This never before published letter by 45 year-old Senator Salmon Portland Chase (1808-1873) comes from a private collection. It was datelined from Cincinnati in mid-October 1853 after the recent election in which the Whig party disintegrated. In his letter, Chase laments that the Liberty Party with the antislavery platform he had helped to create was unable to win over the influence of all of the Democratic Party—still populated by both progressives and conservatives. Chase considered himself an Independent Democrat (or “Free Democrat”) and though he indicates in this letter he was about ready to give up politics, he was later inspired to unite the remnants of the Whig Party with the anti-slavery members of the Free Soil Party to form the Republican Party and win election as the first Republican Governor of Ohio in 1855.
Salmon P. Chase (ca. 1850)
Four months after writing this letter, Chase and Joshua Giddings co-authored the “Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States” that was published in the New York Times in late January 1854 and which manifesto is regarded to be the earliest draft of the Republican Party creed. In 1861, Chase was selected by Abraham Lincoln to serve as his Secretary of the Treasury.
Chase wrote the letter to Alexander Sankey Latty (1815-1896), an Irish emigrant by way of Canada, who came to the United States in 1837. His first job was to oversee the workforce building the Miami and Erie Canal between Defiance and Toledo. Later he managed the construction of the Paulding Reservoir. He was then elected Auditor of Paulding County—his position when this letter was written in 1853.
Transcription
Addressed to A. Sankey Latty, Esq., Paulding, Paulding county, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio October 19, 1853
My Dear Sir,
I am greatly obliged to you for sending me the returns in Paulding county. The vote evinces great independence of thought and action among the Democrats, and I hail all such indications as proofs of the coming time when democracy will vindicate her consistency upon all questions of American policy.
The general result surprises everybody not because it is so, but because it is so much so. The Whigs have literally thrown down their arms and fled disgracefully from the field. Our Independent Democracy has done well, though we have failed on several districts electing about 10 Representatives & Senators where we ought to have succeeded. Still our gains are very handsome. The Old Line has not gained a man where we were strong, and we have on the contrary gained several where they were strong.
Of course the election is decisive against my reelection unless a division shall take place in the legislature between the friends of the Ohio Platform and the friends of the Baltimore Platform. I do not anticipate any such thing. My belief is that the Baltimore Platform will now be endorsed and I do not think there will be found strength enough in the legislature to make any available resistance. Indeed, I think that consistency now demands an endorsement of the Baltimore Platform bu those who practically support it. Should this advancement be made, it is quite probable that the future will witness a new organization of parties; the Independent Democracy taking the progressives & the administration party taking the conservatives.
So far as the result affects me personally, I do not regret it. My service in the Senate has not been a very agreeable one. Adhering faithfully to the professed principles of the Ohio Democracy, I have been neither sustained nor encouraged by its support. I have had the approbation of my own conscience; but not the backing of party. I have no wish to protract my term under such circumstances. I would prefer to resign the term I now hold; and, indeed, I seriously think of doing so before the rising of the next legislature. Once out of office and I do not know that any consideration will tempt me again out of the private ranks.
[John Ikirt] Cable of Carrollton writes me that he will probably leave that place & that his son [Fielding Cable], now editor of the [Ohio] Picayune, will sell out and accompany him. I have written him about your wish for a press in Paulding. He could be the very man for you.
You say nothing of your health. I hope most earnestly that it has improved. Do take care of yourself. True manhood is scarce.
While I do not desire to be again a candidate for any office, I do not mean to abandon the cause of freedom, progress, & living democracy. No: “fight on & fight on,” is still my motto.
My God bless you & yours. Most sincerely your friend, — S. P. Chase
How Charles might have looked (W. Griffing Collection)
This letter was written by Charles Henry Morrell (1839-1907), the 23 year-old son of Henry K. and Mary G. (Carter) Morrell of Caroline Centre, Tompkins county, New York. Less than two months previous to the date of this letter, Charles was married to Susan F. Speed and came to Augusta, Hancock county, Illinois. In the 1870 US Census, Charles was identified as a farmer. In the 1880 Census he was identified as a fire insurance agent. In the 1900 Census, he was a life insurance agent.
Charles wrote the letter to his boyhood friend, William Henry Taft (1827-1862)—a carriage maker from Caroline Centre, Tompkins county, New York. William enlisted in September 1862 and was made 2nd Lt. of Co. K, 137th New York Infantry but his military career was incredibly brief. He died of typhoid fever on 30 October 1862 at Knoxville, Maryland. There is little doubt that William never had the opportunity to read this letter before his death.
