The following partial letter came to me for transcription and although it is unsigned and without an accompanying envelope, I have been able to place him in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry. We know that he was married and given the residences of several comrades mentioned by name in the letter, we can surmise that he was likely a resident of Medora, Jackson county, Indiana—a small village in Carr township of the East Fork White River valley. A listing of all of the soldiers in Co. G can be found on the Jackson county website and the author is undoubtedly one of these men, but after several hours of going through the list, my best guess is that it was written by Elisha Hiatt Newton (1831-1893)—a farmer from Medora. Elisha and Amanda Adelia Westfall were married in September 1852. He enlisted in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry on 19 August 1861 and mustered out on 18 August 1864.

The 25th Indiana Regiment was organized at Evansville on 17 July 1861 and was mustered into three years service in August. It left the state Aug. 26, and was in camp at St. Louis until Sept. 14, moving from there to Jefferson City and thence to Georgetown. It marched to Springfield with Fremont’s forces and back to Otterville, 240 miles, in 16 days. It remained in the vicinity of Otterville until December, when it moved with Pope’s division south of Warrensburg, forming part of the force that captured 1,300 of the enemy at Blackwater. The 25th guarded the prisoners to St. Louis and went into Benton Barracks until Feb. 2, 1862. It was sent with the expedition against Fort Donelson and joined in the first attack, losing 16 killed and 80 wounded. It was part of the force which stormed and captured the outer works the next day and occupied the fort after its surrender. It left for Pittsburg landing on Mar. 5, reaching there on the 18th, and in the battle of Shiloh, lost 27 killed and 122 wounded. This letter describes the Battle of Shiloh and provides the names and nature of wounds received by members of his own company.

For a good history of the remainder of the regiment’s service, see This Mighty Scourge by Michael Noirot. See also the Biography and Letters of Private Joseph Saverton of Co. C, 25th Indiana Infantry. I’ve included an excerpt of a letter that Ingram wrote in 1862 following the Battle of Shiloh that is housed in the Indiana Historical Society Archives.

“I guess you hav herd before this time that I hav see the monkey dance. I did not enjoy the 6 of April as much as I have enjoyed some Sundays as we had to brake the Sabath by shooting and shooting at men. Becids that wasont all they, they could shoot darn nigh a fast as we could. So that was a too handed game. Well they had more men than we did and took a running dart at us and you know if a small man runs at a big man the big man will sorter give back. We they got a bull dart at us and we hat to give back, well they took that kind of darts at us all Sunday and bout 5 o’clock Sunday evening they could not dart us any more for we had no ground to dart back on if we had went back much further. We would went in Tenn. River but Buels forces was on the opposite side of the River and the gun boats let loose and socks another time of cannonading. Yeu never herd but the darn dare devils had to crawfish and we laid on our arms all night—well we dident lay much for we had to stand up to keep from getting washt off. I never seen it rain harder in my life than it did that night—I thought day light never would come. I was hungry enough to eat a man off his horse. We had nothing to eat cince Sunday morning and got nothing until Monday evening.

We got back and had Roll Call Monday night. On Sunday when the secesh was getting the beter of us they would holer Bull Run. The old 25 [Indiana] had to face the Alibama Souazes but we hav bin drilled in the Souazee drill as much as any other. We let loose one voly and laid 123 low and we lost 23 men but they was but Six Regt deep and we had no support and we was obliged to fall back. Well darn the fight. I will quit writing bout the fight but it aint the thing it is cracked up to be.”

Transcription

In camp off Pittsburg Landing
now in the same place we was when we first came
April 8th 1862

Dear wife,

Last Friday eve, the long roll commenced beating in all of our camps which is the signal to rally into line of battle immediately. About five minutes we were marching south. Went about one and a half miles, then halted, countermarched, and was back in camp in about three hours. South of here is what is termed our Left Wing, north our Right Wing. What caused the alarm was the enemy attacking our right which did not last long. The object was [to] draw our force in that direction.

Sabbath morning about 3 o’clock our left was taken on surprise by about 100,000 of the rebels who made a grand charge which caused a panic among our men and caused us to have to fight on a retreat all day from early in the morning until dark. Our first round in the morning, we were lying down while our Battery was playing on them; until the Rebels advanced on us with a heavy force, they threw a shell from their Battery & killed one of our artillerymen. Our company were immediately behind the Battery. It fell on some of our men to carry off the dead man. Andrew Hubbard ¹ & Hiram [Huntsucker] ² rose up, ran to carry him off the distance of about 100 yards, then returned to come to the company and came to [1st] Lieut. [Jesse] Patterson who had been shot through the small of the back and carried him to the Boat landing and put him on the boat, remained with him until about 10 o’clock on Monday when he died. Tuesday his body was carried back to our camp where it was put in a box and interred immediately south of our camp. Here all of the 25 that was killed were buried. which number about 25. Number wounded in this regiment, can’t tell as yet but there were a great many. None killed dead in our company. Will just mention some who were badly wounded.

