The following letter was penned by an unidentified hospital steward on behalf of Pvt. Anthony W. Ernst (1839-1863) of Co. G, 1st Minnesota Infantry, while he lay seriously wounded in a hospital at Fort Schuyler. Anthony was inducted into the regiment on 22 May 1861 and served until his death on 31 July 1863, four weeks after he was wounded at Gettysburg. In his letter, Anthony attempts to reassure his mother that he is on the mend, but in reality he was only days away from death.

Anthony was the son of German emigrants, George Jacob Ernst (1801-1856) and Eva Elizabeth Zimmerman (1803-1883) of Amherst, Lorain county, Ohio. Just prior to his enlistment, Anthony was residing in Minnesota where he was employed as a carpenter/joiner.

This letter was found in the pension records at the National Archives in Washington D. C., sent there by Anthony’s mother as evidence of his service with the hope that she might draw a mother’s pension for her son’s service. It was sent to me for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by Kelly Boyer Sagert

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Fort Schuyler [New York]
July 25th, 1863

Dear Mother,

It is with great pleasure that I take my pen in hand to answer your welcome letter which I received yesterday and you may be assured that I was very glad to hear from you and to hear that you was well as usual. You was saying that you was sorry to hear that I was wounded but as you say, it is no more than what is to be expected in the army. But we should be thankful that it is no worse. My wound I think is getting along very well under the circumstances. Still I am very weak yet, not being able to sit up but a very few moments at the time. But I manage by being bolstered up to sit up a few moments at the time and so relieve myself in that manner. I have to lie entirely on my back and it is very tiresome work where a person has to lie so long. But I am in hopes that I will not be confined to my [bed] any great length of time.

You will see that I am not able to do my own writing and so I have to get someone else to do it for me. So you will have to excuse them if they do seem rather short sometimes.

There is several of my regiment here besides me. There is three of my company here so you see that I am not entirely alone, but after all, it is not like home. But we can’t always expect to be surrounded by home comforts. But I think when I do get home, I will be able to appreciate it more than though I had not been in the army. One hardly knows the value of a home until he has left one.

We are having some very warm weather here at present and it makes it rather bad for the wounds, but they are doing very well considering. We have about two thousand wounded at the present time.

You was saying that you did not know how you was agoing to get your haying done. Well I know that it is bad, as you say, to have two sons in the army and then to have the third one taken, but you must try and get along the best that you can until my time is out and that will not be long now—only about nine months now, and that will soon pass away.

Well, I don’t know as I can think of anything more to write at this time. Give my respects to all of the folks. Write as soon as convenient. No more this time. From your affectionate son, — A. W. Ernst