Category Archives: 1st US Infantry

12th New Hampshire Infantry, 1st US Infantry

1864: Richard Watson Musgrove to Abbie M. Blake

February 28, 2024 Griff Leave a comment

The following letters were written by Capt. Richard Watson Musgrove (1840-1914), the son of James Musgrove (1798-1878) and Ann Donker (1802-1879) of Bristol, New Hampshire.

Richard entered the service in August 1862 as a corporal in Co. D, 12th New Hampshire Infantry, was appointed sergeant, Mar. 17, ’63; first sergeant, Feb. 1, ’64; was at battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (where he had one musket shattered and another knocked from his hands), at Gettysburg (where he carried the state colors on the third day’s fight), and at Wapping Heights. When the regiment was stationed at Point Lookout, he was detailed for duty at the camp for prisoners of war, where he had charge of 1,000 men, all a later was sergeant of the provost guard at Gen. Gilman Marston’s brigade headquarters; discharged, Apr. 23, ’64, to accept promotion, and Apr 24, ’64, was appointed first lieutenant of Co. D, 1st Regt. U. S. Vol. Inf., a regiment, organized by Gen. Butler, and composed of prisoners of war who had taken the oath of allegiance and enlisted into the service of the Union; appointed captain of Co. I, same regiment, Aug. 13, ’64, and mustered out, May 21, ’66, after a service of three years and nine months. While in this regiment, he served three months in Norfolk, Va., as provost guard, and the balance of the time on the northwest and western frontiers, being stationed one year at Fort Ridgely, Minn. In the fall of ’65, his company with three others opened what is now the Smoky Hill route of the Union Pacific railroad, from Atchison, Kan., to Denver, Col. In winter of ’65-6, he was stationed at what is now Fort Wallace, Kansas, over 300 miles from the nearest settlement on the east. (Source: History of Bristol, N. H., vol. I, p. 208.)

In his letter of 4 October 1864, Richard mentioned hearing of the death of his younger brother, Adam Clark (“Abbott”) Musgrove (1842-1864). Abbott enlisted as a Private serving the Union Army in Halfmoon, Saratoga, New York on 21 Jul 1862. On 20 August 1862 he enlisted in Co. H, New York 115th Infantry Regiment. Abbott was killed in action and mustered out of service as a Corporal on 16 Aug 1864 in Deep Bottom Run, Henrico, Virginia.

Richard wrote the letters to Abigail (“Abbie”) Blake (1844-1911). Abbie married Rodolphus M. Locke (1839-1883) in November 1870.

Readers are also referred to a blog post on “Our War” describing Musgrove’s experience at the Battle of Chancellorsville when he was a sergeant in Co. D, 12th New Hampshire Volunteers. See Our War, 6 May 2014.

Letter 1

*Addressed to Miss Abbie M. Blake, Bristol, New Hampshire*

Fort Ridgely, Minnesota
October 4th 1864

Friend Abbie,

I presume you have concluded by this time that I have forgotten you, but such is not the case. I have thought of you often and wondered that you did not write. By the last mail, however, the mystery was explained by the arrival of your letter bearing date of July 3rd directed to Norfolk Va,

As I did not leave there till the middle of August, I do not see why I did not receive it before I left there but it was anxious to find me, and followed me to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Madison, then to St. Paul, Minnesota, to Fort Snelling and then here. I have been at all these places and am now stopping here, but how long I shall remain here I know not.

My 2nd Lieut. is now gone to Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, with 40 men of my company as a guard for a train of supplies going to Fort Wadsworth. I expected to go myself with the whole company and remain there during the winter, but I am pleased at the prospect of remaining here. We are now 120 miles west of St. Paul. There is not but one or two houses within fifteen miles of here so I am far enough out of the world. But we should be worse off at Fort Wadsworth which is 180 miles west of here and not a habitation within 150 miles of there. Wild animals of all description—buffaloes, bears, wolves, and Indians are very numerous and troublesome, but I should not care for them. I do not like, however, to be so far from friends. Here we get a mail three times a week. There we should have one only once a week. I had just as leave go there next summer and expect we shall go further west then—probably on an expedition against the Indians.

