6th New Jersey Infantry

1861-65: George W. Hill to Mary Jane (Hill) Canning

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The following letters were written by George W. Hill (b. 1842) of Beverly, Burlington county, New Jersey, while serving in Co. F, 6th New Jersey Infantry. He wrote the letters to his sister, Mary J. Hill (b. 1840). In the 1850 US Census, George and Mary were living with their uncle Thomas Foster (b. 1816) in Duck Hundred, Kent, county, Delaware. Also living in the same household was their grandmother, Elizabeth Foster (b. 1797). By the time of the 1860 US Census, Thomas Foster had relocated to Beverly, Burlington county, New Jersey, and George’s sister Mary had married (1859) to Jacob (“Jake”) Adams Canning (1838-1905). During the war, Jake had served as a drummer in Co. H, 29th Pennsylvania Infantry.

According to the company records, George enlisted as a private on 7 August 1861 to serve three years in the 6th New Jersey Infantry. He was promoted to corporal in late August 1861 and then busted back to private in November 1861. In August 1862, just before the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, he was reported as a deserter, and was not returned to duty until 16 November 1863. Where and what he did during this period of time isn’t known but he subsequently was detailed as a clerk for Gen. Gershom Mott so he must have been forgiven for his absence. The last letter suggests George has been considerably weakened by illness so he may have missed several months of duty at war’s end.

Letter 1

Addressed to Mr. Thomas Foster, Beverly, Burlington county, New Jersey

Arlington Heights
Wednesday, June 19, 1861

Dear Grandmother, sister, uncle, and brother-in-law,

I take my pen in hand to write you these few lines to let you know that I am enjoying good health at present and I hope these few lines find you the same. I received your kind and affectionate letter and money and was glad to hear from you all. I got the box of provision that Mrs. Craythorn sent to me and when I opened it I discovered a package that said on it to George W. Hill sent to him by his grandmother and I think more of that package than any other. You don’t say anything about how Jo Coney serve me. It will only make a fuss between him and me.

There was a little fight night before last. We had a parade out on a large field. There was nine regiments there and among them was one of the Ohio regiments and after the parade was dismissed, they started for their encampment and they were attacked before they reached their quarters. It was after they reached their quarters, I learn since. I heard the report of the guns. It was about one o’clock at night. I had just went on guard.

I have got use to way of encampment now and it seems to me from my post there is no talk of us moving. Some of our brigade moved last night. I don’t know where they are gone to. There is a talk of an attack tonight. If they don’t attack tonight, they won’t do it at all. If they come tonight, we will knock spots out of them. We will get behind the breastwork.

I suppose you read it in the paper. I just wish you could see this place once. I was in Washington yesterday. I was all through the Smithsonian Institute.

Write and let me know if you got the box of Washington that I sent you. I been in all them places that was on that paper. From your brother, — George Hill

Give my love to all. Don’t forget to write. Let me know if I had a letter from Delaware.

Letter 2

Headquarters
Hooker’s Division
December 15th 1861

Dear Sister,

I take this opportunity of answering your letter which I received this evening and was glad to hear from you all and that you was all well and doing well. Last Friday I got the long looked for—that is, that bundle. Everything come safe. I was never prouder of anything inn my life than I was of that blanket for that night I slept under it and slept as warm as you please. And if there is anything like keeping warm, I am going to do it, and that box for it will come safe and mark the things that is from me. The Quartermaster goes into the city on purpose after the boxes every week. I was glad to get such a long letter. Always write a long letter.

Sister, let me know where I shall direct when I write now he has moved; there may be some difference. I have been going to write for some time. I wrote two and did not get any answer.

Sister, last Sunday we was out on picket guard along the Potomac River, The Beverly Boys are all well. We are all in one tent and we have got them fixed nice. We have got a fire place made in our tent and bedsteads built up off the ground and we sleep bully.

We signed the pay roll today and we will get paid off in two weeks from today. I got the blanket, the mittens, the scarf, the tobacco, and am very thankful for them. I would like to be in Bryan’s regiment for I would have been there all the time. When they leave Beverly, let me know. I don’t think they will ever get to the seat of war.

That was a very strange dream that Uncle had about me. That snake—that was what got me. So one of the boys is sitting reading the Burlington paper. It has got Capt. [George C.] Burling‘s letter in it. Get it and read it. It’s dated 14th. In it you will see accounts of our march which is very interesting.

I am going to write to write to Homer and Jake too for I am anxious to hear from both. Write soon. I believe we are still in the same or in the neighborhood. I believe I have wrote all the particulars. Give my love to all my friends. Don’t forget the stuffed peppers for my mouth is all getting out of shape waiting for them.

I shall expect to see your likeness in the box. Don’t forget Sidy. Hang mine up in the privy. It will be good for the diarrhea. Mamma, keep in [good] spirits for your grandson will be a help to you in your old days. Nary one has told you so, have they not? I am glad to think that the Beverly folks are yet so kind to you as to send you some coal. I am glad to hear that uncle has got work. It won’t be very long before I can send you some more money.

The papers say that Charleston is laying in ashes. I will have to bring my letter to a close. From your brother to his sister, and grandmother and uncle. Truly yours, — George W. Hill

Write soon. Don’t forget to send the peppers for I am waiting. Truly yours, — George W. Hill

Letter 3

Rum Point
January 7, 1862

Dear Sister,

I received your kind letter just now and was glad to hear from you and that you was well but sorry to hear of uncle being sick. You said you had not received a letter from me. Sister, I have wrote two—one just after I got my box of things which came to me safe enough with the exceptions of a few of the pies [that] were mashed by the jar of pickles but I enjoyed my chicken and other things.

Now you all no doubt would like to see me come [home] just as bad as I would like to come. Now if you would just write in your next letter that some of the family was very sick and wasn’t expected to live, I would show the letter to Capt. [George C.] Burling and no doubt but what he would give me a furlough to come home. I seen Jim Colwell and he told me he was coming home on a furlough. The regiment he belongs to is only a half a mile from ours.

Dear sister, never think that I have forgot my home for I have not and never will as long as I draw breath. I am proud to think that I have a place that I can say, that’s my home. There’s where I have a doting grandmother, and affectionate uncle, and loving sister, and God forbid that I should turn traitor to my home. I can see my mama sitting by the stove with her arms folded and head resting on her knees, and likewise uncle the same while my sister is penning a few lines to her only brother that has gone forth in the defense of his mother country to protect her rights.

Dear sister, I am writing just as I feel. It is early in the morning and the glorious sun is shining down upon us with all its rays. The boys are building log houses to live in and when finished, will be warm. I hope you will never think that I have forgotten home. I am very well satisfied here as long as I can hear that all is in good health at home and getting along in regards living.

We have signed the pay roll and expect to be paid off in a day or two and I will send it to you as soon as I get it and use it as you like. Never let hard times worry you. If you want coal, send me word and I can have it hauled right to your door for you from Burlington. All I have to do is to go to Capt. Burling and tell him—he keeps a coal yard in Burlington—and he will send word to his brother.

I will have to bring my letter to a close sending you all my love. My regards to Aunt Lacy.

Truly yours, — George W. Hill

Write soon as possible and let me know how uncle is. I shall be uneasy till I hear from him. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Letter 4

Shipping Point, Virginia
April 20th 1862

Dear Sister,

I now sit down to write you a few lines to let you know that I am well and in good spirits and hope that these few lines will find you all the same. I received your letter and was glad to hear from you and that you was all well. We are now about 5 miles from Yorktown and when you hear from me again, I shall be in Yorktown. There will be a very hard fight at this place. The rebels have a very strong force at this place. If you don’t hear from me for awhile, don’t be uneasy about me for I heard that all the letters was going to be stopped till after the fight. I don’t know how true it is but if it is, don’t be uneasy about me.

We expect to move every hour today, to proceed on closer to Yorktown to throw up breastworks. They have been firing at one another back and forward for two or three days. Wounded some on both sides. From what I can hear, the attack will be made next week sometime.