Much of Charles’ letter pertains to the reception at Augusta, Illinois, given to Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss after his release from captivity in October 1862. It was Prentiss’s Division that was first attacked at Shiloh and which suffered greatly during the opening hours of that battle. Though he was able to reform his command with reinforcements from Gen. Lew Wallace and put up a spirited fight in the “Hornet’s Nest,” he eventually surrendered with 2,200 other soldiers. After the battle he was considered a hero, having held off the rebel army long enough to allow General Grant to organize a counterattack and win the battle.
The substance of Gen. Prentiss’s speech given in Augusta, IL, and elsewhere in October 1862 (Wooster Republican, 23 October 1862)
Transcription
Augusta [Illinois] October 25th 1862
Friend William,
Susan and I have just returned from church and thinking of you, I thought I would write wishing you all the success in the world. I would ask you how you like it in the army. Bill, you are aware that we thought there was a great deal of excitement in New York but we knew nothing about it. Where I am in Illinois—about 80 miles from the [State] line—people are in the greatest state of excitement. There is hardly a night but there is horses, cattle or hogs or something of the kind stolen and run over the line. There is any quantity of men here that have been run out of Missouri by the rebels. We have lots of rebels among us but can assure you that they are very quiet as the people here have run some of them off to St. Louis to be placed in the ranks. Illinois has the honor of saying that she has filled out her quota. Hancock county cannot fill out another call as there is not men enough left to guard their houses.
Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss—-“I would to God that all of our generals were possessed of the same grit.”
General [Benjamin Mayberry] Prentiss passed through here this week. I went to the depot to see him. All Augusta turned out to greet him. The town was decorated with the Stars & Stripes. Men, women & children all seemed as anxious to shake hands with him as a son would with a father. All Illinois seem to worship him. He made us a short speech. Will, it made me feel as though I would like to take a turn with some of those black-hearted rebels. He gave us a short history of his hardships while in the hands of the rebels. He said [at Shiloh] he went from Sunday morning until Tuesday without a mouthful to eat. There was a great many of his men with him. His men on Tuesday were nearly worn out in the boat that they were confined in. There was an image of the Goddess of Liberty [and] he (Prentiss) jumped upon a box by the image and made his men a Union speech and bade his men sing the Star Spangled Banner and several other national airs which they did with renewed strength. While he was speaking, there was three rebel guns pointed at him and threatened to fire if he did not stop his damned Union speech. He bid them to fire and told them that he was a Union men and should speak when and where he pleased. Bully for Prentiss! I would to God that all of our general were possessed of the same grit.
Give my respects to all of the boys and tell them I should be glad to hear from any of them them.
Well since I have been here, I have been to a little lake about twenty miles from here hunting geese and ducks. Such fun you never saw. It was shooting from morning until night. There was a great many pelicans and swans on the lake. Will, I imagine in ten miles square black with ducks and geese dotted here and there with a flock of swan. They look to be about the height of a man as they sit on the water as white as snow. We went up on Monday and came back on Saturday. We camped in the woods ten miles from any house. Such fishing as would make a York boys eyes stick out. We caught catfish that would weigh from ten to fifty pounds. They say that it is no uncommon thing to catch them that will weigh one hundred & fifty. I can go out on the prairie most any frosty morning and shoot all the game that I can bring in on my back.
Bill, what the devil are people thinking about to stay in New York among the hills and rocks when three is such a vast extent of western country unsettled and far richer than the best garden in New York and as level as a house floor and free from stone. I am only surprised that you ever went back to New York after your visit West. If I can persuade my wife to stay here, you will never see me back to Caroline [Centre, Tompkins county, NY] again.
Will, write to me. I should be very glad to hear from you. Tell me all the news, how you are getting along, and how the boys like it, and what you are all doing. Tell John Cantine to write to me.
From your most affectionate friend, — C. H Merrill
This letter was written by Robert Downs (1835-1907), the son of Leverett Downs (1796-1859) and Anna Atwater (1801-1895) of New Haven county, Connecticut.
Robert enlisted on 8 August 1862 as a private in Co. H, 15th Connecticut Infantry. He mustered out of the regiment at Newbern, North Carolina, on 27 June 1865. The regiment served in the defenses of Washington D. C. before participating in the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Mud March, the Siege of Suffolk, &c. They were ordered to Newbern, North Carolina in January 1864 which was their base of operations until the close of the war.