*Fort Ridgely, Watercolor by Alfred Sully*

I suppose you was aware of the death of my brother long before I was, as I did not know that he was dead till about three weeks ago, but looked in each mail for a letter from him, little thinking that I had received my last from him. Of course I feel very badly about his early fall. I miss his letters, always cheerful and hopeful, and I shall miss him very much when I get home as I hope to some day. But I am proud to think that he died so noble a death in the service of his country and I have the fact to cheer me that he died a christian soldier and while I mourn his loss, I am cheered at the thought that he is at rest where war is unknown, and that if I am faithful to my God, I may one day meet him above, although I can never more see his face upon earth. It would be a pleasure in some respects to be at home at this time to mourn with those there, or I would esteem it a great privilege to hear his funeral sermon preached, but as this cannot be, I will try and bow submissively to this heavy affliction and may his death result in good to me and us all.

It has been so long since you wrote your last that I hardly know where to direct [your letter] but I guess I will direct this to Manchester as you said nothing about leaving there and I hope you will receive it. I thank you for the little gift enclosed in your letter. I will try and heed its warning voice, and if you fail to hear from me for a long time, you must not think that I have forgotten you but attribute it to some such cause as delayed me now, or maybe I shall not have an opportunity to write as I am very much of the time on the move. So if you do not get a prompt answer, just write again and I hope they will get round even if they are delayed three months.

Personally I am prospering very well since leaving Norfolk. Gen. Butler has had the kindness to send me an appointment as Captain so now I have the honor of wearing two bars instead of one. My work is no more, as I have had command of this company (I) since it was formed the first of June.

Since leaving Norfolk, I have rather lost track of some of the Bristol boys who are not at their regiment, Louis among the number, and I must hunt them up now that I have tome to write. But I must close. Write as soon as convenient and remember me as ever. Your true friend.

My address is R. W. Musgrove, Capt. Co. I, 1st USV. Fort Ridgely, Minnesota

Letter 2

Fort Ridgely, Minnesota
December 7th 1864

Dear Friend,

Your letter of Nov. 6th was received about a week ago and I now hasten to answer it. I was glad to hear from you once more. I was fearful lest my letter would not reach you, but it seems that it did. I always like to hear from my friends at home. It makes this place and indeed any place, more cheerful to hear often from home, and those with whom I am acquainted. To say the best, this is a lonely, dreary, bleak, desolate place, and frequent letters do much to drive away the blues. The little world in which I move here is about fifteen rods square, and I seldom go outside of the fort unless it is on a pleasant day to take a horse back ride. This is about all the recreation I have, and as you may imagine, time passes off rather slowly and heavily. If it were not for books, I do not know what I should do. As it is, I read a good deal of the time and so turn my spare time to good account.

I had not heard from Jerome Hancock for a long time and have wondered what had become of him. I am glad, however, to hear so good account of him. If you see him or his mother, give them my respects.

I am very glad that so many of the boys came home from the army to vote. I suppose you passed a few pleasant hours with some of them. Lieut. Fullonton belongs to this regiment—as I suppose you know, but is on duty on Gen. [____ston’s] Staff. I think he is a tip top fellow and very smart too. I would like to spend a short time, or a long time rather, atBristol. I should enjoy it very much—especially now that William is at home. You know it seems so much better to have all at home together, but not all of our family will again assemble around the family board. The vacant place cannot be filled. I shall miss my brother Adam when I go home very much, more than I should any other brother because we were so near of an age that we were more intimate. How many times we have talked over our future plans. But he is gone now. He is now at rest and I would not call him back much as I feel his loss. Others too have passed away. I was sorry to hear of the death of Mary Woolson very. She will be missed very much at Brostol as she was a valuable member of society and of the church. But I have no doubt but what she too is at rest. Thus we are all passing away.

