Category Archives: Burnside Expedition

1862: Western Berkley Thomas to Emmeline Few (Howard) Thomas

April 30, 2025 Griff Leave a comment

These letters were written by Western Berkley Thomas, Jr. (1835-1863), the son of Western Berkley Thomas (1799-1836) and Emmeline Few Thomas (1807-1882) of Augusta, Richmond county, Georgia. In 1859 and 1860 he is enumerated among the students at Cambridge in the Harvard Law School. In the 1860 US Census, he is identified as a lawyer working in Augusta.

Western served the Confederacy as 1st Lieutenant in Co. K (“Davis Musketeers”), 10th Georgia Regiment. He enlisted at Richmond, Virginia, on July 7, 1861. In March 1862, Co. K of the 10th Regiment was transferred into artillery. Three months later, Lt. Thomas was suffering so severely from the “stricture of urethra & unstable condition of the bladder” that surgeons judged him unfit for duty. On June 6th, 1862, Western submitted his resignation from the service to Hon. George W. Randolph, Secretary of War. Western died on 14 February 1863 at Chickamauga, Walker county, Georgia.

Western wrote these letters early in 1862 while the Davis Musketeers were manning a battery at Pig Point in Suffolk county near the mouth of the Nansemond river overlooking Hampton Roads.

*Map of Hampton Roads showing Pig Point fortifications at left*.

Letter 1

*Addressed to Mrs. Emeline F. Thomas, Augusta, Georgia*

Pig Point ¹
January 13, 1862

Dear Mother,

I should have answered your letter long ago but the chills have had me again. I cannot write on my chill day and the intervening day I feel worn out and weary. I hope by the use of quinine to escape tomorrow. It is certainly strange that we should be afflicted with the disease at this season of the year but I suppose it is the same attack I had before as it has been about twenty days since my last. I will watch this time and take quinine as you directed at each period but. so long as we have nothing worse, I shall be satisfied for we have been very fortunate. Other corps are suffering around us with typhoid fever, pneumonia, and other fatal diseases while we have not yet lost a man. I believe I am the only man in the company who has chills now. ²

The box arrived about three days since and we eat one side of the breast of the turkey before it advanced too far. The ham was fine but it is all gone as we are great ham eaters here. The men will be very thankful for the comforters. I have not yet given them out as it is very warm and I will wait till I get the others which are in my other box with the overcoat at the express Office in Norfolk.

I have nothing to write you about as it is very stupid here. We have been watching for the Burnside Expedition here for a long time but it has not come and from the changes in the fleet off Fortress Monroe, I think it has gone further south. If this is so, we shall soon hear of it. As I write, I hear very heavy guns up the James river for which I cannot account as it is too rough for practice—probably some little skirmish.

I see no prospect of peace at present and no hope of anything but Pig Point and chills until the war closes. Has Aunty heard anything from sister or from Kentucky? I fear poor Aunt Luesa’s nerves will be sadly shocked by the presence of the Federal and Confederate forces in the blue grass country. I feel very sorry for the people of Kentucky. It is bad enough. to have a friendly army in the country but it must be very sad to have two hostile forces and the people divided too.

I said we had no sick in the company but while I write, William D’Antonac has been attacked by his chill and is now shaking the whole house and we have four men with chills.

I hope I shall hear from you soon. We have three men at home now on leave of absence. I told them to go to the house thinking you might like to hear something of how we get on. There is nothing I want now so you can send me nothing. I wish you would find my bank book in the drawer of the wardrobe (I think) and send it to the bank to be balanced. If you cannot find it, you can find out at the bank how much I have there and let me know too how much interest is now due me on my bonds as I may take that money with what I have here and buy Confederate bonds. They are as good as anything else now and will be better after the war. Write soon. Affectionately, — your son.

January 15th 1862

I succeeded in breaking the chill yesterday and hope to avoid them in future. your letter came last night and I will send you the money to invest if you think the State Bonds are better than Confederate. The latter are free you know from the war tax which is half percent and unless the State Bonds are free from state tax (in which case they are better), they are worth less than Confederates since the former will bring only 7.5 percent after deducting the war tax while the latter which are not subject to it are at 8 percent. I shall not be able to send you more than $800 from here as I can not collect all that is owing me and as I shall need something to live on till next payday which will be March 1st. I think there are, however, coupons enough due on my bonds to make up the sum of $1000. If not, let me know how much I have in deposit at the bank and I will send you a check.

