These letters were written by Daniel B. Doxtater (1841-1864), the son of Solomon Doxstader (1811-1885) and Nancy Smith (1813-1882) of Oppenheim, Fulton county, New York. Daniel enlisted as a private on 14 August 1862 in Co. E 115th New York Infantry—nicknamed the “Iron Hearted Regiment.” He was with the regiment at Harper’s Ferry when it was captured by Stonewall Jackson’s men in September 1862 and taken prisoner along with all of his comrades. He was paroled shortly after but was detained in Chicago until the regiment could be exchanged in late November 1862. From Washington D. C., they were sent to Hilton Head where they joined the Department of the South in late January 1863. It is here, in Hilton Head, South Carolina that the first of five letters was penned.
Daniel did not survive the war. He was wounded in the abdomen on 20 February 1864 in the Battle of Olustee, Florida, and taken to Beaufort, South Carolina, where he died on 12 March 1864. According to muster rolls, Daniel stood 5′ 4″ tall, and was described as a light haired, blue-eyed farmer.
Other letters by members of the 115th New York Infantry transcribed and published by Spared & Shared:
Garrett Vanderveer, Co. A, 115th New York (2 Letters)
Seely Conover, Co. B, 115th New York (1 Letter)
George A. Hoyt, Co. B, 115th New York (1 Letter)
Samuel Topping Rider, Co. D, 115th New York (1 Letter)
Kelley S. Tulloch, Co. D, 115th New York (1 Letter)
Reuben T. Wells, Co. E, 115th New York (4 Letters)
Henry Clark, Co. H, 115th New York (1 Letter)
James M. Young, Co. I, 115th New York (3 Letters)
Letter 1
Hilton Head, South Carolina
January 29th 1863
Dear cousin Mary and Uncle & Aunt,
I received your kind letter of the 13th and was glad to hear that you are all well. I am well and enjoying good health at present. But I have been sick part of the time since I have been in the army. You must excuse me for not writing to you before for we have been hat hauled all over the world. It was just two weeks after we got in Virginia that we was taken prisoners [at Harpers Ferry] and then we was taken to Chicago and there we had to do guard duty and drill. And we stayed there until the 20th of November and sent to Washington and we have moved five times since the 24th of November. We was at Camp Seward. We was at Alexandria just two weeks, then we went to Yorktown and stayed there almost four weeks and then we came here in South Carolina and how long we will stay here, I can’t say.
We left Yorktown on the 22nd of this month and got here the 26th. We came here on the New York Matangas boat. Our campground is located on the island of Hilton Head in a cotton field. I don’t like this place very well for it is sandy and makes very hard traveling and the sand flies when the wind blows like snow. It is pretty cold here and yesterday morning it snowed a little here and last night it froze quite hard. But the weather is moderating down now warm again.
Well, Mary, I think you do have a large school this winter but who is your teacher? I wish I was there to go to school too this winter. Mary, I am glad that my cousins do think enough of me to write to me for I do like to hear from old Oppenheim. But the worst trouble that I have in writing is to get stamps to send them with for there are as scarce as silver is here.
We have not got our pay yet and don’t expect to ever get of the government for when we left Chicago, our barracks was set on fire and all burnt to the ground. There was some rascal who set it on fire and the government has court martialed the whole regiment and stopped our pay so now we don’t draw any pay now and won’t get any. But if they don’t pay me, I won’t fight any more. I will be shot first before I will fight. And our officers say if they can’t have a rehearing about the matter and have their pay go on, they will throw down their arms and will die on the spot before they will do any duty whatever. The colonel is a going to Washington if he can get a furlough and try to have it tried over and they they can’t do anything about it then he says the men can then throw down their arms and he will help them So you see they will be at [ ] hear if they don’t do something.