I do not know that Jack Smith had just a lady in New Hampton. I should think he was about old enough to die.

I also had a letter from Louis Rowe a few days ago. I am glad that he has got an easy chance as I think he should have, for he has had quite a hard time since he was wounded.

I suppose you will have a pleasant time at Manchester this winter. I would like to call in some evening and see you. I should enjoy it very much. But then such pleasures are not in store for me now, but I do not always expect to live in this out-of-the-world place. But before many years at least to return to the land of civilization. Then I shall know how to prize the blessings of society.

I have just been reading in the paper a beautiful piece of poetry which I copy lest you have not seen it. It goes as follows.

“De lord he lubs de nigger well,
He knows de nigger by the smell;
And whilst de pitch holds out to burn,
De blackest nigger may return.

He knows dere wants and all of day,
He feeds dere souls on possum fat;
And when de nigger baby cry,
De Lord he gibs ’em possum pie.

When in de Tabernacle met,
Big nigger by a white gal set;
And in de Beecher Chapel too,
De nigger habs a good front pew.

De Lord determined not to keep.
In different pews de cullerd sheep,
But mix de various collors up,
Like rum and lasses in a cup.”

Don’t you think those are beautiful lines? But I must close so goodbye for the present. Hoping soon to hear of your peace and prosperity, I remain as ever your true friend, — R. W. Musgrove

1st US Infantry, Post War Louisiana, Post War Race Relations

1867-68: George M. Alverson to William Alverson

June 2, 2023 Griff Leave a comment

The following postwar letters were written by George M. Alverson (1847-1876), the son of William Alverson (1811-1898) and Rhoda Snow (1820-1888) of Beloit, Rock county, Wisconsin. Being too young to serve in the Civil War, George enlisted in the US Regular Army on 19 June 1866 when he was 19 years old. He served three years in the 1st Infantry and was mustered out of the service in June 1869 at Fort Wayne, Michigan.

George’s overtly racist remarks will be difficult for many Americans to read today but he merely expressed what was felt by an overwhelming majority of white Americans who had been raised with the widely held belief that blacks could not be anything but ignorant “mokes”—as George called them—and therefore incapable of assuming the roles of American citizenship. His letters remind us how wide the breach was between harmonious race relations in the post-war era.

After his stint in the army, George relocated to Eureka township, Greenwood county, Kansas, where he took up farming. There was one black family that lived in the same township as George in 1870 which is surprising given his vow to “go where I will never see another nig if I have to go to China or Iceland.” The racial diversity in Eureka township remains 100% white to this day (though there are only 264 inhabitants).

Letter 1

One of the many important rights that African Americans pursued after emancipation was voting, seen in this image during the 1867 election in New Orleans. The streets are filled with African American men of varying statuses as they utilize their new found freedoms at the ballot box. African American men maintained that their manhood and military service during the Civil War justified their rights as citizens, including and especially the right to vote. Even with the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments that secured African Americans’ status as citizens and black men’s right to vote, the post-Reconstruction era challenged and briefly negated the gains that has been made for black rights after the war.

Sailors Home
New Orleans
May 21st 1867

Dear Folks at home, dear Mother,

I received your kind letter in due time and was glad to hear from you. I am well and feeling first rate as my picture will indicate to you. I want you to understand that is a “Yankee Soldier”—all the way from the North. Well, I had 3 or 4 of them taken just for the fun of the thing to see how they would look. I will have some taken in July with a different tog on altogether. Perhaps you will like them better, but then this one that I send you “is me all over.”

Since I last wrote you we have had a grand display of military. They got the 1st Regiment all together and G Co. of the 6th Cavalry and Battery K, 4 pieces of artillery, and then we marched through the City in full uniform—infantry in front, cavalry next, and then the artillery next. “Splendid display.”

