11th Vermont Infantry | Spared & Shared 23

*I could not find an image of Willard but here’s a tintype of Almeron Bickford (1829-1904) who served in Co. E, 11th Vermont (1st Vermont Heavy Artillery).*

The following letter was written by Pvt. Willard Morse (1833-1864) who enlisted in Co. F, 11th Vermont Infantry in the summer of 1862. Being assigned duty in the defenses of Washington D. C., this regiment was soon changed to heavy artillery and renamed the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery. Once in Washington, this regiment remained for the next 20 months garrisoning Federal forts. Following the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, the regiment was sent sent to the field as infantrymen, joining the Old Vermont Brigade in Grant’s army at Spotsylvania.

Willard was the son of David Sunderland Morse (1805-1882) and Mary Willard (1805-1845). He was married to Martha “Elizabeth” Cummings (1838-1906) in October 1847, had two young daughters, and was living in Morgan, Orleans county, Vermont when he enlisted. He was taken prisoner “while on a raid on the Weldon Railroad near Petersburg” on 23 June 1864 and held at Andersonville Prison in Georgia where he died of chronic diarrhea and starvation some six weeks later on 3 August 1864. Willard’s death on 2 August was described in George W. Dewey’s diary.

The letter was addressed to Willard’s cousin whom he called “Ford.” I believe this was Hobart Bradley Ford (1826-1910) who married Lucy Ann Morse (1829-1908), Willard’s cousin.

Willard’s letter was written from Fort Lincoln where they had recently been digging rifle pits to augment the fort’s defenses in the event that Lee’s army had turned on Washington rather than attacking Harper’s Ferry and heading into Western Maryland. Willard praises McClellan’s performance at South Mountain (“He done well, didn’t he?”) and describes seeing the smoke and hearing the artillery 70 miles away from their defenses at Fort Lincoln. Little could he have imagined the carnage that would occur at Sharpsburg the day after this letter was written.

Transcription

Fort Lincoln, Washington [City]
Tuesday morning, September 16, 1862

Absent cousin,

I now take my pen to write a few lines to you to let you know that I am yet alive and well and hope this will find you the same. I guess you began to think that I was not agoing to write to you but we have had so much to do that I could not write so you must excuse me this time. I guess Elizabeth has forgot me for I have not had a letter from her for a long time.

I suppose you want to know how we are getting along. We are digging rifle pits now but I don’t believe we shall have to use it for the rebels are leaving south now. I suppose you have heard about the big fight that McClellan has had. He done well, didn’t he. We could hear the cannon and see the smoke. The cannon was booming all day Sunday and they commenced yesterday morning but it did not last long. I see 500 rebel prisoners down to the city. I wanted to try my old gun on them. I’ll bet I would [have] fetched down some of them, don’t you think I would. But we shall have a chance at them before long.

Ford, I see one of them Yankee cheese boxes at Philadelphia and I see th old big Eastern. We fared rather hard for two or three days after we got here but it is better now. I never was tougher in my life and I am very well contented. I often think of my family. How does my family get along? Is Elizabeth sober or is she in good spirit? I want to see them very much but I cannot now tell Lucyann that I am coming in with my dirty feet to step on her clean floor. How does Orren and Townsend get along? I wrote to Orren and Elizabeth Sunday.

Well, Ford, I must close for we have got to go to work. Write as soon as you get this. Direct to Washington, 11th Regiment, Co. F, in care of Capt. [James] Rice. We have got the best captain in the regiment. The first day we dig rifle pits, they said we dug more than any regiment ever dug in 3 days and our captain told us if [we] worked so another day, he would put us in the guard house.

Goodbye, — W. Morse

Write soon.

This letter was written by James Franklin (“Frank”) Drenan (1847-1866), the son of James Drenan and Clarissa Bill, of Woodbury Vermont. Frank enlisted in Co. L, 11th Vermont Infantry in May 1863 and was mustered into the service on 11 July 1863. He was wounded in the fighting at Petersburg on 2 April 1865 and discharged for disability in August 1865. He died only a few months later.

*Lt. John Silas Drenan, 11th Vermont, 1st Vermont HA (Ed Italio Collection)*

In this letter, Frank breaks the news to his mother of the capture of his brother, Lt. John Silas Drenan (1840-1894) who served with him in the 11th Vermont Infantry (also known as the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery). He was taken prisoner on 23 June 1864 when the II Corps was ordered forward to retake its lost ground, but they found that the Confederates had already pulled back, abandoning the earthworks they had previously captured. Under orders from General Meade, the VI Corps sent out a heavy skirmish line after 10 a.m. in a second attempt to reach the Weldon Railroad. Men from Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Grant’s 1st Vermont Brigade were ordered to begin tearing up track and did not have their weapons handy when they were attacked by a larger force of Confederate infantry. Numerous Vermonters were taken prisoner and only about half a mile (0.8 km) of track had been destroyed when they were chased away.

Readers are referred to the book entitled, “A Melancholy Affair at the Weldon Railroad: The Vermont Brigade, June 23, 1864” by David Farris Cross. The date 23 June 1864 came to be called “Black Thursday” in the Green Mountain State. “Cowardliness, negligence and inept behavior by multiple officers resulted in the needless capture of more than four hundred Vermonters” and many of the enlisted men were sent to Andersonville and later to other Confederate prisons where 60 percent of them perished.

Transcription

Camp on Weldon Railroad, Va.
June 28th 1864

Dear Mother,

I think I will try and answer your letter. Mother, I am lonesome today. No one with me. My company is gone to Richmond—all of the officers with them. One of our men got away from them. He said it made John swear some when he had to throw down his sword. Our captain and three lieutenants are taken prisoners.

Mother, you must take this as cool as possible for if the rebs fight like this, they will get the whole of our army. I have got all of John’s things—all of his letters and everything—but mother, he is a prisoner. They took all of our company but 19 men but they did not get me. All I have to do is to care of their things and keep my old pack horse thins.

Mother, John has had rather hard luck. He has been wounded twice. He had just come back to his company. He had the offer of going to the general hospital but he did not want to go and now he is worse than deal, I think. Hope he will be exchanged before long. He may not.

Mother, I have sent home three or four times and you have not sent any. You can’t write as often as I would if I had stamps.

Mother, we had 17 hundred men when we started from Washington and we have got eight hundred left. The rest are all gone. This afternoon we are going on picket where the rebs shall be considerable. Send me some stamps. I opened that letter that you wrote John. — Frank