The following letters were written by Pvt. Edward Jackson (1841-1863) of Co. A, 25th Illinois Infantry who enlisted at the age of 20 on 1 June 1861 to serve three years. When he was mustered into the regiment at St. Louis on 4 August 1864, he was described as a 5’6″ single farmer who had dark hair and hazel eyes. Though he enlisted for three years, Edgar did not live long enough to serve out his term. He died on 25 November 1863 from wounds received in the fighting at Missionary Ridge.
Edgar wrote all of the letters to his cousin, Josephine Cook (1847-1924), the daughter of Henderson and Lucinda (Trout) Cook of Georgetown, Vermilion county, Illinois.
[Note : These letters are from the Sic Parvis Magna, Gratias Jesu Collection and remain in private hands. They were made available expressly for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared.]
Letter 1
St. Louis, Missouri
August 8, 1861
Dear Cousin,
I am sitting in my tent and I thought of the promise I made you to write to you and I thought that it was as good a time as I would find. I am well and so is Ben [Cook] and have been ever since we have been her. We landed here on Friday night at 12 o’clock and marched 4 miles to the Arsenal where we slept in dust six inches deep until morning, awoke, and walked down to the river and leaning on the fence, I gazed upon the longest river in the world. I thought of home and all who I left there. We are at present camped in the park.
We are unarmed and unguarded. All the troops that was fit to fight have been ordered away. There was two regiments came into the Arsenal today and some boatloads were going down the river. They are all undrilled like ourselves. 100 well-armed rebels can cut us all to pieces although I is little feared in our camp.
You must answer as soon as you finish this letter and tell me how Sis and Jim are. Tell Kate I would like to see her little red curly headed little John. He must write. Yours. Please answer soon. — Edgar Jackson
To Josephine
Write to me [at] St. Louis, Mo. , in care of Capt. Clark, [William N.] Coler’s Regiment.
Letter 2
Jefferson City, Mo.
Tuesday, September 24th 1861
Dear Cousin,
I received your kind letter with much pleasure and tore it eagerly open to read the contents. I am well and have been since I came here. I have been homesick but that does not bother me more.
I have just come in from Dress Parade and it was the nicest sight that you or I ever saw. It is much prettier than a display of Wide Awake [marchers]. It was the last time that we ever expect to make in this place for we are under marching orders and will leave in the morning. We are going up to Lexington. They are fighting there like wildcats. The 23rd Illinois Regiment are taken prisoners and we are going to release them or die trying. General Frémont went through this city last night with 10,000 troops. The 25th Indiana Regiment were going up the river on a boat. They were fired into and the boat sunk.
You said for me to tell you what I had to eat and do. We have bread, meat, potatoes, beans, coffee, and rice, sugar. Soup the best of all. We have to drill from 7 till 11 before noon. Then from 2 until 6, making about 8 hours. They are fixing us for a fight and I say, let it come for I am getting tired of laying here and doing no good for myself nor my country. I want to fight some. There would be no honor in coming here and living at Uncle Sam’s expense for two or three years and not warring for him any.
I would like to come home this winter on furlough but there is no use of talking for we are not allowed to come home until discharged and nobody knows when that will be. I think that I can face it for three years if they are not too long and then I will got to Georgetown the nearest way.
You must excuse this bad writing for I can’t see where the rules are. If you want to see a full grown soldier, go down to Jim Hall’s. I sent Sis my picture today in some clothes that Frank Cook sent home. I would send you one if I could get money to get it taken. I had to borrow of [Lt.] Theodore West to get that one and it was a poor thing. They have been promising us three months wages for three weeks and it has not come yet and I do not look for it soon. You must write soon to Jefferson and if we are gone, all letters will follow us.
Yours as ever, — Edgar Jackson
Give my respects to all inquiring. Tell John to write me a letter. Kiss Kate for me two times. I don’t know whether you can read this or not. It is written by candle light. If you can’t, bring it to me and I will. I feel first rate tonight. I am not sick, homesick, nor lovesick.
Letter 3
Springfield, Missouri
Wednesday, October 30th 1861
Dear Cousin.