Well, Uncle George, you must excuse me for not writing to you before but iti s rather late than never. This letter is for you all. Write as soon as you get this letter and oblige. Yours, — D. B. Doxtater
Direct your letter to Mr. Daniel B. Doxtater, Co. E, 115th Regt. N. Y. Volunteers, Hilton Head, S. C., in care of Capt. W. H. Shaw
Letter 2
Fort Mitchel, Skull Creek
March 11, 1863
Dear cousin Mary,
I received your ever kind & welcome letter yesterday which I had expected this long time. I began to think that you had forgotten me but at last it came & I am glad to hear that you are all well at present. My health is not very good yet & somewhat so that I am not able to do any duty yet. I have not done anything since the first of February & I have been in the hospital part of the time since I wrote to you but I am with my company now which is my home & Company D are detached from the regiment to do picket duty and fatigue duty about five miles west of Hilton Head where the rest of the regiment are. And we are to work on a fort which is called Fort Mitchel. It is near Pinckney’s Island. It will take some time yet before it is finished. They have four large guns now ready for action anytime and when it is finished, it will be mounted with eight or ten guns and very large ones too.
The weather is as warm here now as it is any time in the summer out home and the Boys are going barefooted. It rains some here today and the soil is sandy and very loose and when the wind blows, the sand flies like snow. The timber is mostly pine and palmetto. The pine is like the Georgia Pine—very hard and full of pitch. The palmetto grows around the edge of the marshes about 15 feet high and the body is smooth and the top is in the shape of a vase of flowers. The Orange trees are planted like our Apple trees although some wild ones grows in the wood. There is three cotton plantations on this island but the owners have left them and gone in the Rebel army and the negroes are living on the plantations and they are to work planting their corn and potatoes, although some of their potatoes are up very nice. The plum and peach trees are out of bloom now & the grass is very green. The clover is about four inches high and everything looks as nice here now as it does in the month of May. This island which we are on is about 17 miles long and 7 wide. The fortifications extend from the dock across the island and mounted with 150 guns and there is about 6,000 soldiers here in all.
General Foster’s fleet is here yet, I believe, with 15,000 men and are expecting to leave here soon to make an attack on Charleston & Savannah. Our Colonel is at Washington now and our Lieutenant Colonel got a letter from him yesterday and he said we was all right now and [cleared] from all blame and we was exonerated and as soon as the pay master could get here we would be paid off in full. And now we are clear from burning the barracks at Chicago. A welcomer visitor never entered our camp as the pay [master] will be when he comes. But he can’t come too soon, I don’t believe, do you?
Well, Mary, I am thankful that I have got such a good friend & such a good cousin at home that writes to me and sends writing paper in their letters so I can write back. And I hope and pray that God will bless you and be with you in all duties and give you all strength to write to a poor soldier that is in the defense of his country for that is the greatest blessing that we can have is to hear from his friends at home. And I am thankful that God has given me a paying Captain so that he can lead us on to battle for our God as well as for our country. I have been a great sinner against God but thankful to God I am not anymore for I am trying to live a better life than I have been. But it is not long since I have started on this good cause. But so far I have enjoyed more comfort for the last week than I ever did. I hope you will pray for me that I may hold out faithful and if we are permitted to meet on Earth, that we may meet in heaven. My company are most all converts and in fact, so is the whole regiment. And last Sunday there was 49 baptized here and a good many more to be baptized yet.
I got a letter from Henry yesterday and he said he was as tough and fat as a bear and his weight is 185 pounds & he said they had a good many deserted out of their regiment and from out of his company. One was Lorenzo Snell and Martin Brown. John Dessure the other he did not name. And he said they has been paid off up to the first of November and the first of March. They were agoing to get the rest & he sent me four postage stamps in his letter.
We live very well here now for we can have all the oysters that we want for they are plenty and they are not over 15 rods from our camp and we can but them off the niggers for ten cents a quart if we had money. But as we have not got any money, we will have to go and get them and open them ourselves.
Afternoon. It has cleared off and it is very warm this afternoon & very pleasant. We have got our street all set out with pine trees & it looks like a small grove. I will put in some leaves of a fur tree and some berries and some peach blossoms and some palmetto reeds so you can see how they look. Mary, I would like to send you a nice bunch of flowers if I could for there is one of the nicest flower gardens here that I ever saw in my life.
