These letters were written principally by two brothers who gave their lives to preserve the Union in the American Civil War. They were Captain Dennis Chesbro (1840-1864) of Co. G, 46th Pennsylvania Volunteers, and Sgt. Almond Chesbro (1842-1863) of Co. G, 53rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. Almond was killed at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863 and Dennis was killed in the Battle of New Hope Church on 25 May 1864. They were the sons of Hiram Hale Chesbro (1816-1886) and Laverna Clark Hall (1822-1882) of Potter county—a county directly bordering the state of New York to its north. Besides the two older boys, the Chesbro’s had four younger children at home—Ellen (1848-1865), Hiram (1852-1914), Warren (1854-1921), and Hattie (1859-Aft1880).
In 1860, Potter County remained predominantly rural, characterized by extensive tracts of dense, old-growth forest that were only beginning to be opened to commercial timber operations. Numerous young men lacking formal educational opportunities participated in felling these forests and in rafting the logs down local creeks and rivers to major sawmills. Owing to limited access to Eastern markets, most farms operated on a largely subsistence basis. Census records provide little detail regarding the specific means of livelihood of the Chesbro family. They do indicate, however, that the head of the household was blind.
The Chesbro family lived in Inez, a small hamlet in Homer township, some five miles due south of Coudersport—the county seat.
[From Olin Nespor:] “We also have Almonds Diary from 1863, with entries all the way up to his death. One of Almond’s letters to his Mother says he had heard Dennis was taken prisoner at the Battle of Chancellorsville (though he was exchanged shortly thereafter). In another Letter from Dennis to Almond, Dennis tells his brother that if they see their “rebellious” relatives to not spare them and “Give them everything they want”. One letter in 1860 when Dennis was a school teacher he berates the “copperhead” democrats and tells his mother he gave all his money to a slave who was trying to buy his wife’s freedom. Reading these family letters has been deeply moving, and I’ve had a strong desire to transcribe and share their story.
I have been photographing and sorting these letters digitally, I have maybe 50 letters and the diary organized and scanned, but I am only part way through sorting the collection. We have several Tin photographs of Almond and other family members, Almonds revolver, pieces of his uniform, notes from other Union officers, etc.
I’d love to make this collection digitally available and thought inquiring with you might be a good way to start. I’m also in contact with a member of the Potter County Historical Society who has encouraged us to document and transcribe what we have. They even said they have letters from other soldiers from G company who mention the Chesbro’s.”
Letter
Andover, Massachusetts
January 9, 1860
My dear Mother,
I have been waiting patiently a long time hoping to hear from you. I do not feel like studying—don’t feel very well today—so I write. I sent you a Bible and the children some pictures with a letter the week before Christmas in order that you might receive it the day following Christmas. Have you got them? I got a letter from Mr. Blake the other day, the first one in a long time. He is in Chester county, Penna. [and] is well, also his family. He sends his regards to you. He went to locate in a school not far from Harpers Ferry but the outbreak frightened the people there and he came back to Penna. 1 The money from Philadelphia comes direct to me. My chum, Mr. Tracy from Erie county, Penna., receives from the same source.
We have had very cold weather since before Christmas until a day or two ago when it moderated and now the snow is all going off. This cold weather has eat up wood fast. But you Pennamites would not thought of burning as little as I have done. I think of burning coal when I get to college, or it will depend on where I go to college. If I could afford to get a coal stove, I should burn it here as it is cheaper.
I suppose the time of the New York Observer is up. I have not had an opportunity to read it much but I have never seen anything in it except conservatism until the Harpers Ferry outbreak. But the last few numbers have become too strong of proslavery for me. But the New York Independent is just as far to Ultra Abolitionist. Henceforth I shall not read neither much. But to see the slander which has passed between these two professed Christian papers, I am led to think that there is not much Christianity about either. If they were not so blinded by ambition both of them, they would see the influence they are exerting upon men who care not for Christian principles. Yes, they are exerting an influence against the religion of Jesus. I will have nought to do with either after this. 2
I am not as you seemed to have thought in your last an old Hunker [Democrat]. I am just as far from it as you. I am a Republican. Neither have I forgotten the faith which my dear mother brought me up in, nor shall I depart therefrom. She never taught me disunion till the last letter. A slave came along here a spell ago (he had been a slave) buying the freedom of his wife. I gave him all I had which was not much. I write this to show that I am no Democrat. 3
I send my likeness this time. I intended to have sent it with the rest but could not get it taken. I wish you could get Hattie’s taken for me.
