The following letters were written by Wilber H. Merrill (1840-1925), the son of Leonard J. Merrill (1816-1899) and Eliza J. Judd (1815-1887) of Cattaraugus county, New York. Wilber enlisted on 15 September 1861 at the age of 21 to serve in Co. H, 44th New York Infantry (People’s Ellsworth Regiment). He was quickly promoted to corporal and again to Sergeant in mid-December 1862, just after the Battle of Fredericksburg. He survived his term of service and mustered out with his company on 11 October 1864 at Albany, New York.
“The 44th New York was an extremely battle-hardened unit, whose effort had been depended upon in many prior battles, and which would play a significant role two months after Chancellorsville at Gettysburg where it was heavily involved in the defense of Little Round Top. As noted in the letter, the 44th was supposed to be in the forefront of the battle at Chancellorsville, but the Confederate disruption of the Union plans led to their sustaining only modest losses. It turns out that their most significant action at Chancellorsville took place around the time this letter was written, when, as noted above, they were called upon to protect the retreat of the defeated Union troops. Hooker’s 130,000 troops faced Lee’s 60,000 at Chancellorsville, with the battle leaving a total of nearly 30,000 killed, wounded, or missing. The burning alive of Union wounded by the Confederates, described emotionally in this letter, has in fact been corroborated by historians.”
Wilber’s letter praises Hooker for his planning and execution of the campaign against Lee’s army but expresses a personal belief that “some of the generals got a little scared about the rear” and also shares a rumor that President Lincoln may have actually precipitated the retreat due to his concerns that the Nation’s Capitol might be vulnerable should his army be annihilated. I have not found any evidence that this was the case. Hooker kept his battle plan for the Chancellorsville fight closely guarded from even his Corps Commanders. Lincoln knew only vaguely what Hooker had in mind and wrote to him, “While I am anxious, please do not suppose that I am inpatient, or waste a moment’s thought on me, to your own hindrance, or discomfort.” [Lincoln to Hooker, 28 April 1863, in Basler et al., eds., Collected Works, 6:189-190.] The consensus of opinion among scholars today is that Fighting Joe Hooker lost Chancellorsville simply because he lost confidence in himself.
To read letters written by other members of the 44th New York Infantry that I have transcribed and published on Spared & Shared, see the following list. The letters by Anthony Graves are particularly detailed and interesting. His letter of 7 May 1863 gives an account of the Battle of Chancellorsville that is also excellent.
Louis Ferrand, Co. A, 44th New York (1 Letter)
Louis Ferrand, Co. A, 44th New York (1 Letter)
John Gurnsy Vanderzee, Co. A, 44th New York (1 Letter)
John T. Johnson, Co. C, 44th New York (2 Letters)
John H. Lewis, Co. D, 44th New York (1 Letter)
Peter Mersereau, Co. E, 44th New York (1 Letter)
Charles Robinson French, Co. E, 44th New York (1 Letter)
Anthony G. Graves, Co. F, G, H, 44th New York (38 Letters)
Isaac Bevier, Co. E., 44th New York (2 Letters)
Albert Nathaniel Husted, Co. E, 44th New York (1 Letter)
Samuel R. Green, Co. I, 44th New York (6 Letters)
George W. Arnold, Co. K. 44th New York (1 Letter)
Letter 1
[Note: The following letter was found for sale on The Excelsior Brigade and was presumably transcribed by them so I cannot verify the accuracy of the transcription.]
Camp near Fredericksburg, VA
November 25, 1862
Dear Parents,
I once more take a few spare moments to converse with you. I feel it a great privilege to take my pen to write to you. Although I cannot sit myself by you and converse with you but pen, ink and paper is next [best].
Well, we have been on the march nearly every day for the last month although we have not had any very hard marches. Imagine yourself packing up at three o’clock in the morning. Remember you are to take your whole kit of things—bed and bedding, crockery and eatables enough to last you three days—and then sit around in the cold November winds until perhaps 12 o’clock before you get started. And then you will have a little insight into a soldier’s chance of having his patience tried. Well here we are down near Fredericksburg where we were soon after we left Harrison’s Landing. The rebels occupy the town in force.