Dear sister, it has been a long time since I saw you. I never thought that I could stay away from home this long but a person don’t know what he can do till he tries. It is now Sunday night and it is raining and been raning all day long and I am sitting in my tent [with] just room to turn around. We have little tents made to carry in our knapsacks—two men to a tent. They button together and each man carries half a tent. We have a nice man for our captain—ten times nicer than Captain Burling. His name is Jacob VanRiper. 1

The Patterson Daily Register, 15 April 1862

We are going to move again tomorrow morning up nearer Yorktown. I want you to get the Burlington dollar paper and read the letter in it from Company F that one of our boys wrote to the editor of that paper. It will tell you all the particulars of our move from Rum Point. There was 1400 of us aboard of one boat—the John Brooks. We lived in devilish boat for five days. Just think of 1400 men on one [boat] five days in the rain the best part of the time. I have seen a great many fellows I knowed—Joseph Toms, Charley Adams, and Caspar Adams and the 3rd Regiment lays about a mile from us aboard the John Warner and all the Beverly Boys are in that regiment. I saw Nelson Fish, Jim lay Gelby, Bill Leonard, Gus Bevitts and Al Bishop and a great many more.

I am acquainted with both of them men that was there. One is [William A.] Bird and the other [Charles] Borden. Bird played off sick and got his discharge. The package that is coming for you is a pair of pants and a pair of drawers. It was the night before we started from Rum Point. I was going to throw mine away and Jim Smith come in the tent and says, “Hilly. have you anything to send home?” Says he, “I am going to send something home and now is your chance.” So I study awhile and could not think of anything to send but them pants.

I will have bring my letter to a close by sending you my love. Write soon. From your brother, — George W. Hill

Look for money in the next letter. They owe us 52 dollars at the end of this month. Don’t forget to send a paper to read. New York Weekly. Don’t forget to get that Dollar Newspaper and read it. 19th of April.

Sidy, tell Mary that I got her letter and paper and will answer after we move.

1 Capt. George Childs Burling (1834-1885) was promoted from Captain of Co. F to Major of the 6th New Jersey Regiment on 19 March 1862. He later became the Lt. Colonel and then Colonel of the regiment.

Letter 5

Camp 6th Regt. New Jersey Vols.
February 28th [1864]

My Dear Sister,

I received your kind letter this evening. I gave me great pleasure to hear from you. Tonight is Sunday eve. The weather has been warm for the past week. The 6th Corps is on a reconnoissance and the remainder of the ARmy is under marching orders ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Dear sister, by this time you have seen some of the boys from Co. F and perhaps talked with them. I have no duty to do. I am done working for Gen. [Gershom] Mott. There is 6 men left in Co. F. I am acting 1st Sergeant of them so that excuses me from all kind of duty like picket and guard.

Jake must not think hard of me for not writing to him. I hope I will have a chance to see him before long. I hear that those that has reenlisted will be assigned to the Army of the Potomac. If so, I will see him. He could not do anything better than buy a house with his money but 400 dollars for that house is too much money. If I wanted a house, I would buy one in the country and get piece of land with it.

Yesterday I had a dinner that put me in mind of home. I will tell you what it was composed of. 1st was boiled pork, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, a cup of cold coffee, and to top out we had a half dozen mince pies but that was all. For supper tonight was as much fried tripe as we could eat.

That’s about all we get to do at present. The drums are playing tattoo. It is cloudy. A storm is on hand but we prepared for it. Plenty of wood and a fire place large enough to burn a house if it was not so large. I never was in better sprits in my life and hope I will always be so.

I was sorry to hear that dear uncle has been so sick. He is very unfortunate as far as sickness is concerned but I hope that he will be better soon. Tell Mama that I will be home when my time is out. Kiss Edith for me. I will close. I still remain your true brother, — George W. Hill

Letter 6

3rd Division Hospital
June 28th 1865

Dear Sister,

Your letter came duly at hand a few days ago and it pleased me very much to hear from all. The money you sent me came all right. Don’t send any more. Keep it yourself for I have a prospect of getting home now soon. The talk is we start the 8th of July. They say we would of been home before this if we could get transportation.

Well, dear friends, I have to tell you there was a happy meeting the other day. I was laying in my bed and had just turned over and who should I see but my dear brother-in-law, Jake. I was so full that I could scarcely speak to him. It was a joyful meet. He stayed with me all the afternoon and had a good talk about home and old times. He looks as hearty as a buck and it does make me feel so bad to see people in such good health and enjoying themselves and here is poor me—nothing but a bunch of bones and not got ambition enough to move.

We will all be at home before the latter part of August and I think I will be at home in less than a week. The sergeant of my company came over to see me last night and he told me that the Lieutenant of my company was going to see what he could do for me.

Today I received a letter from Hannah last evening. She wrote me a very nice affectionate letter. Ross wrote part of it. I was surprised at the writing. He is going to make a good penman.

I am getting better. I get porter to drink and it strengthens me more than anything else. I should like to spend 4th of July with you but if the regiment was going home tomorrow, I could not go for I am too weak. I will have to close for the present. My love to all. From your loving brother, — G. W. Hill

Illinois Homefront, Morgan's Raid

1863: Flora Angeline Brooks to James Allen Brooks

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How Flora might have looked

The following letter was written by Flora Angeline Brooks (1851-1947), the 12 year-old daughter of Thomas Martin Brooks (1803-1881) and Sarah Brown Chenowith (1808-1865) of Paris, Edgar county, Illinois. Flora wrote the letter to her brother James Allen Brooks (b. 1844). She also mentions her brother Henry Erastus Brooks (b. 1847). Flora married Rev. John C. Ely (1849-1920), a Presbyterian Minister. They were married in 1887 and later moved to Kentucky.

At the time that Flora wrote this letter, her brother James was serving in a home guard militia under the command of Capt. Mitchell Campbell Lilley (1819-1897) based out of Columbus, Ohio. Early in the war, Lilley served as Captain of Co. H, 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI), but ill health forced him to resign from active service in January 1863 and return to Columbus where he took command a home guard militia for the duration of the war.

Flora’s letter contains some interesting news. She informs her brother of the competing Fourth of July celebrations hosted in Paris by both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party—the latter being predominantly composed of citizens with southern-leaning sympathies who she refers to as “butternuts.” According to a thesis by Scott Parkinson published in 1988 who studied the effects of the Civil War in Edgar county, “anti-war feelings did not come to a boil until late in the war” as the war dragged on in what was traditionally a Democratic, mostly southern-bred population. “In early February 1864, the growing agitation erupted into violence for the first time as Copperheads and furloughed soldiers clashed in Mattoon, Illinois, in what is known as the ‘Mattoon Incident.’ The editor of the Paris Times blamed the incident on Copperheads belong to the subversive secret society (Knights of the Golden Circle).” A similar event occurred in Paris later in February 1864 when soldiers of the 12th and 66th Illinois skirmished with Copperheads trying to seize an arsenal of weapons in the town.

Flora also mentions the turn out by organized home militia units to confront John Hunt Morgan as he made his raid through southern Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio during July 1863. She also describes the celebrations in Paris, Illinois, upon hearing the news of the surrender of Vicksburg—a great letter written 160 years ago this month.

[Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Greg Herr and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Addressed to James A. Brooks, Columbus, Ohio, Care of Capt. M. C. Lilley

[Illinois]
July 13th 1863

Dear Brother,

I am very sorry that I did not get to see you before you went away but we did not get the letter until late in the evening. Then it was too late to come home that day. Tilla Beaver and I were out to Mr. Elliott’s last Friday. We had a nice time. Charlie and Ellie were here the Fourth of July. It was said the Union Party had twice as many as the butternuts. They had their picnic in Conley’s Grove and the Union Party had their in Mr. Mayo’s Grove. 1

There was some ladies came in on horseback from Stratton township dressed in uniform. They had black hats with a white feather in them, a pink waist, a blue sash, and a white skirt with a blue stripe around it. They looked very nice but they would have looked nicer if it had been a pretty day. There was a girl asked me if they belonged to the Democratic Party. I said no indeed. Would not the butternuts have felt big if they had have belonged to their party. They had a big wagon from Grandview 2 that they had up here the time of the big Democratic meeting. It had a large crib of lattice work around it. While it was passing by the Booth’s corner, 3 a little boy hallowed, “Hurrah for Lincoln!” The butternuts have to be pissed.