The term is passing pleasantly, though some of these nights I am rather cold as I sleep alone. I have been thinking lately a great deal of home and of friends there. I have been thinking too of my association. This compared with them last, and I thank God for the change. If you have not written, please write soon for I want to hear from there much and write if you have received the things. Yours affectionately, — Dennis
I have just received your letter. Since using glasses, my eyes have become stronger than ever before. Just received a letter from Blake. He is well. I can almost cry over Clem’s picture. God bless you all.
1 The “outbreak at Harper’s Ferry” is a reference to John Brown’s attempted slave insurrection at Harper’s Ferry in mid-October 1859, which resulted in his capture and the deaths or capture of his 21 followers. Presumably Dennis’s friend Blake intended to teach a school near there beginning in the fall of 1859, but the citizens elected not to bring any more Northern schoolmasters into their midst who might introduce antislavery notions.
2 The contrast between the New York Observer and the New York Independent could not have been more stark in January 1860. Both weekly New York City-based newspapers had deep religious roots. The Observer was anti-abolitionist and fell into the conservative “old School” Presbyterian camp. The Independent, on the other hand, was militantly anti-slavery, and fell into the progressive, radical Congregationalist camp. Dennis’s letter reveals that he fell squarely in the middle.
3 The donation by Dennis may have been made to William Carney who escaped from slavery in 1857 and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. While there he worked tirelessly to purchase freedom for his wife Nancy from Joseph Carter, Norfolk, Virginia. He collaborated with anti-slavery ministers across Massachusetts, including Andover, to raise the necessary funds. See William Harvey Carney, City of Norfolk.
Letter
Home [Potter county, Pennsylvania]
April 20, 1862
Dear Brother,
It is Sunday today as you see by the date of this and Mother asked me why I did not write to you. I told her that I could not write or if I could, I could not think of anything to write. However, I thought I would try and write a little. We are going to meeting at three o’clock. Mr. Lyman preaches today.
We hear that you are at Yorktown and expect to have a battle before long. I hope not though. The last we heard from Dennis they were at Woodstock but expected to move right away. They expected to have a hard fight right away but I do not know as they have had one yet. I suppose that you do not know that Elmina Parish 1 is coming to Uncle Dennis [Hall]’s to work. I am very glad of it for I think she will take our Sabbath School class. Sabbath School organizes today but I did not go up.
We are all well as common. The flowers are blowing out [illegible]. I would send you some but I suppose that you have lots of them about there. But maybe they are not the same kind as ours. You must send me some. By the way, you have never said whether you got that letter written by Emma Lambert and myself or not. But I suppose that you have not or you would have answered it.
Monday, 21st. Well, it is raining hard this morning. I guess that the sugar weather is most over with but suppose that it is a good thing for farmers. 2 We are all well as usual. I have not had a letter from you in a long time. We will not send this till we see whether we get a letter from you or Dennis. [Our neighbor,] Mr. [Furman] Quick heard in Coudersport that Captain [Archibald F.] Jones had got to be one of the worst of tyrants in the United States and that he used his men worse than so many dogs. 3
Hattie is getting to be [the] greatest girl in the world, I think. The other day she pulled out all of my….
Monday, April 21, [1862]
Dearest Almond,
Another week has rolled around and no tidings from my loved son. And as I write and listen to the howlings of the storm, I think Oh where is my boy tonight knowing that this must reach coming from the southeast as it does and it is cold enough to make one perish if exposed long to its fury. I have not got a letter from you since you wrote at Warrenton but suppose you are now at Yorktown as the papers say that all of McClellan’s forces are before that place and I suppose you are in his part of the army.
I heard directly from Dennis last week. Mr. Green came home on a furlough to see his wife as she is not expected to live long. I went over on the hill to see him. He said Dennis was well now. He sent seven dollars by him. When he had the measles, he went to a private house and his board and his expenses were considerable and he had not got his extra pay yet. He said when he did, he would send more.
I understand that a great deal of complaint is coming home about Mr. Jones’ ill treatment to his men. I truly hope he is not the tyrant they represent him to be. If so, I would much rather be one of the men that was miss used than him for it will [be] worse in the end for him.
We had weather last week as warm as June. We are all looking to the crisis at Yorktown with very anxious hearts, hoping and praying it may be the finishing stroke to the rebellion. They have passed a [bill] in Congress abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. 4 100 men…
1 Elmina Parish (1837-1908) was the daughter of Charles parish (1806-1846) and Minerva Hackett (1812-1890) of Potter county, Pennsylvania. She married Albert L. Rennells (1844-1922) in 1866. In 1860, she was 23 years old and working a teacher in the common schools.