The 15th Connecticut Marker at the Newbern, N. C.National Cemetery
Robert’s letter datelined from Newbern in September 1864 speaks of his own sickness and of the large number of sick citizens and soldiers in Newbern where “a good many are dying.” So many of the 15th Connecticut soldiers died at Newbern during the time they were quartered there that a monument was erected by the state honoring their service. In the dedication of that monument in 1894, Senator O. H. Platt said, “We erect monuments, not to the living, but to the dead. A century from now the State and Nation will still be seeking some way in which to testify an increasing regard for the men who saved the Union from dissolution, who made its flag one flag, and its boundaries to encompass one—only one—country. Heroism, achievements, sacrifice are the grand fruitage of humanity, worthy of all honor; but grander yet and worthy of supreme honor is patriotism…Other regiments may mark with their monuments positions on battlefields where their comrades met the enemy in a fierce and deadly struggle to retain their position and beat the enemy back from the field. These your comrades battled with the death angel on a field which they would have gladly abandoned but from which there was no retreat; their struggle involved no passion, none of the accessories of battle strife bore them up, no word of command, no cheer of comrades, no bugle note, no drum, so sound of cannon or rattle of musketry to life them out of themselves and to inspire them to heroic deeds, but in silence and in darkness, alone with themselves, and with the invisible destroyer, far from the homes of love, uncheered and unattended, they met their foe and their fate…”[See Platt Address at Newbern, N. C.]
To read other letters by members of the 15th Connecticut that I’ve transcribed and posted on Spared & Shared, see: Eli Walter Osborn, F&S, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) Charles Griswold, Co. E, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) Charles H. Taylor, Co. F, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) Henry C. Baldwin, Co. H, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) Henry D. Lewis, Co. H, 15th Connecticut (1 letter) Henry D. Lewis, Co. H, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) Walter Howard Lord, Co. I, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter) John Harrison Hall, Co. K, 15th Connecticut (1 Letter)
Transcription
Addressed to Miss Clarissa F. Downs, Naugatuck, Connecticut
New Bern, N. C. September 17th 1864
Dear Sisters and all at home,
I received two letters yesterday from you, one from home from Clarissa, and one from Laura then at Bethany. But I suppose that Laura is at home by this time. I am very happy to hear that you are all pretty well. I am a good deal better than I have been but I don’t feel as well as I did before I was sick. I have got over the shakes, but I am in the hospital yet for I don’t feel well enough to do guard duty. We have now and then a cool day and night but the weather is mostly very warm and it is getting to be pretty dry. It is quite sickly here both among the citizens and soldiers and a good many are dying, but the weather will be cooler before long and then it will be more healthy, I think.
Another boy from our company and from Naugatuck died yesterday here in the hospital. His name was Henry Lord. Perhaps you knew him. He was a good, steady boy. He came out with the regiment and he has enjoyed pretty good health till lately. He died quite sudden.
Both of your letters was dated September the 4th. I think they have been a good while coming though I had been looking for a letter from home for some days. But we heard that one of our mail boats had been taken by the rebs and burnt and I thought that I might have a letter on that boat but I guess I didn’t for you was not at home, the reason that you did not write any sooner. I am glad that you went to the camp meeting. I hope you enjoyed it to your best good. I would liked to have been there too for they have such good times and the place is a very pleasant one for a camp meeting.
I should have written to Laura again but I didn’t think that she was going to stay there so long so I thought I would not write to her for I didn’t think she would get the letter and I knew that you would send the letters to her as soon as you could.
I think it is the best thing that Mother could do to fat[ten] that heifer for I don’t want that you should have the bother of an unruly creature for you have enough to see to without that.
I am glad to hear that you are getting along so well and that things on the farm are in pretty good condition. Some say that the war will be over this fall and I think if things work as it appears, that it will now. I say I think that the war will be over sometime this fall. I hope it may be so so that we can all come home for good some time next winter. But this is uncertain for we can’t tell what is before us. Therefore we must trust in the Lord and be consigned to his Holy will. I know that many times the way looks dark ahead and we can see no way how that we are going to get over the difficulties which appear to lay before us, but three is One who can see through all the future, who will guide us in the right path (when we appear to be in the dark) if we ask Him in faith, trusting to His knowledge, mercy, and goodness. I hope that we shall all trust in the mercy and tender love of Jesus, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, and ask Him to fit us for a more glorious home than the one we possess on earth. I hope these lines will find you all well. Please write soon.
From your sincere and affectionate brother, — Robert Downs
This letter was written by Eugene Albert Burnham (1840-1925) of East Homer, Cortland county, New York, who enlisted as a private on 4 October 1861 in Co. A, 76th New York Infantry (the “Cortland Regiment”). Eugene was sent to a hospital on 11 September 1862 and was absent from the regiment from then until his transfer to Co. C, 14th Veteran Reserve Corps in July 1863.
