My passion is studying American history leading up to & including the Civil War. I particularly enjoy reading, transcribing & researching primary sources such as letters and diaries.
This letter was signed by a Union soldier named William McMurphy who seems to have been among the 6000 soldiers landed at Ocean View under the command of General Wool on 10 May 1862 to advance on Norfolk that was being evacuated by the Confederates. If not in this first wave of troops, he must have been in the second wave of troops that followed under the command of General Joseph Mansfield. Regiments that were in the first wave included, I think, the 10th and 20th New York, the 1st Delaware, and the 16th Massachusetts, along with some cavalry and artillery. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to identify any William McMurphy in any of these regiments.
When the Confederates evacuated Norfolk on 10 May 1862, they set fire to Gosport Naval Yard.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Gosport Navy Yard Norfolk, Virginia May 20th 1862
Dear Mother,
I received your letter today and was glad to hear that you was well. Your letter also found me in good health as you will perceive. We are in the same place that we was when I last wrote and I guess we shall stay here a while. There is a report that Richmond is taken but I do not know how true it is.
We have just been changing our camp ground into a grove. It is a very pleasant place. There is a great many Union people here but there is some very strong secesh here too—especially among the ladies. Some of them wear secesh flags on their breasts and walk past our soldiers as large as life but we like to tell them of the hot coffee and warm victuals we found in their soldier’s camps when we came here.
I will send you some secesh money and P.O. stamp. Them bills are all the change they have. Some of them are for five cents.
I have just got done cooking and gone into the ranks and I tell you I am glad enough. It is very warm here. I have wrote to you every week but once since I came down here. I can get no stamps here. Please send some and I will send some money when I get paid. I can’t write anymore tonight. So goodbye from your affectionate son, — Wm. McMurphy
I could not find an image if Benjamin but here is one of Anson Orlando Knapp of Co. A, 128th NY Infantry (Ancestry.com)
The following letter was written by Benjamin Hughson Brown (1844-1916), the son of English emigrant John Brown (1803-1865) and Catharine Van Nosdall (1812-1861) of Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, New York. Benjamin was described as a 5′ 2″ tall sandy-haired, 18 year-old farmer when he enlisted in August 1862 as a private in Co. C, 128th New York Infantry. For some reason, perhaps suffering some illness, Benjamin was sent to a General Hospital in Baltimore on 5 November 1862 and he was subsequently taken on as a hospital steward. It was not uncommon for a physician to take a liking to a soldier and offer him duty away from his regiment—particularly if the regiment was far away. As we learn from the letter, the 128th New York Infantry had been sent to New Orleans in December 1862 to join Gen. Banks’ Department of the Gulf. He was fortunate not to have gone with them as many of his comrades died of disease in Louisiana.
Benjamin remained in Baltimore for the balance of his term of service and then subsequently volunteered to transfer into the regular army as a hospital steward.
Benjamin’s letter was datelined from Steuart’s Mansion located (at the time) on the western outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. It was the property of George H. Steuart but since he had resigned a commission to join the Confederate army, the US Government confiscated the mansion and property to create a hospital for wounded solders. Various temporary barracks were built around the mansion for the wounded men’s quarters and the mansion itself was used as headquarters.
A pre-war lithograph of Steuart Hall.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Steuart’s Mansion Baltimore, Maryland March 18, 1863
Dear Friend George,
Your long expected letter I received on the 15th. Of course you are excuseable for not writing sooner if you thought you had answered my last but I hope you will not make a mistake this time. I was sorry to hear of the sickness of your folks. I hope by the time this reaches you, they may be all well. you must have had a very mild winter but not half so mild as it has been here, I don’t suppose. We have had no sleighing here at all. We have had quite a number of snow storms but they did not amount to anything. This has been the first winter that I have not had some skating and sleigh rides in a long while. I enjoy very good health and like it very much here. I have not much to do, plenty to eat, and a good bed to sleep on. So don’t you think I am pretty well off for a soldier? I wish you could come down here and stay awhile. I think we could have some gay old times.