Bob Collom and Jake went by here in a company last Saturday that was made up the night before. It had one hundred and thirty men in it. They were going to Indiana to help clean Morgan out. He is in there with five—or eight I should say—thousand cavalry. He has burnt Salem and several other towns.

Henry went out to Mr. Mapeses last Friday to work. He kept up with the men all day. He made a dollar and a quarter. He is out at Uncle John’s this week plowing corn. He gets fifty cents a day. Nan went to Grandview last Tuesday. We don’t know when she will be back. There is none but Pa and Ma and I at home now. It is very lonesome. Pa has one of his bad sick spells like he had before you went away.

The night we heard Vicksburg was taken we had quite a jubilee. They had bonfires of store boxes and barrels. Two girls caught a fire by camp fire balls. One was standing close by me when she caught fire. The other one had her dress torn off her. They drew a camp fire ball up on the flag pole. It was seen six or seven miles. We had two cannons. They heard them at Grandview. We had four speeches. The speakers were John Blackburn, 4 Mr. Kimber, [Solomon] Spink, and Old Father Young. The glee club sang a good many songs.

Pa would like for you to say in your next letter whether you had to furnish your own horse or not. Now I must close. Write soon to your sister, — Flora A. Brooks

1 “Mayo’s Grove” was probably the wooded block of ground between East Court and East Wood streets that Colonel May donated to the city. A school house was later built there.

2 Grandview is a small community some eight miles southwest of Paris, Illinois.

3 Walter Booth (1823-1881) kept a dry goods store in downtown Paris. He was a prominent citizen of the town, reelected to the town council many times and twice elected mayor.

4 John Widener Blackburn (1825-1894) was a lawyer in Paris, Edgar county, Illinois. He is mentioned in this letter to Abraham Lincoln.

Georgia Homefront

1864: Charles Lathrop Williams to Isaac Harris

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The following letter was written by Charles Lathrop Williams, SR. (1811-1886) of Nacoochee, White county, Georgia. Charles was married to Hannah B. Hollingsworth (1812-1887) in the mid-1830s. Charles mentions his son “Jimmie” being at home. This was James Hollingsworth Williams (1845-1909) who served in Co. C, 24th George Infantry. His headstone claims him to have been a captain but military records show him as a 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant, taken prisoner at Sailor’s Creek on 6 April 1865. He is buried in the Rock Creek Cemetery near Washington D. C.

The letter also mentions George H. Conley (b. 1841), the son of Henry Highland Conley (1798-1866) and Nancy Brown (1801-1881) of Sautee, White county, Georgia. George also served in the same company with Jimmie.

John Conley is also mentioned. This was presumably George Conley’s brother (1828-1890) who served in Co. D, 5th Georgia Infantry. George enlisted in August 1862 and was taken prisoner at Missionary Ridge on 25 November 1863. He was sent to Rock Island Prison in December 1863 but did not stay there long. He took the Oath of Allegiance to the US and joined the US Navy in January 1864. This explains why the family had not heard from him.

Finally, with respect to the slave sale mentioned at the end of the letter, this transaction was between Charle’s brother, Edwin Poore Williams (1814-1896) and Jerome England (1822-1890) who also served in the 24th Georgia Infantry, in Co. G—at least early in the war.

[Note: This letter is from the private collection of Greg Herr and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Nacoochee, Georgia
June 28, 1864

Isaac Harris, Esqr.

Dear Sir—Your kind letter was received. We are at all times pleased to hear from our old friend. Your friends in the Valley are all well. We are now having a nice time for working out our corn and potatoes—also to eat our small grain. Corn is small but looks promising. We got in the weeds during the wet weather but are now mowing them down.

My wife and Jimmie also is at home. Went up to Uncle Conley’s on yesterday. He and George Conley leaves for the army on Thursday. Cousin Mother Richardson is at her mother’s. Left John all behind. He is now in the Yankee line at Dalton. She has not heard from him in a long time. We heard from John Conley this week. He is at Rock Island. It is a prison. Osa is in the army. Prior Pitner and family are all well. Sam Gibby is his farmer and poor fellow sick—old complaint consumption.

Jerome England sold all his negroes to Bro. Edwin. His sister Mrs. Boyd is staying with him. Our rye and wheat is well filled but thin. My little lot beyond my house made [ ] doz. I cut my turnip patch lot today. Both lots are good wheat. Oats soon and we have the nicest sweet potatoes here you ever saw and clean at that. We have 7 acres in sweet and Irish potatoes.

All my family with all the old friends sends their love to you. Yours truly, — C. L. Williams

137th Ohio Infantry, 7th Ohio National Guard, Fort McHenry, Sketches

1864: Augustus B. Frazer to Kate R. (Coates) Frazier

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A self portrait of the author, Augustus B. Frazer. He has captioned it: “Ye party as he appeared on guard duty. Thinks he would a heap rather be with his frow [at] home living in quietude & repose. Hour two in the morning taken on the spot by our Special Artist.”

The following letter was written by a soldier named “Gus” from Cincinnati whom we learn was a member of the “Hundred Days Men” of Ohio. Who were these men? The following excerpt from an excellent article by Kyle Nappi explains:

By the Spring of 1864, the United States had suffered considerable strain in its effort to preserve the union and defeat the Confederacy. “There was scarcely a family in the North who did not suffer sorrow that cannot be described,” one Yankee veteran recalled in his twilight years. “Hardly a fireside that did not mourn for a husband or lover, brother or friend, who went forth with pride, never to return.” Ohio had already sent a tenth of its total population off to war. Nonetheless, Buckeye Governor John Brough drafted a bold proposal to encourage the recruitment of short-term soldiers from the Midwestern states in attempt to mount additional pressure upon the Confederacy.

On April 21, 1864, Governor Brough submitted the ambitious gambit to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln. “The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoning from the date of muster into the service of the United States.”

“The foregoing proposition,” the President promptly replied, “is accepted…the Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution. Thus, the Hundred Days Men were born. Ohio would furnish thirty thousand new recruits, Indiana and Illinois would enlist twenty thousand apiece, Iowa ten thousand, and Wisconsin five thousand. “The call was intended as a herald to the last great Union thrust that would topple the Confederacy like a sudden wind against a weakened tree.” In the span of two weeks, the Buckeye state recruited 35,982 volunteers and organized them into forty-one regiments. “This prompt and energetic action,” Secretary Stanton relayed to Governor Brough, “exhibit an unmatched effort of devoted patriotism and stern determination to spare no sacrifice to maintain the National Government and overthrow the rebellion.” [See When Johnny Comes Marching Home.]

Gus’s father, Hiram Frazer (1805-1891)

Among the Ohio units raised during the summer of 1864 was the 137th Ohio Vol. Infantry (OVI). They were mustered into the service on 6 May and mustered out on 21 August, 1864. It was designated under the militia law of Ohio as the 7th Ohio National Guard, composed of citizens of Cincinnati, and was organized for the 100 days’ service as the 137th Ohio volunteer infantry. A sketch in Gus’s letter depicting himself sitting on the ground with a rifle across his lap has the insignia “7 K” on the cap so searching the 70 man roster of that company turns up Augustus (“Gus”) B. Frazer (1834-1914) who was married to Kate (Katz”) R. Coates (1837-1905) on 10 September 1860 in Cincinnati, Hamilton county, Ohio. Though his name appears as Frazier in military and census records, his death certificate gives his name as Frazer and lists his parents names as Hiram Frazer (1805-1891) and Isabella Palmer. The Frazer’s made their home in Cincinnati in the 1860s at 117 John Street where Hiram earned his living in the insurance business and was an active, proud member of the Odd Fellows.

Gus was not the first member of the family to put on a military uniform. He had an older brother named Hiram who enlisted during the War with Mexico, serving in Co. E (the “Kenton Rangers”), 2nd Kentucky Infantry under the command of Capt. Cutter. Details of his service, his death on the battlefield at Buena Vista, and of his father’s traveling to Mexico to recover his son’s body are described in various newspaper clippings below.

Transcription

Fort McHenry [Baltimore, Maryland]
Friday, July 22, 1864

Just as I sit down to dinner I received your very dear letter of the 19th. It’s unnecessary to say I was happy for it was [ ] express it. I immediately read it and after partaking of dinner, I settle myself down like one in the act of writing & to the dearest little creature on earth.