I could not find an image of Eugene but here is one of his brother Uberto who served in the same regiment. (Find-A-Grave)
Eugene wrote this letter to his parents, Marvin Burnham (1811-1891) and Caroline Webster (1813-1894) of East Homer. Eugene’s older brother, Uberto Adelbert Burnham (1837-1930) also served in the same regiment as Eugene. He enlisted as a private in Co. D, October 4, 1861, and on the organization of the Regiment, was made First Sergeant. He held this position until February, 1863, when he received a commission as First Lieutenant, and was soon after appointed Acting Regimental Quartermaster, by Colonel Wainwright. Uberto Burnham was a prolific writer, and many of his letters and diaries are preserved in the New York State Archives at Albany. The collection consists of 222 items, 114 of which are letters written to his family and friends between 1857 and 1864.
Eugene wrote the letter in April 1862 from Fort DeRussy—one of the forts defending the Nation’s Capitol—where the regiment was garrisoned and drilled until May 1862. The fort was built in 1861 by the 4th New York Heavy Artillery and named for the regiment’s commander, Colonel Gustavus A. DeRussy. The fort was sited on the high ground of the western bank of Rock Creek and controlled movement along and across the valley. The fort coordinated its fire with Fort Stevens on the east and Fort Kearny on the west. It was built originally in the shape of a trapezium, armed with 7 guns, and afterwards expanded to mount 11 guns and mortars, including a massive 100-pounder Parrott rifle located at reshaped northeastern angle. The fort was heavily engaged during the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11-12, 1864.
Transcription
Fort DeRussy [Washington D. C.] April 4th [1862]
Dear Parents,
I will try and write a few lines to you before drill time though I don’t feel much like writing. We drill five hours a day now and that you see keeps us pretty busy with dress parade and so forth.
It is very pleasant weather here now. I received a letter last night dated March 30th saying you were going to send a box of sugar &c. the next day to us. You have of course written to Bart about it.
I am as well as usual and so are all the East Homer boys except Jenison. he is troubled with the rheumatism. I have not seen Bert since last Saturday but I expect him over here next Sunday. If he don’t come, I shall go over there Monday.
Well we have got through two and a half hours drill again and now I will write in this letter some. I think the prospects now are we shall stay here some time yet and it is as good a place as need be. It is healthy here—more so than at Fort Massachusetts or [Fort] Slocum as there is not as many here and we have better water. I don’t know but I had rather stay here than to go to Kentucky though some of the boys are spoiling for a fight. I would like to see an action before I come back but ain’t quite ready for it yet as we are not well enough drilled though if all the regiments [companies?] were as well drilled as Co. A, we would be be a very well drilled regiment. But they don’t commence.
You have of course heard of Tommy Gough’s death. It must have been a hard blow to his folks. I did not hear that he was sick until after he was dead. His funeral was attended at E. Homer, I suppose. When you write, write all the particulars about it.
How does Uncle John’s folks get along? Do they ever come to our house now? I saw Thomas Dodd when I was on Meridian Hill. He said Paris got along very well but did not make much of a soldier.
I must close this letter and make up a fire and fry some beef steak for supper as we had more than we wanted for breakfast so we saved it for supper. Write soon and oblige. Yours son, — E. A. Burnham
How does Josephine get along washing out? Tell her she must write to me. She & Em can both write.
I have received that paper you sent me (I mean the Gazette & Banner) and every time I see it, I think of her who sent it & of the many long hours you worked to get the money. We can appreciate such presents here.
This letter was written by Charles Gordon Austin (1814-1899)—a Canadian by birth—and his wife Pamelia Anna Tyler (1817-1897) of Rossie, St. Lawrence county, New York. Several of their children are mentioned in the letter, including: Benjamin M. Austin (1840-1885) who enlisted as a corporal in Co. C, 60th New York Infantry and transferred in November 1862 to the 6th US Cavalry; Elizabeth Tirzah Austin (1835-1909) who would later marry Charles F. Northrop; and Lucy Maria Austin (1843-1914).
Charles wrote the letter to his son Zadok Baldwin Austin (1837-1925) who enlisted on 7 August 1862 as a private in Co. F, 10th New York Heavy Artillery (106th New York State Volunteers). At the time of his enlistment he was described as 24 years-old, with blue eyes, light hair, and standing 5 feet 7.5 inches tall. Zadok mustered out of the regiment on 23 June 1865 with his company at Petersburg, Virginia.