I was over to the camp of the 150th [New York] Regiment about two weeks ago. It is about two miles from here. I did not make a very long visit for I could not have a pass longer than from 2 o’clock till 5. I saw A[mos] T. Lillie, A[bram] Schultz, Benjamin Hevenor, and others [in Co. K]. They have a splendid camp ground [called Camp Belger] and comfortable barracks and enjoy the fun of soldiering very much. A[bram] Schultz said he was agoing to try to get a furlough to come home in a short time but I don’t much believe he will. get one. For my part, I would not take a furlough if I could get one. I don’t see what’s the use of going home when he has only been out so little while. I’d rather stay as long as I have to be in the service and then come home for good.
I have not had a letter from the Boys in New Orleans in quite a while but expect one every day. I have heard though of the death of two of my company—one by the name of [William A.] Noxon of Rhinebeck, and the other E[vert] Traver. This makes five that we have lost by [disease]. It is undoubtedly so. I have not much hopes of seeing my regiment for some time. I did not think when I enlisted that I would be separated from it so long. I have been here over four months and how much longer I will stay, I can’t tell. I have not received any Valentines this year and only sent one.
Well, George, I believe I have told you all the news so I will close. Give my best respects to all your folks and remember me your friend, — Benjamin H. Brown
The following letter was written by Horace Burr Potter (1842-1864) who enlisted on 31 August 1861, claiming he was 2 years older than he really was, to serve three years in Co. A, 153rd New York Infantry. He was mustered in on 17 October 1862 and wrote the following letter a year later from Washington D. C. He died of consumption on 14 June 1864, at Charity hospital in New Orleans, La.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Addressed to Mr. Lucius F. Potter, Kingsboro’, Fulton county, New York
153rd Regiment New York Volunteers, Co. A East Capitol Hill, Washington D. C. October 24, 1863
Dear Father,
I now sit down to write you a letter in answer to yours of the 19th October received on the 21st and also yours of the 22nd received today in this a.m. mail. I was glad to hear that you were all well and hope this will find you all the same. I am as well as usual and enjoying good health. The weather has been fine along back but it is raining quite hard while I an now writing. It commenced yesterday afternoon and is quite muddy. Charlie Cheadell’s regiment arrived in this city yesterday afternoon and he came up and seen us and bunked with me last night. He feels good and is as rugged as ever, He is 4th Sergeant & gets $18 dollars per month. He says that he won’t be a soldier over 6 months. Well every one to their notions. There is several others in the regiment that live up around Kingsboro and Gloversville that have ben up to see some of our Boys that they were acquainted with. Their regiment has only 8 companies but they are full as they have 1100 men in it.
Old Mr. Gulich [Gulick] arrived here today from Gloversville to see his son William who is in our company and we sleep together in one bunk. Mr. Gulich gave all the news there was. He said he saw you before he came away day before yesterday 22nd October and that you was well. I also received the Observer & Standard you sent. Also all the stamps, paper, wrappers, &c. that you have sent all right and am much obliged for them as others don’t do as well as you do that write to me as I have to find my own stamps &c… As to those shirts you wrote about, send them if you send a box but don’t send any wrappers, drawers, &c. A pair or two of gloves won’t come amiss. The watch I can sell. The boots are mighty steep, I think, but am satisfied as I know that you have done the best you. could. But I think the old [ ] is a charging an old customer a big price. When I want any more boots or other things, I shall send for the money if I haven’t got it and buy them amongst people, not such ones that live in two of the cussedest places this side of hell for cheating and swindling soldiers who are defending them. But enough of this.
