Lost his life in the Battle of Chickamauga reads the epitaph on the headstone of Charles E. Koonts (1844-1863) of Co. E, 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). Charles was the son of baker/confectioner Joseph F. Koonts (1819-1891) and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Munch (1822-1904), of Putnam, Muskingum County, Ohio.
Though he claimed to be 18 at the time of his enlistment in October 1861, I believe Charles was only 17. He was promoted from a private to corporal in January 1863 and was killed in action at the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 September 1863.
Charles addressed all of his letters to his younger sister, Clara Koonts.
Over the years I have transcribed a number of letters by members of the 19th OVI but Koonts’ are the first from Co. E. The others include:
Moses L. Hower, Co. A, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Henry Raubenstine, Co. A, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Augustus Dilley, Co. B, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Jesse Smith, Co. B, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Lyman Tylee, Co. B, 19th Ohio (3 Letters)
Marcellus Ovando Messer, Co. C, 19th Ohio (2 Letters)
Ovando M. Messer, Co. C, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Jacob Ruch, Co. F, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Charles Frederick Frink, Co. G, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Henry Clay Elson, Co. H, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Daniel C. Lower, Co. I, 19th Ohio (1 Letter)
Letter 1
Alliance, [Ohio]
October 11, 1861
Dear Sister,
I received your letter of the 7th yesterday and as I was on guard, I had not time to answer it. There is a fair here. There goes the gar. 1 “Hurrah for the gar. P. S. the sarl can’t go at all.
I have nothing of any importance to say as I am here in camp and nothing going on. But I expect that we shall leave here pretty soon as the regiment is about full. Before I forget, I would say that you must write me. And give it in care of Jennings Northup as we expect to leave pretty soon. If he should leave before you receive this, don’t write until you receive my next letter.
It is about dinner time. I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. Please send me a little money to get some washing done. you have no idea how much better I would feel if I had a little money to get some milk now and then. Please excuse bad writing and all other mistakes.
Goodbye. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts
Later. The Boys say that the provisions are all taken away except three days so I think we will soon leave. At least I hope so.
1 We have come to recognize G. A. R. as the Grand Army of the Republic—an organization of war veterans created in 1866. It is reported however that “gar” referred to the grand army of the republic at an even earlier date.
Letter 2
Alliance [Ohio]
October 13, 1861
Dear Sister,
I take my pencil in hand to let you know that we shall stay a little longer than I thought we would yesterday. Some say we will go and some say we won’t. So I shant believe it until we get off. I have nothing to say but I want you to get Pa to send me a little money to pay the postage on my letters. And I need about 15 cents to get my hair cut. I owe four letters—two that I have sent as the tamps you sent are the old ones and they won’t go up here. Goodbye. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts
Letter 3
Alliance Camp Ford [Ohio]
24 October 1861
Dear Sister,
I received your letter of the 22nd and as I have nothing to do this evening, I hastened to answer it. I am well and hope you are the same. The news is now that we will leave Monday or Tuesday for Louisville, Kentucky, but we have been leaving ever since we have been here. But I hope we will leave soon.
I have nothing to say but to let you know that I have everything I need now. I have a double blanket and have ordered a gum blanket and have a nice oil cloth. The gum blanket that we have ordered are to be paid for when we draw our first pay. The captain says that when he was in Mexico, he had one of these gums and when the rest were all wet, he was dry. And he says the oil cloth will do very well until it gets cold and then it will break. But the gum will make a nice dry bed when we have to lay out.
There is that old drum a beating and I have but a few minutes to write so I must bring my letter to a close.
P. S. Here is it Sunday and I have not finished my letter yet. The talk is now that we will stay a month yet. But there is no telling when we shall have to leave. But if we have to stay here long, I think we shall have to come home or at least go down to Camp Dennison for it is so cold up here that we will freeze.
Before I forget it, I wish you to print my name on some muslin and send up to put on my clothes. Oh, there is no use a talking. I can’t write any more for it is too cold this morning.
