The following letter was written by 42 year-old Dr. Solomon Steward (1823-1918), an 1847 graduate of the Cleveland Medical College who was practicing medicine in Troy, Richland county, Ohio, at the time of the 1860 US Census. Solomon was the son of William Steward (1778-1858) and Mercy Clark (1783-1867). He was married to Olive D. Hyde (1830-1906).

According to a biographical sketch, Solomon served as a surgeon at the Mound City, Illinois, Hospital in 1864 and 1865. In 1867 he relocated to Missouri and took up farming near Trenton, Grundy county. He eventually returned to medicine in Trenton, however, and practiced until 1898. (Source: Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901)

Solomon’s letter contains the tale of a nephew’s service with an Illinois regiment and of his capture at the Battle of Pea Ridge (March 1862) and extended confinement in Confederate prisons—including Andersonville. The particulars of this tale appeared incredulous and a subsequent search of the soldier’s service record revealed that he didn’t even join the regiment (81st Illinois) until months after the Battle of Pea Ridge and, though he was taken prisoner, it wasn’t until June 1864 and his incarceration at Andersonville was limited to a “short stay” only. While it may have made for an entertaining story, the facts behind it are far from accurate.

Solomon’s letter also expresses a disappointment in the manner in which President Andrew Johnson was administering the reconstruction of the South which he called a “criminal experiment,” believing it would require “re-subjugation.”

Transcription

Mansfield, Ohio
December 18th 1865

Dear Cousin,

I received a letter from you something more than a year since, but was at that time ready to leave home, which I did acting as Surgeon in the Army until the close of the war. Though I have been so negligent in answering I am glad that you have reminded me of a neglected duty by writing to Mother. She received your letter not long since and was very thankful for your remembrance of her.

My mother is making her home with me this winter, Sister Sophronia and family having moved to their own farm. ¹ She is quite feeble and greatly afflicted by her cough. The relations here are all reasonably well and situated much the same as when you were here.

Sister Amanda ² had two sons in the army when you was here, that had been in since the commencement of the war. They both had the good fortune to return with good health after having been engaged in most of the bloody battles of the southwest. Sister Elizabeth ³ who lives in Illinois had a son [Thomas Pyeatt] taken prisoner at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, but he did not have the privilege of writing or rather of getting a letter through to his mother and therefore for nearly two years she knowed not whether he was dead or alive, but expected him dead. He also came home after the close of the war having received the hospitalities of Andersonville Prison as well as that of some ten others much of the same kind.

The cost of conquering the South can never be computed but was fully dine by our noble boys who counted sufferings and death in its most appalling forms as nothing compared with victory. They nobly done their work and the South were ready to receive with thankfulness whatever terms of reconstruction their government might have adopted, but such is not the case now. They must be conquered again because of President Johnson’s criminal experiment. The fresh recollection of the past will make their re-subjugation an easy and bloodless task if Congress carries on its healthful treatment of the ex-rebels so nobly commenced.

I received your New York paper which you had the goodness to send me, but I think its teaching much more conservative than the welfare of the country demands. There have been and now is some very fine opportunities to invest money in the late rebel states. I some think of visiting Alabama next month for the purpose of investing what money I can conveniently raise at a venture.

We have had a very nice season just past—very healthy with all. My wife wishes me to ask you for your process of purifying sugar, If not too much trouble, please let us know when you write next. Harriet Steward is teaching here yet. Mrs. Moor is not enjoying very good health. Has been at the Water Cure for some time past. We hope to hear from you often and I will try to be more prompt in answering in the future.

Please give my respects to your family. We would be much pleased to receive a visit from any or all of them. Yours respectfully, — Solomon Steward

December 24th 1865

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¹ Sophronia Steward (1828-1898) was married to George V. Anders in 1855. They were enumerated in the 1870 US Census in Madison township, Richland county, Ohio.

² Amanda Steward (1804-1879) was married to James Williams (1800-1852). Her sons in the service were probablyWilliam Williams (b. 1839) and James Williams (b. 1844) though I have not looked up their service records.

³ Elizabeth Steward (1805-1875) was married to Jacob Pyeatt (1802-1857) of DuQuoin, Illinois. She had many children but it was her son Thomas Pyeatt (1842-1927) that was mentioned as a prisoner of war. Thomas enlisted in August 1862 as a musician in Co. K, 81st Illinois Infantry. He was taken prisoner on 10 June 1864 at Guntown, Mississippi, and paroled on 17 June 1865.