I received your very kind letter today and was very glad to hear that you were all well. I am well and have been since I came here. All the boys are well, I believe, except Franklin. We had to leave him at Otterville. He was not able to travel and I have not heard from him since.
You heard that Old Baldwin was sick but that is false. He is well and has been all the time. Sylvester and Tom are both well and are enjoying themselves very well. I would like to be there to go to school with all the boys that I use to go with although I am doing very well where I am and don’t care if the war does last three years. I think that I can last as long as it does though I would like to be at home once in that time.
I should like to have been with you to the fair and to Terre Haute and saw the great city and the two regiments of soldiers that you said you saw although I have saw more than that. There are 25 regiments here in one body all in uniform and well drilled. We have run the secesh very near to the jumping off place and if they don’t jump, we will push them off. There is a dispatch today that Lane had them surrounded and could hold them three days and if we wanted to fight to come down and we could get the sight. We are going to start in the morning and we will whip them or fight a dry month for we are just the boys that can do that little trick.
There was a little fight here the other day. General Frémont’s body guard 150 men run 1800 of the secesh out of town and only lost 15 men and some few horses and have taken 28 prisoners. One of them is Colonel Price. The secesh lost about 100 men and nobody knows how man wounded. One colonel was killed by our boy in the fight. He was a very brave man. He was on horseback and he charged at our boys. They shot him five times before he fell from his horse. I saw all the dead men lying in the Court House. it was an awful sight. They were all in uniform—some of them all bloody just as they died.
Tell John that if I was there, I would keep him awake long enough to write me a letter. I have wrote my Father four times and sent him 20 dollars in one of them, I don’t know whether he got it or not for he has not wrote me one single line. I do not know how I can send this letter for there is not one postage stamp in the camp. Give my best respects to all and write soon to St. Louis. I remain your cousin, — Edgar Jackson
Please write soon.
Letter 4
Rolla, Missouri
Saturday, December 13th 1861
Dear Cousin,
I received you very kind letter a few days ago and was glad to hear that you were all well for that is better than I can say for myself. I have not been able for duty for two weeks but there is so many of our company sick that I had to stand guard when my time came. I was on picket guard last night and today. I have the headache.
We are still laying in camp near Rolla and it is thought that we will stay here all winter but I hope not for this is a very lonesome place. There is nothing to see but soldiers, mule teams, and big rocky hills and I have seen them so much that it is no sight to me. There is about 20,000 troops here now. There is five Illinois regiments here—the 13th, 25th, 35th, 36th, and 44th. We are well provided with something to eat and wear. We have just drawn two good pairs of socks. We have good under clothes. They are woolen and very warm. We have good overcoats & blankets.
It is just 8 o’clock and there is brass bands, bugles, fifes, and drums beating the Tattoo—more music than I can listen to. There was one of [our] company taken off today with the smallpox. He was one of the Bloomfield boys.
I should like to hear Miss McCord’s class sing but we have one here that can beat it. We have a good time here singing. Ask Miss Katy if she won’t learn me to read when I get home. Tell her that when I get home we will play frog in the meadow like we use to do. I should like to come home on Christmas and see you all very well but I fear that circumstances will not admit. I have no hopes of coming home until discharged.
Tell John that his letter was the most interesting thing that I have read since I have been a soldier. Tell him to write again. Give my best respects to Uncle and Aunt and all inquiring and write soon to St. Louis.
I remain your affectionate cousin, — Edgar
There is neither postage stamps or stamped envelopes to be had here. We drew 17 dollars today.
Letter 5
Rolla, Missouri
Wednesday night, January 21st 1862
Dear Cousin.
By reason of not having heard one word from you for a long time, I seat myself to write you the 2nd letter and hope you will soon write to me and let me know how you are all getting along.
My health is very good and the health of our company is better than when last I wrote to you. Alonzo [Jackson] is not well nor has not been for near a month and I fear that if he has to stay in camp here all winter, it will go very hard with him although I have no fears of myself for I am still hardy and rugged as ever and you well know that I use to be so at all times.
