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.
The following letter was written by Corydon Venton Breese (1841-1938), the son of blacksmith Charles Pierson Breese (1808-1898) and Elizabeth Fletcher (1803-1876) of Breesport, Chemung county, New York.
According to muster rolls, Corydon enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 5th New York Heavy Artillery on 1 April 1862. In January 1863 he was transferred into the 5th US Artillery and remained with them until he was taken prisoner at Winchester, Virginia, and sent to Richmond until exchanged and discharged on 9 April 1865.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Marshall Headquarters, Fort McHenry Co. C, 5th New York Heavy Artillery July 11, 1862
Mother,
I received your letter some time ago and have neglected to answer it until now for I have been in hopes of sending pictures along with it but I cannot get out only as my turn comes for a pass, which is once in about two weeks. I have also neglected sending you some papers. The reason is there is none comes in camp but the [Baltimore] Clipper which is good for nothing—only New York papers.
I am well and hearty as ever I was in my life and doing first rate. I am in hopes we will get paid before long. Then I will be able to send you some money.
I have been in the city of Baltimore twice since we have been here. The cavalry regiment which Sam Early and Ed Hammond is in is quartered about a mile from this fort at Patterson Park Hospital. It is in plain sight of us. I have been over to see them. Ed Hammon has been quite sick but is getting better. I have heard that George Van Dusen died and was sent home. Also of the death of Myron Humphrey.
I seen in a paper dated July 4th a list of sick and wounded soldiers sent to Fortress Monroe in which I seen the name of T. Breese of the 5th Michigan. I do not know as that is the regiment that Tuttle belongs to or not but guess it is him. He was wounded in the shoulder. Hiram Vandusen’s son is sick in the hospital here in Baltimore somewhere. Five recruits of Whitneys just came in. They brought butter for Westlake and Shoppee. I did not know any of them.
We had a good time the 4th [of July]. Had a good many spectators. We took a secesh prisoner last night.
Lots of wheat cut here. Corn is up chin high.
I just learned that the prisoner we took last night had a big bottle full of strychnine and the boys are threatening some rather hard things to him. They came in a bad place to practice any such thing as that. We are looking out for them on every side. We go in swimming twice a week in the Patapsco River. I suppose you have heard all the war news. There are four companies of the 19th New York Militia here. Must bring this to a close hoping these few scrawls will find you all well and doing well. I remain your affectionate son, — Corydon B. Brees
This letter was written by a young woman with the initials C. C. P. and who was most likely a resident of Rahway, New Jersey in 1859. We learn from the letter that she was traveling with a large party of other young women and gentlemen up the Mississippi River in the spring of 1859. She mentions missing her “babies” so I presume she was a married woman though she does not say anything of a husband. She also refers to a man named “Murray” who was traveling with them, perhaps as leader of the party. Might this have been Rev. Nicholas Murray, a leader in the Presbyterian church in New Jersey?
Even without knowing her identity, however, the letter provides us with interesting information about the Passenger Packet named Champion, captained by Enos B. Moore, that operated regularly between New Orleans and St. Louis in the 1857-1861 period. The author gives us a description of some of the ship’s features and of the luxuries afforded steamboat travelers just prior to the Civil War. She also mentions the spring freshet and the difficulties of getting ashore through the muddy floodwaters at Vicksburg.
Steamer Champion typically made the journey from New Orleans up the Mississippi River to St. Louis in four days but may have taken a little longer on this trip due to the strength of the current.
Flood on the Mississippi river in 1859
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Addressed to Mrs. Mary M. DeGraw, Rahway, New Jersey
Steamer Champion Mississippi River May 8, 1859
My Dear Mary,
I do not know what to think of your long silence in any other way than that you have gone to Philadelphia. I have not had one letter from home yet, and only heard in New Orleans by telegraph. Tonight we expect to get letters from Memphis. We telegraphed at Vicksburg to have them sent to the boat so that we could go on to St. Louis instead of stopping.
We are having such a very pleasant trip on the river. Indeed, it puzzles me to think sometimes that I am on the river. We have such a very pleasant party of about 20 ladies and a dozen gents. We have a very handsome piano on board and nearly all the ladies play. We dance, play cards, sew a little, run up stairs in the pilot’s room to see the sights, and do almost anything to enjoy ourselves.
The Captain [Enos Bascomb Moore] 1 has just been married and has his bride [Maria (Pratt) Moore] on board. They are very pleasant indeed. Yesterday the clerk [Duvall W. Young] took us in the pantry—quite a large room where the good things are kept—and treated us to cake, fruit, and nuts.
Night before last we sat up till after twelve so as to go on shore at Vicksburg and such sport you never saw. The Mississippi is very high—30 feet higher than it usually is—so that the lower part of the city was all over flowed. We stepped on the wharf and from there to planks, from them on an old scow over the street and then more planks. From them we started up hill. The clerk of the boat was with us with a lantern so there was no danger of our being left. The streets were all nicely lighted with gas but we could not see much of the city.
The saloon of the Champion is 230 feet long and furnished beautifully. At night when the chandeliers are all lighted, it would be almost impossible to imagine yourself on the water. All the passengers are the same as though they had been acquainted always—so very sociable. The girls carry on with Murray as though they had known him before. Yesterday they had his hat, so he put on another one and one of the young ladies said to him she did not know he owned another hat. They dress same as at the hotel. We have fine large staterooms with closets and double beds.
I do not know as you will be able to read this letter if such a scrawl can be called one. I am writing on my lap and the boat jars and shakes so that I cannot do any better. Please tell Aunt Phebe you have heard from me if you are in Rahway.
Murray send his love to you and hopes you are well. It does not seem much like Sunday, they keep up such a chatter with their tongues and laugh so loudly as though they cared for no one. I am very anxious to see my babies once more. Do not think with all my talking of fun and frolic I forget them for I assure you I do not. We expect to arrive at Memphis at midnight and expect to arrive at St. Louis on Wednesday. We do not know what route we shall take for home yet. We have everything so nice to eat here—everything you can think of. I smell the cake cooking for tea now. We have the most beautiful biscuit and muffins ever tasted, The cook is going to show me how to make them and then you shall have some when I come home.
Yours affectionately, — C. C. P.
1 “Captain Enos Bascomb Moore (1823-1903) spent his life piloting steamboats on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. He was born in 1823 to Levi and Amanda Moore. He spent his childhood on a small farm on the banks of the Ohio River, seven miles below Portsmouth. Enos and his three brothers gravitated towards river work. Enos’ daughter Mary Moore wrote in her family memoir, “Enos, who had graduated from the country school, was planning to study law at Delaware College, when a chance flatboat loaded with flour and New Orleans bound, lured him aboard; the other two brothers followed and soon all four were careering on the Mississippi.” The oldest brother William left home first and got a job working out of New Orleans for Captain R.C. Young, who operated several boats on the lower Mississippi. Not long after, William sent for Enos, and later the youngest brother Samuel. Enos’ first job was as a night watchman on the boat. Shortly afterwards he became a licensed pilot. William began chartering and operating boats on the Yazoo River, in Mississippi, and Enos invested in his enterprises. Together they built the steamer Hope, and many of the diary entries in this collection refer to money Enos sent to fund these endeavors.
This schedule for the Upper Mississippi states that the Champion was slated to leave New Orleans on 4 May 1859.
Enos continued to pilot riverboats for Captain Young until the blockade went up at Cairo in 1861. During this period he captained the R.C. Young, which caught fire in 1855, and later (1857) the Champion with Young’s son Duvall as clerk. At the start of the war, Enos and William liquefied their assets, sold the Champion, scuttled their steamer Hope, and reportedly retreated to St. Louis with $80,000 in gold. In 1863 the brothers bought a half interest in the foundry and boiler-yard in Portsmouth Ohio. The following year they bought a fourth interest in the packet Bostonia, and in 1866 bought an additional eighth interest. In subsequent years they bought the other half interest in the foundry and machine works and merged their holdings with other pilots to form the Cincinnati, Portsmouth, Big Sandy & Pomeroy Packet Company. William managed business while Enos and Samuel piloted boats on the river. The Packet Company ran six boats, the Bostonia, Fleetwood, Telegraph, Bonanza, Morning Mail, and steamer Ohio. The side-wheeler Bonanza was the largest boat on the Ohio river at the time. The wooden hull was 265ft in length by 43ft in width, with a depth of 7ft. The ship dominated river traffic around Cincinnati from the time it was built in 1876, until the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the early 1890’s. Enos designed the boat and supervised its construction, then captained the vessel until he retired in 1889. Enos was married in Yazoo City, on 9 February 1859, to teacher Maria Prime Pratt (1829-1865), a native of Washington County, New York. Maria died in 1865, leaving behind two daughters, Frances and Mary.” [Source: St. Louis Mercantile Library, P-84 Captain Enos N. More Diaries & Correspondence]
An unidentified member of the 5th New York Infantry (LOC)
The following letter was written by Cornelius Van Buren (1837-1898) who enlisted at New York City on 10 July 1861 as a private in Co. G, 5th New York Infantry—better known as Duryee’s Zouaves. According to muster rolls, he deserted in October 1862 following the Battle of Antietam.
