52nd Virginia Infantry | Spared & Shared 23

*An unidentified 1st Lieutenant in Confederate Uniform (Rees, Richmond, LOC)*

John W. Lewis was born October 8, 1837, in Virginia. Following graduation from Virginia Military Institute in 1859, he was hired as drill master and professor of mathematics at St. Johns’ College, Little Rock, Ark. When the school closed after the outbreak of war, Lewis returned to Virginia to enlist in the army.

On August 19, 1861, Lewis was commissioned as an officer in the 52nd Virginia Infantry. Promoted to 1st lieutenant on December 2, 1861, he was wounded at the Battle of Port Republic, Virginia, June 9, 1862. In October 1862, he was promoted to captain and ordered to report to Major General T. H. Holmes, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department at Little Rock.

From the fall of 1862 until the end of the war, Lewis served as assistant adjutant general with various commanders in Arkansas, including Major General T. C. Hindman, Brigadier General D. M. Frost, Major General Sterling Price, and Major General J. B. Magruder. He was at the headquarters of the District of Arkansas in Camden when this letter was written. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to major.

Lewis remained in Arkansas following the end of the war, and on January 18, 1866, he married Laura Crease, one of seven daughters of John H. and Jane Crease of the Collegeville area near Little Rock and sister of Mrs. Cara Peyton. The couple had two daughters and was living in Miller County, where John kept a grocery store, at the time of his death in February 1882. He and Laura, who died in 1889, are buried at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Camp near Bunker Hill
October 25th 1862

Dear Father,

I have been expecting to get off every day for the last month or I would have written to you immediately after the Battle of Sharpsburg, but it seems I am doomed to be disappointed as my orders have never come. I was in all the last battles—at Manassas for five days, at Harpers Ferry, and at Sharpsburg. But thank God, I escaped without a scratch. We had some terrific fighting I think at this place where we fought. We fought and whipped at least four to one. I never saw such a slaughter. We did not stand and fire at all—advanced on them all the time and charged them three times. We also made a charge on them at Manassas and drove them from behind a railroad bank. From what I can hear we met with a reverse at Shiloh [Corinth] but gained a decided victory at Perryville, Kentucky. I hope this is about the winding up of the war. The Yankees seem slow to advance up this way.

We were down near Harpers Ferry all this week tearing up and destroying the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. We destroyed about twenty-five or thirty miles. They did not molest us in the least. I have no idea what will be the next move. It may be going on now but I don’t know anything of it. I heard today that Gen. Longstreet was moving through Winchester towards Front Royal.

I have just received a letter from Uncle Jim Crawford saying he had sent you my letter. I have thought it very strange that I did not hear from home. I have not heard a word from anyone of the family since I left Gordonsville. Tell the girls they must write to me. Someone told me that they saw Jasper in Staunton a short time since.

**John Brown Baldwin** (11 January 1820–30 September 1873), attorney, member of the Convention of 1861, member of the Confederate House of Representatives, and Speaker of the House of Delegates, was born in Augusta County, the eldest of three sons and third of six children of Briscoe Gerard Baldwin and Martha Steele Brown Baldwin. To the dismay of many old Democrats and advocates of secession, Governor John Letcher appointed Baldwin inspector general of volunteers. On 19 August 1861 Baldwin became colonel of the 52d Virginia Infantry. He served briefly in the mountains of western Virginia but suffered a physical breakdown and resigned on 1 May 1862. Thereafter he was colonel of the Augusta County militia, and although he was called into the field several times, he saw no further action. While still recuperating, Baldwin was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives on 6 November 1861. He defeated Letcher in May 1863 to win reelection and served in Congress for the duration of the war.

Col. [John Brown] Baldwin wrote to me last month saying I have been promoted and assigned to duty on some General’s staff in Arkansas and would get my orders from the Secretary of War soon. I have been anxiously waiting for them. When they come, if at all, I will take time to pay you all a visit before I go to Arkansas. I sent my horse up to Uncle Linus’ and have been taking it afoot ever since.

I don’t even know where to direct my letter. First I heard you were living at Green Valley but I seen William Burger here last week and he told me you were not but thought you were at the Warm Springs. I hope you will make arrangements to get what salt you need while the works are open. If I could have gotten things home from Manassas & from Maryland, I could have gotten a great many things that would have been very useful.

