1864: Austin Case to Lewis Case

I could not find an image of Austin but here is another member of the 75th New York named George F. Smith who was KIA at the 3rd Battle of Winchester. He was born in 1846 too and would have been about the same age as Austin when these letters were written.

The following letters were written by Austin Case (1846-1921), the son of Lewis Case (1817-1891) and Mary Jane Terbush (1824-1904) of Navarino, Onondaga county, New York. Austin enlisted in Co. G, 75th New York Infantry in late November 1861, giving his age as 18 when in reality he was only 14 years old! In March 1864 he was transferred to Co. K. He was captured in action on 19 September 1864 at the Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia, and, according to his obituary posted in the Albany Evening Journal on 28 January 1921, he was held in Libby Prison for three months before he was paroled. While this confinement in Libby Prison for three months may have been a good story he told his friends after the war, we learn from the following three letters that he was actually serving as a nurse at the Naval School Hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, during that time.

By the time Austin returned to his regiment in 1864, he had been transferred (on 19 November 1864) as a private from Co. K to Co. C by consolidation of the regiment. He mustered out at Savannah, Georgia, on 31 August 1865.

Letter 1

Annapolis, Maryland
October 24, 1864, Midnight

Dear Parents,

I take my pen in hand to write you a few lines to let you know that I am well & to pass away the night. I am on watch tonight. It is about two o’clock now. I hope these few lines will find you all well & enjoying good health.

There is no news of any importance. One thing that makes me write is that I want you to send me a military vest when you send my box. It is middlin’ cold nights here & we hain’t got any stoves yet. Probably we will get them this week. I hope so. We are in tents and have to have them open so as to tend to the whole ward but now there is two of us up at a time—two in the former part of the night and two in the after part of the night. There was one man died in my ward last night about ten o’clock with wounds & there is another one I don’t think will live to morning. There is from fifteen to twenty dies every day now since the last boat load came in from Aiken’s Landing. We have got three in our ward now that the Doctor says they can’t live but a few days.

The news came in day before yesterday of another victory by Sheridan in the Valley. At first it seemed to be a disaster, but proved to bee one of the greatest victories won since the commencement of the rebellion. The enemy at first surprised our men and drove them some four miles when Sheridan arrived from Winchester on his way back from Washington, reformed his lines, and rode along the whole line of his army where in every place he was greeted with cheers, & at three p.m., he made a general attack on the enemy with great vigor and succeeded in capturing some forty-five pieces of cannon and two thousand prisoners besides caissons, ambulances, wagons, &c., and drove the enemy back beyond Fisher’s Hill.

General Grant gives Sheridan great praise and believes him to be one of the ableist of generals. General Wright of the Sixth Corps was wounded. General Grover, our Division Commander, was wounded. The loss in the 19th Army Corps is stated to be heavy and in the other corps also. I must stop writing and go and give a couple of men their medicine.

Well, I have got back to my writing. It has been two hours since I stopped and I have been to work every minute. The bugle has just sounded for five o’clock. I shall haft to close in a few minutes and go to work doing my mornings chores.

Get me a dark blue military vest and send when you do the boots & some needles & thread and a small ball of yarn. And if you can, send me a couple pounds of butter as I would like it first rate. It is getting daylight now and I must close for this time. Answer this the first opportunity. If George Annoble has sent back my pen, I want you to send it right off because I need it right off. I cant get a pen that is worth anything. If the pen is not there, send me a couple of steel pens—those small fine steel pens. Write & let me know all the news and what is going on around there….

From your son—Justin Case

Annapolis M.D.

Letter 2

Annapolis, Maryland
November 11th, 1864

Dear Parents,

I take my pen in hand to answer your letter of date November 9th, which I just received not fifteen minutes ago. It found me well & enjoying good health. There is no news of any importance. Everything is quiet here. All the news here is the reelecting of Abraham Lincoln for President of the U.S.A. & I am glad to hear it too. He is the right man & in the right place. He was elected by a large majority. I saw the returns in this morning’s paper Baltimore American & Washington Chronicle. The majority was very large for Lincoln here in the hospital but the town of Annapolis, Maryland, went for McClellan.