“The 5th New York was recruited in New York City and the immediate vicinity and mustered into the U. S. service for a term of two years, at Fort Schuyler, New York harbor, May 9, 1861. On the 23d it embarked for Fortress Monroe, camped for a few days near Hampton Bridge, then moved to Camp Butler, Newport News, and was attached to Pierce’s brigade. The troops of the 5th led the force at the battle of Big Bethel and lost 5 killed, 16 wounded and 2 missing. In September the regiment was sent to Baltimore for garrison duty and remained there until May, 1862, when it was assigned to Sykes’ brigade, reserve infantry of the Army of the Potomac, and on May 17, to the 3d brigade, and division, 5th corps, with which it fought in the battles of the campaign on the Peninsula. It participated in the siege of Yorktown, the fighting near Hanover Court House, the Seven Days’ battles, losing at Gaines’ Mill 55 killed, 37 wounded and 15 missing, and winning notice by the coolness with which, after heavy loss, the regiment was reformed under fire in order to fill the places of the fallen men. At Malvern Hill, the 5th was active, then spent a short time at Harrison’s landing, and afterward took a prominent part in the battle of the second Bull Run, where, of 490 members present, it lost 117 killed or mortally wounded, 23 per cent, of those engaged, the greatest loss of life in any infantry regiment in any one battle.”
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Federal Hill Baltimore, [Maryland] November 5, 1861
Brother Minton
I received your letter dated October 22nd last Thursday and I should have answered it before if I had an opportunity. Our company was on guard Sunday and I had the same post that I had the last time we were on guard. I was at the Colonel’s tent from 9 a.m. till taps. I then went to my tent thinking that I would have a chance to write a letter but I was mistaken. I found the tent was filled with sergeants and corporals. I thought there was no use trying to write so I laid down and tried to go to sleep but it was no use—they (the non-coms) would not let me sleep. Every now and then one of the Boys (out on post) would call out for the Corporal of the Guard and either one of the corporals would have to go and see what was the matter. Sometimes we would have the laugh on one of them—that is, if he was gone about 15 minutes and had to relieve a man that had a pain [ ]. And then every two hours they would turn out a relief and then it was fun to hear the men growl and grumble, some of them swearing that they had not been asleep an hour when they had been snoring nearly four hours. I know that it is not very pleasant to be turned out in the night and go out on guard, but there is no use of grumbling for you have got to go.
Bene B. [Benton Bloomer of Co. G?] is pretty good on the growl. I heard him mention my name a few times saying that I was favored a little too much. I think he is a little jealous about my getting in the Orderly tent. But if he don’t like it, he can do the other thing. I have made up my mind to look out for Number One.
I received a book called “Soldier’s Health” one day last week from R. A. King and I am very much pleased with it. It is very much like the book you had called the “Military Hand Book.” Tell Mr. King that I am very much obliged to him and that I would return the compliment by writing to him if I knew his address.
I also received The Leader & Clipper which you say came [from] Tom McKee. When I get time, I will write to him for it would please me very much to have a letter from him.
I haven’t got much news to write. Everything is quiet. “Right about you” as the Baltimoreans say. Every morning the newsboys rush into camp and sing out, “Yers the Baltimore Clipper” [or] “Another right smart battle fit, I reckon.” I tell you what, there is a right smart lot of [paper torn] around yer.
It seems that the people of Baltimore will never get tired looking at our regiment. Every evening there is a large crowd around the fort waiting to see our full dress parade. Even the dogs have fell in love with our regiment. Every company has about a dozen dogs and there are plenty running around that no one will own. Sometimes the Boys will get about a dozen together and tie all sorts of things to their tails and then start them off double quick. Then’s the fun. Sometimes there is a regimental dog fight, all of them taking an active part. But if the Colonel’s around, keep yourself scarce and go to your quarters as you will be put in the guard house. 1
The captains and lieutenants are busy making out the pay rolls. They say that we will be paid off in a few days.
I haven’t got time to answer Mary H’s letter which I received the same time that I received yours. But you can read this letter to her and tell her to write just as though she had received an answer to her letter for if I did not commence a letter, I could not write to more than I have written. I remain your affectionate brother, — Cornelius
1 The Colonel of the regiment by this time was Gouverneur Kemble Warren. Private William McIlvaine characterized Warren as ‘very efficient’ but found his personality ‘cold, precise and scientific.’ [Source: Destruction of the 5th New York Zouaves.” by Brian C. Pohanka]
The following letter was written by Cassius Newell Baker (1844-1919), the son of Harris Porter Baker (1801-1879) and Emily C. Baker (1806-1852) of Mesopotamia, Trumbull county, Ohio. Cassius enlisted as a bugler on 8/20/61 in the 14th Ohio Independent Battery of Light Artillery. He reenlisted in 1864 and mustered out of the Battery on 8/9/65 at Camp Dennison.
After his service, Cassius married and relocated to Pottawattomie county, Kansas, where he worked as a retail grocer in Louisville. He later moved his grocery to Wamego.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Dennison Wednesday evening, December 25, 1861
Friend Henry
Your letter came to hand in due time [and] found me all right side up with care. The Boys are all well and in the best of spirits. It is Christmas today. I suppose that you are eating oysters and turkey today. It was Christmas eve last night. Few were the things that I got in my stocking but we had a hell of a dance you may bet.
We are in new barracks—the whole company in one building. The house is 130 feet long and bunks up on both sides three tiers high. Two sleep in a bunk. I sleep in the middle bunk with Milo White so you see by the construction of the building we have a hall of 130 [feet] long and about 19 wide. We have an oyster supper tonight. I don’t like them so I am a writing up in my bunk [while] the boys [are] eating oysters [at] a table the whole length of the room. I presume after supper we shall have a dance. Then a couple of the Boys are a fighting about a spoon [?]—that is, [?]. When I say that, I mean taat [?] Ackley of Bloomfeld.
We have not got our guns yet but we have got our harnesses and saddles and bridles. I tell you, they are O. K. Bridles with brass bits and about 12 inches.
We have to go about 1.5 miles to water and have a hell of a time a running horses. Miles is up in the bunk now. Supper is about over. We are about 20 rods (~100 yards) off the depot. The cars run [over] a man and most killed him. Expect that he will die. He was tight.
Tell Ed White that I wrote to him and expected an answer from him before this time. I guess that I have wrote all the news. You can’t read this. The boys are a raining thunder and I can’t write. Give my respects to all the folks. Orm got back all right side up. Tell Bud’s folks to write and I will answer them, Tell Cele Parish and all the girls I send my love to them and have them to write, and Bill and Aaron and all my school mates and the school mom too.
I could not find an image of Willis here is Solomon Large who was a bugler in the 6th OVC (ancestry.com)
The following letter was written by 35 year-old Willis Augustus Wolcott (1826-1890), the son of Daniel Russell Wolcott (1782-1872) and Philanda O. Atwood (1788-1867) of Orwell, Ashtabula county, Ohio. Willis claimed he was only 30 when he added his name to the muster rolls of Co. K, 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry (OVC) in October 1861. He did not remain on the rolls long, however. He was discharged for disability (“heart disease”) on 20 September 1862.
In January 1862 the regiment moved to Camp Dennison for drill instruction. In March it was assigned to Camp Chase to guard Confederate prisoners. The 6th Ohio moved to Wheeling, WV, on 13 May 1862. It entered Union field service, joining Fremont at Strasburg during his pursuit of Jackson down the Shenandoah Valley. On 7 June at the battle of Cross Keys, several Ohio cavalrymen were killed.