Give my respects and compliments to all the Boys and Girls and that’s all. So I will dry up. A fine day this morn. So goodbye. Yours respectfully, — C. E. Koonts
Letter 4
Camp Ford [Alliance, Ohio]
Wednesday, November 6, 1861
Dear Sister,
I take my pencil in hand to let you know that I am well and hope you are the same. The rumor is now that we are going away tomorrow morning for Camp Dennison. I must bring my letter to a close as it is time for the mail to leave.
I received the portfolio that you sent me by M. F. and I am very much pleased with it for it is a thing that everybody ought to have a soldiering to carry paper in.
P. S. I must bring my letter to a close. If you could only see the boys a wading in the mud, you would think that we were sick of it. You need not write until I write you again. Goodbye. Yours respectfully, — Charles Koonts
Letter 5
Camp Tod
November 22, 1861
Dear Sister,
I am now in Kentucky six miles west of Louisville and as it is raining, I thought I would improve my time in writing to you. I received the money you sent me to Camp Dennison the evening before we got orders to leave. Last Frday evening we all went to bed and about eleven o’clock we got orders to pack up for to leave in the morning at daylight. So we got up and packed everything up and about two o’clock the Boys were all asleep. I sit up by the fire worried about how I could get out to have my picture taken but as good luck would have it, I got on one of the wagons and went down to the railroad depot and had my picture taken and just had time to get on the car. And now I am bad off as ever as I have the picture and hate to send it by mail for fear it will be lost. I might of had it taken by Mr. Benjamin if I could of seen him on the boat at Cincinnati but somehow it happened that I didn’t get to see him. But I am going to try and send it as a soldier’s package as I think it the best way.
You wanted to know how we live and a little about camp life. We have our tents all put up in regular order and the tents are about ten feet long and eight feet wife for eleven men to keep all their gum knapsacks, blankets, overcoats, &c.,so you can judge how much room we have. But in our tent, we have more room than the rest of them as there is three wagoners in our tent and they sleep in their wagon.
We have been getting crackers for the last few days and they are good for the kind, I think, and us Boys growl at an awful rate. But we have nice light bread today and the Boys say that the Quartermaster has made arrangements with a baker in Louisville to make bread for the regiment and send it to us until we get to Nashville. But the meat is the worst we have [had] for it is salty that we can hardly eat it. And the coffee is something like that Gen. McClellan seen in Virginia—a little like slop. It is made in a big iron kettle and they ain’t very clean and in the first place, the coffee isn’t of any account. The beans are scorched one half the time and everything else in about the same way.
We have to get up at daylight to roll call and clean out the tents and wash and comb and by that time breakfast is ready. After that we put on our rigging and go to drilling an hour and a half and then sit around until dinner is ready. But standing guard such a day as this is the worst thing we have to do. Stand two hours and not stop is the rule, but some of the Boys do as they please—just so they ain’t seen is all they care for. There is a regiment of Minnesota Boys i camp just next to our lines and a battery of artillery, and one just came in this morning.
P. S. I must quit writing. I am well and hope you are all the same. I will send my likeness and if you [get] the letter, look for the picture. But I will send them both together and I hope that you may get them both. If you write, direct your letter to me in the same way that you have:
C. E. Koonts
Company E, 19th [Ohio] Regt.
Near Louisville
Care of Capt. [Urwin] Bean, Col. [Samuel] Beatty commanding.
Letter 6
Camp Jenkins near Louisville
November 28, 1861
Dear Sister,
I take my pencil in hand to let you know that I am well and hope you are the same. The weather is very cold and rainy for the last two or three days past and it is trying to snow or rain now. I wonder if there is going to be any battalion drill. Before I forget it, I must tell you that all the Putnam–Zanesville Boys are here now. I seen cousin Louis. He looks as big and hearty as ever. There is two or three regiments coming in every day. The 51st and 19th came together, and since that the 2nd, 21st, 33rd, 59th, 41st, 3rd, 24th, 6th, and 15th Regulars, all from Ohio, and the 3rd Minnesota with three or four batteries of artillery have come in and encamped in sight of us.
I gave my likeness to the mail boy to put in the office yesterday and if you get this letter first, you must look out for it. I suppose you are and have looked for it if you got my last letter for I told you I would send it and neglected it for two or three days. And if you got the last letter, I expect you have been worried about it. But it is on the road now and I hope it will get to you as it is impossible to get one now unless there should be a car come in camp.