The report is that Burnside has given them fourteen hours to remove the women and children. They say that they are busy at it now. I don’t believe that they will stand and fight here but they may. I don’t pretend to know. Only sunrise will tell.
I received your letter of the 3rd. It found me well as usual. I had just written to you one before I received it and that is the reason that I have not written before. I am feeling tolerably well now and hope this may find you all the same. Mother, you wanted to know when I heard from Jane Austin. Well, I can tell you when I had the last letter from her. It was last spring. Just after we left Hall Hill. So you see I have not heard from her very lately.
I am glad to hear that Adelbert is a going to board at Normend this winter and go to school for I think that will be an easy plan for him. It seems that your family is going to be rather small this winter but it will make it all the easier for you too. Tell the boys for me that they must learn fast and improve their time for they don’t know the worth of a good education until they leave home and take up business for themselves. I have never seen or noticed the worth of a good education than I have here since I have been in the army.
Mother, the next time you see Mrs. Austin, please thank her for me and give her my best regards. And tell her that tea made me a quart of good tea and you better believe that it tasted good. I wrote in my other letter that you need not send me any money but we have not gotten any pay yet. I don’t know as they ever intend to pay us again. I tell you, we are seeing pretty hard times for tobacco. And I wish you would send me a dollar or two in your next. There is not much danger but that I would get it all right. Direct your letters as usual. It is always the same. They first come to Washington and then to the regular wherever it may be.
I have just gotten a letter from Dayton and I tell you, it done me lots of good. E. A. Nash has just received his commission papers as Captain of Co. D and so we have lost one of our best officers. He is one of the best officers in our regiment and I am glad to see him promoted for he deserves it. We are now under command of Lieutenant Colonel Conner. He has lately been promoted and I tell you, it makes a perfect fool of him. We don’t like him a bit. He is so awful strict. I wish that Colonel Rice would come back. He is just a whole solid man and we all like him first rate. I must close for this time. Please give my love to all of the friends and accept them yourself. Write soon. Yours truly, — Wilber H. Merrill
Letter 2
Camp near Falmouth [Virginia]
December 25th 1862
Respected & much loved Aunt,
I wish you happy Christmas. I thought that you would like to hear from me after the battle so here goes. I have passed through another awful shower of lead & iron & escaped unharmed while many of my comrades have been mangled & torn in pieces by my side. This makes the 6th battle that I have been in & I think that I have great reason to be thankful that I have thus far escaped unharmed.
The 154th Regiment lays about three miles from here. Last Sunday Alva was over here to see me. I tell you, I was glad to see him & to see him looking so tough. He stayed all day & we had a first rate visit. He seems to like soldiering first rate. Yesterday morning as I was standing by the cook fire, someone came up behind me and slapped his paws on my neck with the power of an elephant. On looking around, who should I see but Uncle Barzilla. Maybe you think that I wasn’t some tickled & he seemed to be in the same fix. I believe that I never was as glad to see anyone as to see him. He stayed most all day with me & I tell you, we kept up a pretty brisk chatting. He looks as tough as I ever saw him. He looks a little black & smoky but that is not unusual for a soldier. He is just as full of his times as ever and says he like soldiering first rate.
They have not been in any battle yet & I hope they will not be obliged to for it is anything but a pleasant place to be on a battlefield & see the mangled forms and hear the dying and wounded. To hear them calling for water or to be carried off from the battlefield—it is enough to melt the hardest of hearts. We lay on the battlefield amongst the dead and wounded 36 hours & I tell you, we had to hug the ground pretty tight to keep our skulls whole.
Well, Aunt, today is Christmas & I presume you will have some nice fixing up. Now what do you suppose I am going to have for a Christmas supper? I am a going to have some fried beef & some potatoes, and some apple sauce and hard bread, and I think we shall enjoy that full as well as some would the best of suppers for it is something unusual with us. We can’t afford to live as high as that every day. I wish that it was so that I could call in and have a chat with you & help you eat a pan of green apples or take a piece of pie & cheese, but that is impossible now.