I disown Gloversville and Kingsboro both and never shall return to either till this war is entirely over. Then it will only be on a visit to you. If we serve our time out before it is over, I shall enlist over again here and shall now for the war in a new regiment the first opportunity that offers and get 6 hundred dollars bounty which veteran soldiers get that have been in the service before for 9 months. A soldier’s life agrees with me right well and I just as leave be in the army as anywhere else and I would be nothing else at present. But enough. I hope you won’t be offended at what I have written as they are my sentiments of the people that live there. I want you to look out for my interests and turn everything I have there into money. Keep track of it all as I shall never invest any of it up there and I shall call for it one of these days so shall want as large a pile of it as possible. And every cent that belongs to me I want kept track of. Tell Vanostine the next time you see him I shall make all such gents as him shell. out when I come up there. I want you to get all the interest on my money you can. I just as leave you should use as anyone, only I don’t want it at loose ends when I come home after it… I must close for the present as I am in a hurry. Excuse this scribbling as it was written in haste. Write often. Goodbye for the present. Much love. I remain your affectionate son, — Horace
The following letter was written by 24 year-old Rodolphus Payson Tryon (1837-1862), the son of Rodolphus Tryon (1809-1894) and Lavinia Derby (1810-1888) of Alaiedon, Ingham county, Michigan. He was married in August 1859 to Eliza Jane Topping (1840-1876) and the couple had a small child when he enlisted as a private in Co. B, 7th Michigan Infantry on 22 August 1861. He received a gunshot wound to the head in the fighting at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on 31 May 1862 and died at a hospital in New York City on 29 June 1862.
Print of a drawing by J.L. Richardson showing the 7th Regiment of the Michigan Volunteers at Camp Benton, situated near Edwards Ferry. Text underneath the drawing labels buildings, from left to right, as “Hospital Buildings,” “Magazine,” “Guardhouse,” “Quarter Master,” “Head Quarters,” “Officers Mess,” “Band,” and “Bakery.” Text at bottom reads “Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1862 by B.R. Young in the Clerks Office of the District Court of Md.” Text at bottom right reads “Lith. by . Hoen & Co. Baltimore.”
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Benton (near Edwards Ferry) September 24th 1861
Dear Parents,
I now take my pen in hand to write you a few lines to let you know that I have not forgotten you. I am well, all except a very bad cough. We are about 90 miles from Washington and 20 from Harpers Ferry. Now I suppose that you want to know what kind of fare we have. Well, it is hard fare and nothing else. We have hard sea biscuit and salt meat and then for a change we have salt meat and hard bread three times a day. We are in the advance brigade under Brigadier General Landers. We are in two miles of the rebels and I have been within sight of their camps and that was all. It is not very cold here yet. There is no chance to know what is going on as there is not any paper or anything else to get hold of as yet.
I got one letter from [my wife] Eliza and that is all. I wrote to Mary and Emma and have not got one word from them and I think that they have forgotten their brother or else they would of wrote by this time. The mail has not come in only once a week. Tell all of the friends that we are well at present, that Clark and Charley are all right and send their best wishes to you all. You must excuse my not paying the postage as there is not one cent of money to be had in the company. You see that I do not have much chance to write. I have to stand on my knees to write these few lines to you. There is not much time to write anyway as we have to drill all of eight hours of each day and then we are all tired out and want to rest.
Write as soon as you get this and let me know how you get along and what is going on. Tell Dwight that he must take good care of the old gun and that he must think every time that he whips it out that if I had it, that I would not give it for half of the guns in our company.
When you write, direct your letter to Rodolphus P. Tryon. Company B, Michigan Seventh Infantry, Washington D. C.
This letter was written by Winfield S. Miller, a 23 year-old blacksmith from Hudson, Columbia county, New York, who was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Miller. He enlisted September 17, 1861, at Hudson; mustered in as corporal, Company L, 2nd New York Cavalry (a.k.a. Harris Light Cavalry) on September 25, 1861 to serve three years; transferred to Company A, August 29, 1864; and mustered out, to date November 6, 1864, with detachment, at New York City.
I believe he wrote the letter to John Miller (1832-1906) of Coxsackie, Greene county, New York whose 1860 household included Ella Miller (b. 1859).
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Arlington, Va. Harris Light Cavalry Camp Palmer, Co. L January 15, 1862
Friend John,
Having a little leisure time and thinking you would like to hear from me, I thought I would pen a few lines to you. I would have written before but don’t get much time to write. If I undertake to write, I will be called out three or four times before I get a letter wrote. I am well and enjoying good health and hoping to find you and your family the same. It is very lonesome here stormy days. It has been snowing here all the morning. It is a very disagreeable day. We have had what I call cold weather two or three days. The weather down here has been quite mild. I suppose there is quite a difference in the weather here and Coxsackie. There has been some ice along the shores of the Potomac but now is all gone. The boats are all running here now.