Transcription
Rossie, St. Lawrence county, New York July 23, 1864
Dear Son,
Digital images of Zadok’s 1865 Diary & a transcript are available at the Auburn University Digital Library
I again seat myself to write you a few lines to inform you of our health which is tolerable good with the exception that I am troubled with the erysipelas. My face and hands have been swelled pretty bad but they are better now. Clarissa was sick last night but appears to be all right again this morning.
I received your letter Wednesday. I was glad to get it for it had been three weeks since I had had one from you before but I was sorry to hear that you were sick and in the hospital. The chronic diarrhea is a disease when it gets settled on anyone is hard to be cured. I think you had [better] try and get a furlough and come home. I think it would be better for you. It won’t cost you a great deal—that is, if you are able to come. write as soon as you get this and let us know how you are.
I received a letter from Benjamin last week Wednesday. He was well when he wrote. That was July 6th, 1864. He was twelve miles from Richmond. He said they would stay there a spell to rest their horses. I have received two letters from Tirzah since I write to you last. Robert is killed. He was out on a raid forty miles from camp when he was shot by a rebel through the neck and killed instantly. He was carried back to Newbern and buried. Tirzah is well and so is Priscilla and George Gibson. The folks in Hammond are well. Lucy is at home now and is well. I have not got your things yet. Write as soon as you get this. We remain your loving father and mother.
I could not find an image of William but here is a CDV of Lt. Joseph B. Abbott who served as the Adjutant of the 137th New York Infantry (Photo Sleuth)
This letter was written by William Henry Taft (1827-1862), a carriage maker from Caroline Centre, Tompkins county, New York, who enlisted in September 1862 and was made 2nd Lt. of Co. K, 137th New York Infantry. In this 8 October 1862 letter to his wife, Phebe Robins, William shares some information about the regiment’s location and of an anticipated fight with Stonewall Jackson who had long since re-crossed the Potomac River returning to Virginia after the Maryland Campaign.
William’s military career was incredibly brief. He died of typhoid fever on 30 October 1862 at Knoxville, Maryland (see telegram below).
William was the son of John Taft (1795-1876) and Arethusa Gould (1794-1868).
Telegram relaying the news that “Wm. H. Taft is dead. His wife has started with corpse. Will be at Caroline Depot Monday morning. — R. Pierson
Transcription
Addressed to Mr. John Taft, Caroline Centre, Tompkins county, New York
Pleasant Valley, Maryland October 8, 1862
Dear Father,
As I have about ten minutes leisure time, I thought that I would write you a few lines to let you know that I am well and enjoying myself first rate. Our boys are all very well and like it down here in Maryland. We have to lay down on the ground to write.
I went up on Maryland Heights day before yesterday. There you can look all around for twenty miles and see perhaps 200,000 soldiers in camp. We could see McClellan’s army and Burnside’s division and just above here Burnside’s army lays in wait for [Stonewall] Jackson’s force. They expect to have a big fight in a few days with Jackson. They have got him surrounded so that he has got to fight or surrender soon. They say here that Jackson lost thirty thousand in killed & wounded at the least when he came into Maryland before.
The weather is very warm and dry here—about like our warm Augusts.
Tell the folks to write often. Direct to 137th Regt. New York State Volunteers, Washington D. C.
I could not find an image of Alfred but here is Franklin D. Cornish who served in the same regiment. (Photo Sleuth)
This letter was written by Alfred L. Edwards (1841-1918) who enlisted on 26 August 1861 as a private in Co. E, 50th New York Engineers and remained in the regiment until mustering out on 20 September 1864 at Elmira, New York.
Alfred datelined his letter from New York City on 20 September 1861 two days after his arrival. He shares the news with his mother that they were ordered to encamp on the battery overlooking New York Harbor which was still occupied by members of Ellsworth’s New York Fire Zouaves (11th New York Infantry) despite their having been ordered to Fortress Monroe. A newspaper article described the situation as follows:
“The New York Fire Zouaves—the “Pet Lambs”—have again been distinguishing themselves. On Thursday last they were assembled on the battery, New York, where they indulged in a series of free fights, at one time assuming the proportions of a riot. They also tossed in blankets a number of inoffensive laborers, and seizing a reporter of the Times tossed him in a tent cloth, and otherwise maltreated him, and finally robbed him of fifteen dollars. When appealed to Col. Lozier to behave in a more orderly, and to go without further difficulty to Fort Monroe, but twenty-five out of three hundred were willing to go—the others, on various pretenses, utterly refusing to leave New York. It is high time that these cowardly miscreants—the terror of all peaceable and unarmed citizens, the disgrace to the profession of arms, and the butt for the ridicule of the fie—were treated as mutineers or deserters; reduced to order or shot. It is idle to waste more time or more words on them.” — The Daily Gazette and Republican, Trenton, NJ 23 September 1861
Alfred wrote the letter to his mother, Rumina (Gates) Merrill (1818-1895). The envelope was addressed to Rumina’s second husband, Philander Merrill (1795-1883) of Ketchumville, Tioga county, New York. Rumina’s first husband, Cyrus Edwards, died prior to the 1850 US Census at which time the widow Rumina was enumerated with her two boys, Alfred and Cyrus, in Maine, Broome county, New York.
