The following letter was written by 18 year-old Henry C. Smith while serving in Co. C, 84th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI)—a three months’ regiment that was ordered to Cumberland, Md., June 11, and performed provost duty there till September. They were attached to Railroad District, Dept. of the Mountains, to July, 1862, and 8th Army Corps, Middle Department, to September. They moved to New Creek September 13 to repel an attack on that point by Jenkins and Imboden. They then moved to Camp Chase, thence to Camp Delaware, and mustered out October 14, 1862.

Co. C was recruited principally in Miami county, Ohio, but there were some members from Trumbull and Mahoning counties as well. Halbert Brigham Case (1838-1914) served as captain of Co. C. He had previously served as 1st Sergeant in Co. H, 7th OVI when it was a 3-months regiment and when it was reorganized as a 3-year’s organization, he was commissioned a Lieutenant and served in the campaigns of West Virginia. He resigned his commission to raise the company in the 84th OVI.

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

Camp Lawrence [Cumberland, Maryland]
August 27, 1862

Dear Father & Friends,

I received your letter dated the 24th today and will try and answer it. I should have written last Sunday but I had no paper nor money enough to buy any with but those stamps you sent came in play. But our time is so near out that I can get along without any more. I thought when I last wrote that we should be on the way home by this time but it seems as if that we was destined to stay in this old camp till our time is out. But we have stood it so long and I guess that we can make out a little longer.

There is not much news to write about. It is dull times here. There will be fun here in a few days for they will begin drafting and there will be lively times when that commences. It comes rather tough for some of them for they favor the secesh too much to go into the Union army and I am glad to see them brought to terms. I think they will learn to mind their own business and not say so much. But enough of this.

I am glad that there has been so many gone from our town. I think that we have sent our number of men and I hope they will not have to draft any in that town. Gov. Dennison of Ohio was here yesterday and made us a speech in regard to reenlisting. He wants we should all enlist again and he tried to scare us to enlist but he did not make out. He thinks that after we get home and stay a few days, we ought to go again but I think that we ought to be the judge in this matter. I believe that I would rather be drafted for 9 months than to enlist for three years.

The weather is very. hot and dry. It has not rained much for seven weeks and it is very dusty. The health of the regiment is very good considering all things. Walter has been quite sick but is getting better. He will be up in a few days again.

About coming home, I cannot tell anything about it. You will hear before we get there some way. If I come, I will let you know so as to meet us at Warren. I guess that I have written all I can think of and the mail will leave soon so I will stop. I may not write again before we leave this place but if I should not write, don’t be scared about me for if anything happens, you will hear of it very soon and with this I will close. yours as ever, — H. C. Smith

The following partial letter was written by a soldier serving in Co. C, 84th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI)—a three months’ regiment that was ordered to Cumberland, Md., June 11, and performed provost duty there till September. They were attached to Railroad District, Dept. of the Mountains, to July, 1862, and 8th Army Corps, Middle Department, to September. They moved to New Creek September 13 to repel an attack on that point by Jenkins and Imboden. They then moved to Camp Chase, thence to Camp Delaware, and mustered out October 14, 1862.

Co. C was recruited principally in Miami county, Ohio, but there were some members from Trumbull and Mahoning counties as well. The only name mentioned in the letter was that of Halbert Brigham Case (1838-1914) who served as captain of Co. C. Case had previously served as 1st Sergeant in Co. H, 7th OVI when it was a 3-months regiment and when it was reorganized as a 3-year’s organization, he was commissioned a Lieutenant and served in the campaigns of West Virginia. He resigned his commission to raise the company in the 84th OVI.

Unfortunately the envelope that carried this letter home has not survived or has been separated from it so that we don’t know who the soldier’s folks were. And there was likely a second sheet to this letter at one time that included the soldier’s signature, but it too is gone.

Transcription

Camp Lawrence, Cumberland, Maryland
June 16th [1862]

Dear folks,

I wrote the other day that we were to leave Columbus in the morning but we didn’t leave until 8 in the evening. We took up our line of march from Camp Chase at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of last Wednesday, marched to Columbus, and got into the cars and waited until 8 o’clock. Besides our knapsacks, we had three days rations of bread and meat in our haversacks and our canteens full of coffee. I wish I could send you one of the crackers that we have for bread. It needs a hammer to break them. Honestly, we cannot do it with our hands and such bread we had for 3 days rations, but this was not the worst of it. From Columbus we went to Bellaire on the Ohio river 4 miles below Wheeling. Got there about noon of Thursday, were ferried across the river and put on the cars immediately and such cars!

Uncle Sam has got me for three months and he may make the most of it for he will have to whistle after that. I expected to be treated half way decent but we have not been treated as well as hogs. At Bellaire we were put on open coal cars at noon and wheeled out into the sun and left there until 4 o’clock when we started. Our seats were made of rough boards. This was what we had to ride on for 240 miles. I don’t complain but thought I would tell you how it was. The smoke and cinders from the locomotive blew right on us which was enough to blind a man in 15 minutes but we tied our handkerchiefs over our heads and started and went through the darndest country that mortal man ever beheld.

We followed the Ohio river for a short distance and such hills I never saw before. In many places the road was cut a hundred feet through the solid rock and we passed through tunnels without number. One was said to be three miles long. I was asleep when we went through it but I know that we went through some mighty long ones and lots of them. The road is crookeder than any turnpike in Ohio. It is on a curve one way or the other all the time besides lots of square corners. In some places it is cut from 50 to a hundred feet and fill as many on the other Lots of places it was down perpendicular as much as 100 feet and a little brook quietly working its way among the rocks at the bottom.

To sleep we had to crawl down in the bottom of the car, cover up heads, and sleep away. I slept from midnight until daylight and when I awoke, my mouth, nose, ears, and eyes were filled with dirt, besides being covered with it to the depth of a quarter of an inch. The cars were stopped and I crawled out, shook myself, and tried to wash but only rubbed the dirt in. I as well as the rest were about the color of old mountain. We got here about ten o’clock Friday and marched up to camp about half a mile and by the way, the regimental officers had a nice car itched on for them and such of the captains as were a mind to but Capt. [Halbert B.] Case stuck to us like Spalding’s Glue right in the worst of it. He sad he had been in hotter fire than that.

Well, of course our tents were not here yet and we had to wait for them but they were not long in coming. While we were waiting, a shower of rain came up. I sat down on my knapsack and went to sleep and rolled over on the ground and woke when it had quit raining. We have got our tents up and are packed in pretty close… [rest of letter missing]