I don’t know but you will have to find you another man for I don’t know but what Uncle B. will fall in love with some of these quadroons down here. I can’t see what possessed him to come off down here and leave everything comfortable at home. He had just got things all fixed up comfortable.
In the last fight we lost about 50 killed and wounded. Our Lieutenant Colonel [Freeman Conner] had his right arm broken and out of the Dayton boys was John Mayer shot through the leg. The rest of the boys are usually well excepting [Charles] Hart Blair. He is not very well.
I wish you could peep into our little tent. We are fixed up pretty comfortable. We have got a little fireplace fixed in one side of our tent which makes us quite comfortable. I suppose you would take us to be as sorrowful a lot of fellows as there is on the face of the earth, but instead of that we enjoy ourselves first rate—only when we get sick and then things look and go pretty blue. Health is a great blessing to soldiers. And finely to anyone, if you think this worth answering, please write soon. Please give my love & best wishes to all & save a large share for yourself. I remain as ever, your most affectionate nephew, — Wilber H. Merrill
Address: W. H. Merrill, Co. H, 44th Regt. N. Y. S. V., Washington D. C.
Letter 3
Camp near Falmouth, Va.
January 12th 1863
Dear Aunt,
Your letter of the first came to hand last evening & most gladly did I receive it & was glad to hear that you were all usually well. My health never was better than at the present & I am enjoying myself as well as could be expected under present circumstances. We are fixed up very comfortable now & would be very glad if they would let us stop here all winter. But we don’t expect any such good luck.
The weather here is very pleasant now. We have not had but very little rain this winter & but little snow. But there has been some pretty cold nights which pinches the soldiers up some. I have not been over to see Uncle B[arzilla] since I wrote. Alva was here New Year’s afternoon. We had just got into camp from a three days reconnaissance. We were tired and hungry and did not have much chance to visit. I think I shall go over and see them before many days.
Now, Aunt, I am going to tell you just what I think of this war. I think if the War Department would let the generals in the field have their way a little more and not do all the bossing themselves, I think the war would progress a great deal faster. Washington shelters some of our worst enemies. I think to burn Washington & hang some of the leaders would be a blessing to our country. I don’t think that all of our officers are true blue but I do think that we have some that would like to finish up the muss. I think the war might of been settled before this time had we had the right men in the War Department and also had true generals to lead us on to victory. Tis not the soldiers fault. They fight brave enough & are faithful enough. But I will tell you one thing, there is some that are getting their nest feathered pretty well & they don’t care how long the war lasts nor how many homes are caused desolate by its power. What care they for the sufferings & privations of the poor soldier as long as they get good salaries & good quarters furnished them.
I think as I always did about McClellan. He is the man who had ought to command the army and that is what every soldier will tell you here. They all have confidence in him and when he leads them into battle, they know that he is not leading them into a trap where slaughter is needless & where there is some chance for their lives. Look at Burnside’s Great Battle of Fredericksburg. What did it all amount to? I will tell you—the slaughter of 8 to 10 thousand men while their loss must of been light. He must of been very near sighted or else his judgment must of been very poor. Burnside is a good man in his place, but not to command as large an army.
The President’s [Emancipation] Proclamation I don’t think amounts to any certain sum for how is he a going [to] set the slaves free before he has them in his hands? Then the first place, he has got to catch them before he can free them. I say if we are fighting to free the slaves—as it seems that we are, [then] take them as fast as we can get them and arm them and let them help free themselves. Their blood is no better to be spilt than mine. I think things look rather dark now but I hope it will look brighter soon. I allow myself to think so at any rate. I can’t tell how soon we may be called on to fight another battle for you know that a soldier don’t know one day what will happen another. I don’t think there will be another fight right here but can’t tell.
