These letters were written by Pvt. Asa Holmes (1816-1863) who was was 46 years-old when he enlisted in Co. A, 114th New York Infantry on 1 August 1862 at Oxford, Chenango County, New York, to serve three years. He died of chronic diarrhea on 1 (or 2) November 1863 at Barracks Hospital at New Orleans.
Asa was the son of John Holmes (1760-1849) and Esther Wilcox Ensworth (1776-1863) of Oxford, Chenango County, New York. Asa wrote the letter home to Oxford where his wife, Eliza Ann (Odell) Holmes (1817-18xx) and their two children—Mary A. (b. 1842) and Frank (b. 1850)—were residing. By 1863, his son Frank was 13 years old and his daughter Mary was 18, married, and the mother of a child.
Seven companies of this regiment were recruited in Chenango County, and three in Madison. They rendezvoused at Norwich, where the regiment was organized and mustered into the U.S. service for three years on September 3, 1862. Three days later, it started for the front, moving to Binghamton by canal boats and proceeding from there to Baltimore. In November, it sailed for New Orleans as part of Banks’ expedition, and upon its arrival there, it was assigned to Weitzel’s (2nd) brigade, Augur’s (1st) division, 19th corps. It was stationed for a time at Brashear City and neighboring points, and it was first engaged at Fort Bisland, where it had 11 men wounded, 3 mortally. It did not participate in the Bayou Teche campaign, but joined its corps before Port Hudson on May 30, 1863, where it was actively engaged for 40 days in the siege and suffered severely in the grand assault of June 14. The loss of the regiment during the siege was 73 killed, wounded, and missing.
A letter from Asa’s captain states that Asa contracted the illness that killed him about the 9th of July but he remained with his regiment until 3 September 1863 when he was sent to the hospital. Asa was among the 192 men in the regiment who died of disease and other causes during the war.
[Note: see also Holmes, Asa. Civil War letters, 1863 June 16-17. 2 items. Located at Pearce Civil War Collection, Navarro College, Corsicana, Texas.]
Letter 1
Baltimore[Maryland]
September 22, 1862
Frank, I got your letter today. I was glad to hear from you that you was well. My health is good but the hardships I have to go through with. I have bought my vittles half of the time since I left Oxford. Those [that] ain’t got any money fair hard.
The war news today [is] that Old Stonewall Jackson was taken and 6 thousand prisoners with him. I have wrote two letters before this and sent you three papers. I will send you one tomorrow morning and you will get the latest news of war.
Thy bring into Baltimore from 100 to 150 every day or to prison. I want you should write when you leave all about it.
From your father, — Asa Holmes
Direct your letter as the same you did, Get what money you want. Enquire for paper. — Asa Holmes
Letter 2
Newport News, Va.
November 16, 1862
Frank, I haven’t heard from you this long time. My health is poor. Have got a bad cough. If I am on this vessel much longer, I shall die with 1200 on board. We have been on 16 days now. I don’t know where we shall go to yet. Tell sister to write to me Frank. Write soon.
Direct your letter to Asa Holmes, Fort Monroe, Va., Co. A, 114th Regiment New York Volunteers.
December 2nd, 1862
Frank, I wrote to you last night. Now I write to inform you that we was called up at midnight to go on board the vessel. The whole brigade numbers about 7,000 men, to be ready any minute to go. Don’t know where. Don’t make much difference now. I lay in my bunk to write this.
I sent fifty cents in the other letter to you. Also fifty in this. Ask Mr. Lewis if he has received my check and the money I sent.
My health is better but not good yet. I shall come around yet safe, I suppose. There is some hope I shan’t. Do the best you can till I come. Then I can tell you more than I can write about the war. — Asa Holmes
Elisa, take good care of Frank and not have him a nigger to no one. There is money enough to do it. — Asa Holmes
Letter 3
Quarantine Station Sixty Miles Below New Orleans
On Mississippi [River]
December 18, 1862
We have to lay here ten days. No vessel can pass here that have any sick on board. Every vessel has to be examined by the government doctor which comes on board, We had 200 sick—some with the ship fever, measles and typhoid fever and small pox and body lice by the bushel, and the itch and ship rash too.
Frank, I don’t know whether I put that money in the other letter or not, I was in such a hurry. I put some in this.
There is not but four houses here and them belong to the government for sick hospital. Frank, [I wish] you was here to see the orchards of oranges and lemons. Some as as big as pumpkins. We are on shore today. Snakes and alligators too numerous to mention. We can’t hear a word about the war here.
Keep up good courage. I shall be home by and bye. I am exposed to all kind of sickness. Hope you are well and all the rest. When I come to a stopping place, then I’ll tell you where to direct your letters. Then you must write a long letter to me.
I have seen the elephant all lover. I have took the first lesson with the rest of them.
To Frank A. Holmes, [from] Asa Holmes
Letter 4
December 15th 1862
Frank, my health is good now. I am on board the vessel yet. We are [with]in sixty miles of New Orleans. We shall reach there today. Plenty of oranges and lemons grow here. I only have five minutes to write this as we expect the steamer down the river every moment for twenty one.