We are situated on the banks of the Potomac 1 mile above Long Bridge on the old homestead of Gen. Lee. I suppose you hear a good deal talk about him. He is in the rebel army. I would like to have you see Old Virginia. It looks very bad. There is a great many houses burnt and torn down and a great deal of woods chopped down. There is nothing but soldiers around here as far as we can see. There is no use of me saying anything about the war. You can read more in the papers than I can tell you. We don’t hear much here. I use to hear more about matters up home in one day than I hear here in a week.
I don’t think much of this regiment for all it was cracked up so before I left home. It is a one horse concern. It is a money making arrangement all the way through. This regiment is 80,000 dollars in debt that can’t be accounted for. I don’t think it will stand long. There is to be a lot of cavalry disbanded and transferred into infantry. Gen. McClellan only wanted 27 regiments of cavalry and they have 52 regiments which is of no use to them. It cost 225 dollars to equip every soldier that is in the cavalry besides the tents so you can see what expense cavalry is.
All the regiments around here are under marching orders. They expect an advance in a few days. The most of the boys are all spoiling for a fight. We have a minister [Joshua B. Davis] in this regiment but don’t think much of him. He gets as tight as a brick. He was so drunk the other day he did not know a Bible from the New York Ledger.
Our horses begin to look very bad. They stand out in the weather without any covering over them. It looks hard. They sent 200 horses away to Washington yesterday condemned and unfit for service. There was a sale of horses the other day to Washington and they were sold from 25 cents to 30 dollars. I don’t know as I have much more to write at present. The bugle is sounding for drill and I must wind up this letter. Give my respects to Nancy and take good care of my little girl Ella and write soon and I remain your friend, — Winfield S. Miller
Direct your letter to Harris Light Cavalry, Co. L, Washington D. C.
This letter was written by Gustavus (“Gus”) A. Stevens (1843-1864) who enlisted in Co. K of the 12th Wisconsin with his cousin, Adelbert (“Del”) V. Stevens, in September 1861. In September 1863, Gus was arrested for robbery and sentenced to ten months in prison. He later died of disease in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 19 August 1864. I believe Gus wrote this letter to his cousin, Edward B. Stevens who served in Co. C, 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery. See also—1863: Gustavus A. Stevens to Elvira Stevens published on Spared & Shared 7 in 2014.
Patriotic Letterhead used by Gus for his letter.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Randall [Madison, Wisconsin] December 30th 1861
Dear Cousin,
This evening I have a few moments of leisure. I thought I would write you a line or two to let you know that I am alive yet, and expect to be for some time to come. We are about twenty of us gathered around a fire in a hole in the middle of the tent. You can imagine the chance that we have to write where there are a lot of fellows kicking around in every shape. Soldiering is a queer life! I cannot say that I dislike it or that I really like it. However, I am reasonably contented.
A. S. Sampson arrived here this evening. The most of our officers are away after deserters. I suppose it is settled that we shall get our pay from the United States within a few days. There is nothing certain about our State pay when we shall get it.
Adelbert has been quite sick for some time and has now gone home to stay until the first of Frebruary. I hope he will be all right by that time and meet us wherever we shall. be. I was up to Mr. Tullis’ last Christmas and had a pretty good time. I expect that we shall leave here the last of this week or the first of next. But I do not know as there is any more prospect of it than there has been for the last three or four weeks.
I am a little lonely sometimes on account of Adelbert being gone. I shall have to make the best of it all right. If I can’t stand it, there is no use for anyone else to try. No more at present. Yours as ever, — G. A. Stevens
The following partial letter was written by a member of Co. G, 111th New York Infantry based on the stationery and the actions of the regiment described in the letter. Readers will remember that the 111th New York Infantry was one of the regiments branded as “Harpers Ferry Cowards” for their surrender—through no fault of their own—during the Antietam Campaign of 1862. Paroled but forced to spend a miserable winter in a Union prisoner of war camp in Chicago until exchanged, the brigade was looking for a chance to clear their name when the little action described in this letter took place.
