagabond life of a hobo. Reverend James McCook of Hartford, Conn., began a correspondence with Bill as he roamed the U.S. from coast to coast. The Reverend published Bill’s letters to him in a nine-part series of articles titled “Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp” from 1893 until about 1901. It’s described as follows: “Born one of 23 siblings, married 5 times, wounded fighting for the Union in one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, kicked out of numerous jobs and soldiers’ homes for drunkenness, and having spent decades wandering as a penniless vagabond, Bill also kept up a 24-year correspondence with John James McCook, Professor of Modern Languages at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.” Bill passed away at the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky on 14 Nov. 1921, and was buried in the Veterans’ Home cemetery.

The 47th Indiana Infantry Regiment moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in June 1862 and served on occupation and garrison duty there through July 1862, before moving onward to Helena, Arkansas, on July 24, 1862. William’s letter includes a description of the 17 June 1862 Battle of St. Charles on the White River in Arkansas. In that battle, a Confederate shore battery fired a 32-pounder shell into the boiler of the Union Gunboat Mound City, causing a catastrophic explosion. The blast killed 125 men. 82 men were killed instantly by scalding or trama. See—The Deadliest Shot: The Doomed White River Expedition, by Donald Barnhart, Jr. on HistoryNet.

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

Near Memphis [Tennessee]
[Probably Sunday, June 22, 1862]

Well Luke,

You say that you get lonesome on Sundays. I think that you will pass away a good many lonesome Sundays before I get back although we may get back before I think we will.

Well Luke, it is a getting most time to go out on Dress Parade. I will finish when we come back. Well, we have come in front Dress Parade. We [had] a very good Dress Parade. We drilled the manuel of arms a little. There is a good many citizens comes to see us. We have good music and they like tto hear it. The 34th has a brass bands. I guess they never heard any music until we came.

There is a good many boats a coming and going. The gunboats is laying before the city—that is, the part of them, the Flagship Benton, the Louisville, and Mound City are here. The others have gone down the river. One of them got blowed up down there. They went up the White River [where] the Rebels had a battery of Parrott guns. They shot a ball into the boiler and blowed the whole top of the boat and scalded 150 men to death. But they took the battery and one thousand prisoners so they didn’t come out so bad after all. The 46th Regiment was done it [attacked the fortifications on land]. Their Col. [Graham N.] Fitch was commander.

Luke, you must take care of yourself and tell Gary to give John Studabaker hell for he is a damned old cheat. He would steal the coppers off of a dead nigger’s eyes.

I must close for Dave Stockham wants to write a few lines. Give my respects to all enquiring friends. — William W. Aspinall