Arthur Goss is well as usual & lazy, &c. like myself.

It is astonishing to a white man to see how things are carried on here in this city. They have erected a stand in the center of Lafayette Square where they have speaking by these nigger-loving pups from the North. They come here and get up there and tell them—the nigs—that they are just as good as a white man, Mr. [William D.] Kelley ¹ of Pennsylvania told them if they was not white men enough for office, elect the colored white man, and so on—the “black louse.” And there is Senator [Henry] Wilson [too]. ² He is another one of the speakers. There will be fun here yet, I hope. The next thing that will be up will be to get the white man equal to the black man. Such is life. I’ll tell you one thing, when my time is out, I am going where I will never see another nig if I have to go to China or Iceland. So much, so good.

Charlie Stoddard seems to be raising in the world. Does Willie Harner stop with him yet? Well, I have wrote you a long letter so I will close. Regards to enquiring friends. Yours as ever. — G. W. Alverson

Co. A, 1st US Infantry, New Orleans, La.

Be careful not to let any of the girls fall in love with my picture. It would be a great catastrophe.

*Published in the Southwestern, Shreveport, Louisiana on Wednesday, 22 May 1867*

¹ William Darah Kelley (1814-1890) was an abolitionist, a friend of Abraham Lincoln and one of the founders of the Republican Party in 1854. He advocated for the recruitment of black troops in the American Civil War, and the extension of voting rights to them afterwards. He served as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District form 1861 to 1890.

² Senator Henry Wilson’s opposition to slavery drove him to enter politics. “Freedom and slavery are now arrayed against each other,” he declared in 1844. “We must destroy slavery, or it will destroy liberty.” In 1855 the Massachusetts legislature elected Wilson to the Senate where he joined the new Republican Party. Wilson influenced Civil War legislation as chairman of the Military Affairs Committee and continued to call for the abolition of slavery. In April 1862 Congress passed and the president signed the DC Emancipation Act, originally written by Wilson, freeing slaves in the nation’s capital. Wilson introduced the first post war civil rights bill in 1865 and influenced Congress’s passage of constitutional amendments to guarantee citizenship rights to African Americans. Elected vice president in 1873, he became ill shortly after taking office and died on November 22, 1875.

Letter 2

Sailors Home
New Orleans
June 16, 1867

Dear Folks at Home,

Sunday! It is so quiet and raining, I thought I would scratch a few lines home. I am well as usual at present. I got those papers you sent me. The Beloit paper looked like home and to read over the advertisements it was very interesting to me. I would like to get some more of them when it comes convenient to you.

One year ago today, where was I? “That’s whats the matter—and more too.” When I think of it, it don’t seem as though it had been a year [since I enlisted] but then it must be. I wished the other two years were in but I don’t know but that I am just as well off here as anywhere. There is 14 men that will be discharged in July out of my company. It will make our company look different. They are all old fellows that have served 8 to 13 years and as high as 18 years.

Well, there is not much news here. The nigs have quieted down some. They have got about a dozen on the police. I saw one or two. They are as black as the “ace of spades.” They are putting on a good deal of style. There was 8 or 10 going around yesterday with clubs picking up goats in the streets for the pound. They was coming down by our quarters with about 40 boys a pelting them with stones and as they got under my window, I let a pailful of water on to their heads—the nigs—to cool them, and such hollering I never heard by the citizens. The best of it was no one knew who it was.

I will draw this letter to a close. Yours as ever, — G. M. Alverson

Co. A, 1st US Infantry, New Orleans

Love to Carrie. Write soon and papers.

Letter 3

*Addressed to Mrs. R. Alverson, Beloit, Wisconsin*

Sedgwick Barracks
Greenville [Louisiana]
July 6, 1868

Dear Mother,

I received your kind letter in due time and was glad to hear from you again. I am enjoying as good health as I ever did in my life. I think now that I would have just as good health here as anywhere in the world.