Company G was raised at Auburn in Wayne county, New York, and mustered into the service on 20 August 1862. I attempted to winnow down the soldier’s identity by identifying all those soldiers in Co. G who were corporals at the time this letter was written. This left me with only six possibilities. Four of them were in their early 20s and two of them were only 18. My hunch is that it was one of these two younger soldiers—either Harry C. Kinnie who entered the service as a private but was promoted to a corporal (no date given). He was wounded in action, May 6, 1864, at The Wilderness, Va.; discharged for disability, February 17, 1865. The other soldier would have been Elijah Esty Wood, who actually mustered in as 1st Corporal of Co. G, and was later promoted to sergeant. My hunch is that it was the latter soldier. As 1st Corporal, I think it’s likely the duty of carrying the flag would have fallen to him. He was killed in action, July 2,1863, at Gettysburg.
I was unable to connect any woman named Elmira to any of the soldiers though she may not have been a family member or she might have been a sister-in-law.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
11th Regt. New York S. Volunteers, Col. Jesse Segoin, Company G Union Mills [Virginia] January 5th 1863
Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters,
Having been on guard yesterday and last night, and being at liberty today, I have again seated myself for the purpose of informing you of our whereabouts. January 1st, we had orders to be ready to march at 10.30 o’clock, January 2nd, for Alexandria. We then took the cars at about 12 o’clock and did not leave until after dark. It was pretty cold and as a large share of the regiment was on top of the cars, they suffered much with cold. We arrived at this. place—Union Mills—at about 12 o’clock at night. It is about 20 or 22 miles from Alexandria and about 30 from Washington and two or three from the Old Bull Run Battlefield. We are in the 3rd (Gen. D’Utassy’s Brigade, Gen. Casey’s Division. I do not think there is any danger of a fight here unless it should be a dash by a few cavalry such as was made a short time since in our cavalry pickets of which I. will tell you.
Col. Clinton D. McDougal, 111th NY Inf.(a.k.a “Fight to the Last McDougal”)
One week ago last Sunday, the news came to camp that our cavalry pickets had been driven in and that there was a great danger of an attack by a strong force. The Bloody 111th—as it is often called—was ordered to the field. We were loaded with 80 rounds of cartridges and drawn up in line. A corporal had to be detailed from each company for color guard. In our company, the lot fell on me. The most I had to regret was that I could not fire my piece unless by special order, thus depriving mr of the privilege of killing some one. After our line was formed in camp, our chaplain offered a prayer and our Colonel, C[linton] D. McDougal told us, we were going as he supposed to meet the enemy and he expected every man to fight to the last.
When we arrived at our picket line, they were much surprised and would have been equally surprised had the rebs made their appearance. We were placed in the best defensive manner possible and ordered to remain silent without fires. It was cold and we marched fast and got sweaty. It was rather tough. We had the privilege of laying down on the ground without any blankets but that was cold and frozen. No warm bed was there beside which to kneel with a little loving brother. No loving Mother’s hand was there to tuck the clothes around us. But God was there and those who trusted in him found comfort. We were not disturbed and the next day we went on picket in place of the 27th Maine Regiment.
We had been there two days when Elmira came to see me. She said it was about two weeks since she left home and that she had been all the time looking for me. I went back to camp with her. She gave me a satchel of good things that you sent to me and said that… [rest of letter is missing]
The following letter was written by John Adams DeWandelaer (1833-1891) who served in Co. B, 153rd New York Infantry. He was mustered in as a 1st Lieutenant on 1 September 1862 and was promoted to Captain on 1 May 1863. He was wounded in the shoulder at the Battle of Winchester, and since the ball was never extracted, it gave him difficulty the remainder of his life.