You said you had got the boots but thought they were too large. I hope I want large sized eight or middlin’ small sizes nines. The vest wants to be a middlin’ size. Send it as quick as you can, if you hain’t sent it before you get this. Who did Pa vote for? Did Albert vote? If he did, tell me if he voted for Mac or Abe. Did Pa vote for Horatio Seymour for Governor of the state? If he did, I think hanging would be to good for him. If it had not been for him, I should have been home this fall on a twenty day furlough for to vote. I could not vote but could come home to stay for a few days. He would not allow it, nor allow the soldiers to vote in the field & any man that voted for him is not one half as good as a rebel. I don’t care who he is. He was so afraid he would get defeated. I don’t know but I guess he has the way it is with the most of the men that has always voted the democrat ticket would vote for Mac because he seen on that ticket that would make know difference which party I belonged to, it would make know difference, I would vote for the man I thought was most capable & according to the platform he went on. It is not that I think Mac is not smart a’nuff. It is the platform he run on. Look at Vallandigham & [ ] Seymour & others. Did you ever read his platform? He was to have peace at any terms at earliest practical moment & the rebs will not accept any terms unless their independence. I will give ten years longer but what I would whip them back. All the hopes they had was to have Mac elected.

I talked with a rebel colonel & he was a smart fellow. He allowed himself all the hopes they had was to have the North elect Mac. He says the war would not last six months after the Presidential election. You can’t hear a word out of any of the Mac men. A good many wore McClellan’s photograph but I see they have taken them off & hid [them] & I don’t hear nothing out of them. I shall have to close & go to dinner. We expect the truce boat New York today with five or six hundred paroled prisoners. Then we will be busy again for a week or so. Give my best respects to all. Send me some stamps right off. This is the only stamp I have got. This you sent me in this letter.

From your son– Austin Case

I shall try and get a furlough in the course of a couple of months. I am pretty sure I can.

Letter 3

Annapolis, Maryland
December 9th, 1864

Dear Parents,

*The SS Baltic was a wooden-hulled sidewheel steamer built for transatlantic service. She was leased for use as a transport ship in the Civil War for $1,500/day.*

I received your letter of date Navarino, November 30th, this morning December 9th. It found me well & enjoying good health at the present & hope that these few lines will find you the same. We have been receiving a vary large number of sick from Savannah. The Baltic came in day before yesterday with some seven hundred & one boat came in this morning with some five hundred more, & there is still more to come. We are chuck full. We have got one more than we have beds so one of the nurses will have to sleep on the floor or where[ever] he can catch it. But there will be a plenty of beds in a few days because there is a good many that can’t live long. There was 26 deaths on the boat coming from Savannah on the Baltic. The papers state that Sherman is within 40 miles of Savanah making for that point.

I received a letter from Russ the other evening. He was at City Point driving team. I haven’t answered it yet but I shall in a few days as an opportunity presents itself. I received a letter from George G. Annable yesterday. They was in camp six miles south of Winchester, Virginia, on the Winchester & Strasburg Pike & was building winter quarters. The regiment [75th New York] had been consolidated into five companies and the most of the officers had been mustered out with the vets. He says that George Beeks & Ed Earll had to say from the time they was mustered into the U.S. Service which was at Staton Island N. Y. at the same time I was. I feel sorry for them because I think they ought to have their discharge as quick as any of the rest.

I cannot answer any letter because I have not got any stamps nor money. I wish you would send me a dollar or so so I can get me some or send me the stamps. I have not got any to put on this so I shall send it without. Write as quick as you get this. We have to work considerable now. Write often & I will the same. I have got to sit up tonight & take care of 39 patients, most of them bad. I will try and get a furlough after the first of January.

Direct to Austin Case, Naval School Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland, Ward G, Set 5, Div one, or as you have directed, makes no difference, which[ever] comes handiest. Let me know what the folks are doing. — Austin Case