Well, Mary, you say it was reported that I was dead but how did you hear of it or who reported that news? This is the second time that they have had me dead out in Oppenheim but as long as I can write, you mustn’t believe anything you hear unless I write it.
Well, Mary, we have enough to eat, such as it is. But I can’t eat everything they give us. But as long as they give me bread and coffee, I can stand it. Tell Granny that I send mt best respects to her and tell her that I wish I was as tough as she is & tell her I heard she was a going to be my aunt and grandmother too one of these days. Tell Martha Smith and Uncle John Smith that I would like to hear them answer that letter that I wrote to them if they want to hear from me anymore. Well, Mary, I guess you will say Dan had better stop writing for this time and so I will by bidding you all goodbye. I send my love and best respects to all whilst life remains, — D. B. D.
Write as soon as you get this letter and oblige your cousin, — Daniel B. Doxtater to Mary Smith
Direct as before. Co. E, 115th Regt. N. Y. S. V., Hilton Head, S. C., Care of Capt. W. H. Shaw
My love to all enquiring friends after receiving a share for yourself. Tell your Pa to write to me. Well, Mary, I will tell you here the niggers grind their corn about the size of a large grindstone and one of the stones are fastened down on a board and a lot of small creases cut in them and then there is a hole in the handle of top one and one on the side of the top and then they stick outside and then they turn it by hand put the corn in the middle of the top stone a little at a time. That the way they ground their corn and they don’t have anything else to eat in the bread line but they have some sweet potatoes to eat but no meat—only oysters. I just got a letter from home which was wrote the 19th of February. Henry said Jenett had left Joseph Moshier again and he had hung himself. But they found him before he was dead. Now it is so or not? You did not say anything about it in your letter.
I will send some cotton and some cotton seed in this letter.
Letter 3
Fort Mitchel. South Carolina
Sunday morning, April 12th 1863
Dear cousin Mary,
I now take pen in hand to converse with you in the silent meditation of the pen, as it is the [only] means that we have at present. So let us improve the privilege that we have in writing, although I have not got much time to write for I am on duty every day now as we are all the men that is here now to work on the fort and they are in a hurry to get it done for they expect the rebels on us every day. So you see we are in some danger and for that reason we have to work very hard. But Sundays—we don’t work so I will improve the time by writing to you.
Your letter came in hand in due time and on the 8th of this month and I was very glad to hear that you are all well, which leaves me at present in very good health. And when this reaches you it will find you the same and enjoying the same blessing that I am enjoying now.
The weather grows better here every day—especially at midday. The heat is very oppressive and it is very dry for we do not have any rain to speak of. At night we have very heavy dew and it is quite comfortable at night. The trees are all leafed out very nicely and everything looks like the month of June and there is fruit of all kinds grows here and the figs are as large as a walnut. And the blackberries are getting ripe very fast. So you see we will live good if we stay here all summer which I think probably we shall if the rebels don’t take us prisoners again for our forces are very small now in this island for the men that was on this island have all gone to take Charleston. But I have not heard whether they have took it or not yet. But there is one thing certain, they will either take the city or burn it up. We have got orders tro be ready at any minute for we don’t know what or ow soon the rebels will attack us here for we can see them over on the west side of the river and it would not take them long to come over on us at night and take us all prisoners or kill us for they have blowed up the gunboat that done the picket duty on the river. The rebels are a ragg[ed]y set of fellows but they are tigers to fight.
We are a going to meeting at 3 o’clock this afternoon and I wish you was here to go and hear our chaplain preach. He is a very smart man, is liked very well in the regiment, and he has done a great deal for this regiment and about two-thirds of the regiment have professed religion and are serving their creator now instead of Satan which they have served in their days past.
Well. Mary, I will tell you what I meant by saying that I expected Granny would be my aunt. Sarah Smith wrote to me and said that Granny was a going to get married to my Uncle J. D.
That is a pretty name, I think, which you named your little sister and your Ma says she takes after me. Then if she does, she takes after a smart fellow then, don’t she? for the Small folks are a great deal smarter than the large ones, hain’t they Mary?