Jno. Critchlow ³ shot through the back under the blade of the left shoulder, ball passed around his ribs and lodged in his left nipple. It is thought he will get well.

Anderson Parris ⁴ shot with canister which broke his left leg just above the knee and his right leg was struck in the same place by a musket ball which caused a bad flesh would. Poor fellow. He suffered a great deal. We searched for him but could not find him until Tuesday night. Next morning he was put on board the boat D. A. January.

J[acob] L. Hinkle ⁵ shot in shoulder and hand. Jonas Allsup ⁶ shot through the hand. J[acob] L. Chambers ⁷ shot in ankle. Henry Davenport, ⁸ little finger shot off. Jno. H. Durham ⁹ shot in the hip. Jno. Finney ¹⁰ shot in left arm. Leander Grantham ¹¹ was shot in the knee, I believe. Haven’t seen him since. Several others slightly—don’t remember all.

We had a serious time until Sabbath eve about dark. We had to keep falling back all day through a raking fire of shell, grape, and canister shot. I felt very much discouraged until Buell’s men commenced crossing the river which revived us considerable, notwithstanding my feeble condition. [remainder of letter missing]

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¹ Andrew Hubbard (1836-1915), was the son of George and Martha Ellen (Farris) Hubbard of Medora, Carry township, Jackson county, Indiana. Andrew enlisted on 19 August 1861 in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry and mustered out on 17 July 1865 as a veteran.

² Hiram Weddle Hunsucker (1832-1909), was the son of John and Rosamond (Weddle) Hunsucker of Medora, Carr township, Jackson county, Indiana. Hiram enlisted on 19 August 1861 in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry and mustered out as 1st Sergeant of the regiment on 17 July 1865 as a veteran.

³ John W. Critchlow (1840-1862), was the son of Edwin L. and Salina (Tanner) Critchlow of Medora, Jackson county, Indiana. He enlisted in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry in August 1861, was wounded on 6 April 1862 in the first day’s fight at Shiloh, and died of his wounds on 15 April 1862.

⁴ Anderson Parris (1844-1917) was the son of John and Mary (Pounds) Parris of Medora, Jackson county, Indiana. He enlisted in Co. G, 25th Indiana on 19 August 1861, was wounded on 6 April 1862 in the first day’s fight at Shiloh, and was discharged for his wounds on 28 February 1863. He married Arvilla Ursula Blythe in 1874. The 1880 US Census indicates that he was a farmer in Carr Township and notes that he was “wounded in army” but does not state if he was handicapped.

⁵ Jacob Lawson Hinkle (1838-1924) was the son of William and Susan C. (Day) Hinkle of Mooney, Owen township, Jackson county, Indiana. He was a carpenter prior to his enlistment in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry. He later became a lieutenant in Co. G.

⁶ Jonas Allsup (1843-1862) was the son of Jesse and Salina (Blackwood) Allsup of Sparksville, Jefferson township, Washington county, Indiana. He enlisted on 31 July 1861 to serve in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry, and died at home on 14 June 1862 from wounds received in the Battle of Shiloh.

⁷ Jacob L. Chambers (1842-1939), the son of Charles and Martha (Jacob) Chambers of Carry township, Jackson county, Indiana. Jacob enlisted on 19 August 1861 in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry and was wounded in the first day’s fight at Shiloh. He was discharged for his wounds on 27 September 1862.

⁸ Henry K. Davenport (1844-1865) was the son of Benjamin and Margarite (Abell) Davenport of Jefferson county, Kentucky. He gave his residence as Medora, Jackson county, Indiana, however, when he enlisted on 19 August 1861 in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry. He died of disease in Andersonville Prison on 18 March 1865.

⁹ John Hardin Durham (1842-1926), enlisted on 19 August 1861 to serve in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry, giving his residence as Medora, Jackson county, Indiana. He apparently did not muster out with the service until 1865. though his Find-A-Grave biographical sketch states that he lost one leg and one eye in the war.

¹⁰ John Finney (1845-1864), was the son of Alexander Finney of Spaksville, Jefferson township, Washington county, Indiana. He enlisted on 19 August 1861 in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry and died of disease on 28 May 1864.

¹¹ Leander Grantham (1838-1909) was the son of Garretson and Esther (Wilson) Grantham of Graysville, Sullivan county, Indiana. He enlisted on 19 August 1861 to serve in Co. G, 25th Indiana Infantry giving is residence as Mooney, Indiana. He mustered out of the regiment on 18 August 1864.