We had a hard gale. The steamer they think is lost and all on board. She had on Company H, E, F, and G of 114th. Haven’t hear from her since the first days sail. When I land, I will write the particulars of the voyage. Don’t write till you hear from me.
Keep up good courage. Our fare is hard but I think I shall live through it. Don’t you suffer any for money. I send fifty cents in this to you. — Asa Holmes
Letter 5
New Orleans [Louisiana]
[January] 15th, 1863
Frank, I write but a few words to you for all letters [must be] to the office in fifteen minutes. i have wrote to Mr. Lewis what to do wit hthe money and let you have what you want. I told him to have you go to school all the time was gone. Go and see if he has got it. If he has, write it down in your book, the date of it too, and all money you get of him.
As for the war news, we get none. This is a beautiful country here. Splendid sugar plantations all around here. Very warm weather here. If tis cold in Old Chenango, I would like to be there today. I have seen a great deal since I started from home and expect to see more. Some of our boys have seen the elephant. They have been robbed of their money and put in jail too. Some of our most popular ones are most reckless ones. Now that is most generally the case. I mention no names. Time will tell.
Write Eliza, Mary A., D. Frank. Direct your letter to Asa Holmes, Co. A, 114 the Regt. N. Y. S. V., New Orleans, La. Banks Expedition
Letter 6
Brashear City [present day Morgan City, Louisiana]
February 10, 1863
Frank, I feel very uneasy to think I don’t get a letter from you. This is the last one I shall write to you or sister till I get one. This is the sixteenth I have wrote to you and got no answer and I think it’s time to stop now till one is [received]. Sister I think don’t think enough of me to write. I don’t feel good tonight. Amen
— Asa Holmes
Letter 7
Bayou Boeuf
Camp Mansfield
March 9, 1863
Rather bad news, Frank, I write. Yesterday one of the gunboats left Brashier City to go up the river with one company [Co. F] of the 160th Regiment on board and one of the General’s staff on board to see what they could discover. They got about two miles from the city where the rebels had fixed a battery with sixteen guns around a bend in the river. They got close on to it before they see it and they destroyed our boat and killed all on board but two. 1 The pilot jumped overboard and ran ashore. The General’s staff got shot through the face. The gunboat Calhoun started as soon as she heard the firing with Co. C of the 114th Regiment but she run on[to] a sand bar before she got there to help them. If they could of got there, both boats would [have] drove them back.
I don’t know what will be the next move. There is a great stir with the big officers today. It may be that we shall have to follow them up and whip them out. There has one gunboat gone down to the gulf to pilot two large gunboats up here. They say, “I hope so.” I think we shall have a big battle before long the way things shape—it is brewing pretty fast.
My health is good now. My cough has most left me—only when I have been out all night on guard or picket in the rain. It is very sickly in the regiment now. It is reported that there ain’t about two hundred and fifty for hard duty now. That is pretty small number from a large regiment.
Write how Hiram Lewis gets along. I wonder if Stephen Lewis feels as savage as ever about the war. I can tell him something about it he never thought of yet, nor I before I left home. Write how Elizabeth gets along since W. was married. I should think Mary A. Deila would write to me and let me know how she gets along this spring. I write two letters every week to you. You must go to school every day this summer without fail. Don’t think of working for no one this summer. Learning is better than money to you and get it while you can and improve it expressly in writing. You can write better, I think, than the last you wrote to me. I could not hardly read it. But I am glad to have a letter from you if it is only a straight mark on paper. It looks though you had some respects for me. I hope Mary A. Delia will send Elroy’s likeness to me. I know it is hard for her to write. It used to be for me but I can write a sheet of paper over in ten minutes now. Don’t think nothing of it. I know I don’t spell every word right, but I think you can make it out.
No more at present. — Asa Holmes
I have no letter tonight from you nor nobody else but most of the boys have got one and reading it. Never mind. I can be contented till I get one from Oxford. Frank, don’t you be kicked around by no one. — Asa Holmes
1 Asa is referring to the engagement at Pattersonville on 8 March 1863, where Co. F, Capt. Josiah P. Jewett, was on board the gunboat Diana during the action with the Confederate batteries. Co. F lost 6 killed and 16 wounded, Capt. Jewett being mortally wounded.
Letter 8
Bayou Boeuf
March 24th 1863
Frank, I have a few moments time to inform you that we are here and no battle yet. We have been reinforced by another battery of twelve guns. It is a splendid one. We had lively times here the next night after we got here. The picket above ours fired three guns about midnight that alarmed the camp and they was ready in fifteen minutes. The battery was ready with their horses harnessed. I was on guard closest to the road. The general and his staff rode by backwards and forwards pretty often. The battery that was below where I was went up by [me] on the run. Every horse was straight. Nothing happened that night.
Yesterday General Banks was here and staff. He stayed about three hours. It must be on special business. They fired twelve guns when he arrived here. The soldiers don’t know nothing till they tell us to pick up and march. We are in camp where the mud is over shoe. We are on a sugar plantation. What makes the mud? We have had a heavy rain. It is very warm here now. [There are] all kinds of snakes here and descriptions and sizes. What would you think to have one crawl into your bed? They crawl into the tents nights.