John was born in Fonda, the son of Gansevoort DeWandelaer and Delia Getman. He was married to Nancy Coppernoll.
Camp of the 153rd New York Infantry. Attributed to Mathew B. Brady (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Mr. Gansevoort De Wandelaer, Palatine Bridge, Montgomery county, New York
Alexandria [Virginia] November 1st 1862
Dear Father & Mother, Sister & Brother,
I suppose you have been looking for a line for some time but we was so busy first along that I had no time and then I was taken with a dreadful cold all through my bones and I have been quite sick all week and I went down to the City to sleep and they charged me 1 dollar a night for lodging alone so you see that the money goes very easy here. Butter is selling here now for from 32 cents to 38 cents per pound and cheese is selling from 16 to 20 cents per pound. So you see it costs a great deal to live here, I have got a very nice little tent about as large as two of them you saw in Fonda, only it has straight sides. They are called wall tents. The officers all have this kind. I have a floor in it and a little sheet iron cook stove and I board myself when I am well and then it does not cost so much but it goes kinder tough. We are lying just outside of Alexandria by the railroad that leads to Richmond. My tent is not 30 feet from the track.
The railroad belongs to the government and they take a load of darkeys up in the morning to work for the government and bring them back at night. You can get lots of darkeys to work for their board here but they look pretty tough and everything looks hard around here. You cannot see a sight of a fence no where and a great many buildings are either half or whole torn down and everything looks like destruction. You can see the terrors of war here in all its horrors. You hardly see anything but army wagons and we see hundreds of them every day. They (the wagons) are very heavy and strong and they have from 4 to 8 horses or mules before one wagon and then they fill it with bread or meat or beans and then go to their respective camps. You may judge how many there are when I tell you how the streets of Alexandria are all cut full of ruts right through the stone pavement.
They are very strict here now. No man can pass in or out of the City without a pass and that is looked at very close. The City is full of secesh but they dare not open their heads. We expect to help guard the City this winter but are not certain of it yet. The order may be changed any day. We would like to go to New Bern, North Carolina, if we can bring it about, but our Colonel is quite sick now with the pleurisy and that will set us back very much. Everyone in the regiment likes our Colonel but the Lieut. Colonel is not liked at all and that makes it very unpleasant just now. But it will all be right when our Colonel is well again.
Our men are all armed and equipped. They have the Austrian rifle. As near as I can find out, there is now at last 400,000 Union soldiers between the Potomac and Richmond and they are expecting the decisive battle every day. All the regiments are under marching orders but us that lay around us. We can see 14 camps and two forts from our camp and we have a full view of the Potomac. We see a sloop burn on it the other morning. The names of the forts are Lion & Fort Ellsworth. I have been all through the latter fort and everything is as neat and clean as a pin and they have guns there as large as a small saw logs and they say they will shoot five miles. We can see the dome of the [U. S.] Capitol from our camp and we are only seven miles from Washington.
This letter was written by Francis (“Frank”) Henry Whittier (1831-1867) of Cambridgeport, Middlesex county, Massachusetts. He was the son of Amos Henry Whittier (1805-1891) and Hannah Chamberlain Davis (1807-1867). Frank was married in 1853 to Adaline T. Loring (1837-1915) in May 1853 when Adaline was not yet 16. Their first child was born 6 months later; two more over the next three years. It was early December 1861 when Frank enlisted and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Co. G, 30th Massachusetts infantry. In mid-February 1862 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and later to Captain. By war’s end he had risen to Colonel of the regiment.
The 30th Regt. Mass. Vol. Inf. was raised by Gen. Butler in the fall of 1861 and the early part of the winter following. It was originally known as the Eastern Bay State Regiment. It was organized at Camp Chase, Lowell, and its members were mustered in on various dates from Sept. 15 to the close of the year. A controversy having arisen between Governor Andrew and Gen. Butler over the latter’s authority to raise troops in Massachusetts, the regiment left the State Jany. 13, 1862, under command of Acting Lieut. Col. French. Remaining at Fort Monroe until Feb. 2, on the 12th it reached Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico, where Gen. Butler was assembling his forces to operate against New Orleans. Nathan A. M. Dudley was commissioned colonel, Feb. 8, and most of the other field and staff and line officers were commissioned Feb. 20. It was now officially the 30th Regiment.