There has been three cases of smallpox in our company but they are not bad. One has entirely recovered and returned to camp. One has got so that he can wait on those that are bad and the other one is getting better. There is 15 cases of it in the hospital but not all from our regiment.
Today I broke guard and went to town and bought a picture of someones which I will send you although I don’t suppose you ever saw the fellow in your life but if you did, you will know him. I got another and will send it to New Holland, Indiana, to another cousin that you never saw.
It is getting very late and I am sitting alone in my humble place & position. All is still around me. The only sound that greets my ear is the snoring of my mess mates who lay in the arms of Morpheus enjoying the pleasures of sweet sleep and no doubt dreaming of home and the dear ones there for we often think of them.
We received (a few days ago) the 2nd box of nice presents from our friends in Georgetown for which we are under a thousand obligations for them for they prove to us that although we are away from them, we are not forgotten. We have been kept in camp so long that we hardly know how to act. A few nights ago I received an invitation to a dance out in the country about two miles from camp which I attended and had a good time in general. We had a good supper and good music, plenty of ladies, and I just went in lemons.
And now, Miss Pheney, you must write to me and tell me whether you received the picture or not and tell me whether you are going to school or not and how you like it. And who is dead and live, and who has moved to town or out of town, and tell me whether the Drakes are all dead or not for I expect Jim has quacked himself to death.
Give my respects to Uncle and Aunt and all other inquiring friends and believe me to remain your well wishing cousin, — Edgar Jackson
P. S. Kiss Kate for me.
Letter 6
Benton county, Arkansas
February 20th 1862
Cousin Jo,
After a delay of some time I have found time to answer your letter that I received at Lebanon, Missouri, and I will have to ask you to excuse me for not writing sooner and I am sure you will when you hear my reasons.
We left our winter quarters at Rolla on the 2nd day of this month—the day that I was 21 years old. It snowed all day very hard so you can guess what sort of a place we had to sleep in. We marched five days without rest. We stopped at Lebanon three days and then resumed the march bound for Springfield where we expected to fight but failed to do so although it was not our fault. The enemy were there but they heard that we was coming and run like the Devil. They did not think we would follow them but General Sigel says they must fight or disband for he will follow them to the Gulf of Mexico. We have been following them about 100 miles and are determined to go on till they make a stand or disband.
We have been taking prisoners more or less every day. Some days we would find where they had broken their guns, burnt their wagons, & many dead horses were found along the road. All the citizens have deserted their homes and gone with the secesh army for protection (damned poor protection, I think). They are only one day’s march ahead of us.
Our cavalry engaged them yesterday at this camp. They had a bloody skirmish for a few moments but they would not stand fire. The cowardly Devils run into the woods. They lost about 30 men and of our cavalry, there were 9 killed and 11 wounded. It is reported that the enemy are waiting at Cross Hollows where they are fortified and reinforced. If that is the case, we will move to the attack tonight or soon in the morning.
Alonzo [Jackson] was sick and could not come with us. He was left at Rolla. I expect that he will be at home soon if he has not already gone there. But my health is good and I am satisfied to stay in Dixie Land.
You must excuse a short letter this time for I am so nervous that I can hardly write. Give my respects to all and answer soon. Ever yours, — Edgar Jackson
P. S. Those stamps you sent me were very acceptable for we could not get them at Rolla. Franklin and Sylvester [Cook] are both well.
Letter 7
Batesville, Arkansas
May the 8th 1862
My dear cousin Jose,
Your letter came to hand yesterday evening and as I have some writing to do this morning, a portion of it shall be in answering your kind letter. My health is as goos as common and there is very little sickness in this part of the army.
We have been [on] a very long march as you can see by looking on the map, We have seen some awful country while crossing the Ozark Mountains. We often traveled all day without seeing a house. It is the most Godforsaken country in the whole [world]. It seemed to me worse than the Great Desert of Africa. The only thing about that looked like civilization was the lofty pine trees. They were green and looked natural—something like the Cedar Bluffs at my old home at Horseshoe Bend.