2 The heavily forested hills of the Sinnmahoning Creek watershed included beech, birch, and white pine, as well as a high density of sugar maple and red maple trees. The sugar from these trees became an even more precious commodity during the Civil War when can sugar from the Southern states was cut off.
3 Archibald F. Jones (1825-1879) served as the Captain of Co. G, 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry. He was a farmer in Potter county, Pennsylvania, before the war but afterwards, returned to Coudersport where he went into the dry good business. I transcribed one of Jones’s letters to his wife, Mary (Ross) Jones back in 2025. See 1862: Archibald F. Jones to Mary (Ross) Jones, dated 20 November 1862.
4 President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act into law on April 16, 1862 which abolished slavery in Washington D. C. Over 3,000 enslaved individuals in the Nation’s Capitol were freed and loyal slave owners were compensated $300 per freed person. It also made kidnapping of freed persons a felony.
Letter
Camp near Stafford Court House
March 11th 1863
Dear Brother,
Your kind favor was received some days ago but owing to duties and the sickness of my Lieutenant, I have not answered it. If you can get me a good watch for $35, bring it along. I need one. I cannot tell whether I can pay for it right away or not but think I can soon. But who will you get it from? If you get one and don’t come yourself very soon, send it by someone who will deliver it safely, writing me who you send it by.
I wrote a letter to Aunt Elvina [Hall] a few days ago which if you can read will give you an idea of my idea of the Copperheads and especially of those of our relatives who are rebellious. Don’t spare them. Give them all they want. Kick Lathans if he crosses your road. I cannot stomach the hypocrite, nor will I.
I had intended to pay a visit down front but sickness and duty will hardly allow me. I am not sick myself. But if you do come, remember to leave the cars at Brooks Station and inquire for Stafford Court House. You will find our regiment not far—about a half mile to the right.
Give my regards to Miss “G” and love to all of our people. Aunt Elvina [Hall] says she don’t know as she will betray confidence by letting me [know] that Almond is engaged [to M. E. Green]. Of course she will not to me. But write very soon. My photographs have not come yet. Bring me your likeness or you can get it taken here. Did I ever tell you that Nina Reynolds has my likeness and I want to get it away from her. I wish you would for me. Your loving brother, — Dennis H. Chesbro
Letter
Home [Potter county, Pennsylvania]
August 29th 1863
Dear Brother,
Yes gladly would I give you that title for a brother I feel you are. Your very kind andmost welcome letter of August 19th inst. came at hand last Tuesday and this is the first opportunity that has presented itself for me to answer it. I have been helping Aunt Elvina [Hall] a few days. Came here this morning to stay until school commences.
My pen will not describe the heartfelt gratitude that I feel towards you and your dear parents, brothers and sisters all, for the kindnesses that you have shown and I bear with you. How could I ever ask for such a blessing. It is more than I could have looked for. But there is no place that I can be as happy as with Almond’s friend. I can never repay you for this blessing. But God will bless you. I know He will.
If your friends had never recognized me, I believe this anguish would kill me for then I would have had to [have] mourned alone. [But] with the many blessings that my Heavenly Father is passing down on my heart, I feel that my grief is more than I can bear. I know that it is all for the best that God called Almond home for He doeth all things well. Still, I cannot feel it. I miss him so much in everything I do and in every place. I keep looking for him and for letters from him every mail that comes. It seems as though it would bring me one of those kind letters that it so often used to bring. How can I ever give him up? I know I must, but it is so hard. If I could have one little spot beside his grave where I could sit and weep, it would be all I could ask.
Oh Dennis, I can truly sympathize with you. But my brother, do not faint. Look to Jesus. He is able to move that dark cloud and let the light shine. God is able to make your pathway smooth again and restore your happiness if you will put your trust in Him. His chastenings are in love and we must receive them in love. Let us look up with a pious submission and feel, “Thy will be done, and not ours.”
Mother says she will go to you just as soon as she heard you cannot come home. But we all hope you can come. Our prayers are for you. Do not remain in that gloomy state. It will kill you. I will ruin your health. Look on the bright side. Look forward to that day when we shall meet where partings are no more—tears [are] all dry—[and] dark clouds never rise and destroy our happiness. If you are meek, lean on Jesus. He is strong and will help carry your burden. The heavier the burden, the brighter the crown you shall wear if you prove strong—like gold tried in the fire.
I thank you for your kindness and am so glad that you feel as though you could be my brother. The kindness that all of your friends have shown me has did a great deal towards raising this broken chord. Thank God for such friends. I hope to hear from you very often and may you soon be at home.
May the blessings of Heaven rest down upon you. No more this time. Your friend & sister, — M. E. Green
Letter