That old German told a falsehood. He has made nearly $70 out of the Confederacy with his clothes adn food six months and has done only one or two days duty since he was enlisted. He is mad because we would not let him swindle the government out of commutation money for clothing. You have doubtless by this time seen three or one of the two men now at home on leave and you will find no better clothed troops in the service. You can send the dog by one of these. John Rodle whom I told to go and see you is the safest to send him by unless you see Booker. But whomever you give him to, tell the others if you see them. If none of them come to the house, Dr. Steiner (to whom remember me the most sincerely) can tell you where John Rodle, formerly Marcellus Hammond’s cook, lives. Send the dog to Bowen (gunsmith) and tell him to fit it a nice collar on him with the enclosed information on the plate and send the key with the dog. Pay for the collar or tell. Bowen to charge it to me. I will pay when we meet. I am sorry my dear Mother to give you so much trouble. Adieu. Your affectionate son, — W. B. T.

¹ When secessionists seized the Gosport Navy Yard, they obtained more than 1200 heavy guns and 300,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fortress Norfolk. Several of these large guns were deployed at Pig Point. The shoreline was indeed formidable but Confederates had to withdraw from these fortifications to defend Richmond when McClellan threatened in the spring of 1862.

² Thomas was obviously suffering from malaria based not only only symptoms but his treatment with quinine. It was often refered to a Ague or “the shakes” because of paroxysmal attacks.

Letter 2

*Addressed to Mrs. E. F. Thomas, Augusta, Georgia*

Pig Point
January 30th 1862

My Dear Mother,

I have not written to you in some time because I have been waiting to get an answer to my last letter about what money I had at home. I have not sent you the money because I have not yet been paid for the two months I had due me on the 1st of January. But tomorrow, if it does not rain, I shall go to town and try to get it when I shall probably be able to send you $800.00. I told you this in my last letter and I hope to find an answer to it in Norfolk tomorrow. I will send you a check payable to your order and you can endorse it and get it cashed at the Railroad Bank or you can draw on me for that amount ($800) which would be best. I will attend to this in Norfolk tomorrow.

If I have any money at home and I know I have, send me a Railroad Bank check and I will fill it to your order. Take twenty dollars and pay that old German fool who has annoyed you. His name is Rappes. Send to Spaeth’s ¹ for him and let him sign a receipt or pay him in the presence of some white person. I am truly sorry to give you all this trouble but I cannot attend to these matters myself. I am afraid to send money in a letter. These mails are so sadly managed lately. You need not send for the German unless you find it easy to do for he will annoy you by coming himself before long I suspect. If not, I can send him an order on you by the next man we send home and you can pay yourself out of th coupons I have due.

I am truly glad they have got rid of their captain in Jimmy’s Company and hope we shall some day get rid of ours [Theodore C. Cone]. I have nothing against him except that he will not attend to his duty.

I hope your fears about the Burnside Expedition are groundless and I hope instead of being in Pamlico Sound, the ships are at the bottom. I know they must be if they were at sea in the late storm that visited us. It blew awfully and even here the waves washed away ten feet of the high bluff and left our battery so near the edge that another such storm will compel us to remove the guns and build a new battery entire[ly]. I see no change in the vessels at Old Point and I do not think they will ever try us on this side. We are too strong.

I will leave this page open to write you if I get to Norfolk tomorrow, about money matters. I am in very good health having long since recovered from my chills.

Norfolk, January 31st

No letter for me or visit until you hear from me as I have not got my money from the C[onfederate] S[tates] yet.

¹ Charles Spaeth (b. 1829 in Germany) kept a grocery in Augusta.

Letter 3

Pig Point [on Nansemond River opposite Newport News, Va.]
February 25th 1862

My dear Mother,

I received your letter of the 18th this afternoon and am glad to hear of the arrival of the checks. I did not understand your previous letter on that subject. I shall not need any more money before April, if then, so you need not feel uneasy. I like your arrangements very much and only did not understand them before. I cannot tell whether I can invest any more money this spring as everything is getting enormously high here but I will see. Do not mention the fact that I have invested money for it may get to the ears of the officer’s friends and make them feel badly. I live better and Mess better than any officer near me, and at the same time do what they do not=give away. And yet I live on my pay and owe no debts which they cannot say. This is the solution. Bar rooms and gambling houses or parties never see my face or my money. Both the officers of this company owe me money and this is what induced me to invest when I had the money. It was hard to refuse, and as long as I had it, I was a dependence. What matter how much was lost or wasted, there was Thomas always to fall back on.