We was on the march 12 days without rest making about twenty miles a day. Some of the boys were entirely give out and got two days behind. We had to leave some at Salem, this state, for they could not keep up any longer. We have stayed here three days and I would like to stay here longer for it is the nicest town I ever saw but we are under marching orders to cross the river tonight or in the morning. A portion of the command has already crossed and we are camp on the other shore. When we all get over, we will resume our march bound for parts unknown. It is generally supposed that we will go to Little Rock.
Please answer soon. No more. Yours, — Edgar Jackson
Letter 8
Jacinto, Mississippi
July 20th [1862]
My dear cousin Jose,
It is Sunday night and a very pleasant one. All have gone to bed but myself. I am along and this is the first opportunity of writing to you. The weather is so very hot that it is impossible to write or do anything else but lay around. You have very pleasant weather at Georgetown compared with this tropical, benighted land of swamps and secesh. We have been almost living on berries for some time past but they are about gone now and we will have to do without but not long for the peaches and apples are just beginning to ripen. Before long they will be at our disposal and no doubt we will dispose of a great many of them if they get in our way.
We are now in the 1st Brigade, 4th Division under command of Gen. Jeff Davis. The Brigade is formed of four regiments—three Illinois and one Indiana—25th, 35th, 59th Illinois and 22nd Indiana, and the 5th Wisconsin Battery. This brigade is commanded by Col. Coler. It’s rumored that we are going to be transferred into the other brigade and the 8th Kansas will take our place here. We do not like Gen. Davis as well as we did Gen. Sigel. We have wished ourselves in Sigel’s command a thousand times since we left it. We do not only like Gen. Sigel but we love him. Those who fought under him at Pea Ridge will never forget to praise and compliment him as often as his name is mentioned for we have seen him tried and know him to be a good and true loyal soldier.
My health is very good and there is very little sickness with us. Old Baldwin has been discharged and I do not know whether he has gone home or not. Lieut. [Theodore] West has not yet arrived although we look for him daily. Write soon to your cousin, — Edgar
Letter 9
Editor’s Note: This and the next letter were datelined from Benton Barracks and though Edgar does not state in his letter why he is away from his regiment and in St, Louis, we learn from a comrade’s letter that Edgar was taken prisoner in the Battle of Stones River and was paroled almost immediately to be held out of action by the Union army until he was officially exchanged. There was a Camp of Parole established at Benton Barracks for this purpose.
Benton Barracks
St. Louis, Missouri
August 5th 1863
Dear cousin Jose,
I wrote you a letter some time ago but never received any answer to it. I am now going to write you another and beg you to condescend to write me once more . Sorry to say I cannot write you anything of importance or interest. My health is good although I am not stout and rugged as I use to be with my regiment.
Benton Barracks is a dreary place to me, We are kept close in the confines of the barracks, not allowed to get out more than once a month. I have not had an opportunity of visiting the city since I have been here. I stole my way out one day and went into the country. Had a fine time. Found some berries. Also found a man’s orchard and partook of the forbidden fruit. Saw a woman coming toward me and expected to get a scolding [but I was] badly fooled. The lady talked kindly to me—almost sweetly. Said she liked soldiers—flattered me considerably. I asked her for a drink of water. She said come with her to the house and she would get me some. Went to the house but instead of water she brought me some nice sweet milk. This was very acceptable for I was always fond of milk. I thanked her for it and bid her good evening. She asked me to come again. The sight of her will, I fear, be the cause of my future wanderings (don’t laugh—you know I am sentimental in a horn).
We have religious service here three times each day, Sabbath School every Sabbath morning. I attend church regularly twice a day—sometimes more. In the cool of the evening we play at ball. In fact, we have every chance to enjoy ourselves in the barracks, yet I am not satisfied. I feel like I should either be at home or with my regiment. Either one is preferable to this place.
Are you having any school in Georgetown this summer? If so, who is teaching and who is attending? I understand there is a new church in progress. Any other improvements? I hear you can afford some saloons—in plain words, whiskey shops. Is there any more drunkenness in town than there use to be? I understand Old Baldwin has at last succeeded in gaining the fair Hoosier belle (Delanie Bell). Also James Snapp and Tiney Frazier tied. Bully for they! Poor little Jim Snapp. I do wonder if he has not some bright prospects if taking a wife before he dies. Success to him is my humble prayer. Has John still got his fine horse of which he bragged so much? Ask him if I may not ride him around the house a few times if I will come down.