We have been on the stir for the last week all the time. We were called out to quell a riot (or would have been if’n we had not went down there) at the Mechanic’s Institute where the Legislature and Senate are sitting. They did not like the looks of the Lieut. Governor [Oscar Dunn] ¹ of the State. He is as black as a pot. Half of the members are niggers. Just think of having an old moke that ought to be on a plantation over you.

We have to furnish two (2) companies of our US every day to guard them so they will not get disturbed by citizens while they—the mokes—are making laws for the state. Oh! it is awful. I never thought that I would ever see such things. I have heard Mr. Chreiton and Father talk of such things but I didn’t think it would happen.

The Fourth of July is over once more. We paraded the streets of New Orleans and were reviewed by Gen. Buchanan and returned home. Had a very good dinner. I think I shall have a better one next fourth if I have my health. I should think Mr. Potter was crazy of moving his family to California. By the way, I wish that I would get discharged there. I think I should stay there awhile.

You were speaking about Nathan Brazier’s being dissatisfied when he enlisted. I know that he was and so is every man in the service excepting those that have always been in the service and always expect to be in it. If father had used me right the winter before I left home, I would not be here—that is certain. But it is past now. It rains every day.

Your affectionate son, — G. M. Alverson

Co. A, 1st Infantry, Greenville, Louisiana

¹ Oscar Dunn (1822-1871) was born into slavery in New Orleans. Though his father was freed by his owner in 1819, because his mother was a slave, so too were all of her children. Running for lieutenant governor, Oscar Dunn beat a white candidate for the nomination, W. Jasper Blackburn, the former mayor of Minden in Webster Parish, by a vote of fifty-four to twenty-seven. The Warmoth-Dunn Republican ticket was elected, 64,941 to 38,046. That was considered the rise of the Radical Republican influence in state politics. Dunn was inaugurated lieutenant governor on June 13, 1868. He was also the President pro tempore of the Louisiana State Senate. On November 22, 1871, Dunn died at home at age 49 after a brief and sudden illness. He had been campaigning for the upcoming state and presidential elections. There was speculation that he was poisoned by political enemies, but no evidence was found. According to Nick Weldon at the Historic New Orleans Collection, Dunn’s symptoms were consistent with arsenic poisoning: vomiting and shivering. Only four out of the seven doctors who examined Dunn signed off on the official cause of death, suspecting murder. No confirmation was made because Dunn’s family had refused an autopsy.

*From an article published by Nick Weldon entitled “Political poisoning?”*

Letter 4

Sedgwick Barracks
Greenville [Louisiana]
August 4, 1868

Dear Mother,

I received your kind letter in due time and was very glad to hear from you again. I am enjoying good health at present—as good as I ever did in my life. The weather is quite cool. Yesterday the thermometer at 3 o’clock a.m. was 81. That is about the average. It rains every day and that is what keeps it cool I suppose.

*A Democratic Party Campaign Ribbon from the Presidential Election of 1868*

This new drink they have got up is a good thing they say. It is called “Butler’s Punch.” You stir it up with a spoon, squint one eye, drink it down, put the spoon in your pocket, and you go. Refreshing! ¹

Since I wrote you, another affair took place which resulted in the death of another one of our number. July 24th I was on guard. On the main guard there was some difficulty between two of the prisoners and finally one of them was stabbed in the side so that he died from the wound. As yet there is no sickness among us this summer.

Potter, I think, done very foolish in undertaking a trip to California. Uncle John will be a rich man in a few years if he keeps on. Tell Aunt Becky I hope I shall see her inside of another year….

From your affectionate son, — G. M. Alverson

Co. A, 1st Infantry, Greenville, La.

Hurrah for Seymour & Blair—the White Man’s Choice!

¹ More likely a popular New Orleans joke than a new drink. Those familiar with the cross-eyed “Spoons” Butler will appreciate the humor. Others will not.