After a brief encampment at Strasburg, the regiment moved under Gen. Sigel, who had replaced Fremont. Coming under Gen. Pope’s command, the 6th Ohio faced Confederate fire at Rappahannock for 4 consecutive days. On 29 Aug., after the Second Battle of Bull Run, the 6th Ohio, along with the Union Army, retreated to Alexandria. Having passed the 1862-63 winter campaign guarding the passage of the Rappahannock, the 6th Ohio was reorganized for the spring campaign under the command of Gen. Hooker.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Camp Dennison January 15, 1862
Friend Pratt, dear sir—
We have been in camp 11 days & yesterday was the first time that I had been out of our immediate lines & then I visited the 2nd Cavalry & this morning see them with two batteries of artillery start for Leavenworth, Kansas. Some 1400 of them. The 3 that was in camp at Monroeville are taking the same quarters that the 2nd left this morning & part of them came today.
There was a man and his wife killed this morning by the cars passing. They were watching them in one direction & stepped out [and] the other train passed over both of them which ended their warfare here on earth almost instantly. They left a child about 11 years old.
We have very comfortable buildings here, I suppose, for soldiers. Each company have a a building 120 feet long with two stoves to warm it. Then there is a cook room by itself. Then the officers have a small building for them. We have a plenty to eat by taking our rations in our hand to eat for we don’t have any tables yet, But a plenty of card playing and dancing & more profanity than any officers ought to countenance.
The missionary agent Clark that has been in Orwell a number of times preached here a number of times. Our chance for meeting here is not as good as in Warren. We get up some sings here minus the girl soprano, however. There are a great many reports here in camp about our being disbanded and I should some doubt our getting our horses yet. There don’t seem to be anything settled with us yet, as they say.
There has been some cases of the measles and also of small pox but hard colds seem very common here. They are making out pay rolls so we expect pay sometime. We have not suffered very much from cold freezing days such as we often see at this time of year at home. It may be in part because I have not been as much exposed as usual yet. I often think about the chores at home & how they have to get along. I have not yet heard from home but expect to tomorrow. We get papers twice a day from Cincinnati which is about 14 miles.
C. W. Babcock has been on the sick list for ten days with the measles, The sick can have better care here than at Warren Camp. Capts. [Amandar] Bingham and [Charles R.] Bowe’s company quarters are two rods apart. They are getting up for roll call and I may get a better chance to write in the morning for there has been any amount of confusion.
This morning is clear and beautiful. There are new rumors that our equipage is at Columbus. This needs confirming as well as a thousand and the other camp and war stories. Col. [William R.] Lloyd is at Columbus now to get orders from headquarters. I suppose there are some 9 or 10,000 here in camp. So I suppose the [ ] as lively times here as in Orwell. At least the Boys are feeling very lively this morning. How are the goo folks in Orwell?
The following letter was written by 16 year-old Caroline Lewis who was enumerated in the 1860 US Census as a “servant” in the household of Robert Bateman, a gunsmith in Waverly, Pike county, Ohio. Ten years earlier she was enumerated in the household of James Hughes in Jackson, Pike county. She may have been the same Caroline Lewis who married James R. Rhinehart in Pike county on 15 March 1863.
How Caroline might have looked.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Waverly, Pike county, Ohio December 18, 1861
Dear friend,
I seat myself this afternoon to let you know how I am getting along these hard times. I have been sick. I have had the bilious fever and am just able to sit up now. But Maggie, I do hope this will find you well and hearty.
I would like to see you and have a good talk with you. You know we use to have some good times. I want you to write to me and tell me all the news. Tell Lib Grimes I sent my love to her. Tell her to write to me. Tell me how you and Ike gets along these hard times. You must not let him go to war. Tell me who has gone to war. Tell Lib to hold tight to Davis and not let him go to war. But I don’t believe he will go—he is afraid he will get shot. Don’t you believe he is? Tell Lib I said so. Tell Ike and Sam Adams that I would like to see them a little bit. And tell Ike I ain’t forgot the night the Wide Awakes marched at Holland—the [same] night I got throwed off of the Black.
Tell Frank and Henrietta I send my love to them. Tell your mother I send my love to her. Well, I will bring my letter to a close. Give my love to all enquiring friends and keep a good share of it yourself. No more at present. But I remain as ever your friend, — Caroline Lewis
to Maggie Kerney
A Song [to the] Tune [of] Dixie
Listen my friends unto my song I’m for the Union right or wrong Hurray, Hurrah—Hurrah, Hurrah If I was a man to the wars I’d go When duty calls, I’d never say no Hurrah, Hurrah—Hurrah, Hurrah
Chorus
Hurrah for the Union Hurrah, Hurah On Union’s land I’ll take my stand I’ll live and die in Union’s land Hurrah, Hurrah—Hurrah for the Union
The Union must and shall be saved There is no use of being afraid Hurrah Let freedom’s banner o’er us wave And be a shield for the true and brave Hurrah!
Chorus
Ye sons of freedom hark the call Defend your country one and all Hurrah Although no active part I’d take of each young man a soldier I’d make Hurrah
Chorus
You must remember danger nigh for hark unto disunion’s cry Hurrah With a ‘God bless all’ and a safe return to all that fight for the Union Hurrah, Hurrah
The following letters is signed “David” and so I can’t be 100% certain it was written by David Evans Moore, Jr. (1840-1920) but I consider him the one most likely to have penned the letter while serving in the Rockbridge Artillery in mid-April 1864. David was the son of David E. Moore (1797-1875) and Elizabeth M. Harvey (1809-1888). He was just concluding his junior year at Washington College in Lexington, Rockbridge county, Virginia, when he joined the battery in late April 1861. He enlisted as a private but had worked his way up in rank to 3rd Sergeant by the time this letter was written. He was with the Battery at the surrender at Appomattox Court House where the members tore up their flags and distributed the remnants as mementoes rather than turn them over to the Union army. After the war, he returned to Lexington where he was employed as a school teacher and a lawyer.
David wrote this letter on the eve of Grant’s Overland Campaign. The Rockbridge Artillery participated in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864 but was only lightly engaged during the remainder of the campaign, Once the fighting reached Petersburg, the Rockbridge Artillery deployed near Drewry’s Bluff and New Market Heights. On July 27, while harassing Union gunboats on the James River during the First Battle of Deep Bottom, the battery lost four cannon when Union infantry drove off the battery’s supports. Four replacement tubes were quickly issued, and they continued to harass ship traffic on the James River for the remainder of the summer. During the autumn, the Rockbridge Artillery manned entrenchments at Fort Harrison and Fort Gilmore along the Richmond line. On September 29, 1864, Union troops overran Fort Gilmore and then Fort Harrison; the Rockbridge Artillery withdrew from both positions without a loss. It went into winter quarters at Fort Alexander until the fall of Petersburg and Richmond on April 2, 1865. [Source: First Rockbridge Artillery.]
Bradley Schmehl’s painting of the Rockbridge artillery at Cross Keys and Port Republic with Stonewall Jackson.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
Artillery Camp near Frederick’s Hall Louisa County, Virginia April 18, 1864
Friend William,
My muse sang so much about the horrors of war and so long that you did not recover from the effects for five months, It is a source of regret to me that your muse was silent so long. I had almost concluded that you had hung your hoop so high upon the willow that you never would be able to reach it. Had I not remembered your procrastination habit, I mist certainly should have given up every hope of receiving a letter from you. I looked long and anxiously for a kind missive penned by thine own hand and not in vain. A new year or month often reminds of resolutions already made and not strictly kept. While thinking about forming new plans and new resolutions, we are forcibly reminded of those sadly neglected and shamefully broken.
The 1st of February perhaps was a day of reckoning with you. On that day your muse was unbridled and afresh inspired. She song sweetly of the peaceful arts and sciences. She roamed unrestrained over the broad fields of literature. Her motives are praiseworthy and honorable—the enlightenments of the mind and the enlightenment of the heart. They should go hand in hand. Blot them from our Confederacy. Burn our school-houses and institutions of learning. Lay waste our churches. Destroy our books and libraries. Cause our teachers and ministers to bridle their tongues and cause every office from that of the President’s down to the very lowest to be filled by illiterate men. Then I ask what will be our hopes and prospects for the future?
Our existence as a Nation will be absurd. Our independence will be but a name—nothing more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Methinks a neglect to enlighten the heart of our Nation was the prime cause of the inhuman struggle in which we are now engaged. We are being punished on account of our national sins. God punishes national as well as individual sins. Our iniquities as a Nation can only be visited upon us while in our state of probation. Judging from the punishments already inflicted, and from those being inflicted upon us, our national sins were very grievous in the sight of God who cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. A prayerless Nation like a prayerless man is without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope and without Heaven.
