25th Maine Infantry

1863: John Oliver Quinby to Olive (Hampton) Quinby

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The following letter was written from Camp Tom Casey in mid-February 1863 by John Oliver Quinby (1827-1911), a musician in Co. E, 25th Maine Infantry (9 months 1862-63). He was born in 1827 at Minot, Maine, and married first Mary Pendexter in 1848 and had two children: Sarah F. Quinby (b. 1850) and Mary (died in infancy). After his first wife’s death, John married Olive A. Hampton (1834-1910) in 1853. In 1860, the couple were living at Westbrook, Maine, where John was enumerated as a shoecutter. Their children at that time, included the aforementioned Sarah, as well as Isabel (age 5).

Quinby volunteered in late September 1862 and mustered out with his regiment on 10 July 1863 after 9 months. About 1870 he moved his family to Malden, Massachusetts.

Back in 2018, I transcribed a letter by another member of the same company from Camp Tom Casey in March 1863. It was written by William Roberts to his sister. See—1863: William Roberts to Marietta Roberts.

Portion of “camp map” printed by E. Evans depicting the encampment of the 25th Maine at “Camp Tom Casey,” Arlington Heights, Va. during winter of 1862-63.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Camp Tom Casey
February 22, 1863

Dear wife,

I now take my pen to write to you tonight in answer to yours which I was very glad to receive. Also glad to hear that you were all as well as you were at the time. Now I am sorry that you do not feel well, my dear. I will tell you the trouble, my wife. You worry too much about me. Now do you not do so? Now I am quite smart. You ned not worry about me. I know how to take care of myself and it is for that reason that I have not been on duty. That is the way in this show—to not get down sick so that one cannot get about soon. So do not worry now. You need not think because that I send to you to get medicines that it is because I am so bad off. It is the way that the doctors treat the men that go to them. The things that they need, in my opinion. So I had rather send to you to get something than the doctors [who will give me] something different than I have been used to. That is all.

I calculate to come home all right. That is the reason that I am off duty as I did not feel well. Had got tired and needed rest and had the rheumatism some. Now my dear, I get enough to eat and drink, have a good place to sleep in, am warm most of the time and sometimes too warm. The fire is so near to our bunk that I can lay and put my feet on the chimney and we have a good fire all the time when we need it. Then you have been so good to me sending to me the quilt and the pillow. Now I am well off as I can be. I have got lots of straw in my bunk and as good bed as I could expect in this show.

Now my dear, I thank God tonight that I am so well off as I am—a good dry bed and a good warm fire and plenty to it. That is by far more than many have. It is more than the Brigade right in sight has this night. They tents while we houses. Then those to the front are worse than they are. Now my dear, today it has been snowing hard all day a cold storm. It began last night about 12 o’clock. It looks some like fair weather now here. About 8 inches, they say. Have not been out today, only to get the things you sent to me. They were very nice and you must have taken a good deal of pains to send them to me and I thank you a thousand times for it for I know that you think of me. If you did not, you would not try to send me all the things that I want as you do.

Now, my dear, will you try to do one thing—that is, do not worry so much about me. I am afraid that if you do that, something may happen to me when I am so well off as I am. I am sorry that you are so afraid that I am suffering so much for I am not. Now one thing more, if you do not leave off worrying about me and take your rest, you will be sick. Now do not do so as you love me for my feelings and your own dear sake, now will you? If you do, I shall come home to you and find you poor and slim. Then you will not enjoy yourself, my dear, and perhaps have a fit of sickness. The mind has a good deal to do with the body, you know. Now if I was ever so sick, it would do me no good to worry about me, nor you. Now you must not imagine that I am thus and so but take things as easy as you can.

Now I think you had better not do any stitching as your health is so poor but have rest, and one thing more, I do not want you to go without anything for my sake. I should not enjoy anything if I thought that you did. I do not think you do. Youse your money as long as you have it and take the good of it, my dear. Now I am very sorry that you felt so bad reading the one before my last letter. I do not have any hardness towards you, nor did I when I wrote to you—only I felt bad to think that you thought me in earnest in writing that to you when I was not. You ask me, my wife, to forgive you. I have nothing to forgive in my behalf. If in my writing to you, I hurt your feelings, look at it as not intentionally doing so, and think of it no more, my love. I find no fault with your letter. I can read them as well as my own and as fast too.

I have no news to write to you—only I do not think that we shall move from here till we go home to you, my dear. Now. Cols. Shaw’s wife has come on here and her children to stay. Now that does not look like moving, I do not think. That is so. Now I want you to look at it in this way—that I am coming home when my time is out to you and it will not be long. And try and enjoy yourself [and] not think that I am suffering all the time, my dear. Now won’t you for my sake?