P. S. I just this minute thought of my gun. I want you to keep it and tell Pa to not let it go out of the house as I want to keep it as long as I live to remember grandpa. I must close my letter. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — Charles E. Koonts
Letter 7
[Camp Boyle]
Columbia [Adair county, Kentucky]
December 29, 1861
Dear Sister,
I received your letter and was glad to hear from you. I heard some of the Boys say that it was rumored in Zanesville that the 19th Ohio was in a fight and cut to pieces. But we have been in camp and haven’t seen a secessionist yet and the Boys are all a growing [ornery] because they can’t get into a fight. But I hope that we will get among them the next move we make as there has been a little skirmishing about 18 miles from us. We had four farmers take prisoners and five horses and rifles. They kept them three or four days and let them go again. They were taken up on suspicion of killing one of our pickets.
On our last march, we crossed Green river and to my surprise, I seen that the water was as green as some of the ponds in the summer time in our country and several of the branches are green. One of the branches is Russell’s Creek where we go Saturday afternoons to do our washing. It is of a greenish cast but when you get close to the bank, is as clear as a crystal. You can see the bottom and the fish swimming around.
Before I forget it, I will say that this Christmas went off as dry as last Christmas did when I was on the boat tied up in the woods and had no gun caps to go a hunting. And now New Years is at hand and we are in camp and can’t get out and no way to get anything to have a big dinner. But we shall have to do like we did Christmas. We had for dinner coffee, beef stake, hominy, and hard tack—sea bread, as the boys call it. And New Years we will have hominy, beef stake, and coffee.
I must bring my letter to a close as it is about dinner time. You wanted to know the boys in my tent. There is no Putnam Boys to commence with. There is four from New Lisbon and six from Zanesville—all first rate boys. At least I think we have the best tent on the ground. The boys are all well although they grumble about the eatables. I must get ready for my dinner. I am well and hope you are the same. Please excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye. Yours truly, — Charles E.
To Miss Clara Koonts, Putnam, Ohio
Letter 8
Camp Cumberland
January 12, 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter of the 5th and was glad to hear from you. We left camp Boyle Tuesday the 7th and had a long and weary march through the mud and over the hills. We marched 5 miles Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday we marched all day and at night we had no provisions or tents with us. And the worst of it was it rained for about four or five hours and we all got wet before the tents came to us. We got in camp Thursday evening and had nothing to eat as the roads was so bad that the teams couldn’t keep up with us. I was on guard that night and after the countersign came out, I went out to get some chickens or anything I could find. There was five of us together and we went to a farm house and got seven chickens for our dinner the next day.
P. S. I must leave my writing and get ready for reveille. We are encamped on the bank of the Cumberland river about 4 miles from Burkesville. Before I forget it, I must say that the three months men say the roads we came over beats all they ever saw. The last day we marched was along a creek and some of the boys crossed it 19 times and when we wasn’t in the creek, we was in cornfields wading in mud shoe top deep. I won’t say anymore on the subject as it is impossible for me to give you the least idea how it looked or how we felt.
We had inspection and review today which I think is a good sign of pay day. It if ain’t, I think it is about time anyhow as we [are] to be paid every two months. You said when you got my last letter, it was the first for five weeks but it didn’t surprise me any as I hadn’t written any.
P. S. I don’t know whether you can read it or not but I will proceed anyhow. Before I forget it, I will say that I have paper and if I get out, I can get it at the sutlers as cheap as you can send it but the stamps can’t be had. I want you to put a stamp in your letters when I use those you sent me. I must bring my letter to a close and get ready for bed as it is about time for roll call. It just came in my mind—tell Pa that the fruitcake was very nice, I suppose, but that is all the good it done me. I would like to have had the cake if I could of got it but as it is, I am sorry you sent it.
The drum has beat and I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. The name of the camp is Cumberland in Cumberland county near Burkesville, Kentucky.
Goodbye, — Charles E.
