The following letter was written by Samuel Elisha Stillson (1833-1902) of Co. B, 13th Michigan Infantry. In the 1860 US Census, Samuel was enumerated in Manlius township, Allegan county, Michigan, working as a day laborer. He was mustered into the regiment as a private in January 1862 but we learn from his letter, datelined from Nashville in June 1863 that he had been ill and unfit for duty at least nine months. And though he seemed uncertain if he would return to duty, his military record indicates that he had returned to his regiment three months later as he was wounded in action at the Battle of Chickamauga on 20 September 1863 and promoted to corporal in April 1864.

Ancestry.com has a genealogical record that informs us Samuel’s parents were William Briggs Stillson (1804-1881) and Sophia Hutchins (1805-1870) of Ganges township in Allegan county, formerly of Rochester, New York. No marriage date is given but multiple sources give Mariah Billings (1843-1899) as his wife. Given her age and the dates of her children, the marriage must have occurred in 1859 when she was barely 16.

[Note: This letter is from the private collection of Dale Niessen and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Nashville [Tennessee]
June the 7th, 1863

I received your kind letter today and was very glad to hear from you again for I had thought that you had forgotten me. It is the first line that I have had from you since the first of April or thereabouts. I couldn’t think what was up but it appears that they have not come.

Well, Martha, I am glad to hear that you are a getting well after an illness for I know something about that, for since I wrote to you I have been very sick so that I could not leave my bed and I am not very strong yet. But I am on the gain slowly. I am so that I can’t write so that you can read it, I guess. But if you can’t, you can send it to the dead letter office and they are obliged to read it. But I can’t write much this time for my nerves are all unstrung. I don’t feel my self but I think that I shall live and get home alright yet. But a soldier don’t never know what he has got to know. He may think when he lays down that he can lay five minutes but he ain’t disappointed if he about lay half that time.

Well, I can’t write much this time. You said that you sent me a book. I wish that I could have got it for I can read when I can’t do anything else. I have not have any duty for 9 months and if I don’t [soon] feel different, I don’t think that I shall do any for that length of time to come.

Well Martha, I can’t write any more this time so goodbye for this time and I shall look for an answer from this soon. Give my respects to all enquiring friends. Direct [to] Woods [?] Convalescent Camp, Nashville, Tenn.

S. E. Stillson to Friend Martha