To read other letters I have transcribed and posted on Spared & Shared that were written by members of the 50th New York Engineers, see: Cornelius Van Huysen, Co. A, 50th New York Engineers (1 Letter) Abner G. Hill, Co. B, 50th New York Engineers (1 Letter) William H. Lunn, Co. E, 50th New York Engineers (1 Letter) Halsey Amos Rhodes, Co. H, 50th New York Engineers (1 Letter)
Temporary Barracks erected in Battery Park in NYC in 1861
Transcription
Addressed to Philander Merrills, Ketchumville, Tioga county, New York
Camp Lesley New York City [Friday,] September 20th [1861]
Dear Mother,
We started from Elmira [on Tuesday,] the 17th at four o’clock p.m. in a train of 24 cars, 17 with soldiers. We got [here] next day [Wednesday] at 8 a.m. We are camped on the Bay. Last night we slept on our arms. We expected to be attacked by the New York Fire Zouaves. There was some 300 or 400 on the ground when we came here and they were not going to leave. They had been ordered to leave in the morning at six o’clock but swore they would not, but the Mayor sent the police force in the afternoon and they left. We expected they would return but they did not.
We leave here today at two o’clock. Where to I don’t know. We are all well. I have [seen] more here than I ever seen in my life. Ships and boats are moving all the time. I counted two hundred and sixty-three in view. I am laying flat on my belly and nothing to write on but a board and can’t write good. I will let you know where I be in a day or two.
— A. L. Edwards
I will direct my letters after this in this style, — Alfred L. Edwards, Ketchumville
This letter was written by a soldier named J. W. Scott but I am unable to definitively place him in a particular regiment. In his letter, Scot writes of having to burn “our” pontoon bridges and of expecting another train while at Harrison’s Landing. This leads me to conjecture that he served in either the 15th or 50th New York Engineers—both regiments being attached to McClellan’s Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign. The former has two soldiers by the name of James Scott but neither gives a middle initial on the muster rolls.
Transcription
Harrison’s Landing James River, Virginia July 9th 1862
Dear Mother & Sister,
Your long looked for letter has been received finding me well. I had began to think I would never hear from you again. I don’t see why you are not more prompt in writing. Letters from home are very welcome, I assure you.
We have had some busy times since falling back fro the Chickahominy River. We are now over 20 miles from Richmond but I suppose we will soon march again. You must not think that the Rebels have beaten us for they have not. We have lost a good many men in the fighting on the way here. Also immense quantities of commissary stores & clothing, &c. We destroyed our bridges and a large portion of our pontoon train as we had not teams enough to draw it so we cut & burnt it. We expect to get another train while here.
We are troubled very much for water. We have to use the river water most of the time. The weather is extremely warm but the nights are cool. We are encamped close by the river on the Old Harrison Estate. I have seen the house [Berkeley Plantation] to which President Harrison was born. The country is entirely barren of all kinds of produce. Nothing to be had eatable—only such as we buy from the sutler’s at enormous prices.
I will send Mother $10.00 when we get our pay which will be in about a month. I think the young ladies are marrying right smart. I don’t know what we soldiers will do.
I don’t think of much else to write [in] this except to have you tell John I will write soon. Give my love to all and accept a good share for yourself. Jim & George send their best wishes.
Write often. From your affectionate son & brother, — J. W. Scott
I could not find an image of Gillam but here is a CDV of Capt. William J. Garland, Co. C, 28th Illinois Infantry (Al Niemiec Collection)
This poignant letter pertains to the death of Pvt. Cornelius Tyson (1839-1861) of Co. G, 28th Illinois Infantry who suffered from a “nervous fever” and expired on 24 October 1861 after only two months’ service. Cornelius was the 22 year-old son of Henry Tyson (1806-1887) and Sarah E. Berry (1800-1863) of Rushville, Schuyler county, Illinois.