Camp Cumberland, January 13th
The weather is very changeable here. THe first day it was very warm but yesterday and today it has been very cold. Last evening it snowed and today the weather has moderated and it is so muddy. There is no drill & it is raining. It is rumored here that we have to go back to Columbia and some think we will and some say we won’t. But the Boys would as leave stay here and live on corn meal as to march back. Goodbye. — C. E. Koonts
Letter 9
Camp Green
January 29, 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter of the 22nd and was glad to hear from you. We are encamped on a large hill on the Cumberland River about thirty miles above Burkesville where we were when I wrote last. We are blockading the river and it is thought that we will have to stay here for some time. There is a bettery of artillery and a Kentucky regiment and our regiment here now but it is though that there will be several more here before long.
The battle you spoke of the 19th wasn’t in at all. We were on the march and couldn’t get there. But the talk is that there was a big fight about ten miles above where we are now encamped. I haven’t had a true report of it yet so I won’t say anything about it as you will get a full account of it in the paper before you receive my [letter]. So you need not trouble yourself about me as we haven’t seen a secessionist yet.
The weather is very warm and a shower every other day don’t surprise us at all. The Boys are all well and growling because the secessionists all leave about the time the 19th [Ohio] comes around. I just came off guard and have some washing to do [so] I will have to make my letter short. You said that you put a few lines in Ben Drake’s letter. I haven’t received it yet. I told Ben that we might save stamps by putting our letters together and hear from you oftener.
There is a storm coming up and the boys are all at work fixing the tent so that I must bring my letter to a close. Tell Mr. Drake about sending the two letters in one envelope as it will not be any more trouble to you or her. I am well and hope you are the same. Give my respects and compliments to all the boys and girls and I will do the best I can on porks and beans a few months longer. As the happy family are all well but one, he has the measles. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye, — C. E. Koonts
Letter 10
Camp Green
February 19, 1862
Dear Sister,
I received the letter you put in Ben Drake’s letter of the 20th last night and as I had a good opportunity, I thought that I would write a few lines. I received your letter of January 23rd with money and stamps and haven’t received any answer yet. You said that Ben Drake and Mehitable told two or three tales about our camp. The camp is on a hill about four or five hundred feet above the river as near as I could guess. The 6th Ohio Battery commands the river. The 3rd Kentucky Infantry regiment are a few rods west of the battery and we are [ ] north of the Kentuckians. There is a company of cavalry about two miles north of [us]. I expect you think that we are right among the rebels but we haven’t seen one yet and it is doubtful whether we ever will. The Boys are afraid that we will have to go home without ever having a fight or any signs of one. There is about as much danger here as there was up at Camp Ford [in Alliance, Ohio] and hardly that for the officers had a little fight there and haven’t since.
As there is nothing of any importance, I will bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts
Letter 11
Camp Andrew Jackson
March 13, 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter dated February 24th and was very glad to hear from you. When I received your letter it was so late that I couldn’t answer it that evening and the next day we removed our camp so that I haven’t had time to write before. We arrived at Nashville Thursday the 6th and camped outside of the town until we got orders to cross the river. The 3rd Ohio Regiment are encamped about a mile from our camp. Luis is in that regiment but I haven’t seen him yet. But some of the boys that have been over say he is well as ever.
We camped out about four miles from Nashville until day before yesterday [when] we marched to the town through the rain as usual for when we march, it always does rain. We marched into the town and crossed the river on a boat and made a fine appearance marching through the city.
I must say something about Nashville and Bowling Green. At Bowling Green the rebels were fortified very strong. They had seven different forts. The strongest one, on the opposite side of the river, mounted nineteen guns, and the one above the town mounted nineteen 32-pound guns. The others were smaller. 1 They burned two bridges and several houses and stores and the railroad depot and round house with four or five locomotives and small arms, camp kettles, &c. They had a great many provisions here as it was one of the main points for stores. Before they left, they set the citizens to work burning pork and beef. Our company being detailed to guard the town while the regiment was there, we got to run over the town for two days.
Our march from there was a more pleasant one that we are use to having. The Boys prefer the pike to mud roads. We got in camp near Nashville Thursday, March the 6th, stayed in camp a few days, and [then] we were ordered across the river. We got orders to get ready to march Sunday morning but as it did not rain, so we didn’t march until Monday morning. We got ready to leave and then it began to rain. We marched to town and crossed the river and marched about two miles out of the town where we are now in camp. The rebels didn’t do as much damage here as they did in Bowling Green as they were pressed so close that they hadn’t time. About all they done was to burn two bridges to stop our men from overtaking them.