Remember me kindly to all enquiring friends and don’t forget your affectionate cousin, — Edgar
My love to Katy. Write soon.
Edgar [Jackson]
20th Company
Benton Barracks,
St. Louis, Mo.
Letter 10
Benton Barracks
St. Louis, Mo.
August 20th 1863
Dear cousin Josephine,
Your letter bearing date August 10th came to hand in good time and plight. I was glad to get a letter from you for I had not heard from you for some time past and was anxious to know why you had stopped writing to me.
My heath is good but I cannot say I enjoy myself for this is the driest place I ever found. Tis enough to make anyone sick, particularly those who have been use to such a life as myself. I, you know, was always fond of solitary rambling that I am deprived of here. I have only been out of the barracks once and then I stold out. The officers have me a pass a few days ago and I thought to visit the city but I presented the pass to the sentinel at the gate [and] he said I had forged the pass and sent me to the guard house where I was closely guarded for twelve hours and then taken before the Provost Marshal for trial. I summoned the captain and first sergeant and proved myself clear of all charges. This is the kind of consolation I have always received for doing my duty. I have some books here and I pass the heat of the day reading. As soon as it is cool enough in the evening, we play at ball until sundown and then go to church.
I received a letter yesterday from the regiment. They are still at Winchester, Tennessee, enjoying life very well. A. W. Moore has been discharged from the company since I left. Sylvester is detached to work the siege guns at Murfreesboro. That is an easy berth but I feel safe in sating he would rather be with the regiment.
Jose, can you tell anything about my old friend Henry Brannock? I heard he was a soldier in the 11th Indiana Volunteers but was wounded at Shiloh. Since then I have not heard from him although I have written to Georgetown. I have forgotten it until this time.
You promise if I will come home you will not be so stringent on me as they are here but let me go where I wish to and to do as I please? That is a great temptation for it has been a long time since I have enjoyed such privileges and I expect I would go wild.
I heard that old Sam Frazier shot a soldier in Danville a few days ago. He must think he is a many of authority. Every dog has his day. Let him have his now but when the soldiers are liberated, they will revenge all such insults. — Edgar
My love to all. Tell Uncle I have not received that promised letter yet. Please write soon. — Edgar Jackson, 20th Company, Benton Barracks, St. Louis
Letter 11
Nashville, Tennessee
November 10th 1863
My dear cousin Jose,
Yours of date August 17 did not come to me but I came to it at this place. I suppose when we were here before it was brought here and has been kept here until we returned a few days ago and being anxious to hear what is going on in Georgetown, I lose no time in answering.
My health is good and that is the most effective disease we have at this time. Alonzo was complaining yesterday but says he is better this morning. Sergt. [Samuel] Moore is not well nor has not been for some time. Sylvester and Frank are both well. I saw Theodore yesterday. He has been having the ague and he looks as slim as a bean pole.
I visited the companies of Captains McNutt and Holloway yesterday. They are all sick. Those who have no disease are either home[sick] or lovesick and the only topic of conversation is home or when the war will end. Their faces will average about two feet & 12 inches long.
Since we were here before, we have marched more than 500 miles. We have had no tents since we left Alabama and there is no prospect of getting any soon. I have not slept in a tent since I can recollect.
The day we got here we had quite a skirmish about daylight in the morning. We were started out on double quick. We descended a steep hill where a band of secesh (number unknown) fired upon us from a very high hill. Two companies—A & K—were deployed and run them from the position, killing and wounding as many. We followed them some distance and recaptured a sutler wagon which they had taken from the 51st Ohio Volunteers. I had the pleasure of firing five rounds at them. No one on our side was hurt.
Tell my Sis I wrote her a letter at Iuka, Mississippi, in which I sent her $5 by Charles Hamilton. But I suppose he never made his appearance at Georgetown. Give my best compliments to all who may enquire after your cousin, — Edgar
P. S. Tell Kate I am going to desert the army on purpose to come and see her and Ella. — Ed
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