We had quite a good dinner today—kraut, corn beef, and bread was what Uncle Sam gave us but having a little money we concluded to treat ourselves to something better which was composed of blackberries, huckleberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, milk & pitted apples [illegible due to paper crease]. What do you think of that for soldier dinner.

I received a letter from Father yesterday in which was enclosed ten dollars & he said if I wanted any more to let him know. He arrived safe home without any difficulty & says all the folks in Cincinnati are getting along nicely & said when I wrote to give you his love. Katz, I believe there is one or two letters that I have written to you that you have never received as you made no mention of some things that I know would have interested you. One in particular—the arrest of Johnny R. Johnston who is now confined here in the fort. 1

Katz, I can’t tell when I will be in Cincinnati but will give you the report which is pretty generally believed here—that is, we are to leave here on the 28th of this month & go to Fortress Monroe & from there take a lot of prisoners to Camp Chase and then to remain until mustered out which of course I don’t know when but suppose at the expiration of our time which will be about the 19th of August, making our hundred days.

A self portrait of Gus with the caption: “Ye boy making preparation for to write, or in other words, a write boy.”

There is nothing new here of any importance. I gave you full particulars of the raid on this place. Did you get the letter? I came off guard this morning. Was on the provost [guard] and had the pleasure of promenading that fence you saw while here. But the day being quite pleasant, I had a nice time in comparison to what I had while [you were] here.

“There was about 100 Rebs taken away yesterday to be exchanged but a good many wouldn’t go and said they would take the oath and go into the navy (Union) before they would go back and fight for the South as that was played out with them.”

Pvt. Gus Frazer, Co. K, 7th ONG, Ft. McHenry, 22 July 1864

There was about 100 Rebs taken away yesterday to be exchanged but a good many wouldn’t go and said they would take the oath and go into the navy (Union) before they would go back and fight for the South as that was played out with them.

You ask me, Katz, what I think of the war. My opinion is it will last some time to come but the North eventually will conquer. But I am sorry to say, Katz, if all the North was like me, I am afraid that it would go under in short order as I am, I think, a very poor soldier—more particular in the position I now hold, but believe I could stand it better if I was colonel or even a captain. But a common solder is too much of a nobody to suit my style.

I think if Grant don’t take Richmond & has to fall back, the end will be as far off as at the beginning. But I hope I may be mistaken. But you know Katz, hoe I believe. It’s all for the best. Let it go one way or the other—there is one looking down on it that will bring it to a proper end, let that be which it will.

Eph 2 hasn’t made his appearance as yet & I suppose won’t if the above report is true about us going away. I would like to see [him], next to my dear little wife (on this earth), than anyone I can think of. Did he say anything to you, Katz, about his picture. He spoke of it in a letter I got from him before you came out and said he would do it some time.

Katz, I find it a grand nuisance to try to draw anything here as just as sure as I do, the whole company gather around me wanting to know who and what is that. It makes me awful made, I tell you. I have got so I just stop when anybody comes up. It’s not very pleasant to have one looking over one’s shoulder while they are writing. I wouldn’t care if I was just making a drawing, but there is always some writing on the same paper. That is the reason I have not drawn as much as I would have done.

Gus’s caption reads: “Ye Party concludes to take a bath & found that old pair of drawers he lost last winter.”

We have a very nice place to bathe here as you would think if here. About seven o’clock most any evening, men of all sizes, shapes, and colors go tumbling around in the water like so many porpoises. I was in one night & a crab, I suppose, caught me by the toe. You better believe I did some tall kicking. If he had caught me by someplace else (John-H), I don’t know what I would have done. It would have been pretty hard on it, wouldn’t it. I don’t know which. I don’t mind it being pinched but object to the claws.

Duke 3 is on guard today. He looks well & is well but all the time complains of something. What he don’t know ain’t worth knowing & what he can’t do ain’t worth doing. In fact, he thinks he knows it all & don’t know anything. He said the other night he was on guard in the reb prison someone of them threw a brick at him when he immediately cocked his gun & told them the first one that did that again was a dead man when they immediately quieted down & kept so during his watch. Don’t that make you mad (Ye-hoo). I have been in there and I think they are the most quiet of any in the fort. But you know him as well as I.

But I am hearty sick of this place. It has got to be such an old thing & think a change would be a relief [and] so all the rest of us think. As I said before, Katz, when I go soldiering again, it will be because there is no way of getting out of it.

I see by the paper they intend sending us home & over into Kentucky after the rebs but I think it all foolishness & don’t believe it but would like that first rate. So you see I don’t mind staying home to fight but don’t like to get so far from home. I say home but its not home how without my dear little wife. It’s only when I come from [here] and will be home when she returns which I hope will be when I do. I don’t care if its only an hour before [just] so you are there when I come for if I would go in that old house, it would seem awful dreary & lonesome. But to be greeted by that smiling face is all I ask.

Gus’s caption on this sketch reads: “The above Katz, is you, Mother, Sister, Father, and Husband as they appeared in Fort McHenry.”

Dear Katz, I must close this as I here fall in for dress parade and also want to get it into the mail so it will go out this evening. Goodbye Katz. God bless you in the fervent prayer of your affectionate husband, — Gus

Give my love to Elenor and Annie & all my relation.

1 Johnny R. Johnston (1826-1895) was an American portrait and landscape painter influenced by the Hudson River School. He moved to Baltimore in 1856 and early in the Civil War served as the Colonel of the 1st Maryland Regiment. He was arrested at the time that Gen. Early’s men threatened the city and charged with “endeavoring to persuade persons to join the Southern army.” He was kept in Fort McHenry until 1 August when he was made to take the Oath of Allegiance, post $10,000 bond, and (curiously) to cut his extremely long hair, which he complied with.

2 Ephram Frazer (1830-1869) was Gus’s older brother. In the 1860 US Census he was enumerated in his parents home in Cincinnati’s 6th Ward and was employed as an “engraver of wood.”

3 “Duke” was surely 28 year-old Marmaduke Shannon Anderson (1836-1894) who also served as a private in Co. K, 7th ONH (137th OVI). Marmaduke was the son of William Anderson (1801-1867) and Eliza Shannon (1807-18xx) of Cincinnati.

Clippings related to Gus’s older brother Hiram Frazer who was killed at the Battle of Buena Vista during the War with Mexico.

63rd Pennsylvania Infantry

1862: George Weaver to Algernon S. M. Morgan

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The following letter was written by George Weaver who mustered into Co. C (the “Hanna Guards”), 63rd Pennsylvania Infantry on 1 August 1861. He was promoted to 1st Sergeant on 2 March 1862 and then received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant on 16 June 1862. In February 1863 he was elevated to captain of his company.

Transcription

Camp near Yorktown, Va.
April 13th, 1862

Lt. Col. A. S. M. Morgan

Sir, being on picket on April 11th after the skirmish, I was with part of Co. C along the fence until late in the evening, Capt. [Jason R.] Hanna called me to the road and told me that I was wanted to go along with a company of the 2d Michigan Regt. and assist them to post their pickets. Capt. Hanna then referred me to you for instructions which you gave me in this manner. You told me to “proceed up the road as far as the middle fence between the woods and peach orchard and file left and post the men along the fence until I come opposite to our old line of outposts and then incline to left so as to connect with our pickets on the left in some low cedars.”

I started with the company and done as I was told but the men run out before we reached the cedars and the captain and myself went on to the cedars. While we was walking over to cedars, we heard coughing and the captain asked me what that was. “Coughing,” I told him. It was our pickets on the left. We then started back and the captain told one of his officers to straighten up the line a little while he went back to the reserve after some more men.

— George Weaver, O. S., Co. C, 63rd Penn. Vols.

American Revolution, Bordeaux, France

1779: William Vernon, Jr. to William Vernon, Sr.

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The following 1779 letter may appear to be a simple letter from a “dutiful and affectionate” son to his father, but it is actually a significant historical document that may have provided the first indication that the Revolutionary War in America might yet result in American Independence. The letter was penned by William Vernon, Jr. in Bordeaux, France, to his father (and namesake) William Vernon, Sr. in Boston, where the elder Vernon was functioning, by appointment of the Continental Congress, as president of the Continental Naval Board (precursor the Dept. of the Navy). The letter conveys the all important intelligence that Spain had joined France in a war against Great Britain which ensured that the British would have to spread their resources even thinner than before. Though Spain could not be persuaded to encourage the Americans in their quest to free themselves from the imperial control of their motherland, the alliance with France in a war against Great Britain effectively and indirectly endorsed the revolt.