Now for a change, Once in seven months we have exchanged friendly letters. Shall it ever be the case in the future? I hope not. Our exchange of letters should not be too frequent, yet we must now allow to much “procrastination.” It has a tendency to chill the feeling of pleasure that flows so sweetly through a friendly correspondence. Your letter written February 1st came to hand the 10th inst. and was kindly received and perused with interest. Your letters are a great treat to me. Mr. Lowry brought the letter to the regiment. I was absent on furlough at the time. The letter was then sent to Rockbridge. From some defect in the mail arrangement, it did not come while I was at home. Finally, however, it found its way to the “old homestead.” After a long time, it came to me. The gentleman of my company who sent it to Rockbridge told me that it was from my sweetheart on my return to the company. He could not tell me what gentleman of Captain G’s company gave it to him but told me it was from Salem as I inspected at once that it was from you. Sometime afterwards I saw Mr. Lowry. He told me that you sent it. I have a slight acquaintance with Mr. Lowry and Mr. Hubbert. I saw Mr. Hubbert on yesterday. He is quite well. I understood from him that you are a candidate for the clerkship of the county. I wish you all success on election day. If I had a vote, you should have it.
From the best information I can obtain, we shall leave here the first of next week. We shall go either in the neighborhood of Gordonsville or Orange Court House. We are too far from the front in case the Yanks should make a sudden dash. In a couple of weeks, there will be fine grazing for our horses at the front. This is not a grass country. It will be with reluctance that I shall leave my comfortable quarters, yet I think it perfectly right to do so. I prepared on yesterday for an active campaign by sending my extra baggage home. There are many pleasant associations connected with this encampment and neighborhood. I have formed some very pleasant acquaintances with the fair sex since I have been here. Two of my friends and myself went into the country on a visit yesterday evening. We met with three young ladies whose acquaintance we had previously formed. They conversed fluently, performed well upon the piano and sang so sweetly for us, The time passed away very pleasantly indeed and too rapidly for me. We did not get to camp till 12 o’clock. We intended to leave at 9 p.m. It was not our fault we remained so late. There are some nice young ladies in this section of country.
Rev. Mr. H. White, who has been with our regiment as missionary during the winter, left on yesterday for the purpose of preaching about three weeks to the congregations of which he is pastor. He then expect to be with us again. The Spirit of God has been in our midst and I think He is still with us. I received a letter from brother John not long since. He is still in Mississippi. He is well. Father’s family was well as usual when I heard last. I received a letter on the 10th. I received to excellent and interesting letters from your sisters last week. I shall answer them soon. I send my love to all the family. Please write soon. — David
An unidentified member of the 2nd US Sharpshooters (Brian White Collection)
The following letter was written by Charles Hendrich Forristall (1841-1917), the son of Thomas Forristall (1810-1887) and Mary S. Morse of Fitzwilliam, Cheshire county, New Hampshire. Charles enlisted on 21 October 1861 in Co. F, 2nd US Sharpshooters and served three years, mustering out on 26 November 1864. Charles signed his surname with only one “r” in this letter but the family name on the grave markers is spelled with two.
I’m not certain who Hattie or Florence were, to whom he addressed the letter. His younger siblings were named Sarah, Levi, and Susan.
Charles’ letter speaks of the number of soldiers dying in Washington during the winter of 1861-62. He also describes the typical soldier burial including the time honored tradition of the three volley salute, firing three rounds into the air.
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
C. Magnus Illustrated Letterhead with images of St. Matthew Church, Trinity Church, U. S. Arsenal, and Military Asylum
Washington [D. C.] Tuesday, January 28, 1862
Dear Hattie & Florence,
I now sit down to answer your letter that I received last Sunday. You wrote that you should of answered my other letter before you did if you could found time. You must answer this as quick as you can for I have got a picture of all the principle buildings in Washington, Now Hattie, if you will answer this before Florence, I will send it to you. But if Florence gets the start and answers it first, I will send to her.
I am in good health now. I had a letter from Charles S. Blodgett the other day. He wrote that he was well. It rains here today. I don’t have much to do now for it is so muddy. You wrote there was going to be dances at the Town Hall once a fortnight. If I was there I would go too but I am too far off for that this winter.
I have some good times and some times that I never thought of seeing. [A] soldier’s life is hard—especially them that are sick. There was a time that they died four and five every day for five weeks. Now they average about one. The way they bury the dead soldiers here is in this way. The minister says a few words, and ten soldiers are detailed out of the company to carry loaded guns. They follow the corpse to the grave and when the corpse are in the grave, they all fire three times together and then they fall in and march back to the camp.
I cannot think of anything more to write this time so good night.
These letters were written by Reuben T. Swain, the son of Capt. Henry Swain (1776-Bef1850) and Elizabeth A. Townsend of Cape May, New Jersey. Unfortunately I cannot find any record of Reuben serving in the US Navy but his letters indicate that he lost a leg while in the Navy and that he recuperated at the U. S. Naval Asylum in Philadelphia. He would have been a pretty old sailor as I believe he was born before 1810. He may have been the same Rueben T. Swain who was named as a runaway indentured apprentice by Richard Powell who was in the Philadelphia cabinet making business and offered a reward of “six cents” for his return. That advertisement appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 13 July 1831 and may coincide with Reuben’s enlistment in the U. S. Navy. He would have been 21 at the time and he was indeed an indentured servant runaway, he may have enlisted under another name.
We learn from his letters that Reuben had never previously married and it appears he spent his entire life at sea—possibly launching out of Savannah for some years.
Reuben wrote the letters to his nephew, Jesse Diverty Ludlam (1840-1909), the son of Christopher Ludlam (1796-1861) and Hannah Swain (1802-1882). Jesse was married in November 1861 to Emily Cameron Miller (1841-1912) and employed principally as a farmer in Cape May county.
Letter 1
Philadelphia [PA] March 23, 1863
Dear Nephew,
Your kind favor of March 8th has been received and I assure you it gave me great pleasure to hear that you are all well.
You say you have doubts whether the Union will ever be restored unless by compromise, but I say no compromise with the traitors. Rather let the war go on for ten years. I know that the rebels will have to lay down their arms and that before a long time if the people of the free states remain loyal and support the President. That’s what’s wanting, and not let a few designing politicians rule the country as they have for the last twenty years. I say let the people of the U. S. now that they have a government and one that will protect them which they scarcely realized before.
Never was there a chain of events so striking and rapid in their tendency as those which mark the political history of our country for the twenty years reaching from the death of Gen. Harrison in April 1841 to the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861. It will be the wonder of the historian to trace how every single act of that unfolding drama, successes and reverses of candidates, the scheme of annexations, the Mexican War, the extraordinary career and evident mission of Stephen A. Douglas, the election of our present chief magistrate, the peculiar blindness of Mr. Buchanan to the designs of his cabinet, and a hundred other equally important to the grand result all tending this one issue.
Who has not seen the interposing hand of God in the appearance of the Monitor in Hampton Roads at one of the most critical moments of the war, and in a hundred similar incidents? How signal the divine hand in distributing the calamities and desolations of the war, laying the chief burden thus far on the halting and half loyal border states which have stood Pontius Pilate between the parties, and whose prompt and hearty loyalty in the beginning would have averted this war.
Have we had Bull Runs and Chickahominies—it was only because the serpent was to be crushed as well as the eggs which it has hatched. Have we had slow and decisive Generals—it was that the Government and Nation might be brought to the use of their last and weightiest weapons. Have the Rebels exhibited an unexpected generalship, valor and endurance—it was that we might despair of ever conquering them by simple force of arms and strike at once at the grand source of power and supply, and by shaking the very foundations of southern society society topple the whole fabric of rebellion to the ground.
Surely, none can fail to see that this has so far been the result toward which all the incidents of the struggle have conspired and that two with a uniformity and a constant baffling of human plans and expectations which evince an overruling hand.
This war shall prove a blessing, not only to our country, but the race in the ultimate and utter extinction of chattel slavery in this banner land of freedom, where it must be destroyed before the world can be free. I confess that they are not the means which should have been chosen, nor are they the means which God would have chosen had we been willing to cooperate with him. The offering should have been a voluntary one to God and the oppressed race.
But this the dream of Washington and the counsel of Jefferson and the labor of Franklin and Adams, and the confident expectations of all the Fathers of our Republic was not to be the shame of their degenerate sons be it spoken. And as we would not draw Gods chariot of liberty and progress, it has passed on to its goal of triumph over our prostrate forms.