We are to be paid off tomorrow, I think, but it is about time as we haven’t had any yet and six months has passed. There was one of the coolest tricks of the season was done by a man by the name of Morgan. He rode into one of the camps and said that he had as good a right to them horses as they had. He took 70 or 80 horses and several men with him but they were all retaken but five or six. There is two or three regiments on guard around and about here now and today there was two or three went out a scouting.
The boys are all well, hearty, and ragged but are expecting some clothing as there [are] but few fit for duty. It is time for dress parade so I must bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope you are the same. The drums is beating so I must bring my letter to a close. So goodbye. Yours truly, — Charles E.
1 Another soldier, Lt. David P. Doughtery of Circleville who served in the 13th Ohio Infantry, described Bowling Green in similar terms in a letter to his wife on 16 February 1862: Before leaving they [the Rebels] set fire to the town, burning a great portion of the best buildings. They have been leaving here for a week, or even since they got news of our advance, which was no doubt as soon as we started, as we are in an enemy’s country, and must expect them to have spies. But Kentucky is now ours once more and I don’t know where they will stand and fight if they won’t here. You would be surprised to see the fortifications that they have made around here. I have been in two of the forts. They are very formidable indeed. There are eleven different fortifications in the vicinity of town, and besides those is miles of breastworks strung along the ridges on this side of the river. It certainly does appear to me that they never do intend to give us a fight. I certainly think that twenty thousand good men in these forts could whip one hundred thousand of the best soldiers in the world that would come against them. All I can say in the matter is, “I am completely beat,” to know that they, after so much labor and preparation, have quit them without a fight. The rebels have retreated from here to Nashville, Tennessee, and it is said that they will make a stand there, and I expect that in a very short space of time we will be moving on again after them. If we are successful in driving them out of there, they will have nothing left to do by to “sue” for “Peace,” for they can go no farther….[Source: The Western Theater in the Civil War, by Darryl Smith, 4 August 2021]
Letter 12
Chicksaw Bluffs 1
April 12, 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter dated March 20th and was glad to hear from you. The reason I haven’t written was because we have been marching so much that I haven’t had time and when we have time, we can’t always send our mail.
You have told me that I always know where to direct my letters and ought to write oftener than I do, but I never told you that we were in an enemy’s country and it’s very seldom we can mail our letters. This day one week ago we encamped about eight miles from Savannah [Hardin Co., Tennessee]. Sunday morning when we got up the sun was shining and the orders were to pack up our knapsack as it was but a short march to Savannah. We started and about ten o’clock we heard cannonading off at a distance. Some of the officers said it was thirty miles.
The boys were all in good spirits thinking there would be a chance for a fight. We marched very slow till we got very near in town when we marched into a field and got 40 rounds of cartridges and three days rations of crackers and sugar. We started for town and marched very fast will we got to the [Tennessee] river. We then got on a boat about dark and stayed there about an hour or two and then we started for Pittsburg Landing. We arrived there about midnight and then we marched out a half of a mile I suppose and laid down on our arms. We hadn’t laid there but a few minutes till it began to rain very hard which wasn’t very nice as our guns had to be kept dry.
The next morning we were drawn up in line, loaded our guns and marched out on the field and the firing commenced and was kept up all day very hot. Our captain said it was the heaviest musketry he ever heard. think it was as hot as ever was heard at any battle. I am glad to say that all the Putnam boys got through the fight all right and our company got off very well [compared] to what most of the companies in the regiment did. We only had one man wounded in our company. The regiment had 65 killed, missing, and wounded. 2
There is a mail going out and I must bring my letter to a close. I need not try to give you any account of the battle as you will get a full account of it before this letter reaches you. I am well and hope you are the same. I would write more but as the mail is going out now, I can’t. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Yours truly, — C. E. Koonts
Please give this to Mrs. E. A. Koonts and oblige. — Charles E.