I got the pens all right and the paper too. I got them all. Now my wife, I should like to be with you at home. I should try to enjoy it. Do not think I am homesick. I am willing to stay and serve my time out but I would like to be at home for your sake in particular. hat is so. Now I am sure that if you should have me now at home, you would not let me go to war, would you? No doubt that you miss me more than you thought you should. Well the time will soon pass away and then I shall be at home to stay, I hope, if God in His good Providence sees fit to spare my life. Now do not go to any place of enjoyment and think all the time about me & not take any comfort. Do not think that I think that no one cares for me. I know that some does, that you do, and I am highly pleased to see the love that you express for me. I fear that I am not worthy of many things. Now my dear, I hope that if I am spared to get home, that we both shall try to please each other more than we did sometimes. Now I know that many times that I was fretful with you when at home but hope I may not be again, but I may. But if it should be, my dear, I hope you will bear with my weakness in those points. I am well aware of it and I think if I had not disease about me at times, I should not be by the feelings that I have in my head at those times. But enough of this, my dear. Forgive me in the past and try to forget it if you can. We have both done many things that we ought not to each other but enough, my wife, and if we ever live to see each other again, try to enjoy our lives a little better if we can.

Tell the children to be good and mind you. Give my love to all the friends there. Tell them that I should like to see them all. I am glad Andrew Tell is better. Hope he will go home to May. Well, give my love to Mary, to Call, in fact all. I will now draw to a close at this time, my dear. I do not know as I can write much more to interest you. Do not think that I am down to the heel. I am not—no more than I ever was. That is so. The Saccarappa Boys are all as well as common as far as I know of. I hope you are well tonight and happy. That is so. I will now bid you goodbye, my dear, this time. A kiss for you all and a good hug for you. Receive his from your husband, — J. O. Quinby

Goodbye my dear. Most affectionately yours and may God bless you all. Goodbye, goodbye, my dear wife, goodbye.

My little daughter Bell. I am a going to write a little letter to you. Did you have a good Thanksgiving dinner? I hope you did and did not eat enough to make you sick. Noe Bell, how is Tilly and does Billy sing good? I will tell you there is a little mouse that lives in our tent. He squeals & gets into our things. Little rascal, don’t you think so? Guess we shall kill him sometime.

Now Bell, there is a little dog here. They call him Tom Casey & two nigger boys, but no nigger babies. I am sorry that the heart was broke and I will make another sometime and send to you if I can. How do you like the book that I sent to you & such. I suppose that you will learn all of it by the time I get home. Is your dolls all whole & got their winter clothing? Do you mind Mother well &c.? I suppose that you would like to see me. Well I shall come home by & by. I suppose you will be a little pleased when I get home. Well learn to read smart so you can read to me by and by. You must get Sarah to learn you to read the letters that I write to you. I now close this time. So goodbye Bell. A kiss from your father.

Weekly Summary Podcast

Spared & Shared Podcast 8: Week ending July 10, 2026

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Pip: There is a particular kind of history that only survives because someone kept the letter — not the official report, not the regimental record, but the actual piece of paper a soldier held when he wrote home.

Mara: That’s exactly the territory Griff covers in this set of posts — soldiers writing to parents, siblings, cousins, and friends from the field, alongside one set of enlistment documents that tells its own compressed story.

Pip: Let’s start with the letters themselves.

Letters Home From the Front Lines

Mara: The question these posts collectively ask is what the Civil War looked like from inside it — not from a general’s dispatch, but from the men who carried the colors, stood picket in the mud, and waited for the paymaster who never came.

Pip: The anchor here is Charles L. Hewitt, a Connecticut infantryman who wrote 31 letters home over three years. His March 1862 letter from Jones Island gives you the texture of it immediately. He’s cataloguing the battery’s firepower — nine guns, two thirty-pound rifles, a Columbiad — and then pivots without a breath to: “green peas I have not seen some yet since I left home.”

Mara: That line does a lot of work. The guns are real, the danger is real, and so is the homesickness for something as ordinary as green peas. His later 1864 letter from Bermuda Hundred tracks wartime inflation with the same precision: “New potatoes are 8 cts. a lb. Tobacco $1.50 a lb. Milk 70 cts. a can, butter 60.”

Pip: The man kept a notebook recording the fates of nearly 120 fellow soldiers — wounded, killed, promoted, deserted — which is its own kind of monument.

Mara: Corp. Titus Euson’s 1861 letter from the Battle of Scary Creek covers similar ground from Ohio. He carried the colors of the 12th Ohio Infantry into the fight, survived a cannon shot close enough to fray his hat, and then spent most of the letter blaming General Cox for the defeat — quoting the men around him directly: Cox was “a good for nothing; cowardly, incompetent, and worse than worthless general.”

