61st Pennsylvania Infantry | Spared & Shared 23

*Private William H. Hanifer wears the uniform of the 23rd Pennsylvania Regiment (“Birney’s Zouaves”), LOC.*

The following letter was written by Theodore A. Tucker who enlisted in September 1861 to serve three years in Co. L, 23rd Pennsylvania Volunteers (“Birney’s Zouves”). In March 1862, not long after this letter was penned, Companies L, O, P & R of the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry were transferred to the 61st Pennsylvania under the command of Major George C. Spear, who was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. These became companies D, G, H & I and these four companies continued to wear the distinctive Zouave uniforms for a time.

Theodore was wounded in the left arm during the fighting on 12 May 1864 near Spotsylvania Court House and transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps in January 1865. Theodore’s brother Thomas O. Tucker and served in the same company. He was wounded at the same time as his brother on 12 May 1864 but did not survive. He died on 27 May 1864.

Theodore wrote the letter to his older brother Robert Tucker (1823-1901), a carpenter who resided in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Robert was married to Lydia A. Miller (1830-1907) and the couple’s oldest child was Ida Leanore Tucker, born in 1854.

In another letter by a comrade of Theodore’s in Co. D, 61st Pennsylvania on 28 February 1862, Samuel Fell wrote: “Our marching was a false [alarm]. The order was countermanded about 11 o’clock. The cooks was just commencing to cook when the order came to stop for we was not a going. If you wanted to hear a lot of fellers growl and grumble, you ought to [have] been here when they heard it but Theodore Tucker and I told them in the afternoon that they would not get off as long as we was in the regiment for it is just our luck to get in a cussed regiment that never goes anywhere nor sees anything. But if we ever did get a chance, we will make up for lost time if we don’t run against a bullet or bayonet too soon. But Theodore says that we are such hard boys that a bullet or bayonet can’t faze us.” [See 1861-63: Samuel C. Fell to His family]

*A pen and watercolor rendition of a photograph appearing in the History of the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry, Birney’s Zouaves…” page 51.*

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

Col. D. B. Birney’s Zouaves
Headquarters 23rd Regiment P. V.
Camp Birney, Maryland
January 20, 1862

Dear Brother,

I sit down to let you know that me and Tom is well at present and hope that these few lines will find you in the same state of health. Our company was out on grand guard last night and it rained all day and all night but we had a good deal of fun, Me and the orderly Smith Dean from Abington went out to a farmers and took supper and we had some good buckwheat cakes and you had better believe they went good. Then we stayed and talked till 8 o’clock in the evening and then we went back to the boys and they said, “Where the devil have you been?” and then I told them and they felt bad because they didn’t get none. But I told them that I would go and get them some next day and so I went upstairs in a barn and went to sleep.

We have moved from the old camp about two miles up towards Bladensburg and Colonel Birney is Brigade General and we have a new Colonel by the name of [Thomas H.] Neill. Today is the first he drilled the regiment and the boys like him very well. He is a good looking officer and has a good voice and I hope he is as good as our old one but the boys all hate to lose Birney. But we hope that we shall get in his brigade and then we think that we will go ahead. We think as soon as the roads get so we can move that there will be a movement made to Manassas once more and if they do, they will never stop tIll they take Richmond and then the rebels are gone up the hill.

The roads is so bad that four horses can pull half a cord of wood on the level and it would be impossible to move the army. They couldn’t get the artillery along.

Tell Lydia and Ida that I send my best respects and tell mother that I can’t find anything to write—only that I am well and I send my respect to all enquiring friends. So I must close by saying goodbye. From your own brother, — T. A. Tucker

Write soon.

This letter was written by 28 year-old Pvt. John H. Lepley (1837-1919) of Co. G, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. John did not put on the uniform until 26 September 1864 when he mustered into the regiment and he was discharged on 20 June 1865 after only 9 months service.

I could not find an image of John but here is a CDV of Louis D. Caron of Co. G, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry.

John was the son of Valentine Lepley (1803-1894) and Lydia Elizabeth Beal (1801-1841) of Southampton, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. In December 1861, he married 19 year-old Susana Eiber (1842-1925) and the couple would eventually have at least eleven children but only the the first two were born by the time this letter was written in June 1865. Agnes (“Aggy”) was born on 5 December 1862, and Ida Catharine (“that other little gal” whom he had not yet seen) was born on 20 March 1865.

During John’s term of service, the 61st Pennsylvania was attached to the Army of the Shenandoah during which time he must have participated in the Battle of Cedar Creek. They were then sent to the Army of the Potomac and joined Grant’s forces around Petersburg, Virginia. Following the surrender of Lee’s army at Appomattox, the 61st Pennsylvania marched to Danville where they remained until 23 May and then began the long march back to Washington D. C. by way of Richmond and Fredericksburg in time for the Grand Review on June 8th.

*A GAR Reunion Ribbon kept by John Lepley*

Transcription

*Addressed to Mrs. Susanna Lepley, Wellersburg, Somerset county, Pennsylvania*

Camp near Washington City
June 7, 1865

Dear Wife,

I will once more write to you although I haven’t received any letters from you for a month. The last I received was dated 5th of May and that I got while at Danville, Illinois. Well, you don’t need to write anymore as I will be home in a short time now. Tomorrow there will be a Grand Review of our Corps and after that is over we expect to go as they have made out our muster rolls already.

Joe, I suppose, is home by this time. I seen Gust Dow the other day. He looks well. He thinks they will be discharged before long. Crist Lepley won’t be mustered out yet. None of the substitutes will. All troops will be discharged under this order—that is, if their time would expire before October first, so all the one year drafted men will be discharged.

We have had a pretty hard march from Richmond to this place as the roads were bad and weather hot. We came through Fredericksburg. I was trying to find [my brother] Jacob’s grave but could not find it. ¹ I found the place where he was buried but there was only a few head boards up yet. The citizens told me that the niggers pulled out the headboards for kindling wood and the headboards that were up yet were of some other soldiers. But I was in the Baptist Church which was used as a hospital where he died in. The town looks bad as it is pretty well riddled with shots.

By the time I get home, the cherries will be about ripe. I am anxious to see Aggy and that other little gal that’s about the diggins. I will now stop. you need not write to me any more and I don’t think I’ll write anymore.

Nothing more. I expect to see you soon. From your affectionate husband, — John H. Lepley

I didn’t get my letter off as soon as I had it wrote. The Review is over and we are waiting to be mustered out. I had a letter from Dan. He is at Baltimore, Maryland. It is very hot here now. Your husband, — J. H. Lepley

¹ Jacob B. Lepley (1839-1864) was the 1st Sergeant of Co. F, 142nd Pennsylvania Infantry when he was mortally wounded during the Battle of the fighting in the Wilderness on 5 May 1864. He died in the Baptist Church in Fredericksburg on 24 May 1864. John does not indicate which of the Baptist churches that his brother died in but it is known that the Shiloh Baptist Church (used exclusively by a Black congregation after 1855) near the banks of the Rappahanock River was used as a hospital by Union troops during the war.