I saw ripe blackberries and they say there is plenty of strawberries in New Orleans now and green peas. We soldiers can’t get them for they would be too good for us to eat. Hard tack and coffee is good enough for us, and to sleep on the ground. I have slept on the ground a great many nights [with] nothing but my coat and blankets. But that is nothing [compared to] what it is to suckle twins.
My health is good now. If I don’t catch cold, I shall go it through thick and thin. This war is a big thing but I can’t see it. Damn every Black abolitionist you see and the Peace Democrats [too] for they are no better than the secesh are for I have had a little chance to see how the thing runs here.
Got a letter from Isaac Stratton last night. I think now we shall be up the Mississippi before a great while. I think that will be the next move and I don’t care how quick if it is tomorrow. I will wait till the mail comes tonight before I write anymore. I can’t wait. I have got to go on picket tonight up the river about a mile above the camp to see what the rebels are doing up there.
The news today is that we are a going to have another Brigade join ours in a few days. That will make a large army. There is something up or they would not send more troops to help us. I wrote this in a hurry and my pen ain’t good for nothing. Good luck to all. I don’t care how. Write soon. — Asa Holmes
Letter 9
Port Hudson
July 1, 1863
Frank, I am at the breastworks firing at the rebels as usual. We have some pretty hot firing most of the time. We have got the rebels in a tight box now and we shall hold them there.
Gen. Banks called his troops together yesterday and made a long speech to them. He told them it was best to make another charge on all sides. He thinks we can take [Port Hudson] in that way & he thinks the sooner the better. I suppose we shall have to try it again [but] there will be a great many dead and wounded left on the field. But that the only way, I suppose, to take the fortress. It is a hard way, I tell you.
I told you in my other letters I should not write who was killed and wounded till we got through fighting. Then I will write the particulars—if I am alive. I have got to stand my chance with the rest of the soldiers.
July 2nd. Good morning to all of you. I have been to the breastworks facing the rebel balls for twenty-four hours and I am alive yet. I thank God. I have just got your letter dated June the 12th. I was sorry to hear you was so unwell but you and Frank must not feel bad about me. I shall come out alright. If I don’t, I am nothing but a poor cuss. We are a going to hold the 4th of July in the fort if we get into it. It will take a great many lives to get there. I shan’t worry about it. Farewell to all. — Asa Holmes
Get Harper’s Weekly May 27th and you will see the first battle.
Letter 10
Donaldsonville, La.
July 21st 1863
Well Frank, I am here yet. I have just come in off from picket. I have been out for twenty-four hours. We suffer from the heat amazingly. You think it is hot in old Chenango of the Fourth day of July? What do you think of it here now?
It is very peaceable here now for a few days. The soldiers are a resting & appear to enjoy themselves very much. I think this state will come back into the Union before a great while. I think there won’t be much more hard fighting in this state. The Rebels is getting pretty tired of it. There will be some guerrilla fights, of course, but no more big battles, I think. We may have a pretty hard battle with the Rebel army that we have got surrounded here but I think they will surrender before fighting very hard. Our army has taken a great many prisoners already from it & they say the Rebel soldiers are deserting very fast. There is from ten to twenty comes into our lines every day. They say they have got tired of this war & won’t fight anymore.
I was pleased to hear from Mr. Williams that he was so strong a Union man. You take such a man & if he is drafted, he won’t whine, but he will go like a brave soldier and fight to protect the Union forever.
Well I feel very well now except my eyes. They are very weak since I got over the fever & jaundice. It colored my shirts very yellow. There is such a blur over my eyes that I can’t hardly see to write or read. I hope they will get over it as I grow stronger. They are very much as they was when I had the measles. That bothered me very much. I sweat so much it runs into my eyes and makes them smart so.
Well, Mary A. Dealia, how do you get along — and Marting too? & the boy — is he well? If he is, I would like to see him. I will pay for his likeness if you will take the pains to send it to me. This is the last time I shall write about it. You can send it or not. I will pay all expenses. I shall have money by and by & if I die, you will have part of it — or your boy — so it makes no difference. Eliza, write to me whether you got my two letters I wrote before this. I don’t want none of you worrying about me. I am here & you are there — all of you — & I am but one alone by myself. Is Ma fetch round alright yet? I don’t let nothing trouble me.
I sit here a writing while there is a regiment getting onto a transport for some place, I don’t know where. They are the Twelfth [12th] Connecticut that belong to our brigade. They have been with us ever since we have been in Louisiana. The 8th Vermont has got marching orders today for someplace too. They belong to Weitzel’s [2nd] Brigade too. It may be our [turn] next. We can’t tell.
Well, Frank, I have got a good silver-plated knife I am going to fetch you when I come home. It is a dirk knife with a spring in the back of it.
Farewell to all, — Asa Holmes
Write soon. Direct your letters as you always have. They will follow the regiment.
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