Tell Frances that I thank her very much for that gum she sent me and tell her I will speak a good word for her to a litle curly headed boy down South here and I send my best respects to her and tell her to be a good girl until I come home.
I have got my pay now. My share was $67.90 and I sent $60 home and kept the rest for spending money. The health of the regiment is better now than it has been since we left Fonda. There has not but one died in this regiment since we came here and that one that died was one of my company. His name is J[oseph.] Wood. We have not got anyone in the hospital now at present. I wish I was there when you get to making sugar so to have some warm sugar to eat. And if we ever get off this island, I will try to get a furlough and come home if nothing happens.
Well, Mary, you say it snows and blowed so there out North. And down South is is warm and nice as summer. I could not hardly believe that there was so much difference in the weather in the world as it is and while you fellows are suffering with the cold, we are suffering with the heat. The fleas and gnats are very bad here and there is all kinds of snakes here. We killed a black snake the other day five feet and seven inches long, and the other day they killed two more which was over 4 feet long. And there is lots of alligators. They killed one the other day and brought him in camp and he was over four feet long and about as large around as my leg. And the niggers say that there is some very big ones here. They are a savage-looking animal now, I tell you, and they can run very swift too you better believe.
Well, Mary, I can’t think of much more to write or much time to write this time. And I hope that this great rebellion will be soon put down so I can come home to my friends that I have left behind me. And I hope that God will guide and protect them in all their ways and if we never meet on earth, that we may live so as to meet in heaven where parting is unknown. So now I will close my letter by hoping to hear from you soon. My love to you whilest life remains. — Daniel B. Doctater to his cousin Mary Smith
Direct as before. Excuse all bad writing and spelling.
Letter 4
Hilton Head, South Carolina
June 25, 1863
Dear cousin Mary,
Youyr long and expected letter came in hand on the 23rd bearing date the 8th and I was very glad to hear from you once more and more so to hear that you are all well and in the enjoyment of good health for that is worth more than property os to us. I am well and enjoying good health & feel better now at the present time that I have since we came on this island. But I don’t know how long it will last for it is very sickly here. My company numbers 87 men in all and out of that number, there is not only 30 men able to do duty and there ain’t only about 250 men in the regiment that is able to do duty. And when we left Fonda we had over one thousand able bodied men for duty. So you see that is the way it goes with the northern soldiers down here in the South. There is more men injured with sickness than by balls. They are dying off in our regiment very fast now. The disease is mostly fever here.
Well, Mary, two companies of our regiment are out on the outposts doing picket duty. My company and Company F are the ones that are here on Jenkins’ Island and we are in sight of rebel pickets. The river is all that divides us from the rebels and we guard one side of the river and the rebels the other. So you see they can’t get over here unless they come in small boats and then our pickets will see them and fire into them. They they will put back to the shore again. So you see, they don’t like they way we use them. But whenever a steamboat passes down this way to go to to Fort Pulaski, they will fire on her with muskets but they know then what will come after the, so they will run for the bushes with some shells after them from the boats for every steamboat carried some cannons on board of them.