I found John Mayer about 9 o’clock at night & helped carry him off from the field. He was shot through the leg just below the knee. They thought they could save his leg. [Israel] Luce and [Sylvanus] Markham have not been with us since we left Harrison’s Landing. Markham has been in Philadelphia since. I learn that he is a going to get his discharge. Luce is at Alexandria in the Convalescent Camp. Wall Johnson returned the 2nd of this month. The Dayton boys are scattering here now. Please [accept] my love & best wishes. Remember me to the children & friends. I remain as ever your affectionate nephew, — Wilber H. Merrill
Letter 4
[Note: The following letter is from the personal collection of Richard Weiner who provided the following description and authorized me to transcribe it and publish it on Spared & Shared.]
Headquarters 44th Regt. New York State Volunteers
Camp near Falmouth [Virginia]
May 6th, 1863
Remembered Parents,
You will see by the heading of this that we are back in our old quarters. We have met with another defeat. I received a letter from sister Jane & Mariett last evening & was very glad to hear that they were enjoying themselves as well as they appear to write. But I can’t say that I feel quite as well as common but I think I shall soon feel better. You need not worry any about me.
Well now I must tell you something about the battle. The fighting continued 3 or 4 days. Saturday and Sunday were the two hottest days of the fight. It raged very hard & the 11th Corps broke and caused pretty sad havoc. They did not fight worth a snap. The 154th [New York] Regiment are in that Corps. They lost about half of their regiment. Them that have seen them tell me that [Harvey] Inman, [William] Blair, [Horace N.] Darbee—Strickland Blair’s son-in-law, Barzilla, 1 Alva, and a good many more that I don’t think of now, they are missing—perhaps taken prisoners. I hope nothing worse. You need say anything about it for they may turn up yet. Perhaps they have got around to their regiment by this time.
Tuesday night, May 5th, the whole army recrossed the [Rappahannock] river, not because we were whipped there but because Sedgwick, commanding the 6th Army Corps, he crossed down below Fredericksburg & took the heights and then left one Brigade there to hold them and started up the river where we were fighting. The rebs turned his flanks and obliged him to retreat across the river so you see the rebs had possession of the heights. They say that orders came from Abe not to fight & endanger the capitol. If that is so, I would not care a bit if the capitol was burnt to the ground.
There was a great stand on both sides. I think it was a great deal heavier on the rebs than ours. We must of taken all of 5,000 prisoners. How many they took of us, I don’t know. The two-years men and nine-months men are leaving as fast as they can carry them away on cars. We think here that the army were not whipped but that some of the generals got a little scared about the rear. I never saw the army so eager for a fight as they were when they had thrown up breastworks. There were lots of them that wanted them to attack us but now things look rather dubious. I begin to think now if they put in a general smart enough to whip the rebs, they will do something to foil his plans. I never saw plans laid out better and carried out better than Hooker’s were as far as I know anything about it.
“Sunday, when the battle was raging the hottest, the rebs set the woods afire I suppose thinking that they could drive us out in that way. But think of the poor wounded lying there without the least chance of help. Can such men have any souls in them?”
Sgt. Wilber H. Merrill, Co. H, 44th New York Infantry, 6 May 1863
Sunday, when the battle was raging the hottest, the rebs set the woods afire I suppose thinking that they could drive us out in that way. But think of the poor wounded lying there without the least chance of help. Can such men have any souls in them? I don’t believe they have and they also fired a large brick building 2 and burnt some of our wounded there. Oh war—cruel war—when will it cease—inhuman worse than the savages dare be.
We were very lucky in this fight. We were put every time where they thought the rebs would come but were not engaged at all. Our pickets fired some, had one killed & five wounded in our regiment. There was not one touched in Co. H.
I sent my likeness a few days before we marched. I would like to know if you had received it & I also sent Heman $40. Please let me know if he has got that—that is, if you should happen to know. Tell Uncle Hiram that I don’t know any such man. Wall & Hart have gone over to the 154th Regiment. Probably I shall know more about them when they get back. If you can’t read this, I shant wonder any. If you can’t, send it back and maybe my nerves will be a little steadier then & I will try it over again. Tell the girls that I will write them a good long letter when I get a little leisure time. Please write soon. Write all the news. My love and best wishes to all & may God see fit to soon close this terrible, terrible rebellion. It almost makes my blood curdle to think of the battlefield.