Vernon, Jr, who graduated from what is now Princeton University in 1776, was sent by his father to France in 1778 (travelling with John Adams). He served for a time as an assistant there to Benjamin Franklin (with whom he continued a relationship thereafter). Vernon, Jr. stayed in France after the Revolutionary war ended until 1795 when he reluctantly returned to Newport upon his father’s threat to disown him if he did not. When passing through Bordeau on his way to Spain to negotiate matters of commerce in 1780, John Adams visited William Vernon, Jr. where he found him “in perfect health” and “that he had pursued his studies to such a purpose as to speak French very well.” [Letter from John Adams to William Vernon, 16 March 1780]

Interestingly, Vernon, Sr, both before and after the Revolutionary War was notorious in his playing a major role in the importation of African slaves into the U. S. and West Indies as part of the Triangular Trade. It is estimated that he and his brother Samuel owned as many as eight slave trafficking vessels and in the course of over 60 years, the Vernons financed well over forty slave voyages to the coast of West Africa.

The William Vernon Family Residence in Newport, Rhode Island

[Note: This letter is from the private collection of Richard Weiner and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Bordeaux, [France]
July 12, 1779

Honored Sir,

The enclosed packet was intended by the Buckskin, Capt. [Aquila] Johns,1 who very unexpectedly left it upon my hands since which several events of consequence have taken place.

The Spanish Plenipotentiary at the Court of Britain gave in a Manifesto signifying his master’s displeasure at the proceedings of the British Ministry & his orders to withdraw. The 20th of June, Lord Grantham 2 withdrew from the Spanish Court & the 21st, war was declared against Great Britain. Two fleets have arrived at Brest from the West Indies consisting of upwards of 20 sail each under the convoy of three frigates. The British fleet consisting of 33 sail of the line under the command of Admiral [Thomas] Hardy has returned to port after remaining a few days in the Channel.

I have the pleasure to inform you that Mr. Bon.’d had obtained admittance for me into the House of Messrs. Freyer & Frerer; I shall enter the counting house next week. I have shipped by the General Mercer 3 a cap containing articles to the amount of 9.4.10 [ ] addressed to Mr. Hews. The captain attending and crying at every moment in my ear forces me to conclude this abruptly.

Your very dutiful and affectionate son, — W. Vernon, Jun.

1 The 200-ton Maryland Privateer Ship Buckskin was commissioned on 9 January 1779 under Commander Aquila Johns of Baltimore, Maryland. Serving aboard the Buckskin as officers were First Mate or Lieutenant John Slemaker of Baltimore, Second Lieutenant George Duck, of Baltimore, and Third Lieutenant Ambrose Bartlett, probably from Baltimore. She was listed as having a battery of twenty-eight guns and a crew of 100 men. Her owners are listed as Samuel and Robert Purviance and John Crockett and others of Baltimore. Her $10000 bond was signed by Johns and John Davidson of Annapolis, Maryland.

Buckskin prepared to sail for Bordeaux, France in early 1779. About fifteen sail of merchant vessels collected to sail with the Buckskin acting as an escort. About early February 1779 the “convoy” sailed. Buckskin proceeded on her way, but ten of the others were captured. During her passage she captured a British privateer with a crew of sixty men. Johns paroled the sixty men and forwarded the parole to Benjamin Franklin, hoping it could be used in a prisoner exchange. Buckskin arrived in Bordeaux about the beginning of March 1779. A letter from an American merchant in Bordeaux, William MacCreery, to Benjamin Franklin, one of the American Commissioners in France, sought to obtain an exception to the French tariffs on exporting salt. MacCreery noted the Buckskin twenty-two 9-pounders, had a good crew, and “she Sails remarkably fast, having been constructed for Cruizing.” He also solicited the transportation of any American government goods going to Baltimore. Franklin replied on 18 March, stating that he would investigate the matter, but also pointing out that it was improper to request favors for private parties at a time when French financial aid was so frequently requested by the American government.

In April 1779 the Buckskin was still at Bordeaux, loading a cargo for Baltimore. MacCreery, on 17 April 1779, informed Franklin that he was going to sail to Baltimore in the Buckskin, and offered to take any dispatches that the American Commissioners in France wished to send to America. Buckskin sailed from Bordeaux on 21 June 1779, bound for Baltimore. She safely arrived in Baltimore and began preparing for another voyage to Bordeaux. In late December 1779 Buckskin lay in the Patuxent River, preparing to sail. She had taken on a cargo of tobacco and was again bound for Bordeaux. On 26 December one Thomas Ridout, embarked aboard the ship. He was going to France and was entrusted with certain dispatches for Franklin. A winter freeze set in and the Buckskin was held in the river for nearly two months, finally sailing about the end of February 1780. She arrived in Bordeaux on 3 April 1780.

Buckskin (or Buckskin Hero) was on her return voyage to Baltimore, when, on 9 November 1780, she was captured by HM Frigate Iris (Captain George Dawson), off Cape Henry, Virginia. She had a cargo of dry goods, clothing, liquors and general merchandise aboard. Buckskin’s crew was stated to be 128 men, and her battery to be twenty-eight guns. She was variously listed as 400 tons and 600 tons. Other sources indicate she had thirty-six guns in her battery. Buckskin was tried and condemned in the New York Vice Admiralty court in 1780-1781. She was listed as an American merchant vessel with a “cong,” a French pass, in these papers. On 27 January 1781, the Maryland Council approved a proposal to exchange Johns, then on parole at New York. [See Buckskin, Frigate]

2 Lord Grantham was the British Minister to Spain from 1771 to 1779.

3 General Hugh Mercer was killed while leading American troops at the Battle of Princeton on 3 January 1777. A privateer named the General Mercer was launched the following year out of Massachusetts. The vessel was captured in 1780.

15th Illinois Cavalry, 20th Ohio Infantry, 4th Louisiana Colored Cavalry

1862-63: Benjamin Franklin Roberts to George Washington Roberts

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A post war image of Benjamin F. Roberts

The following letters were written by Benjamin Franklin Roberts (b. 1835), the son of Morehouse (“Morris”) Roberts (1790-1847) and Susannah (“Susan”) Newman (1806-1898) of Sunbury, Delaware county, Ohio. Ben was 26 years old when he enlisted as a sergeant in Co. D, 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). He was with the regiment until the spring of 1862 when he became ill and had so much difficulty regaining his health that he was actually discharged from the regiment in July 1862.

In the first letter that follows, written from Sunbury, Ohio, in September 1862 to his older brother George Washington Roberts (1829-1900) of Ottawa, Illinois, Ben expresses some desire to return to his regiment though feels his health won’t allow it yet. In the second letter datelined from Helena, Arkansas, in mid-November 1863, we learn that Ben has regained his health and is serving as a Sergt. Major in the 15th Illinois Cavalry. He later served as Sergt. Major of the 4th Louisiana Colored Cavalry and left the service in October 1865.

In his letters, Ben mentions several brothers: Giles Hartley Roberts (1845-1908) who enlisted at the age of 18 in Co. G, 96th Ohio Vol. Infantry (OVI) in August 1862. He was transferred to Co. D of the 17th Veteran Reserve Corps in January 1864. He also mentions brothers Lord Byron Roberts (1827-1889), Edward Henry Roberts (1841-1912) who also served in the 20th OVI, and John L. Roberts (b. 1838) in the 18th Illinois Infantry, later the VRC.

After the war he eventually moved to Labette county, Kansas, where he lived out his days.

Letter 1

Home [Sunbury, Delaware county, Ohio]
September 15, 1862

Dear Brother,

I thought I would try and answer your letter for Mother although I am in a dull mood for writing. I have been quite unwell for the last two weeks. I had the ague one week. Have got it broke but don’t feel any better.