The letter was penned by Barclay Clayton Gillam (1820-1888) of Rushville who received his education in the common schools of Pennsylvania. After leaving school, he learned the blacksmith trade. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Miss Mary A., daughter of William Beatty, Esq. In the spring of 1844, he moved to the city of Rushville, Ill. Here he established his own blacksmith shop. During the Civil War, he recruited a company of 86 men, was elected its captain, and immediately repaired to the seat of war. After being in the service four months, he was promoted to the rank of major. He was engaged in several battles, among which were Fort Donaldson, Fort Henry, Little Bethel, Shiloh, Hatchie, and others. At the battle of Shiloh he lost a horse and was badly wounded. He resigned his commission and came home in November 1862.
Transcription
Camp Holt, Kentucky October 27, [1861]
Mr. Henry Tyson Dear Sir,
It becomes my sad duty to communicate to you the news of the death of your son. He departed this life on Thursday evening, October 24th at about 8 o’clock in the evening after a painful illness of about two weeks. His disease was nervous fever.
One of my men ([James M] Mitchell) was in the hospital at the time of his death. He seemed to suffer considerable until a few minutes of his death [illegible] wildly most of the time praying and singing.
We feel his loss and can sympathize with you in his loss. He has been a good soldier. But we all must die and though it seems hard to die so young, yet it is the will of the Supreme ruler of our universe.
I believe I have no more to write. I remain your friend in affliction, — Capt. B. C. Gillam
P. S. He is buried about one mile and a half above Mound City [Illinois]. If you should wish to remove the body, I will render all the assistance possible. There was $4.55 cents paid him the day before he died. He told Lieut. Col. [Louis H.] Waters to send it home. Col. Waters has it in his possession.
This letter was written by John Seaton (1834-1912), a son of John M. Seaton (1804-1847) and Elizabeth Jones (1810-18xx) of Cincinnati, Ohio. When John was three weeks old his parents removed from Cincinnati to Louisville, Kentucky, where his boyhood days were spent. He was eleven years of age when his father was killed on the field of battle in the War with Mexico. He attended school until he was fifteen years of age, and then began learning the trade of a machinist. A few years later finds him working as a journeyman machinist in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1856 with a cash capital of $2.50, John Seaton started a foundry at Alton, Ill. A natural aptitude for mechanics and machinery appliances, combined with pluck, energy and perseverance, enabled him to make a success … and the enterprise prospered. He was married in 1857 to Charlotte Ellen Tuthill (1840-1925), to whom he addressed this letter.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, John Seaton offered his services in defense of the Union and was commissioned a captain of Co. B, 22nd Illinois Infantry. The regiment trained in Belleville until 25 June 1861, outfitted in the grey uniform of the Illinois militia; and equipped with a .69 caliber converted flintlock musket that fired buck & ball.
Their first serious engagement was the Battle of Belmont (7 November 1861) under General Grant and Captain Seaton was in command of the skirmish line that opened this engagement. Before he advanced, Captain John Seaton of the 22nd Illinois told his men, ‘If I should show the white feather, shoot me dead in my tracks and my family will feel that I died for my country.’ [See Battle of Belmont on HistoryNet] One of the precious possessions of his family at this day is the personal letter he received from the famous commander, commending him for the efficient manner in which he performed the task allotted to his command. He served for one year and then resigned his commission and returned to Alton to take charge of his business.
A letter that John wrote to his wife following the Battle of Belmont and published in the Alton Telegraph on 15 November 1861 was beautifully summarized and transcribed by my friend Dan Masters on Civil War Chronicles under the title, “Standing Up to the Work: A Captain’s View of Belmont.”
After the war, John Seaton remained in Alton in charge of his foundry until 1872, when he removed to Atchison, Kansas, with his entire force of fifty employees. In addition to general architectural work, he filled orders for the Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific and Ft. Scott and Gulf railroads, such as casting locomotive wheels, smoke stacks, steam cylinders, etc., …. The business of his large establishment in Atchison was built up until it amounted to over $250,000 annually, and the plant covered an area of 700×400 feet. Mr. Seaton was in business continually from 1856 until the time of his demise, January 12, 1912.
[Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Richard Weiner and is published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]
I am well sitting in my tent writing on the box you sent me laid on a drum. I got the box and six shirts this morning. I tell you I was glad to get them as I was just out. I had only two shirts left to wear and they were both dirty. They will soon be ragged. I put on the top shirt, and it fits well. I am much pleased with them.