So when I came from home in November having $400 in my pocket, I put it in the Bank of Norfolk, came to camp, and gave it out that I wished to raise a thousand dollars by January 1st and how much do you think I got after relying on promise that I should have the whole—sixty dollars from one party and nothing from the other. I did this because I saw these debts were increasing and would never be paid if allowed to become large. I have men owing me $98 from one party and $60 from the other. This last is Cane’s debt who let me say, for he needs a good word on that score, has always been strictly honorable in his dealings with me; borrowing but seldom and never disappointing me when I have needed pay. But enough. We can talk these things over when we meet,

The enemy have made no new demonstrations in this quarter lately and that is about the only subject of interest here at present. A few night since we had a grand alarm. The sentinel on our battery fired at what he supposed to be a man approaching the magazine who would not halt at his challenge and so into the battery we went. It was the darkest night I ever saw—foggy too, and raining. The battery was like a fish pond all afloat. After we got there the sentinel fired again and the men followed suit without waiting for the command. It was so dark and the men so much excite that I feared greatly they would shoot each other, but after one round and after tumbling head forward into the ditch 6 feet deep, I (being in command) succeeded in restoring order and calming the men down, after which you better believe I talked harshly to them for this foolishness.

We got back all right after scaring up all the troops around us and as I write, my clothes of that night hang over me more mud than cloth. It was very funny the stories that were told next day of men and horses tumbling into ditches around the entrenchments of the whole post. But I have no more time to give you tonight and this must go early in the morning so good night. Your affectionate son, — W. B. T.

Martin Grady shall have a furlough as soon as the three men now at home return which may be at any moment as their time expired yesterday. Please let his mother know this as it may be some comfort to her. No, don’t do it. I remember now. No officer or soldier of this department can leave his camp for more than twelve hours at a time for the present. But as soon as this order dictated by the threatening attitude of the enemy is withdrawn, Grady shall have a leave of absence. He shall be kept next on the list after the men now absent and who will probably return tomorrow and shall go home as soon as the General allows leaves of absence.

8th Connecticut Infantry, Burnside Expedition

1862: John Smith to Rebecca Ann (Smith) Morrarty

August 1, 2024 Griff Leave a comment

The following letter was written by John Smith, the son of John Gardner Smith (1797-Aft1860) and Nancy B. Case (1801-1880) of Norwich, New London, Connecticut. John wrote the letter to his sister, Rebecca Ann (Smith) Morrarty (1838-1937) who married John Mikel Morrarty, Jr. (1831-1903) in 1854.

John Smith enlisted on 5 September 1861 and mustered as a Corporal in Company D, 8th Connecticut Infantry on 21 September. He was slightly wounded in the head in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was reduced to Private, date not given, and mustered out at the end of his term of enlistment on 20 September 1864.

Serving with John in the same company was his brother-in-law, John M. Morrarty. He was away from the regiment for a time due to illness and was later transferred to the veteran reserve corps. He reenlisted on 6 Mar 1865 as a private, Co B, 2nd Regt, US Volunteers for another year.

See also—1861: John Mikel Morrarty to Rebecca Ann (Smith) Morrarty on Spared & Shared 22.

*Patriotic letterhead, “The House that Uncle Sam Built” (with slave labor)*

Transcription

Moorehead City, N. C.
April 20, 1862

My Dear Sister,

Last night I received your kind letter & I am very glad to hear that Mother arrived safe home. We are well—that is, John M[orrarty] & I—for a great many are sick & several are dead in our regiment. You know that I wrote in one of my letters that the 8th Regt. had been sent ahead of all the rest of the Division to take undisturbed possession of Moorehead City which we did—the regiment split to pieces. Co. E was sent to Beaufort, Co. I & F were sent to Carolina City. Co. D & K are now in Moorehead City, & Co. G. B, H. C. & A are over across the Sound on the same island that Fort Macon is on. The last five companies have a skirmish with the Rebels every day & drive them into the fort. Capt. Sheffield of Co. H is mortally wounded—the ball striking him in the pit of his stomach and coming out of his backbone. A private in the same company was wounded in the hip.