[Brother] Edward is, I suppose, a prisoner if not released. He was taken at a battle near Bolivar. James Herring was killed. They are the only ones that met with any misfortune of our acquaintance. The word came by letter written by Lieut. Hill of Delaware to his wife. Lieut. Hill is a member of that company. He did not give the particulars of the battle. I think Edward will be home before long as they don’t hold prisoners long. Communication is cut off so we don’t hear from the boys often.

[Brother] Giles has enlisted. He went with Joe Kimball of Sunbury. I think Joe will make a good captain. We have not heard direct from him since the fifth. He was at Covington, Kentucky, at that time. I think they are there yet. There is quite a number gone from Sunbury & Gang Street in the same company. Some of them are writing nearly every day as we hear from them often. Giles wrote he was getting fat and liked camp life much better than he expected. Giles ought to of stayed at home with mother. He was not subject to a draft. Mother wanted him at home.

If I don’t hear from the boys soon, I will go to them providing I can & I think I can. I have not heard from [brother] John since I left. That was the last of July. I came by Clear Creek, stopped there two weeks, tried to sell out, but everything is dead in that country. Can’t sell a feed of corn there now. I did not think of staying here long when I came home but mother won’t listen to my going away this fall or winter. I don’t know how it will be yet. It is owing how my health gets. I shall try and see the boys before long anyhow. I sometimes think I am going to get well right away but as soon as I take cold, I am sick and I take cold so easy.

I will promise again to come and see you if I go west soon. I should of come that way home but I expected to go back that way soon & mother was so anxious as well as myself to get home. The excitement is pretty high here at present.

Mother is washing today. Her health is good. Burt is plowing for wheat. I was at Aunt Julie’s yesterday. Vance was at home. He saw [brother] Byron the night before. He is well. There is some southern sympathizers here—Searles, Cigs Drent, Squire Wilson, Old George Clark & his boys. Jim has had fits every day since they talked of drafting. There is an awful sight of invalids here at present. The Hartford Fair commences Wednesday. I had anticipated a good time there but I am afraid I shall not be able to keep up my end.

Tell me when you write what the chance will be there this fall and winter for light employment with indoors for I must do something this winter or I shall die with the blues. My love to you and yours. write son. — B. F. Roberts

Letter 2

Headquarters 15th Illinois Cavalry
Helena, Arkansas
November 15th 1863

Dear Brother,

Your letter has just come to hand but not until it went the rounds from Memphis. It was sent to Vicksburg & back here ere it reached me. My health has got quite good again. We have a good deal of duty to do of late—scouting and guard duty.

I forget whether I told you or not in my last letter I expected to go into an American Regiment of African Descent. The adjutant and I have positions offered us providing we will accept which we have. Maj. Wilson, formerly of this regiment, is Colonel with the privilege of choosing his own officers and has chosen the adjutant and myself from this regiment. It is a cavalry regiment. Col. Wilson is now in Texas with Banks. He expects to fill his regiment there.

I received a letter from [brother] Ed not long ago. He had got to his regiment. Said he was fat and in as good health as ever. The other boys was well. I hear from [brother] John quite often. He is well. Wants to go with me. The adjutant and I will do all we can to get him in. I suppose you have heard that John has a commission but can’t get mustered as the company is so reduced that they are not entitled to but two officers.

We are having beautiful weather here now—very warm and dry—but the citizens say when it begins to rain that it don’t quit until it rains out & the soil is such that when it gets muddy, there is no bottom.

We have some gay times running guerrillas around here of late & with pretty good success too. We have caught a good many lately. We are going out tomorrow or the next day with three rations. I anticipate a good time going where the bushwhackers are thick and lots of chickens, any amount of girls. Such scouts make a soldier fat. Write soon. My compliments to family. Yours, &c.

— B. F. Roberts, Sergt. Major, 15th Illinois Cavalry

20th Ohio Infantry, Battle of Shiloh

1863: Daniel N. Roberts to his brother George W. Roberts

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These letters were written by Daniel N. Roberts (1836-1906), the son of Morehouse Roberts (1790-1847) and Susannah Newman (1806-1898) of Sunbury, Delaware county, Ohio. Daniel was 25 years old when he enlisted as a private in Co. D, 20th Ohio Infantry on 3 October 1861. He remained in the service for three years, mustering out on 17 October 1864.

In his first letter of 24 April 1861, Daniel recounts the significant events of the Battle of Shiloh, which occurred near Pittsburg Landing on April 6-7, 1862. The 20th Ohio Infantry was consolidated with other Ohio regiments within the 3rd Brigade of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace’s 3rd Division within Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. Despite being within a reasonable distance to reach the battlefield by noon of the first day’s combat (just six miles), a tangle of confusing orders and miscommunications led to a tardy arrival, which only allowed them to engage in the fighting on the second day.

In his second letter of 7 September 1863, Dan writes considerably about his brother Giles Hartley Roberts (1845-1908). Giles enlisted at the age of 18 in Co. G, 96th Ohio Vol. Infantry (OVI) in August 1862. He was transferred to Co. D of the 17th Veteran Reserve Corps in January 1864. He also mentions brothers Lord Byron Roberts (1827-1889), Edward Henry Roberts (1841-1912) who also served in the 20th OVI, John L. Roberts (b. 1838) in the 18th Illinois Infantry, and Benjamin Franklin Roberts who served in the 18th Illinois Infantry and later in the 15th Illinois Cavalry.

After the war, Dan settled in Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois, and was married in 1870 to Julia Branin (1845-1923).

Letter 1

Pittsburg [Landing], Tennessee
April 24th 1862

Dear Brother,

I received your welcome letter yesterday and was very glad to hear from you. We are all well at present. I have been sick ever since the battle here, My disease was mostly bowel complaint. I have gotten over that now and getting quite hearty again. Edward is as hearty as anyone in our company. He has been hearty most all the time. Ben and John is camped about two miles from us. Tip and me was down to see them last Monday. They was both well then. Benjamin came up from Cairo the same night the fight ended.

Our division was down the river about six miles from here when the fight commenced on Sunday. We was ordered to march Sunday after noon. We reached the battlefield that night and was out in line of battle that night for next morning. The ball opened about daylight. We was put on the right wing. The most of the fighting on that day was done on the left and center. We only had one killed and about fifteen wounded in our regiment. I don’t believe none hurt htat you was acquainted with.

George, it was [an] awful sight the next day on the battlefield to see the dead. I never want to see another such a battle. I expect we will have a big one to Corinth about 18 miles from here. I can’t tell when we will move. There [are] troops coming up the river every day now.

Well, George, we was badly whipped Sunday but the rebels got it worse Monday. I don’t see how our men let them come on them Sunday morning like they did. George, we wrote to mother right after the battle. Edward has done the writing since the battle for I have been sick. It was no wonder I was sick for we did not fetch our tents here when we came here. We laid out four nights and [it] rained every night. As quick as we got our tents here, it quit raining.

It has been very sickly in our regiment since that exposure. Two men died in our regiment yesterday. Well, I must close. I came very near forgetting about that money you spoke about. You can have it. I don’t expect I will want it that soon. Please write soon. Yours truly, — D. N. Roberts

Letter 2

Vicksburg [Mississippi]
September 7, 1863

Dear Brother,

I received yours of the 14th and was very glad to hear from you once more but was sorry to hear that your children had such sore eyes. My health is very good now. Ed has gone home on a sick furlough. He left here the 23rd of August. He was getting better all the time. Most all the boys that had been sick or was not well got a sick furlough. I have not heard from him since he left here. Sanders and John Mayfield got a furlough too. Tip has not got back yet. He has been gone over a month.

I have not had a letter from home for a long time. I got one from Giles last night. His health is very poor yet. He has the chills yet. Giles is talking about going to his regiment. He says he can’t get his discharge. He thinks if he was to his regiment, he would get it. The 96th [Ohio Infantry] has gone to New Orleans. Giles is now at Schofield Barracks Hospital, Mo. I wish you or Byron would go and get him home. He would get his discharge. I think you had better write to him and see what he says about it. I do wish he had his discharge and at home for Mother worries the most of her time about him.

I heard from John about a month ago. He was at Helena then. He said they had marching orders then. He thought they would go up White River. John was not very well then. He had been quite sick but was getting a great deal better then.

I had a letter from Ben about the same time I got one from John. Ben was well. He was at Corinth, Mississippi, then.