Well, Mary, I have been down in the State of Georgia to Fort Pulaski since I wrote to you last. I have been on an expedition since I wrote you last. There was 750 in all from the different regiments that is here. We went on the 3rd of the month and came back the 5th. We went up the May River in the boats Carroch, Mayflower, Island City, and convoyed by the gunboat Ann McDonough. We went to the village of Bluffton, but the infantry landed about three miles from the village and we skirmished up the bank of the river & the boat followed up the river but only once in a while we could get sight of two rebels and then a shower of balls would be sent after them but they seemed to run faster than the balls. Well so we kept on in that way until we came in the village when we had some fun. But the fun was all on our side for the rebels took to their heels as fast as they could go and only once in a while they would stop to make a stand. But their courage would fail them & run again. The village was taken and set fire to it and burned it to the ground but the rebels was not seen again until we had evacuated the place & had most all got on the boat when the rebel cavalry came down upon us very strongly enforced and made an attempt to draw us off but we soon sent them a flying in all directions. They only fired at us once but the balls fell short of us and we came off with a loss of a man one our side but we don’t know how many the rebels lost but they lost a good many thousands of dollars worth of property. 1
There is not any pigeons here but there is lots of fish and blackberries and all kinds of garden sauce. We had a nice lot of cucumber for breakfast this morning. Peaches are very plenty and they are most ripe now. I suppose we will get our pay today for they paid the regiment yesterday but we don’t get only two months pay this time which will be $26. Tell Frances that little curly head is doing very well now but he got to be to big now to put in a letter. No more at present so goodbye. Write as soon as you get this and oblige. Your cousin, — David
1 On June 3, 1863, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont instructed Lieutenant Commander George Bacon to lead an expedition against Bluffton aboard the gunboat Commodore McDonough. By June 4, Union forces under Colonel Barton, transported by the gunboat Mayflower and an army transport ship, landed in Bluffton. They quickly took control of the town after Confederate forces retreated. Under Colonel Barton’s orders, most of Bluffton was destroyed by fire, although the church was spared. Confederate troops attempted several counterattacks but were repelled by Union forces and the firepower of the Commodore McDonough, which provided shell and shrapnel support. Approximately two-thirds of its 60 structures were destroyed. Afterwards, the Union troops reembarked without suffering any casualties and returned to Hilton Head.
Letter 5
Beaufort, South Carolina
Sunday afternoon, August 2, 1863
Dear cousin Mary,
It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity to write a few lines to you to inform you that your letter of the 19th was duly received and I was very happy to hear that you are all well. I am well at present and in good spirits and I [hope] these few lines will find you the same. There has been a great deal going on here since I last [wrote] to you. First, they have been fighting on Morris Island and two weeks ago today they brought here a lot of wounded soldiers and we had to work night and day to unload the wounded and every building that was large enough to put soldiers in and they drove the niggers outdoors and put the wounded in. There was 600 in all that was brought here and they left a good many down to Hilton Head and they have most of our regiment in the hospitals as nurses to take care of the wounded.
I was in the hospital a spell and I had twelve wounded ones to take care of and they was wounded in all shapes and places. They have took one boat load of wounded soldiers to New York last week and as soon as the boat comes back, they are a going to take some more. We came to Beaufort five weeks ago today and have moved once since we came here. It is a very pleasant place here and I like it very well but it is hot that it almost roasts a fellow.
Well, Mary, I went in the city last Friday to have a dozen pictures taken on cards for you all but they have stopped taking them now so I can’t get them at present and they charged four dollars a dozen for them. But as soon as they take photographs here, I will have some taken and send you one as soon as I can.
We have lots to eat here now for the corn and potatoes are good to eat now. And figs, peaches, pears are ripe and watermelons are very plenty and they grow as large as good sized pumpkins. And we buy one every day. We had one to eat today and I wish you [could have] a lot of them to eat. I have got a lot of the seeds a drying and as soon as they get dry, I will send you some so you can try next spring and raise some of your own. And they are as red inside as cherry.
It is very sickly here yet and the Boys are dying off very fast. James Bolster is dead and Simon Moshier they don’t think will live. The doctor says he can’t live and Levi Phillips is sick in the general hospital but he is getting better now. Our army is having good luck this summer so far and if Gen. Gilmore has good luck and takes Charleston this time, I think this war will be ended soon. And I do hope and pray that this rebellion will be crushed before two months more. Gen. Gilmore is gaining on Charleston all the time and we can hear heavy cannonading most every day to Charleston, and Rosecrans is coming up in the rear of Charleston and it must fall without fail.
I will close this letter now by sending my best respects to you all. Yours in haste, — Daniel B. Doxtater
Write as soon as you get this and oblige your cousin, Daniel B. Doxtater, Co. E, 115th Regt., N. Y. S. Vols. to Beaufort, S. C.
Tell Frances to be a good girl and my last to her.
Spared & Shared 23 