1 The datelining of Koonts’ letter makes no sense to me whatsoever. The 19th OVI remained in the vicinity of Pittsburg Landing until advancing with the army on Corinth soon after this letter was written. Period newspapers refer to “Chickasaw Bluffs (4 different locations!) in the spring of 1862 but these are all in reference to sites near Memphis on the Mississippi river—not the Tennessee River.
2 “The 19th OVI arrived at Pittsburg Landing late in the evening on April 6, 1862, disembarking from the steamer Planet and forming a line behind the 59th Ohio Infantry. On April 7, attached temporarily to General William Nelson’s division within the 11th Brigade under Brigadier General Jeremiah T. Boyle, the 19th advanced under General Thomas L. Crittenden’s orders, shifting front to support Captain Joseph Bartlett’s Battery G on a hill brow [some 250 yards north of the Hornet’s Nest on the Eastern Corinth Road] while deploying skirmishers against Confederate positions in an open field. Facing intense artillery and sharpshooter fire, the regiment delivered volleys, dispatched two companies as skirmishers to aid Nelson’s division, and captured 10 to 12 prisoners while helping repel enemy assaults, demonstrating endurance in its first major combat despite heavy exposure. Losses included 4 killed (among them Major Lyman S. Edwards acting as lieutenant colonel), 44 wounded, and 8 missing, as reported by Colonel Samuel Beatty on April 9.” [Grokipedia]
Letter 13
Camp Childs
May 9th 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter dated April 21st and was very glad to hear from you. We have been on the march for several days and are now about eight miles off Corinth waiting for to make an attack on Corinth. We have been one month now advancing on Corinth and I suppose that our generals must have everything about ready for to commence operations.
Our boys all dread the coming battle but they think if we can whip them out of their entrenchments and take a lot of prisoners, it will be about our last fight and I wouldn’t be sorry if it was all done now for going into a battle is not what it is cracked up to be—especially for them that have never been in a fight, to march all day and get on a boat and be landed within a mile of the enemy about ten o’clock at night after getting on shore and drawn up in line, [and] ordered to lie down on our arms. After laying down about 15 minutes, it commenced raining or rather pouring down and the officers crying, “Keep your guns dry, boys!” You better believe it is a nice job sitting in the rain and mud till morning, get up and eat a piece of hard tack and a little flick [flitch]—if you got it—and then fall in ranks and load our guns and start for the secessioners.
Marching over the dead was about the first thing attracted our attention with the exception of the big guns that were firing all night to keep the enemy uneasy so they wouldn’t sleep too sound on the strength of their day’s work. They had a very nice victory won Sunday night and their intentions were to get up Monday morning and drive the Yankees into the river which would only be a breakfast job. But as it happened, the biggest part of Beull’s Army [of the Ohio] crossed [the river] Sunday evening and I suppose it kind of got them when they found that they were driven over the ground they had taken Sunday. Some of the prisoners said they thought that when they drove our men from camp to camp, all they would have to do Monday [would be] to get up and drive our men into the river. It has always been said that the secesh wouldn’t fight but I think you never will hear a man say that they won’t fite that was in the battle of Chiloh [Shiloh] plains. I guess that I have said enuf about the fite so I will dry up.
You said you wrote on the second but I haven’t received it yet. It must be delayed somewhere. Since we landed at Pittsburg, we have been in a wood ever since and every time we move our camp we have about a week’s work to clean out the underbrush and then we cut bushes and brush up the leaves. As we have no drill, I think it is a good idea, for some of the boys would lay around id they wasn’t drove to work or drill. All the Putnam boys that are in the company now are well and hearty.
I saw some of the 78th [Ohio] boys a couple weeks ago and I think they are about as homesick as there is any need to be. I saw Lieut. [Greenbury F.] Wiles and Card. They are both well. Lieut. Wiles is acting captain of Co. C in Capt. [Samuel W.] Spencer’s place. John Weaver, B. Scott, Mr. [William] Roper and [Asuph] Cooper, W. Curtis, [&] Chas. Buncher are all well but tired of soldiering. Jos. Osman wasn’t very well. He had [been] very sick but was better when I saw him.
Dinner is ready [and] I must go for my beans. I am well and hope you are the same. Excuse bad writing and mistakes. Goodbye, — Charles E.