We have just completed a fine breastwork and mounted 6 mortars in position under the fire of the heavy guns of the fort. Col. Edward Harland is sick and the Major is in command of the five companies on the island.

Capt. J. Edward Ward is in command of this post in Moorehead City. The Lieut. Col. resigned & the Major, I suppose, will be promoted to Lt. Col. & Capt. War will be promoted to Major. He is as brave, noble, & efficient officer & is well worthy of his office.

If you will send me 1 dollar’s worth of postage stamps, I will be much obliged to you. I have told you a lie. I told you that I was well but I have got the neuralgia in face. Tell Mother to excuse me this time & I will write next mail. I have no postage stamps. Be sure and send them.

Your poetry was read and reread and placed on file until next week. Corporal H. N. Livermore, Co. D, died of typhoid fever & E. J. Comstock, C. D, of the same. They were both from Lebanon & Deacon McCull knew them both. I will now draw my letter to a close so goodbye from your affectionate brother, — John Smith

Co. D, 8th Regt. Conn., Coast Division, Burnside’s Expedition

To Mrs. Rebecca A. Morrarty, Norwich, Connecticut

Burnside Expedition, Coast Division

1862: Coast Division Participant to “Dear Friends”

July 11, 2024 Griff Leave a comment

Unfortunately the man who penned this brief letter did not sign his name and the companion envelope that might have aided in his identity has long been separated or lost, but it’s pretty clear that the author was a member of the Coast Division which was an amphibious division created by Major General George B. McClellan after the debacle of Bull Run. “In laying his plan before Secretary of War Cameron, McClellan suggested that the Coast Division consist of two brigades, each made up of five regiments of ‘New England men, for the general service, but particularly adapted to coast service, the officers and men to be sufficiently conversant with boat service to manage steamers, sailing vessels, launches, barges, surf-boats, floating batteries, etc.'” [Source: “The 53rd New York: A Zoo-Zoo Tale” by Gerald E. Wheeler and A. Stuart Pitt]

This letter was datelined on 1 February 1862, before the Coast Division had even approached Roanoke Island, let alone attempted to take New Bern, North Carolina. Whether the author was a soldier or a crew member of the supply ship Marcia Greenleaf (pictured) is unclear. There is some evidence that the 24th Massachusetts had men on the ship at some point during the expedition but I can’t place them on the ship at the time this letter was written.

Transcription

Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina
February 1st 1862

Dear Friends,

You must excuse me for not writing you ‘ere this. The fact is there has not been any chance to send a letter till today. Probably ‘ere you get this, we shall have had a brush with the enemy as we sail up the sound to Newburg [New Bern] to which is quite a city. It is supposed that there is 15 thousand rebels here if there is more. I think we shall be good for them. It is said they are armed with all kind of weapons—even with pitchforks. Perhaps they will find a hard lot of hay to pitch. At least I think it will not be another Bulls Run.

There is no news to write nor will there be until we have a fight. But they are hollering for the letters so I must close in order to send it by this mail. Write soon. Direct [to] Coast Division, Store Ship Marcia Greenleaf

Burnside Expedition, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron

1861-62: James Champlin Worden to Family & Friends

June 2, 2024 Griff Leave a comment

*USS Hetzel during the American Civil War*

The following letters were written by James Champlin Worden (1818-1863), the son of Gideon Worden Sr. (1777-1858) and Phebe G. Gavet (17xx-1846) of Richmond, Rhode Island, later Plymouth, Chenango county, New York. Among James’ siblings mentioned in this letter are: Gideon Worden Jr. (b. 1811), Lucy (Worden) Harrington (1817-1879), Phebe Delina (Worden) Brown, and Elnora Esther Worden (1849-1883).

*I could not find an image of James but here is an unidentified sailor from Ronn Palm’s Collection*

James may have served for a time in the US Army in the 1840s but by the mid-1850s he was serving tours of duty in the US Navy. He was finally discharged from the Navy suffering from rheumatism in late July 1861. At that time he was described as 5’8.5″ tall, with dark complexion, light hair and blue eyes. He served for a time on the US Congress.

Both of James’ letters were written while serving aboard the USS Hetzel, a side-wheel steamer built in 1861 at Baltimore, Maryland, for the United States Coast Survey and transferred to the Navy Department 21 August 1861 for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She arrived at Newport News, Virginia, 18 November 1861. Her first taste of action came 2 December, when Confederate steamer Patrick Henry stood out into Hampton Roads and engaged several Union gunboats, including Hetzel. The Federal ships succeeded in damaging Patrick Henry in a 2-hour engagement.