Father, as horses are now very high—as is everything else—I think it advisable that you should sell any you may have to spare and pay all your debts. There is my horse, Red Wing, will bring $1000 or maybe $750, and there must be many things there of little value to you that would bring a good price. I should like to see you clear of debts. It is my opinion that when the war ends, the man who is out of debt is the best off. In case anything should happen to me, you will place all my land certificates in the hands of Mr. William Woodruff of Little Rock, Arkansas. And I have some two or three hundred dollars deposited with Uncle Ben [?], all of which with what I have elsewhere I want Jasper and the girls to have if anything should happen to me, which I hope and pray will not.

Give my best love to the girls. Tell Mat & Sallie I will soon want socks. With that exception, I am very well off for clothing. Tell them all to write to me. If you have any leather suitable for making boots, I wish you would save me enough to make me a pair when I get home. I did intend writing to you some time ago to send apples to Albert Fossett and get him to make me about five gallons of brandy but suppose it is now too late. Apples are selling here for 75 cents per dozen.

My love to Jasper when you write to him. Tell Kate to save and sell everything she can. Soap is commanding a fine price. My love to all. May God shield, protect, and bless you all is the prayer of your devoted son, — John W. Lewis

*I could not find an image of Lewis but here is one of Sergt. Benjamin F. Smith of Co. B, 52nd Virginia (LOC)*

The following letter was written by Lewis F. Burns (1834-1895), a private in Co. K, 52nd Virginia Infantry. Lewis enlisted in April 1862. He was sent to a hospital on 1 November 1862 and the muster rolls from the fall of 1863 show him to be “away without proper authority.” The rolls then indicate that he “returned 19 December 1863 from absence without leave since 12 February 1863 and sentenced by Regimental Court Martial to forfeit one month’s pay in addition to the time of his absence. He was absent without leave from the 10th of May 1862 to the 15th of September 1862 as remarked on tolls of 31 October 1862.”

The muster roll of October 1864 shows Lewis to be “absent wounded since October 19, 1864.” His Find-A-Grave biographical sketch confirms that he was wounded in action (gunshot, right hip joint) in the Battle of Cedar Creek. He was taken prisoner at that time.

Lewis was born in Burnsville, Bath county, Virginia. He was the son of John Strauther Burns, Sr. (1802-1893) and Polly Kincaid (1807-1884). He wrote the letter to his sister who must have been Malvina Gay Burns (1849-1907).

*Desertion was clearly a problem for the regiment throughout the war.*

Transcription

Camp Rhapadann [Rapidan]
Summerville Ford
December 23, 1863

Dear sister,

I take this opportunity of writing you a few lines. My health is very bad. I have a very bad cold and sore throat for ten days. Me and Venable ¹ arrived in lynchburg on Wednesday the 2nd. We reported to Maj. Proctor. He said that he would have me detailed. Then me and Venable taken a drove of horses 40 miles west of Lynchburg.

When we came back, Maj. Proctor had gotten orders that all detailed men that was fit for field service must be taken out & put in the field. Then I went before the board [and] the doctors examined me for two or three days & pronounced me fit for field duty at last. Then I started to my command and was arrested on the road and they have me in the guard house. Lieut. Gillett says I will get out in a few days. I had a hard time after I left Lynchburg. I come very near starving. I spent 75 dollars since I left home.

Tell Mother I want her to send me a box of something to eat—some sweet cakes & fruit and a canteen of honey, a chicken or two, some apples. Tell Charley to send me a bottle of bitters. Send some sausage. It will come in a few days. Just direct it like you was directing a letter. It comes free of charge. You may tell Mother to not send that box at this time. Lieut. Boon expects to get home after New Year’s and she ccan send it by him.

There isn’t any news here. I believe the enemy’s pickets are on the opposite side of the river from us. They have got into winter quarters. I haven’t seen any of the 31st yet. They ain’t very close. Tell Till to take good care of Mick and tell him to save me his pistol if he has it yet. I have heard that the Yankees has been all around since I left. Hill’s Corps has gone out to the Valley and Caulsey’s command.

There’s a great dissatisfaction in camp. Some of the men are getting letters from home stating they are suffering—can’t get flour for love or money—and they say that they ain’t going to suffer it any longer. I will close for the present hoping those few lines may find you all enjoying good health. I hear that Mary Waters is dead. I suppose it is so for James Gordon got a letter stating she was nothing more. But [I] remain your brother until death, — L. F. Burns

Co. K, 52nd Virginia, direct to 4th Brigade, Early’s Division, Ewell’s Corps

¹ This must have been William George Venable who also served in Co. K, 52nd Virginia Infantry.