Letter 14
Camp Battle Creek
August 8th 1862
Dear Sister,
I received your letter of July 30th and was glad to hear from you. We are still at Camp Battle Creek and no signs of leaving yet but there is no telling how soon we may have to leave. You said that Ben Drake said in his letter that we was still on half rations. I told you so in my letter but I expect Ben told you that we were about starved out. Half rations are about as little as a man can live on and do duty but we get along first rate as we were not out of money. We are getting full rations of eatables and clothing and our band has new instruments and we are getting full rations of music. It would be a great expense to the government to furnish each regiment with a band but we couldn’t get along without ours for we have had a band ever since we started and to be without it would make every day as dry as Sunday.
We drawed hats since we have been here and our band new instruments and a nice uniform and with all this, we can put on the style equal to the 78th [Ohio].
You said that Ben Drake talked of going in the regular service and that Howard [ ] and I thought of going. I told him about it and he said Howard and himself did talk of going but he hadn’t said anything about me. If he did, he knew more about it than I did myself for I haven’t thought of such a thing nor he has no reason to think I was going for when the the boys were talking about it, I never said I was going or would go as some did. There is a heap of talk about drafting. The boys are wishing that some of the fellows that got them into it and then stayed at home and talk about what we are doing [would be drafted]. There is some talk today of the President ordering three hundred thousand more. This suits the boys from what I can learn for the more the better for us.
You say I never said anything about Uncle Phil. I never did but I thought that I had told you that I had received your letter telling about him being captured.
I must bring my letter to a close as it is about time for dress parade. Before I close my letter I will say to you to direct your letters to the same as I told you before. Never direct them to any town for there is hospitals in most all the towns and no doubt but that is the way they are mislaid. Directions: Co. E, 19th Ohio Vols., USA, Crittenden’s Division, Buell’s Army [of the Ohio], is all that is required. I must now bring my letter to a close. I am well and hope that these few lines will find you the same. Yours truly, — Charles E.
P. S. Tell cousin Sam to write as soon as he is able.
Letter 15
[Murfreesboro, Tennessee]
Sunday morning, December [January] 11, 1863
It is with pleasure that I seat myself to let you know that I am still alive. I may not try to tell you anything about the fight [at Stones River], but I will say that it was a little warmer than I want to see again. Our division was on the left wing and the rebels broke out on the right and captured a battery and set the infantry to flight. Our brigade were sent for and when we got on the pike, our troops were coming on a full run. Our regiment and the 9th Kentucky were drawn up in line and a whole brigade went through our ranks. When they got out of the way, the rebels were right in sight coming full tilt. We let loose on them like a thousand of brick, as the saying is. We fired a few rounds when we got orders to charge. We checked them and drove them out of [the] woods where they had drove our men so nicely. This is the way we passed the old year off and New Years.
We were laying all day in readiness to go to any point that they might attack us. The next day we went a short distance across a creek and about three o’clock they came on us in large numbers. There was a whole brigade in front of us and when the rebels came on them, they fell back and come down through our ranks double quick. Our regiment and the 9th Kentucky were in line at the foot of the hill [when] someone yelled out, “Charge!” ad charge we did. We charged to the top of the hill and held them a few minutes but they were too strong for us. And besides, they outflanked us and we were compelled to fall back. They expected to get a battery of ours that had been wearying them all day but it was ordered back on another hill. But when we finished the work, we were ahead eight pieces of cannon, a large number of prisoners. and five of their men to one of ours on the field.
We had four of our company killed, thirteen wounded. Among them was G. Northup and W. Zigler wounded very slightly. I have no more time so I will bring my letter to a close.
P. S. I am well and hope these few lines will find you the same. Clara, your Benty is the meanest coward in the company. He run away every time. They have detached him to the hospital. The boys say that they hope he won’t never come back. The boys say he is a deceitful pup—that he is a lier and contemptible thief. I got a hold of his knapsack and looking for some paper to write, I seen a letter from you. I was surprised as I thought you knew Ben too well to write to such a contemptible snake as him. Don’t think me hard-hearted for this is my opinion and I hope you will take my advice. Yours truly, — Charles E.
P. S. We are now at Murfreesboro.
Spared & Shared 23 