Well, George, we just got back last Thursday night from a long march. We was gone fifteen days. We went to Monroe, Louisiana. We got on the boats here and went up the river sixty miles. We got off the boats then and it was 75 miles to Monroe. We had to walk. The weather being very warm, it made a very hard march. We suffered a great deal for water.

The rebs had quite a large force of cavalry at Oak Ridge, about fifty miles from the river. They heard it was Johnny A. Logan’s rats 1 that was after them [so] they pulled up stakes and the way they went for Monroe. We followed them [and] we expected to have a fight when we got there but they did not stop there. They left a good many sick there in the hospital. George, it was the lonesomest country that I was ever in—nothing but woods and swamps and any number of rattlesnakes. I saw one killed seven feet long. It had 13 rattlers on. There was a boy bit by one of them. He did not live one hour after he was bit.

Well, George, I must now close by asking you to write soon.

Your brother, — Dan

1 John Alexander Logan (1826-1886), nicknamed “Black Jack” was at the height of his popularity at the time this letter was written, having lead his division with distinction in campaign to capture Vicksburg, most notably in the assault following the explosion of a mine. I have not been able to find any other references to Logan’s men being called “rats.”

1st Massachusetts Cavalry

1862: Henry Israel Wilder to his Sister

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The following letter was written by Henry Israel Wilder (1840-1864), a 21 year-old farmer when he enlisted to serve as a private in Co. E, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry on 18 September 1861. He was wounded on 30 July 1864 in the small skirmish at Lee’s Mill, Virginia, and died the following day at City Point. The skirmish took place as Gregg’s 2nd Cavalry Division attempted to coordinate an attack on the rebel right as the Battle of the Crater took place.

Henry was the son of Israel and Mary (Childs) Wilder of Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts. The loss to his parents would be sad enough but Henry was married while home on furlough to his hometown sweetheart Maria E. M. Graves on 7 March 1864—less than four months before his death.

I could not find an image of Henry but maybe this sketch by Stanton P. Allen of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry depicts Henry wielding his saber for the camera or peeking around the corner of the backdrop.

Transcription

November 26, 1862

Dear Sister,

I got a letter from you last night (dated the 9th) and was glad to hear that you were well and I will write you a few lines to let you know that I am the same. I cannot tell you the name of the place that we are in camp at for I do not know myself but it is not far from Fredericksburg (perhaps three miles) and something like 10 miles from Aquia Creek where we first landed after we first came from Port Royal.

I suppose you would like to know if we have any hard times while on the march. I must say we do see some times which are not quite so agreeable. For instance, when we had a little snowstorm some two or three weeks ago, I was orderly fo the General and had to ride a large part of the time both night and day without any gloves or anything to wear on my hands which was rather cold riding. I was left an orderly until my horse failed up and now am with the company—out company being so small noew it makes the duty harder for the men that it would if they were all here. But we are expecting the new recruits and all the rest of them here today or in a day or two.

Yesterday we had to go off with Gen. Hooker to a review in Gen. Stoneman’s Corps and today they have gone out on another review but did not have to go as I am on other duty.

We have small shelter tents to cover us with. They do very well for a shelter and but little protection from the cold, although I have not suffered very much yet and hope that I shall not, and don’t think that I shall.

Our rations are very good such as they are, pork and hard tack, hard tack and pork, all the time with occasionally a little fresh beef and coffee for drink.

Perhaps you would like to know how I prepare my meals. We have these common tin plates which I take and fry my pork in over the fire and then I take my hard bread and soak them in water and then put them in the fat which I fry out of the meat with the water which I soak them in and then hold the mess (whatever you may call it) over the coals until I think it is stewed enough and makes me a comfortable meal, but what we want is a change of diet. We have had no potatoes or beans or rice or anything in the vegetable line for a long while and it does not agree with me very well. I have had a diarrhea for near two months but does not seem to affect my health very much. But I had by far be rid of it.

About our pay, I don’t know as we shall ever get any more. They owe us from the first of May. Frank sent me $3 in a letter some time ago and do not know but I had better have Sam send me $2 to get me a pair of gloves with for fear we shall not get paid.

Tomorrow I shall think of home a great many times as I suppose it will be Thanksgiving Day with you. But you must eat chicken pie and rice pudding for me this year and I hope that I shall be at home next year to help you eat Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Lincoln has got his discharge and is a going home. He will be likely to come and see you. Tell little Charlie there are lots of hogs down here but they never bite me. But the naughty folks try to shoot me sometimes but they don’t make out much.

Yours with respect. Give my respects to all, — H. J. Wilder

Please write often as I will do the same as often as I can. I send you a lock of Charlie’s and my hair in the letter. Charlie says that his hair is so short that he don’t know as it will do you any good and mine is not much better.

158th Pennsylvania Infantry, New Bern, North Carolina

1863: August Robert Nebinger to his Father

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The following letters were written by August Robert (“Gust”) Nebinger (1834-1884), the son of Dr. Robert Nebinger (1796-1867) and Elizabeth Prowell (1799-1864) of York county, Pennsylvania. In 1860, Gust was a doctor living with shoemaker David Howe in Warrington Township, York County, Pennsylvania, with a Lewisberry postal address.

Gust first enlisted and mustered into state service September 11, 1862, as assistant surgeon for the 12th Pennsylvania Militia, and honorably discharged with his company September 27, 1862. His name sometimes appears as “A. Rox Nebinger” as “Rox” must have been a nickname and that is how he signed both of these letters. He then enlisted—voluntarily—and mustered into federal service at Chambersburg December 1, 1862, as assistant surgeon for the 158th Pennsylvania Infantry (aka “Drafted Militia”), and honorably discharged with the regiment August 12, 1863. He last enlisted in the field July 1, 1864, mustered into federal service July 8 as assistant surgeon with the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry (108th Pa), and honorably discharged with the regiment August 13, 1865.

Back in January 2020, I transcribed three other letters by Gust Nebinger, one after the failed Foster Expedition, another just before leaving New Bern in May 1863, and the 3rd from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he was treating wounded from the Battle of Gettysburg in the “School House Hospital.” See: 1863: Augustus Robert Nebinger to Robert Nebinger.

Letter 1

New Bern, North Carolina
January 4th 1863
Sunday night 10 o’clock

Dear father,

From this southern camp I shall try and give you a short journal of our move from Suffolk, Va., to New Bern, N. C., our present stopping place.

At 6 o’clock a.m. Sunday, December 28, 1862 we left Suffolk on foot for a long march and did not much fancy the trip. Go by the Somerton Road and follow it for ___ miles. Stopped Saturday noon and had dinner of hard bread and water, rest one hour, then commenced our march through a truly southern country—sandy soil and pine lumber. Very few houses. Country mostly forest pine, hemlock, &c. Roads very muddy this day. Kept moving till 10 o’clock at night when we bivouacked for two hours and started. Encamped at 2 a.m. of the 29th, supper hard bread and coffee which was our fare during all the march. First day’s march many of the men gave out, the 158th [Pennsylvania] having few stragglers as any of the brigade. As for myself, I felt very tired after walking nearly 20 miles. This night built large fires of rails which were very convenient, being dry and small. Done very well but got a little cold.

29th—on the march by daylight and continued so all day through the same dreary country, enlivened by our passing through a place called Galesville about dusk. Also by our advance guard passing us on their return to Suffolk being composed of three companies of the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry. We learned from them that the river to which we were marching was but 3.5 miles distant, but the word soon passed along the lines that we were not on the shortest road to the river. This day we marched until 8 o’clock and was helped by General Spinola for fear of running into an ambush which he conjectured might exist, we were in the Reb’s country. The men were all ordered to load and then rest for the night.

This day about noon the column was halted and skirmishers sent forward as someone of the general’s orderlies had seen 10 to 15 reb cavalry and 40 to 50 infantry just half mile in advance of the column. The skirmishers could find nothing so we moved on. Today I thought I should have to succumb but as it would have looked badly, I Thomased it as I carried no load and the men did. On this second day also there were many stragglers as the march was quite as long with as few rests—three or four during the day.