You must not think Jesse, that I am a friend to the negro—far from it. I wish they were all in Africa where they belong. But you may rely that it was slavery that brought the country to this war and the extinction of slavery will be the end of this war and the Union preserved. I would sooner see this war last for years than to see those accursed traitors gain their ends.
What a sin lies at the door of hypocritical England for this loss of blood and treasure. You might have a different opinion, but I do honestly believe that the beginning of this war was mainly encouraged by the aristocracy of that bigoted race. You might blame me for being so down on that Nation, but I feel at present such a burning hatred for that Nation which has been the cause of our present trouble [and] that if I had children, after learning them to lisp their prayers, I would add a curse on that cross of St. George. What would they have done during that Trent Affair if Seward would have left a shadow of chance? They would have gloried in the downfall of freedom on this continent. But thank God we have a Navy now that they have every reason to dread. Our ironclads have caused such a revolution in the naval history of the world as was never dreamed of.
Jess, this difficulty cannot be settled by compromise otherwise than to let them go, and if they go, every state in the Union has the same right, and in a short time the U. S. would be cut up into small republics and none of them able to protect themselves. The next thing would be some European power would have to protect them and that would be worse than death to every true American. No, we have a government and a good one too. And let us support it and all will end well yet.
I must close as it is getting so dark that I can scarcely see. I remain your friend, — Reuben T. Swain, Philadelphia
to Jesse D. Ludlum, Dennisville, N. J.
P. S. I was very much surprised to find a letter from Sophia Swain at the Post Office for me today. As you never mentioned her, I thought she was dead.
Letter 2
Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Greg Herr and was offered for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.
U. S. Naval Asylum Philadelphia, [Penn.] June 17, 1863
Dear Nephew,
I embrace the present opportunity of writing to you and to inform you that I will start for Dennisville on the 2nd of July, provided no unforeseen occurrence prevents. I suppose you will think that I want a great deal of coaxing but it is not so. There is nothing that would give me so much pleasure as to see Hannah and the children. I should have been to see you before only I expected to get a new artificial limb made before coming. There seems to be a great demand for the article at present and I could not get one made before the last of August so I concluded to come on the old one. I make a poor [job] out walking on the old one and are afraid that I will be in the way very much.
Oh! I saw Joshua and was surprised to see so large a man. It seems only the other day that he was a little boy. Oh how I wish I had my other understanding and I would be off to sea again and take Joshua with me to see foreign countries. But those days are passed and gone and I must be content myself within the limits of the United States, I suppose.
The letter you sent to the Philadelphia Post Office I have received. It was from Priscilla. They are all well and complain that they cannot hear from Dennisville. I should like to see Priscilla, and Robert. 1 Poor fellow! I suppose we will never see him again. Robert’s case is a hard one and I suppose he is secesh. We must make allowances for him under existing circumstances. He was a citizen of Louisiana. All his property was there. Also married, his wife’ heirs, and she belonged there, and woman has great influence over man you know—at least I suppose so. Why! if I had been married in Savannah, I suppose I would have been secesh too! But woman or no woman, I never would have consented to fight against the Stars and Stripes. I have sailed too long under the starry banner of our country to desert it in hour of danger.
Elizabeth Swain is coming down with me. I expect Sophia and Lib are well. Dick Townsend I have not seen for a long time.
The war news is so conflicting that I will say nothing about it, as I expect you get the same news as we have here—only that I wish the Abolitionists and the Niggers were pitted together and had to fight it out against the fire-eaters of the South, and I would be willing to abide the issue.
So I will close by adding my respects and best wishes for all of your present and future welfares, hoping soon to see you all.
P. S. If the weather proves unfavorable, I will postpone until good weather. Yours respectfully, — Reuben T. Swain, Philadelphia
To Jesse D. Ludlam, Dennisville, Cape May, N. Jersey
I have just seen an advertisement in the Philadelphia papers that the cars will commence running on the Cape May and Millville Railroad on and after the 22nd of June, to the Dennisville Station. So you may expect me on the 2nd of July. — R. T. Swain
I should have come down sooner but I just received a letter from Washington saying in answer to my application for a leave of absence that it cannot be granted until the first of the month. I suppose you will think strange that I am under Government orders but I will explain when I come. So you may expect me July 2nd 1863 Your Uncle, — R. T. Swain
1 I believe this is a reference to Reuben’s brother, Richard Swain (1800-1871) who married Anna Matilda McClure (18xx-1884) and was a resident of New Orleans when the Civil War began. He was employed as a ship inspector. Richard’s son, Richard D. Swain (1839-1900) was a 2nd Lt. in Co. E, 5th Louisiana Infantry (CSA) during the war. He spent some time at Johnson’s Island Prison after he was captured at Rappahannock Station in November 1863.
Letter 3
U. S. Naval Asylum, Philadelphia April 18, 1864
Mrs. Emily C. Ludlum, dear Madam,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 17th inst. enclosing your thanks and opinions of the ship. I feel very much flattered and complimented at the honor conferred on me, and pleased you think it worth mentioning, yet sorry you should think it give me trouble. It is hardly necessary for me to assure you that rather than trouble, it gives me pleasure, and passed away many lonesome hours. You complain that everything is so high. Of this fact I am well aware and see no prospects of a change as long as this war continues. But I have hopes that the end is nigh. I suppose you will say you cannot see any prospects of the end being nigh and ask me to explain why I think there is prospects of the end being nigh. Well, I will give you my poor opinion and leave it to your option to form any idea you like on it.
If the military preparations now in progress in Virginia under the supervision of Grant shall result in a successful campaign against the rebel capitol, the rebellion will have received its death blow, and the blow that destroys the rebellion establishes our country in that position as a nation which she has seemed likely to lose. And the military powers of the earth must yield us the first place as the greatest of them all, for not only will our government then have gone through an ordeal that it cannot be pretended that any Eurpopean government could go through, but we will also have exhibited a military power equal to the combined powers of England and France. All the civil wars in Europe have been the merest skirmish to this great struggle in which the parts of the United States have mustered against one another—a power equal on either side to the powers of a great nation under the European system.
Our own forces now under arms under the stars and strips is equal in numbers, as in every other respect, to the armies as they at present stand, of England & France together! In case of great necessity, we are still the equal of those two powers combined and this certainly entitled to take precedence in military power over anyone.
But if Grant should fail, it is hardly possible to say what results may follow. One great disruption would lead to lesser ones. We would be broken up into a community of petty and quarrelsome states, and the great experiment of free government that we have tried for eighty years would be settled against the people. We would die the youngest of great republics, and our fall would strengthen the hands of power everywhere. It thus appears that the struggle upon which we are now about to enter is a momentous one, not only to ourselves, but to the world at large. Its result either way will affect for good or evil the future history of the human race.
“Our coming battle is to decide a great issue. It is to determine whether the great republic of modern times shall stand or fall; to determine the existence of a government destined to exert a great influence on the progress of a human race than any other known to history. The responsibilities of the man who commands our armies in this great crisis are tremendous and the reward of his success will be the greatest within the gift of the people.”
— Reuben T. Swain, 18 April 1864
Our coming battle is to decide a great issue. It is to determine whether the great republic of modern times shall stand or fall; to determine the existence of a government destined to exert a great influence on the progress of a human race than any other known to history. The responsibilities of the man who commands our armies in this great crisis are tremendous and the reward of his success will be the greatest within the gift of the people.
“I have a new artificial limb but do not walk well on it. I shall not go out West this summer but stop at home and learn to walk before visiting anyone.”
I say the rebellion will and must go down before the coming campaign. God grant it may. It is not possible this country will be destroyed in this manner, It must not be. It makes me heart sick to think of it.
I have a new artificial limb but do not walk well on it. I shall not go out West this summer but stop at home and learn to walk before visiting anyone. I think that is best.
I had a letter from Francis. He is in Rush Barracks, Company D, 1st Regiment, V. R. C., Washington D. C. Tell Jesse to keep a stiff upper lip. Everything will come out right side up yet with perhaps a little of the outside polish rubbed off.
