49th Ohio Infantry | Spared & Shared 23

The following letter was written by John Ingerson (1837-1913), the son of Alvin C. Ingerson (1815-1857) and Tirza A. Palmer (1816-1895) of Sycamore, Wyandot county, Ohio. John’s obituary, published in the Marion Star on 2 July 1913, states that he was a “veteran of the Civil War who was wounded and disfigured for life in the battle of Gettysburg…when a shell hit him in the face, cutting his upper lip and terribly disfiguring him.” He served three years and eight months; was with Sherman on his march to the sea. After the war, he followed the occupation of a farmer in Sycamore. John served in Co. G though his grave marker says “Co. C.”

In this letter, John describes the Battle of Stones River to his mother, giving the names of killed and wounded. Readers are referred to Dan Master’s article entitled, “Yelling like fiends incarnate”—the opening moments of Stones River published on 3 May 2020.

I could not find an image of John but here is a tintype of Winfield “Scott” Stevens (left) and Samuel Oscar Chamberlain (right) who were cousins and served together in Co. E, 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). Scott was wounded in the Battle of Stones River on 31 December 1862 and be discharged in May 1863. Samuel served out his entire term and reenlisted as a veteran.

Transcription

In camp four miles south of Murfreesboro, [Tennessee]
Monday morning, January 12th 1863

Well, Mother, I thought I would try and write you a few lines to let you know that I am still alive yet but I tell you, it was close work on the 31st of last month for we was surprised by the Rebels and they shot so fast that he balls felt like hail on us and we had to fall back about three miles and by the time we had done that, we was pretty badly scattered. Our colonel was taken prisoner but he got away. R. L. Hudson and J[ames] R. Ingerson and [Amos E.] Kitchen and our 2nd Lieutenant [Isaac H. White] and several of the other boys that you don’t know were taken prisoners and now is supposed are a Chattanooga.

Now I will try and [tell] you was killed. Our Lieutenant-Colonel [Levi Drake] and J[oseph] J. Basom and two of our color guards and Post Wate, a feller that worked for John Lofton. In all that was killed made twenty-one in our regiment. I helped to bury nineteen of them. There was thirty-six wounded in our regiment but the doctor thinks that they all will get well. I hope so.

The fight lasted five days. Now, Mother, I hope this will wind it up. You wrote to me and wanted to know if you should express those things of mine. I say no, but I will tell you what to do the first time you get a chance. Send them by anyone, then send them to me. Now I must close for this time. Write soon and direct your letters in care of Capt. [Luther M.] Strong, Company G, 49th Regiment Ohio Volunteers, USA, by the way of Louisville, Tennessee. Now do write soon and give me all of the news that is on Sycamore and tell me where Ambrose is. I want you to tell to A. Coughey to write me a letter. This from John Ingerson to Tirsa A. Ingerson. So goodbye for this time.

*An unidentified member of the 49th OVI*

This letter was written by John Ingerson (1837-1913) of Sycamore, Wyandot county, Ohio. He was the son of Alvin C. Ingerson (1815-1857) and Tirza Ann Palmer (1816-1895). John was 24 years old when he enlisted in August 1861 to serve as a private in Co. G, 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). He survived the war but was wounded in the Battle of Pickett’s Mills, Georgia, on 27 May 1864. He was discharged for disability on 29 October 1864. [It should be noted that John’s obituary appearing in the Marion Star (Marion, OH) claimed that John was “wounded at Gettysburg when a shell hit him in the face, cutting his upper lip and terribly disfiguring him.” Since the regiment never fought at Gettysburg, the wound is presumed to have occurred at the Battle of Pickett’s Mills in Georgia. The 1890 Veteran’s Schedule claims that John’s wound was caused by a gunshot wound, not a shell.]

After the war, John returned to farming in Ohio. In 1875, he married Lydia Ann Shaffer (1839-1931)

Transcription

Camp George
December 10th 1861

Well friend Mother, I guess tonight I would write you a few lines to let you know how I am. I am well at present and so is all of the rest of the Sycamore Boys and I hope these few lines will find you the same. The 32nd had a fight yesterday and they lost eleven men and had twelve wounded and the secesh lost forty and about that many wounded. The young men killed several of their horses. There only was three companies of them against five hundred and they whipped them and made them [paper creased]…If Co. G had been with them, we would have taken eight of their cannons. The boys got two or three of their horses and several of their guns.

Now Mother, I want you to write to me and tell me all of the news that it afloat in Sycamore. I am the fattest now that I ever was in all of my life. I only weigh one hundred and sixty-five pounds. We have between 60 and 70,000 men here in the field with us and I think we will flog them nicely. I hope so.

We have plenty to eat and plenty to wear and good water to drink. I hant been sick yet and I hope I won’t get in that way. I got my pay last Monday but I don’t want you to think hard of me for not sending you some of it for I got five dollars of Daniel Hartsough to get me a pair of boots and I’d drawn five dollars off the sutler which makes ten dollars [I owed] and I have got [only] a little left and I think that will last me for a good while. We will draw pay again in twenty days and then I will send all of that to you for I shan’t need it.

So now I must stop writing for this time. Write soon and direct your letters in the care of Capt. [Luther M.] Strong, 49th Regiment, OV, USA. by the way of Louisville, Kentucky.

This from John Ingerson

To Tirza Ann Ingerson