30th at 5 o’clock found us on the march on empty stomachs as most all had eaten their provisions on the second day. Today the boys pressed everything they saw that was eatable—geese, chickens, sweet potatoes, one jackass to carry their loads, two horses (old) for the same purpose. At one house they found a large quantity of pork and it all appeared for the most of them ran their bayonet through the side or ham, or what it might be, and thus carried it for a short way when they divided with their mate and it disappeared in their haversacks. One of the men was running a goose in a field near the road when the adjutant & general came riding back, cursing him and ordered him to desist, but I suppose he did not hear—at least he did not heed—when the adjutant drew his revolver with the intention of shooting him, but somehow his horse stumbled and in the endeavor to get the horse right, the pistol went off and an act of justice (as far as the man was concerned) was performed, for the ball took effect in the neck of the horse, killing him instantly. I was just 20 feet from him when he fell and was almost tempted to cry out, “settled him right.” Indeed, that was the sentiment of all who saw the occurrence.

That was the great incident of this day’s march. Fording a small stream was another. Almost all the men got into water up to their hips—a very cold bath. Stopped for supper at 4 p.m., rested one hour, and continued our tramp until dark when all were made gladly to welcome the sight of the transports laying on the Chowan River, knowing that for the present, trampling was at an end. Many, very many, were the stragglers this afternoon, but strange as it may appear, I stood this days march the best though I was very tired and willing to exchange muscle for steam.

The loading of men commenced immediately & by midnight, all but the few stragglers who had not come up were loaded & our train was soon in the same way. The men got good hot coffee and hard bread for supper and a very cold & hard bed this night. Now at the end of three days are we very nearly 60 miles from our last regular camp, having walked all those dreary miles through a very dreary and desolate looking country. I saw but three or four white people in all our tramp but saw many negroes.

At all our camping places where we remained for any time, you could see hundreds of camp fires with groups of men round them seeking comfort both for the outer and inner man.

31st—at daylight this morning the boats were moving, some 8 or 10 in number, two being gunboats—the Chasseur of 4 guns on which was Col. McKibbin with the front wing of the 158th [Pennsylvania], and the Huzzar which carried the left wing with the Lt. Col. & Major. The river bank presented the same monotonous outline except that the town of Edenton was visible soon after we started. I think it must be about 5 to 10 miles below the landing at which we embarked, the name of which I forget. In fact, I do not know that I ever knew it positively.

We got along very well until some time during the night when there was quite a storm arose when the boat did some pretty fine rolling, making many of the men sick, and in fact, placing the boat in danger of being wrecked or swamped. As for me, I slept all the time except about 10 minutes when I got such a horrid bump that I waked, but soon again was asleep.

New Year found us just entering Neuse river and by 9 or 10 we lay gladly off New Bern, a right smart town, they tell me, but as I have just passed through it once, I am unable to judge and will defer a description of it until I have seen it. The night of the 1st, we built large fires and slept under what the boys call dog tents (shelter tents). Now we have the usual wall tent or Markee & this evening we have things quite comfortable, having received our stoves which were sent by way of Norfolk. So much for our second move.

I believe we (the Empire Brigade of General Spinola of New York, Commanding) shall stay here for some two or three months and if so, I should like to get from home, or sent from home by some of you, some few things which in my great and unexpectedly quick march, I was unable to get—viz: half to 1 dozen pairs cotton stockings, handkerchiefs—some silk (can’t bear linen). one pair woolen overshirts—something like those of Wills), pair buckskin gloves (gauntlets) and as tobacco is quite exalted in this part of the country, I would like say five lbs. Can be had for $1 to $1.25 lb. such as I prefer to chaw. Will knows where I bought in Harrisburg—called Mountain Dew. For smoking, any good brand, say 5 lbs. Then to fill up [the box] you might add some dried beef and bologna sausage as they are articles that will not spoil by keeping. I could get all these things here but I think it would be much the cheapest to have them sent to me. I shall as soon as possible remit what money I can do without (after I get it) to you to be used as you think best. I expect to get some $180 during the present month as that is the amount or very nearly so that is due me for services at Chambersburg. I find I will not many any more money here than I would have done at Chambersburg but I am now in the army and then I was not.

We have had but little sickness comparatively in our regiment. None of our men have died at present. We have in camp 7 that are reported sick, 2 in hospital (smallpox), 5 in quarters—mostly influenza and rheumatism.

Though I have had a very hard time of it ever since I left home, I must say I rather like it than otherwise. To be sure, my thoughts often wander homewards to all my dearest friends, yet I feel that they are as well off without as with me and so I gather some comfort. During our long march, when at night I would waken shivering with cold, I would imagine how very cozy you all were at home and then I would fill more wood on the fire, lie down and soon be asleep again, dreaming of home sometimes, at others of bloody battlefields, and so life goes in the tented field.

I like to read letters from home. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. Love to all. If you send [a box], send quickly. Let the box be made strongly and well nailed with iron hoops on each end to be marked as you direct my letters, viz: 158th Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry, Col. D. B. McKibbin, Newbern, N. C., via New York.

So I will say goodbye for this time. Perhaps I may write some again to someone of you. Your affectionate son. — A. Rox Nebinger

Letter 2

Hospital 158th [Pennsylvania] Regiment
Camp New Bern
January 27, 1863

My dear Father,

Since writing to you we have changed our camp from the east of New Bern to the south crossing the Trent to the right side. We also crossed a small creek on the banks of which we are now encamped. We are now in a fortified camp having thrown up breastworks in front, crossing the railroad to Beaufort. We (Empire Brigade) have three regiments on this side and one on the other of the creek.

The expedition I spoke of some time ago has just started—the last leaving today (I hear). Where to, I cannot learn.

January 29th—Last night I received your nos. 2 & 3 and Beckie’s No. [ ] making four & dates 9, 12, 16 & 19. Now for one to answer your two and one to answer sister’s 3. I have received & answered your no. 1 giving a poor account of New Bern which I learn has but 6,000 inhabitants instead of 15 to 20. Tis a poor kind of a town having but few good houses.

You will see by this as also by my former one that we did move though the 166th did not. I gave a very full description of our march from Suffolk to the Chowan [River] in my letter to brother in which I enclose a slip to you. I have also written two or three times concerning some things I want you to send me by Express.

For fear you will not get my letter describing this country and railway, it is just like all the land I have seen since we landed at Norfolk—low, level, and sandy land producing pines of all descriptions & here a few cactus of a very thin leaf but I think a true cactus. There are some few gum and oak with hickory [trees] here.

As to what the productions might be, I cannot say, but this I do know—the present produce is composed of soldiers, forts, rifle pits, and land embankments, as also coughs, fevers, and graybacks [lice], with a few contrabands and high prices. That is certainly all I can say of the productions of this part of the Old North State, but suppose the usual southern productions are here raised such as sweet potatoes, corn and perhaps oats. I have noticed some cane growing but no large ones.

In the swamps the strange growing cypress is found in plenty now with bare branches except when the long gray moss covers them with its long hanging bunches. By the by, I forgot to say swamps were quite as plenty here as hills in our country.

As for vegetation, as yet I have seen nothing green but pine, cactus and cane. Everywhere sand, sand, sand.

Contrabands look like badly dressed niggers in their peculiar gray cloth. The fact is, I very seldom leave the regiment, preferring to stay near my own quarters though frequently visiting the officers & of course receiving visits from them.

I am happy to learn of Mother’s return to health and hope it may last for a very long time. I hope Stanley is well or at least getting well. Love to all.

As for emancipation or any other movement, I have heard nor can I say what is the feeling in this country as I have seen but a very few natives. I hope the militia Volunteers will get their pay box with the rest.

I am glad to learn that Robert has started up and hope he may come home with straps on his shoulders. Of course I am always anxious to get news from home but as yet I have received at least one letter with every mail that has come in and cannot nor do I think of blaming any of the folks at home. As for the number, I think the more the better.

I think that all of your letters will reach me if you continue to direct as you have. I shall enclose a rough draft of our position as also that of New Bern and the surrounding camps. Hoping you have received my letters as I have yours, I am your most affectionate son, — A. Rox Nebinger

Hand drawn sketch of Union positions at hospitals at New Bern, N. C. in January 1863

Noe if you can make out the hieroglyphics, you will know how we are situated. The Neuse river is full of vessels all the time. Love to all. Let all write if they have anything to write. Bob Wright, I want to hear from particularly. — Gust