I am well and hearty but awful tired. We have been put through this week—scouting and marching nearly all the time. Day before yesterday about 300 of us went out and traveled. During the time we were out, about fifteen or sixteen miles, at one time we thought we had arrived to camp; all of a sudden, bang! went a musket of one of the enemy’s picket’s, shooting at our cavalry that was 100 yds. in advance of us. My company was at the head of the battalion and I immediately called them into line and marched in line of battle towards [the] enemy. In a couple minutes more, bang! went another of the enemy’s guns. Neither shot took any effect. By that time the cavalry was drawn up into line and I could see them aiming their pieces. They did not fire though.
We marched up right behind them, halted a moment, and then proceeded to a house a little further ahead. In an adjacent field among the stumps, still burnt their camp fires but no enemy could be seen. The woman of the house informed us that she was just getting dinner for a party of 20 horsemen. They slipped us and we heard no more firing during that tramp. The woman’s husband has been taken away to Memphis because he known to be a Union man. It is supposed he will be made away with or pressed into their army. He is a slaveholder too. We saw several of his negroes.
On our way coming back, we came around by another road and when within 2½ miles of Norfolk, we came to a fine large, white, two-story frame house. Here was the residence of another sound Union man by the name of Blanchard. He was seized upon about ten days ago, his house ransacked, and himself, Negroes, horses and cattle conveyed southward. His family, they say, have fled to Cairo. Here was a scene to nerve the patriotic arms of Union men to deeds of valor. A fine family living in a quiet place having a fine farm, and living in affluence, scattered to the four winds of heaven, property torn up, front door of house standing open, fine furniture laying scattered and broken, women’s garments of various kinds scattered here and there, beds look as though the sleepers had just turned out of them, the large cistern all torn off on top, dead cats and other articles thrown in the water, the front of the house riddled with bullets, some of the shingles torn by the leaden missiles, fine fields of corn left without one to take care of them, negroes quarters broken up, and in fact outrages on property of every conceivable shape meet the eye, no matter which way you turn. After stopping there a few moments we left. The place as we left was as silent as the grave, and looked as though the place might be haunted.
We came back to camp tired and hungry and eat our supper with a great gusto. We rested quietly that night and yesterday morning received orders to get our companies ready with 24 hours rations in their haversacks to go on an expedition. Our regiment, part of the 11th [Illinois] regiment, and the 8th [Illinois] regiment in full left camp for down the river road with 4 brass field pieces accompanying us, and a gun boat on river. We marched on towards the camp that the gun boats had the fight with, that I wrote to you about in my last. The boat of course went down a great deal faster than we did. When we had got about half way down and was winding our way through the young cottonwood trees, we suddenly hear the gun boat down below us—boom! boom!—went two large guns throwing shells. We thought the fight had commenced and we hurried on, and the heat was so intense we could hardly breathe. We kept on but no further firing was heard. When we got a couple miles further down, we came out in full view of the river and there could see the gun boat maneuvering around about 2 miles below us. We went on down and she landed and gave the information that the enemy had fled as soon as she fired. We halted there and rested some time. We were then 10 miles from camp. This regiment was in the lead of the expedition.
I went in Colonel Hunter’s house there. He is colonel of a regiment at New Madrid. There I found several negro women cooking supper for 150 men. They told us that a company of secession cavalry that strong were fed there every breakfast and supper by order of old Massa Hunter. There were no white folk there—nothing but niggers. They had a splendid lot of beef cooked and pork and they were busy baking corn bread. We pitched in and eat everything they had. The niggers flew around there waiting upon us and tickled to death because we had come. They set out milk, apples and everything they could do, they did. One of the women said to me, “Fo’ God, Massa, I’se mighty glad you cum. Dem folks makes great brags what dey’ll do wid yo. Dey was here dis mornin’ when de gun boat cum in sight and dey took to deyre heels and broke fo de woods as fast as deyre hosses could carry um.” And then another one says, “Eat it all, Massas, and don’t leave dem none. Golly how dey’ll swear wan dey come back.” I told her, “I guessed we’d wait and catch them.” She answered, “God knows you nebber catch em, dey will be sure your gone befo dey com back.”
They sent their little niggers out to catch chickens and give to our men. I tell you the niggers are not blind at all. They see what’s going on and their sympathies are all on our side. We are half mile from the battlefield of the other day, but did not go to it on account of the road striking square off into the woods, and we could see there were none there. We got back to camp at ten o’clock last night. Nothing more at present. I wrote you in my last to send me five dollars. I still write the same as we are not paid yet, and I have just 10cts left. Send it by express to Cairo. Kiss them babies for me.
Spared & Shared 23 