Good afternoon. From your ever affectionate son, — Wilber H. Merrill
1 The roster of the 154th New York Infantry includes Barzilla Merrill who enlisted at the age of 44 as a private, and his son Alva Cole Merrill who enlisted as a private at the age of 18. Both served in Co. K together. According to a newspaper article, Barzilla was shot twice and died lated in the day on 2 May 1863. His son Alva was killed the following day. The Dayton Historical Society has a copy of the original letter written by Asst. Surgeon C. C. Rugg to Mrs. Merrill dated 30 May 1863 informing her of the death of both her husband and son.
2 The Chancellor House was burned during the Battle of Chancellorsville. About mid-morning on May 3, General Joseph Hooker was standing on the porch of the Chancellor House when an incoming projectile struck a pillar which broke and knocked the general out. At the climax of the battle on May 3, Federal soldiers tried to crowd into the basement, where the Chancellor women were hiding, to escape the fighting. Lt. Col. Joseph Dickinson of Hooker’s staff routed them out and, later, conveyed the women to safety when the house caught fire. A letter written by an unidentified oficer in Hancock’s Division to the New York Times and published on 11 May 1863 mentions the Chancellor House as follows: “A large red brick house stood in the front and on the crossroads where our line of battle was formed which was used as the headquarters of Gen. Hooker, but afterward as a hospital. This they shelled and unfortunately set it on fire, causing a fearful scene. However, we succeeded in renoving our own men, The wounded rebels made piteous cries for help, but we were obliged to take care of our own men first.“
Letter 5
Headquarters 44th Regt. N. Y. S. V.
Camp near Falmouth, Va.
May 14th 1863
Remembered Aunt,
Thinking perhaps that you would like to hear from me & perhaps you have not heard from the 154th Regiment, I thought I would give you what little information I can about Uncle B[arzilla] & A’lva]. Giles Johnson was over here today & he says that they lost over half of their regiment. He said there was only 17 left in Co. K. All of the Dayton boys are missing but George Newcomb, George Hubbard, and Fred Wiegand—a Dutchman from the swamp. Giles says that some of the boys saw Uncle Barzilla fall and thought that he was killed. He saw Alva after they had fell back into the woods and he was all right then. He thinks he must of been taken prisoner. I hope nothing worse has befallen him & I hope that Uncle Barzilla may [be] nothing more than wounded. And I trust it may be so yet.
How many homes this war has caused to be homes of mourning—homes that were once happy are now homes of sorrow. They were in a pretty warm place. They were flanked & the troops ahead of them made it a great deal worse for them. It came near being the ruin of the whole army but the 9th Army Corps were sent in and stopped the bloody rebs. This was Saturday night that they broke through. So Sunday morning we were sent out near where the 11th Army Corps broke and we held the lines till the army recrossed the river. Our brigade were not engaged at all. We lost some 9 wounded in our regiment by shell and stray bullets that came whistling over our heads. We were gone from our camp about 10 days. We started with 8 days rations & 63 rounds of cartridges & I tell you, that made a pretty hard load for us to march under.
I presume that up north that you think that we have met with an awful defeat but we don’t feel so here. We think that the rebs have paid pretty dearly for their victory. We were not compelled to fall back up where we were fighting, but George Sedgwick who took the heights & also Fredericksburg was compelled to fall back across the river & I suppose that Hooker thought it best to recross for fear of his communications being cut off. I think the army has full confidence in Hooker as they ever had & that is considerable. I think things look full as favorable for closing the war as they ever have.
I wish that President Lincoln would draft 200 thousand & full up the old regiments to their full standard & just crowd this thing right ahead. If I have got to fight, I wish I could do it everyday till I get through. The ambulances went out across the river day before yesterday and I hope and trust that they may get some tidings of those that are missing. I can’t help but think of the folks at home that have friends missing. My heart aches for them but there is one thing to comfort them & that is to sustain a government that our forefathers fought to hold and sustain.
Hoping this may find you all enjoying good health, I will close by asking you to write soon. Please accept my love and best wishes. Also the rest of the friends. I remain as ever your affectionate nephew, — Wilber H. Merrill
Spared & Shared 23 