After the Mississippi was opened by Farragut’s fleet in the latter part of April, 1862, the 30th was sent to New Orleans and thence to Baton Rouge, arriving June 2. It made several expeditions into the country in pursuit of guerrillas, then was sent to the front of Vicksburg but returned to Baton Rouge, July 26. It was just after the regiment returned to Baton Rouge that Francis wrote this letter.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Baton Rouge [Louisiana] July 28, 1862
Dear Wife,
It is a long time since I have written a letter. I think about three weeks but it is a much longer time since I have received one from you. I received six letters and a lot of papers on the 5th of July from friend Davis, Gibbs, Stevens and Amanda. I received one from Webster of the date June 17th while the most of my men received them as late date as July 8th. I received a letter from Perkins in regard to the house rent. Please tell him the first rebel I capture with a 20 [dollar] gold piece in his possession, I will send him the money and the rebel too for it would be a curiosity worth seeing.
I have just arrived back from Vicksburg and if it was not just as it is, I should be at home before this letter. We were bivouacked in a swamp without any tents for four weeks and our men was taken sick with fever and ague and the remittent fever. I lost 4 men, two in one day. Both of my officers were sick and I have had as many as 60 men sick and under the doct[or’s care] at once. The regiment could not turn out over 200 men for duty and if we had stopped there a week longer, it would have killed every man we had. I don’t know what we shall do now. The men never can get their health in this climate. I have about 30 men in the hospital and as many more in quarters that cannot do duty. Yesterday at dress parade I could not march but 8 men on to line out of 98. I have to work hard all the time and can’t find time to write often now. I shall take all my time to look after my sick. My 1st Lieutenant is very sick and I don’t think he will ever do anymore duty. There is a lot of the officers sick and that makes the duties come hard on the well ones. I have lost 30 pounds of flesh and have just got in fighting trim. I never was better in my life but things happen in the regiment every day that I don’t like which I shall not write about now.
Col. Jonas H. French
I intended to get my discharge when I came back but I cannot leave my poor sick comrades. But as soon as I can see them well or sent North, I shall get my discharge unless things change. But I think I shall go down to New Orleans in the course of the week and see how things are there. I think I can get a good position there under Col. [Jonas H.] French that will pay me more than the present one and get just as much honor for I don’t think now that our regiment will ever see a fight. I have had the only company under fire from the regiment and I don’t think there will be another chance for a longer time. 250 men could wipe our regiment out now. One month ago, 1200 could not do it. If you could be here and so with me when I visit my sick, it would make your heart ache. God pity a private soldier in the army for if he don’t have good officers, he is in a bad place. There is nobody here to look after him but his officer. We never have seen a cent worth of any kind of things from our State or any other place and any things our sick get, must be got by the officers and there has been times that we have had men die for want of medicine to give them. There has never been a bright day for our regiment since we left home.
Capt. Nims’ Battery [of] 150 men were up river with us, all well when we started. The day before we started back, he had 130 in the sick list. He lost one man—the first since leaving Boston—and the most of these men can never get well here. The Vermont Regiment lost 40 men and did not have a man fit for duty.
The day we started to come away, all the rest of the regiments were the same. Our regiment stood it the best and longest. The trip did not amount to anything. We saw the bombardment and the fleet go up by the forts and come back. It will take a large force to take the place. The rebels are 75,000 strong while the force we had to take the place was only about 4,000. I saw the Ram come down the river. I should like to give you an account of it if I had time. The same got our fleet with their [Brentches?] down [ ] under the guns of Vicksburg when we left.