Pip: Strong words, written four days after the battle, on patriotic stationery captioned “Wait Till the War is Over.”

Mara: Lorenzo Harrington’s June 1862 letter from near Winchester is quieter but harder to read knowing what comes next. He describes volunteering for the color guard — “It is a very dangerous place but it gives me pleasure to have the privilege of defending at such a time as this” — and mentions his mother is gravely ill and wants him home. He died of typhoid fever two weeks after sealing the letter.

Pip: William Cook writing from in front of Atlanta in August 1864 has a different register — almost conversational, telling a friend named Linda that he’d rather be at a concert in Orrville than watching real battles, and noting that a mutual friend named Ed was definitely dead, whatever Augusta McDowell chose to believe.

Mara: And Corp. Alfred Bryant’s partial letter from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, describes the aftermath of the Bayou Lafourche fighting — buildings still smoking, the dead unburied, the wounded being carried to Baton Rouge — and closes because a rainstorm is threatening his shelter tent.

Pip: Solomon Starbird’s December 1863 letter from Cole’s Island rounds out the picture on a different note entirely — he’s furious about political patronage handing commissions to unqualified men, including what he calls “our little, greasy, stupid under cook,” and he’s applying to transfer to a Colored regiment just to find something worth doing.

Mara: Which connects directly to what the next post is about.

One Enlistment, One Death, Eighty-Nine Days

Mara: The post on Anderson West presents his enlistment papers rather than a letter — a set of official documents that compress an entire life into a few administrative lines.

Pip: West was eighteen, listed as a farmer from Jackson County, Arkansas, almost certainly a formerly enslaved man. He enrolled in Co. B, 11th US Colored Infantry at Fort Smith on December 21, 1863. The examining surgeon recorded his height, eye color, hair color. Eighty-nine days later he was dead of fever at the General Hospital.

Mara: The post notes his clothing withdrawal records are consistent with the enlistment date — meaning the paper trail confirms he barely had time to draw a uniform before he died.

Pip: The letters in the previous segment were written by men who survived long enough to describe what they saw. Anderson West left no letter.

Mara: What holds all of this together is the gap between official records and what actually happened — the cannon shot that frayed a hat, the moldy cheese in the care package, the commission handed to a cook.

Pip: History keeps the dispatches. The letters keep everything else.

60th New York Infantry

1862: Lorenzo Clark Harrington to his Cousin

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I could not find an image of Lorenzo but here is a watercolor of Sgt. Loren Wellington Tuller of Co. D, 60th New York Infantry (based on image in collection of Al & Claudia Niemiec)

The following letter was written by Lorenzo C. Harrington (1841-1862), the son of Joshua Bailey Harrington and Fidelia Norton of Stockholm, Saint Lawrence county, New York. Lorenzo was 20 years old when he enlisted for three years as a private in Co. K , 60th New York State Volunteers on 30 October 1861. He was promoted to corporal on 1 May 1862 and proudly served in the color guard of his regiment though he understood the peril of carrying the flag in battle: “It is a very dangerous place but it gives me pleasure to have the privilege of defending at such a time as this.”

In his letter of 14 June 1862, Lorenzo expressed concern for his sick mother who feared she might die before seeing her son again. Ironically, it would be Lorenzo who would die—just two weeks after sealing this letter to his cousin who probably preserved it as a keepsake. A headstone in Harrington’s memory was erected at Fairview Cemetery in Brasher Falls. It isn’t known if his body was returned home or if he was buried at Little Washington, Virginia, where he died of typhoid fever.

I have previously transcribed and published the following letters by other members of the 60th New York Infantry, also in Co. K:

Levi Crawford, Co. K, 60th New York (1 Letter)
John D. Stevens, Co. K, 60th New York (1 Letter)

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Camp Sigel near Winchester, Va.
Sunday, June 14, 1862

Dear Cousin,

It is with the greatest pleasure that I again seat myself to write a few lines in answer to your kind & ever welcome letter which I received last night. And not knowing when I should have another chance to write as we don’t know how long we shall stay in our present situation. We are liable to march at any hour.

We have left our situation at Harper’s Ferry & moved on to Winchester. We had orders to be ready to march at six-o’clock a fortnight ago tomorrow & at the hour we were ordered into line ready to march & to add to our comfort, it commenced raining just before we started & rained very hard most all night. We marched until about two o’clock when we halted for the night. We lay down & went to sleep notwithstanding it still rained & we were wet through to the lining.

When we woke up it had stopped raining & cleared up & the sun rose as beautiful as ever & we took up the line of march & traveled until about two o’clock when we halted for the day. It was very warm through the day but about six o’clock it commenced raining again. We lay down that night in the open field & slept as sound as heart could wish, it raining very hard. When we woke up in the morning, we were dripping wet again.

