This letter was written in 1885 by William Henry Harrison Lancaster (1840-1891) who first entered the Civil War in June 1861 as a member of Co. A, 17th Indiana Infantry. The regiment first saw combat at Greenbrier, Virginia in October of that year, then transferred to Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio where they took part in the western theatre. Co. A, however, was retained in the Cheat Mountain District of West Virginia and used as artillerists in Wilder’s Battery, Co. G.
From William’s letter we learn that at some unspecified point in time he transferred out of Wilder’s Battery into the military’s telegraph service where he worked as a telegraph operator and repairer. While posted at the New Creek Station in November 1864, he and others connected with the telegraph office were robbed, taken prisoner by Confederates under Rosser’s command, and taken to Castle Thunder where he endured some 15 weeks of captivity and nearly starved to death. His letter chronicles that experience.
William wrote the letter to Miss Sophia E. Eastman, an 1864 graduate of Wheaton Female Seminary (Norton, Mass.), in response to a request for information pertaining to his captivity at Caste Thunder. Sophia wrote a number of children’s and religious books in the latter half of the 19th century but I have not been able to determine why she was collecting stories of this nature. The letter was sent to 8 Mason street in Cambridge which was a boarding house.
As he states in his letter, William lived out his days in Earlham, Madison county, Iowa, working for the railroad. Sadly, William was killed in a horrific railroad accident near Earlham on 2 June 1891 at the age of 51 (see clippings below).
Transcription
Earlham, Iowa
September 15, 1885
Miss Sophia E. Eastman
8 Mason Street, Cambridge, Mass.
Yours received. Will be as brief as possible in writing you.
I was captured with a part of Col. Latham’s command at New Creek Station, W. Va. on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad by the command under Rebel General Rosser November 28th 1864. I was the U. S. Miltary Operator at that point. Although almost 21 years have passed since then, I can see it almost as plain as if it were but recent. We were captured by Rosser’s advance guards (dressed in Union soldier’s clothing) composed mostly of what they called themselves the Baltimore Plugs and they did not ask us to surrender but at the point of their revolvers surrender our money, watches, jewelry, and all other valuables—and so passed from man to man before their regulars come up and the latter put us in form[ation] for taking our names and occupation & marching on towards Richmond.
The first day out we had traded [probably forcefully] all our good clothing, consisting of coats, pants, vests, hats, and boots for their cast off clothing and we did not get a very good fit either in exchange. We laid out the first night after a very severe forced march with but very little to eat or wear. The second day I was barefooted and held on to the stirrups of two cavalrymen to keep up and was allowed to ride behind one of them for a few hours. At Harrisonville, a Methodist Minister gave me an old pair of shoes to cover my feet and a straw hat for my head. So we were marched into Staunton where we lay and tried to sleep on the cold damp ground, but very little sleep for the most of us. Here we took the cars for Richmond and put into Castle Thunder—about two squares from the old Libby Prison, in which castle I spent the winter.
Through the kindness of a friend, I shared his blanket, and for 7 or 8 days I lay on my back with not enough strength to get up. Nor did we get enough to eat to recover much strength either. It seemed to be their only aim to keep us a shadow as we were—that when we were exchanged they would get an able bodied man for our poor weak emaciated frames, which they [finally] did do about the middle of March 1865 when we were taken to Libby Prison and fed up well for two days waiting for the water to fall so we could go down the river in boats to our lines.
By the way, this same grub was taken from the boxes that had been shipped there for our starving soldiers and never given to them, and quite a number ate so much on the first day or two, they were taken sick and died on the eve of exchange praying for a sight at God’s country again. And Oh! what suffering. None but those who had been prisoners can ever tell—and they cannot either. It is indescribable. A hungry person I never want to or expect to see again. Still we are asked to forget and forgive. How can it be done? Never while life lasts. Impossible. Maybe you will find someone who remembers and who can picture it all out to you a living likeness of all the horrors of a prison pen in rebeldom during the years of 1861 to 1865 inclusive. I cannot.
I served as operator and line repairer in the outposts in West Virginia at Cheat Mountain, … Bull town, and Charleston. We did not have all the delicacies of the season at any place but fared about the same as our soldiers and we did not complain at that. I lost everything I had, unfitted for any service that would command good wages. I am making a living for myself, wife, and boy, and that is about all as agent or operator on the CRJ&PRR, and have been for the last 15 years. I never cared much about a pension but there are but a few of us who would like in some honorable way to get back what we had made, saved, and lost by capture. I left out about 1000 dollars worse than nothing. No clothes. No work. No money and in bad health and yet every Fall, Winter, Spring I suffer a great deal with neuralgia or rheumatism contracted during captivity by hunger and exposure.
I believe you would get a good deal of information as regards the military operations by looking over Plumb’s History of the U. S. Military Telegraph Company. It is too late in the day for a great many of us to remember much that should be written & remembered by the future generations of what we did do and suffer without a complaint, as well as without a reward from the Government. I was in rebel prison but three and a half months—yet they passed as so many years. I suppose after we are dead and gone a grateful people will kindly mention our names and likely give our children a tin medal as a reward for the services rendered by their Fathers. You will pardon me for not being able to write the information you desire. I do not know why you want the information but hope whatever you do will be to the interest of all of us. I remain yours truly, — W. H. H. Lancaster.
[The second smaller note reads]
Earlham, Iowa
Sept 26th 1905
Yours of 19th received. I have no serious objections with [your use of] the story of my capture. It is all true, but not in grammatical form for publication. If that can be looked over, go ahead. I neglected to tell you that I enlisted in the 17th Indiana Regt. Vols in Co. A. in June 1861 and was transferred to the military telegraph service in which service I served out my 3 years but remained in the service until my capture in Nov 1864 and released in March 1865, making my time in the field and as prisoner almost 4 years. I remain yours very respectfully, W. H. H. Lancaster.
Spared & Shared 23 