The men from Charlestown are all very well. I thought by the letter I received from friend Stevens you had sent me a box but it has not reached me yet. It may be at New Orleans but there is a mail comes from home every week and I think your time must be very much taken up if you can’t let me hear from home once in sixty days. Everyone in the [regiment] gets their letters regular and I get my letters regular from Jo Davis. I received two the other day from him. If you knew how much good a letter from home does some time, I don’t think the time would be so long between them. Spend half the time you have spent trying to get a gig in writing and save the money for you may need it for something of more consequence. But if you don’t find time to write much, I should like very much to hear from the little ones. I want to see them and know how they get along as often as possible.
I see by a paper I received from friend Davis that the box that had the flag in had got home. I should like to know if the other one has got there. I sent it 10 weeks ago. I have written to you every week and some of the time twice a week until I left here for Vicksburg and I have not had a chance to write you but am until now. Please give my respects to all the folks. Let me know about the recruiting papers before it is too late to get anything on them. Give my respects to friend Greer. I shall write to Webster and the rest of my friends next mail. It is time for the mail to close so I can’t write any more this time. I have a few more trophies to send home when I find the last got there safe.
I was in hopes to send some money but our regiment has not been paid up. Every other regiment have been paid but that is the usual luck of this one to be behind. The Government owes us for 5 months hard labor and some families must be suffering for the money. But it don’t make any [ ]. They won’t pay until the spirit moves. I have had no money for the last three months and it cost me 3 dollars a week to feed myself and servants. No more at present. Yours, &c. — F. H. Whittier
This letter was written by Reuben Benedict [“Benerdick”] Abby (1832-1864) of Co. C, 124th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). Reuben was the son of Loren Abby (1803-1858) and Abigail Tower (1798-1843). He was married in September 1853 to Roxanna Mann (1831-1896) and was living in Berea, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and working as a wagon maker when he enlisted on 30 September 1862. He mustered in on 31 December 1862 and soon found himself in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where he wrote the following letter to his wife. Reuben did not survive the war, however. He died of small pox at Nashville Hospital No. 11 on 16 February 1864. Reuben’s widow was left with four children to raise on a limited pension. They included Myrtle Malvina Abby (b. 1858), Mayhetta Jane Abby (b. 1859), Henry Egbert Abby (b. 1861) and George Benerdict Abby (b. 1863). Note: the family surname is sometimes spelled Abbey.
Marriage Certificate between “Benjamin” Abbey and Roxy Man dated 10 September 1853. Birth certificates of his children claim his middle name was “Benerdict” however.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Elizabethtown, Kentucky January 26, 1863
Dear Wife,
I received your letter today and was glad to hear from you and finding that you and the children are all well. I am well and when you get this, I hope that these few lines will find you and the children the same. I sent a letter by Neager Whitbeck last Monday the 19th and then I wrote another the 25th and now I am a writing another. That is more than one a week.
You wanted to know if I knew anything about Berwick. I heard from him the other day. Some soldiers that was a going home. He and Captain Edgerton and a number of others are taken prisoners. They were taken at Mumfordsville or Murfreesboro but I don’t know which and I don’t know where they are sent to. I mailed a letter this morning but I have forgotten what I wrote but it don’t make no difference. Tell Gars’ [Eben W. Garzee] wife that I have not heard from him since we left Louisville but all that I know of him since. We left him at the hospital No. 7 in Ward No. 7. We have not had no correspondence since we left. [William] Wilson’s Company [A] has two sick there. [George] Elliott Goodrich is at the same hospital with Gar [Garzee]. He went from here with some prisoners and was taken sick while he was there and he went to the hospital. They have not heard from him since for I was over to Wilson’s Company just before I got your letter to see if they had heard from them but they had not.
We are under marching orders but we don’t know where to. I will write again as soon as I can write and tell me if you have the letter that has got a note to Gar’s folks or not. We have not been paid off yet. Has Doc McCullock got any money from Cran [?] yet. I told him to have you to leave it there so he could collect it for he could see him every day and it would save you some trouble. Tell Walt that he must not leave until next spring anyway for I want him to stay with you. Tell him he shall not lose anything by staying. This is from you dear husband, — R. B. Abby
Kiss the children for me. Write soon sa you get this. Goodbye, — R. B. Abby
If you want some money, send Walter to the Doc and get some.
Spared & Shared 23 