Give my respects to Hannah, Mary and all my friends. I will close by adding good wishes for your health and prosperity, hoping to hear from you when convenient. — Reuben T. Swaim, N. Asylum, Philadelphia
To Mrs. E. C. Ludlum, Dennisville, New Jersey
P. S. If you get news from Robert, let me know if you please. I am anxious to jear if he got the duplicates.
Letter 4
Naval Asylum Philadelphia July 15, 1864
Mr. Jesse D. Ludlum, dear sir,
I thought I would trouble you too as well as Emily. I suppose she is quite tired with answering my letters. I certainly feel much obliged to Emily for her kindness, thinking I may have a better opportunity perhaps than you of getting news from the Capitol in those trying times that try mens’ souls. I have the news from Washington regularly again. It seems the rebels were driven from Fort Stevens on Tuesday evening after a spirited assault of our troops after which they seemed to abandon their attempt on the National Capitol. The morning found them gone and crossing the Potomac with their rich plunder at Edward’s Ferry. We have Gen. Hunter’s command in Maryland and the body lately under Gen. Sigel is at Frederick while the troops that fought at the Monocacy under Wallace, now commanded by Gen. Ord, are at Baltimore. It is said that the rebel force which passed through Frederick numbered thirty-eight thousand men and that the Corps of A. P. Hill was to join it near Washington. This would look like a definite plan for an attempt on Washington and would indicate that the possession of that City is the real object of the operation. The assault on one of the forts at Washington and its capture by the enemy on Tuesday favor this view. Fortunately the fort was retaken.
But there is no satisfactory knowledge yet of how much infantry the enemy has. Then thousand could have accomplished all that has thus far been done, and it may prove that Washington is yet not the enemy’s real object. It may be a plan to recruit the southern armies with the twenty thousand rebel prisoners now at Point Lookout and if the raiders should move that way, it is to be hoped the government may find it out in time to send a gunboat to that point before it is too late.
The rebel privateer Florida is again on our coast, and again the Navy Department is in a stew. [Gideon] Wells was notified a month ago that the Alabama and Florida would attempt to go into Charleston and but for the Kearsarge, the Alabama would have been in there by this time in spite of the ironclads. The last time the rebels raided into Pennsylvania, the Florida made her appearance in the same place she is now said to be in, and she was not disturbed in her movements until she had destroyed several of our merchantmen and broken up our fishing fleet for the season. There are several vessels here which can go to sea but they have neither the speed nor batteries fit to cope with those of the Florida.
One respectable vessel has been sent from Portland [Maine]. There are none in Boston, Philadelphia, or New York fit to go and it is more than probable that those in Rear Admiral Lee’s inactive flotilla which are fit for such service have been ordered up to Washington to protect the capitol. It is a crying shame that our commerce should be left thus unprotected and that Rip Van Winkle Wells should have nothing but a lot of washtubs which he is afraid to send out lest they be sunk or captured. Captain [Raphael] Semes is a fine specimen of Southern chivalry. He first surrendered himself and his vessel, and then escaped by turning his hat and coat inside out, swimming to the Deerhound, hiding under a sail, and giving out that he was drowned. Pity he was not drowned—the pitiful wretch.
I have been looking for a letter from Francis very anxiously. I expect he is busy and can get no time to write. The excitement is still great here. Regiment after regiment are leaving daily. I had almost a mind to go too. I am afraid they will be too late to intercept the rebels with their booty, but I think Grant will spare troops to meet them before they get back to Richmond. I do believe that this raid is the best thing that could have happened. It shows [Jeff] Davis that the people can raise a respectable force in a short time when the war is brought too close to their doors North, and there is every prospect that Lincoln will be reelected and Davis knows that the war will go on as long as the Republican Party is in power.
I will close by adding my respects to all and should be happy to hear from you at any time when you can make it convenient. Yours very respectfully, R. T. Swain
Letter 5
[U. S. Naval Asylum, Philadelphia] [late August 1864]
[Dear Niece]
Your kind and acceptable favor of the 14th inst. is received and I was very much pleased to hear you are all well. I was not aware that Sophia had returned to the City. I have heard nothing from them since they returned. Well Emily, things look cheering again. The events of the past two weeks have greatly changed the face of affairs. Look at it for a moment.
Last month Washington was threatened and attacked; Baltimore in danger, railroads destroyed in every direction; passenger trains captured with as much surprise as a lightning stroke inflicts; Chambersburg burned by the unknown McCausland; our scattered forces under Hunter, Sigel and Averill really ignorant of the Rebels whreabouts and numbers, dancing about in a ludicrous but not very amusing manner. The atmosphere was dark with storm clouds.
But today, how changed. Sherman draws in cordon tighter around Atlanta and the city must fall; Sheridan—young, ardent, brave and energetic—has been put in command on our troubled frontiers with fifty thousand men; Grant again moving with restless activity on the James river; and Farragut passing the Rebel obstructions and knocking about their fleet liked cockle shells within the long called impregnable defenses of Mobile Bay. Thus our darkness has been followed by rare gleams of light. In consideration of these facts, all we want is patience and soldiers, patience to bear reverses, and hope for the best; patience to bear privations and taxes while we are fighting it out and forever settling the issue of freedom’s battle.
There is a party [in the] North advocating peace on any terms? (Shame) Do they consider the consequences? I think not. Every honorable man desires peace of course, but not a dishonorable peace/ In these stringent times, many persons have very crude ideas of peace. Why should we fight? they ask. Isn’t peace the most desirable of all things, and ought we not to sacrifice a great deal for the sake of peace? Certainly we ought. But it is a question of cowardice and baseness as well as desire.
It very readily degenerates into a cry for peace at all hazards, and at every cost. But is there a noble man or nation that would take such grounds. Peace can always be bought if you will pay the price. If a robber stops you on the road, if a burglar stands over your child and threatens, you need not break the peace. You have only to give them all they ask and there need be no blows. You may have peace if you will pay the price.
A man leads you by the nose through the streets, you have only to go quietly. A man kicks you, you have only to wait for more. A man grasps your throat, you have only to stand still. He throttles, you have only to drop dead. In all these cases there need be no breaking of the peace, if you cheerfully submit. No man is called upon to favor anarchy under the plea of preserving peace. In fact, if you would have peace, be ready to maintain it and defend it. Peace is a good thing, but only on honorable and manly terms.
When a man buys peace with dishonor, does he not buy it too dearly? We need a better understanding between the good and true men of nothing sections and it must be lamented that these two great communities have been interpreted to each other, not by the wisest and calmest but by the most extreme and hot headed agitators in both sections.
God has given us our guiding law and our moving mind, more deeply perhaps that we are conscious. We feel this twofold gift when we look at the flag of our Union, as we have done at late, and our hearts beat quicker, and our eyes fill with tears of joy and hope as we gaze upon its stars and stripes. Those stars speak to us of laws as fixed as the eternal heavens, and those stripes, as they wave in the breeze, tell us of that mysterious breath which moves through men and nations that they may be born, not of the flesh, but of God.
Give my best respects to Hannah, and Mary, and likewise to all enquiring friends. Hoping you are all well, I close by adding my respects to you, hoping for a continuance of your correspondence, but you must not put yourself to any inconvenience on my account. Very respectfully, your humble servant, — Reuben T. Swain
Letter 6
Naval Asylum, Philadelphia [Wednesday] October 12th 1864
Dear Niece,
It being dull today after the excitement yesterday in consequence of the election 1 and feeling that I must do something to dispel the general gloom that seems to be gathering around my room, I seat myself to have a few moment’s conversation with you.
Everything passed off quietly yesterday. In fact, we never had a more quiet, peaceable, and good natured political contest in the tendering of every assurance that our old pilot must stand at the helm for four years more. Yesterday was unmarked by any breach of the peace whatever beyond some of the usual wrangling that takes place at street corners between petty politicians who are full of talk, full of certain sort of enthusiasm, full of whiskey, and utterly devoid of discretion. There was little to remind me what an important election was going on except the usual election day street salutations—“Have you voted yet?” [or] “How is it going in your ward?” &c.
Jess must not call me a turncoat when I tell you I voted the Republican ticket yesterday. Heretofore I have been in opposition to the present administration. But now I shall certainly give Abraham my vote. I am forced to choose between two evils and I think by voting for Lincoln, I choose the lesser one. An honest man who may vote for McClellan and Pendleton in the hope that they are thereby vindicating the supremacy of Union and law will find themselves cruelly betrayed when they see the government of their choice truckling at the feet of Jeff Davis and humbly suing for peace which a few months of manly effort might have commanded.
There is but one question before the people on the approaching canvas. Shall we prosecute the war with unabated might until the rebel forces lay down their arms, or shall we—to use the language of the Chicago Convention—make immediate efforts for a cessation of hostilities with view to a convention of all states, &c. Gen. McClellan, the candidate of the Chicago Convention, unfortunately is silent on the only question in regard to which the people cared. That after the election, they will find themselves despised and powerless.