Letter 1

US Steamer Hetzel
Newport News, Va.
November 8, 1861

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

I received your letter on the 25th and I should [have] wrote sooner but I did not know that we should stay here so long as we have. but I expect we shall lay here all winter and so I have take this opportunity to write. I was very much pleased to hear so much news from all of my relations and friends. I was very happy to hear that Gideon attends meetings again.

We are now on picket duty at the mouth of the James river, Virginia, to keep the Rebels from coming down from Richmond and getting out to sea. We had an engagement the other morning which lasted about an hour betwixt the Hetzel (Union) and the Patrick Henry (Rebel) in which there was no lives lost on our side but they kept a long distance from us and their shots did not reach us.

I was glad to hear from Gardner but I don’t know why he should enlist if he is worth so much money. There are encamped at Newport News close where we lay about eight thousand volunteers. We expect soon to go to Norfolk with a strong fleet and storm the place.

We have plenty of oysters here which I believe you would like to have some too. My health is better this winter than it has been for some winters before. I must try to write to you more about the war.

There are 682,000 volunteers, regulars, and sailors now in the service and the 22,000 in the Navy has done more for the country than all the rest. They have blockaded the Southern ports. They have taken—or as good as taken—more principal ports and left them in a state of starvation. Their supplies are cut off on both ocean and river and they cannot hold out much longer. I should like to hear how times are now around you and how much you pay a month for work and how many cows you have milked last summer. I want to hear from Phebe and Sary and how their healths are and of Licy lives on her farm or not. I should like to see you all once more and perhaps I may. If you have heard from Mr. Hal___ from New York, Thomas, let me know how they do. I am very glad you have named the boy after me. I hope I can make him a present when I come home. I should like to see Alice and Charles and also Mary and Martha and Gideon and his family. We have meetings on board our steamer and there has been 2 conversions. You remember what it reads in Isaiah the Prophet that the abundance of the sea that be converted to God. My wages is 27 dollars a month. No more at present. Write as soon as possible. Direct your letter to the US Seamer Hetzel, Old Point Comfort, Va.

Letter 2

Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina
January 17, 1862

Dear Brother,

Not having received any letter for a long while and getting tired of waiting, I thought I would write you a few lines to let you know where I am at present. We are now laying at or near Cape Hatteras in Potomac Sound and as lonesome barren place as ever I was in except Cape Horn. There is nothing but sand in sight as far as land is concerned. There are now from 30 to 40 gunboats waiting to go to Elizabeth City to attack the Rebels and sixteen thousand Union soldiers. We have just had a gale of wind and there has been 4 vessels lost besides 6 or 8 men drowned. The loss to the government could not been less than 200,000 dollars but that was nothing to mens lives when they are not prepared to die. ¹

We still have meetings three times a week which makes the time pass quite cheerful. My situation is not a very pleasant one, notwithstanding I am very well contented. It is like a school teacher that has 70 or 100 large scholars to look out after. I have some very hard customers to deal with but I have plenty of handcuffs and shackles. Liquor is the cause of all the trouble and if there were no rum, it would be better times in the Navy and Army. I don’t know as you can read this writing. It’s quite dark in the night.

I should like well to receive a letter from you. I want to hear from Phebe and the children, from Lucy, Gideon, Thomas, Mary and Sary and all my dear relations and friends. If you have heard again from Gardner, let me know how he is getting along. I don’t get any news here and I don’t know how the war is going along. My mind is on things of more importance than warfare. If we were all good soldiers of the cross, our country would be at perfect unity. I wish you would direct me a letter as follows:

Mr. James C. Worden on board the US Steamer Hetzel, Hatteras Inlet, N. C.

If I had any news to write, I would write willingly. But as I han’t, I well close. I remain your friend and Brother, — James C. Worden

¹ James description of the fleet of gunboats inside the bar at Hatteras Inlet is a reference to the Burnside Expedition which sailed from Hampton Roads on the 11th of January 1862. The gale occurred on the night of 12 January. Among the vessels lost or severely damaged were the Zouave, the City of New York, the Pocahontas, the Louisiana, and the New Brunswick.