Enough of this kind of talk. I have been going on with politics and foolishness that will not interest you one bit, until I had almost forgotten that I was writing a letter to my niece. Emelie, you must excuse me and I will try and make amends by saying the Rebellion is nearly crushed. Napoleon said Providence was on the side of the heaviest artillery. And so it is with us. God has furnished us with all we need, with His blessing, to crush this Rebellion and then meet any who may adopt her cause. Our most dangerous enemies are those Judases at hoe who are proclaiming their love of country and yet have all their sympathies with the enemy. God is waking His own good pleasure & the day is not far distant when the leaders will abandon their vain attempt & the men will lay down their arms as they did at Fort Morgan & the flag of our Union will wave uninsulted in Richmond and CHarleston, and that sweetest of national anthems—the Star Spangled Banner—shall be sung by North and South everywhere & forever, will send up one universal shout, Hallelujah! The Lord Omnipotent Reigneth. Respects, &c. — Reuben T. Swain
1 On October 11, 1864, Pennsylvania, along with Ohio and Indiana, held important state elections. These elections were considered “bellwether” contests that would indicate public sentiment and potentially predict the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.
Letter 7
Naval Asylum, Philadelphia Friday afternoon, February 24th 1865
Dear Niece,
Feeling somewhat low-spirited and lonesome today, I take the responsibility upon myself—as Jackson said—of bothering you by writing to you. However, I will go on and say a few words about transpiring events. We had on the 22nd a sort of double holiday commemorating at once the birthday of Washington and the capture of Charleston! The stars and stripes was waving from every public building in the city and to complete the rejoicing came along the news announcing the capture of Fort Anderson, N. C., which added very naturally to the joyous ffeelings which were associated with the day. Fort Anderson is the only obstacle which prevents the capture of Wilmington and with its fall, the fate of the town seems to be assured.
The rapid succession of disasters which have attended the Rebels since Sherman’s march through Georgia are so many sureties of the final success of the Union arms; my opinion is that the loss of Wilmington will necessitate the evacuation of Richmond. I know too little of Sherman’s real designs to predict what he will do. That Hoke will endeavor to reach Florence, S. C., may be presumed, and that Schofield will be close after him rapidly so as to form a union somewhere in North Carolina with Sherman may be as confidently supposed. If Hardee & Hoke manage to join Beauregard, he may consider himself strong enough to face Sherman. And if he can only manage the important matter of feeding them, he may be able to do something in regard to checking Sherman’s march through North Carolina. And the question of ammunition is also important. It is possible that some supplies may have been carried away from Charleston but from the amount left when Gilmore took possession, it is not probable that any large amount could have been taken off by Hardee. What depots there may be in the interior of North Carolina can at present be only conjectured. These are matters which will have an important influence upon the campaign.
At present we can but speculate upon them and await the further development to which the course of events will bring out. At present, let us rejoice that according to all appearance, the Union armies are sweeping up the country clean as they pass on toward their final destination in Virginia.
The Rebels seem to hold on to the idea that if they hold out till the fourth of March next that France will recognize the Confederacy of which delusion our government has reason for complaint against France. The intervention in Mexico was a wrong to us as well as to the Mexicans, and it would not have been attempted had we not had our hands tied by the rebellion at home. These and other grievances that I might name have created an unpleasant feeling in the minds of the American people towards France. Our government is not yet in a condition to demand satisfaction but a day of reckoning must come. The capture of the only two important ports left to the Rebels relieves hundreds of fine war steamers from blockade duty and we could send to France a finer and more formidable naval force than any other power on earth could muster in years. I do not propose that we should go nust now upon any enterprise of this kind. But the knowledge that we might do it, and that we are everyday growing stronger and better able to do it, must make an impression abroad and add weight to any demands we may make upon France for satisfaction for the wrongs she has done.
I had a letter from Priscilla lately. At the time she wrote, Leaming was still a prisoner in North Carolina. I think the prospects are good for him to be exchanged soon as there is an exchange of prisoners going on at present, man for man, and the number in our hands greatly exceeds the number that the rebels hold of our men. Therefore, all the Union prosoners will be exchanged leaving a large surplus in our hands. I have heard nothing from Francis lately. I cannot account for his silence. Sophia or Libs I have not seen or heard from since Mary was up. I suppose Sophia ia out of the city.
I will close by requesting you when you feel like writing to write as I am very anxious to hear from you all. Very respectfully, &c. — Reuben T. Swain
My respects to Hannah & Mary and all enquiring friends. It appears Jesse is out of the draft at last. I hope so. The draft is going on in this city and Camden, I see.
Letter 8
U. S. Naval Asylum, Philadelphia April 1, 1865
Dear Neice,
I think I promised to write to you monthly and not wishing to make an April Fool of you, I seat myself to write to you according to promise. You see by the date it is the first of April and by the first of April, we ought to think of summer. Yet, if we did, we should go far towards proving ourselves April Fools. Even May which is the peculiar darling of poets, is a doubtful beauty, capricious and cold, leading her lovers into miry lanes and meadows, and sending them home with wet feet and colds in their heads. As for you at Dennisville [N. J.], you have no spring. Your climate shares a restless impatience of them permanent and leaps from the zero point straight up to boiling. When one unquestionably warm day burns you a little, you feel that summer has arrived. Then what a bursting out of roses and lilies and what a pulling fourth of muslin duck and drilling.
Well, as I said before, April has come again and nature is proceeding to dress up her fair scenes for the day season, and great the leaves and flowers as they come laughing to their places. I watch the arrivals, speaking of the spring visitors. I think I recognize many a pair of old birds who had been to me like fellow lodgers the previous summer, and I detected the loud, gay song of many a riotous new comer. These are stirring times in the woods. You must recollect that the Asylum grounds in the summer time is a complete forest of trees.
Well, to take up the subject again, the robins are already hard at work on their mud foundations, while many of their neighbors are yet looking about, and bothering their heads among the inconvenient forks and crotches of the trees. The sagacious old wood pecker is going around visiting the hollow trees, peeping into the knot holes, dropping in to inspect the accommodations and then putting his head out to consider the prospects and all the while, perhaps, not a word was said to a modest little blue bird that stood by, and had been expecting to take the premises. I observed too a pair of sweet little yellow birds that appeared like a young married couple, just setting up house keeping. They fixed upon a bough near my window and I soon became interested in their little plans and indeed felt quite melancholy when I beheld the troubles they encountered occasionally when for whole days they seemed to be at a stand still. This morning I see they are both at work again and I have not the least doubt that before the end of the month, they little honeymoon cottage will be fairly finished and softly lined.
Well, Emily, I suppose you will say you have had enough of such nonsense about April Fools, and yellow birds, &c. And I think myself I am too apt to run on with my nonsense a little too far, without once thinking of the bother I may give to others. But you must make allowances and come to the conclusion that I have a great deal of leisure time. I think I hear you say, you should find some other way of employing your leisure time.
Well, Emily, it was only yesterday I was comparing the industry of man with that of other creatures in which I could not but observe, that, notwithstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in constant employ, after the same manner as inferior animals are prompted to it by instinct, we fall very short of them in this particular; reason opens to us a large field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of Beasts of prey, and I believe, all other kinds in their natural state of being, divide their time between action and rest. They are always at work or asleep. In short, their waking hours are wholly taken up in seeking after their food or in consuming it.
The human species only, to the great reproach of our natures, are filled with complaints, that we are at a loss how to pass away our time; how monstrous are such expressions, among creatures who have the labors of the mind, as well as those of the body, to furnish them with proper employments; who besides the businesses of their proper calling can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to meditation, to the reading of useful books, to the pursuits of knowledge and virtue, and every hour of their lives make themselves wiser or better than they were before.
You must not think that I am criticizing on your time; far from it. Common sense teaches me that anyone who has the care of a family has no spare time. It is myself that I have reference to and I promise hereafter that I will not bother you with such nonsense again.
I have nothing to say about the war further than the prospects are good for the Union. And that it is my earnest prayer that the Union may be preserved. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion to see whether with my short sight I can fathom the depth of the abyss below. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us—for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my days at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining in the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union. Let their last feeble and lingering glances rather behold the gorgeous Ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, with not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such interrogatory as what is all this worth? But everywhere, spread all over, its characters of living light that other sentiment, dear to ever true American heart, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseperable.”
“It has been said that a special Providence watches over children, drunkards, and the United States. They make so many blunders and live through them, it must be that they are cared for, for they take very little care of themselves.”
— Reuben T. Swain, April 1, 1865
But I am inclined to believe that the Union will last a little longer and that we shall have some good times yet, in time to come. It has been said that a special Providence watches over children, drunkards, and the United States. 1 They make so many blunders and live through them, it must be that they are cared for, for they take very little care of themselves. So I am disposed to trust to Providence, and not to worry.
P. S. I expect you will say confound the letter—am I ever coming to the end. Well have patience for everything must have an end and so will this letter, if the little trouble in the cradle will allow you to continue on to the end.
Everybody seems to have come to a standstill in respect to writing letters. I have not received one from Francis for two months, and cannot imagine what is the cause unless his regiment hs been ordered away from Elmira to guard prisoners who were going on to be exchanged. Sophia or Elizabeth I have not seen since Mary was up. I have written to Sophia several times during the winter but have received no answer. It seems strange but so it is. As for Robert, I have had no letter from him for so long a time that I have forgotten the date. Nothing from Priscilla since the first of March, &c. So you may think I have a nice time of it in my little room, wondering why I do not get a letter once in a while. However, I take things very comfortable and when I can find nothing else to do, whistle and sing, Dancing is out if the question for those artificial limbs are not particularly adapted for dancing.
Yours of the 28th March I received on the 29th and was right well pleased at receiving it, I can assure you, Emily, although it was very short. But I suppose, as you said, that little trouble that you mentioned was the cause of depriving me of a longer one. Well I must trust to pot luck and look for a longer one next time. I did think of going out to Illinois this summer, but hardly think I shall get started. The distance is so great that I am almost afraid to undertake the journey. This shifting cars in the night I am afraid I could not get through with. If it was all on one track, the trouble would be nothing.
Well, I suppose Emily you will say it is about time to bring this letter to a conclusion and I think so too. So I will conclude by requesting you to give my respects to Hannah, Jesse, Mary and all enquiring friends, and by subscribing myself your uncle, — Reuben T. Swain
1 This saying appears as early as 1849 in the form “the special providence over the United States and little children”, attributed to Abbé Correa.
These letter was written by Pvt. Charles S. Crockett (1838-1864) of Co. K, 65th New York Infantry (a.k.a. the 1st U.S. Chasseurs). The regiment was primarily raised in New York City, but also recruited in Connecticut; Seneca, Ohio; and Providence, Rhode Island. Crockett of Company K was from Adams township, Seneca county, Ohio. He was the son of James Crockett (1798-1874) and Mary Parsons Haskell (1801-1874). When he enlisted, he was described as 6 foot 1 inches tall, with blue eyes and dark hair—a farmer. He reenlisted in the regiment in December 1863 but did not survive the war. He died at Fredericksburg from wounds received in the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864. His death occurred on 10 May 1864.
Crockett’s 2nd letter alludes to the losses of the regiment at Gettysburg and of the more recent action at Wapping Heights (Manassas Gap) where they participated in the attack by the Excelsior Brigade led by Gen. Spinola in the evening of July 23, 1863. See “Too Good to be True: At Manassas Gap,” by Rick Barram (2018).
Charles Crockett (at right) wearing his Chasseurs uniform, holding his Hardee Hat on his leg.
Letter 1
Camp near Harrison’s Landing On James River, Va. July 22, 1862
John Gifford, Esq., Laurens, N. H. Friend John,
Having a little spare time I thought I would devote it to interest you a little. The heading of my letter will tell you our present location. We have had quite easy times since coming here but we are still on the front. We have picket duty once in a week, but it is very easy. The Rebels don’t seem disposed to molest us yet. Their pickets are very quiet. We are entrenching & making our position strong as possible. Many a farm has this Army of the Potomac almost ruined by the pick and shovel. We shall probably make no demonstration here until reinforced, Our force is too small, We have suffered terribly in making this rear movement though not willingly acknowledged. We can hold our present position I think as we are under cover of our gunboats. Were it not for them, we could soon be driven out of here or captured.
I should like to get my discharge now & go back & get a good position among the new troops now being raised. I would stand an excellent chance with the advantage of 15 months hard earned experience. It would be a sufficient recommend for a Lieutenant’s commission. I have spoken to the Captain about it. He says he is perfectly willing that I should go, but does not see any way to accomplish it unless I have some friends who have sufficient influence to get me a position. That is what bothers me. I can get the Captain and Major’s signature to a recommend but don’t know who to apply to to use that recommend for my benefit. However, something may turn up for my benefit yet. I have some hopes at any rate.
Weather is very warm—thermometer ranging from 90 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We do not have but one drill a day & 1 dress parade. Police duty’s are done morning and evening. During the heat of the day, we lie still in the shade. There is some new regiments that have long drills every day. I tell you, it is tough business. It is so terrible hot, it makes men hate their country & everything else. Still I suppose it is an absolute necessity or it would not be done.
A great many have lost confidence in General McClellan. I have visited many different regiments since we fell back & in them all I hear him denounced more or less. They blame him a great deal, some for one thing & some for another. He does not give us facts when we have been whipped. He calls it by some other name. Before the retreat commenced, dispatches came to Hooker & were published to his men that we were driving the enemy on the right when in fact we were falling back all the time. We had been cheering all day at what we supposed to be big things in our favor. At night we went to bed feeling highly elated at the prospect of soon being in Richmond. About 12 o’clock we were all called up & orders came for every man to get ready for a march & in light marching order. The sick ones were ordered to start immediately & we were ordered to destroy everything that we could not carry—knapsacks, tents, & even guns were destroyed, clothing of every description were burned instead of giving them to the men when half of them were nearly naked. Ammunition & subsistence were destroyed all along the lines the amount of which no one has dared to make an estimate. Millions wouldn’t compensate us for our losses. These stores did not fall into the hands of the rebels but were destroyed—that is, the most of them.
The Battle and Burning of Savage’s Station, Virginia, on June 29, 1862
The retreat, however, was made in good order. We whipped them at every point during all that seven days fighting. If our loss was heavy, there must have been terrible. Our artillery made terrible havoc among them. I wish I could explain to you so that you could understand it as I have seen it but it is impossible. But I must close, My regards to your family. Also remember me to James when you see him. I have no stamp & must beg your indulgence as usual. I wrote you soon after we got back here. Did you. get it? Ever your friend, — Charles S. Crockett
Letter 2
Note: This letter is from the private collection of Greg Herr and was made available for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.
Wagon Park of 1st Regt., Ex[celsior] Brigade Near Warrenton, Va. July 29th 1863
Jno. Gifford, Laurens, New York
Friend John, after so long a time I have again got a moment’s time to write to you. I assure you I could not well do it sooner. We arrived here on the afternoon of July 26th & are here yet. Everything goes to show, however, that today will be our last day here. We have had quite a rest. Have got new clothes for the most needy. Have got our wounded taken care of. Have got harnesses & wagons repaired & are in pretty good condition to go on again. Which way through, I cannot tell.
Our Colonel—Major—Adjutant with one sergeant and six privates have gone to New York after drafts to fill up our ranks. Each regiment of the Brigade & Division have sent in the same manner & I expect we will soon have our Division as large as ever. We had come down to our last hard tack when we arrived here. It seems that the Rebel guerrilla parties annoyed our trains so much between Upperville and Harper’s Ferry that communication was stopped. The consequence was I had a half day’s ration to issue to get from Piedmont Station to Warrenton. The Rebs held Warrenton until the day before we came here.
I assure you, we have done some tall marching since we left Falmouth, Virginia, the 10th day of June last. I never had so hard a time in my life to my end up. It has been night and day, rain and shine, day after day, week after week. Nothing we have ever been called on to do could begin [to compare] with the last campaign. We have all suffered severely in wear and tear, in loss of men, and everything belonging to war. But I think the campaign is about over until we get the drafts in proper order & our ranks filled.
Our regiment lost in the Gettysburg battle 108 men in killed, wounded, and missing. And in a charge made on the 25th [23rd] of July at Manassas Gap we lost 38 men in killed & wounded. Besides [this], we have lost a great many by sickness, &c., consequently in making such long fatiguing marches. I am astounded that men can stand as much as they have done. I have had a good horse to ride during all the marching & yet I have been so worn and tired many a time that I have fallen asleep in the saddle & it seemed as though I must give up. Still I have made out to stand it so far.
I have not time to write more as I have just got an order to go to the regiment. Excuse briefness & do not think amiss if I fail to write you often. In friendship yours, — Charles Crockett
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