In the evening at six o’clock we were ordered into the line again ready to march which we done immediately. We marched through to Winchester & arrived there about one o’clock p.m. It rained all the day through so that it made it very hard traveling. The mud was very deep & often we had to ford streams. But amid all the hardships we traveled about 40 miles in less than two days. The boys—most of them—are in good spirits & enjoying good health/ We stayed in Winchester quite a number of days but we are about three miles from there encamped in a splendid little grove.

There about 70 thousand here in the valley. The country through which we passed was very beautiful—nice fields of grain thirty and forty acres in a field. I think we shall make an advance before many days. While we were at the Ferry, we had a little skirmish with the rebels. We found that the rebels were advancing & we threw out 75 men and a piece of artillery as skirmishers & then opened upon us with six pieces of artillery. Our piece returned the fire & the men [who] were thrown out in another direction, fired upon them and they turned two of [their] pieces on us but luckily no damage was done on our side although some of them struck very close to us. One struck within six feet of me & burst but doing no damage.

The Colonel called for volunteers to go out & I went to him & got permission to go out for I could not leave without his consent for I am color guard. The color guard consists of one color [ ]. He is supposed to be a sergeant & eight corporals to guard it in the field of battle & to defend it against the foe. It is a very dangerous place but it gives me pleasure to have the privilege of defending at such a time as this. But I think that the time is fast hastening on when the enemies of our once happy and peaceful country will be humbled to the ground & be made to realize where they are and that they are in the wrong side of fame, and we shall be permitted to return home to our friends and the loved ones near and dear to us.

Mother has been quite sick this spring & she wrote to me that she wanted I should come home for she did not think that she would live long but I can’t go. It seems rather hard but I hope & trust for the best that her health may improve and she may be permitted to remain until I can see her once more at least.

But I must close as I shall weary your patience. I thank you for your kind wishes concerning me and if I know my own heart, I mean to do as near right as I know how. The best are liable to err as you well know before this late hour that you have my best wishes and hoping that you will have good luck and success in all your undertakings is the wish of your true friend and affectionate cousin. Yours truly, — L. C. Harrington

Please write as soon as possible if you consider it worth an answer. Please direct to Winchester, Va., 60th Regiment NYSV, Co. K, in the care of Captain [Abel] Godard. Give my love to Aunt Hattie

.

127th New York Infantry

1863: Solomon B. Starbird to George B. Starbird

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Solomon Bates Starbird (1832-1889)

The following letter was written by Solomon Bates Starbird (1832-1889). After working for several years as a lawyer in New York City, Solomon was mustered into Co. B, 127th New York Volunteers on September 8, 1862, at the rank of sergeant and served with that regiment until October 31, 1864. He then served as a 1st Lieutenant in the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers—an African American regiment—from October 31, 1864 to August 29, 1865. After the war, he married Hannah Judkins (1832-1922) and moved to Nebraska and then Colorado, where he continued to work as a lawyer. He died in Denver, Colorado, in 1889.

This letter must have once been part of a huge collection of letters written by members of the Starbird family. There are 331 letters among the Starbird family papers housed at the William C. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, ranging from 1848 to 1864. They were written by three Starbird siblings: Solomon and George, who served in the Civil War in the 127th New York Infantry and 1st New York Mounted Rifles respectively, and Marianne, who operated a struggling art school in New York City.

Solomon Starbird wrote less frequently than his siblings, but his long letters were often filled with details of camp life. On January 23, 1863, he wrote to Marianne concerning the lack of pay to soldiers and the slovenliness of the privates. In his letter of August 21, 1863, he described a military gathering on Folly Island and Union positions in South Carolina. In other letters he gave accounts of being fired on during picket duty (September 30, 1863) and Christmas celebrations in camp (December 22, 1863). A talented sketcher, he included in a letter of October 8, 1863, a penciled map of Cole’s Island, South Carolina, labeled with the “old fort;” the 127th Regiment’s camp; and the surrounding marshes.

Over the years I have transcribed numerous letters by members of the 127th New York Infantry. These include:

William Edgar Oakey, Co. A, 127th New York (3 Letters)
Henry Blain Graham, Co. C, 127th New York (1 Letter)
John Allen, Co. E, 127th New York (1 Letter)
Lord Wellington Gillett, Co. H, 127th New York (1 Letter)
George Elbert Jayne, Co. I, 127th New York (1 Letter)
Jonathan Allen Bennett, Co. K, 127th New York (33 Letters)
Orlando S. Edwards, Co. K, 127th New York (1 Letter)
Josiah Parsons Miller, Co. K, 127th New York (3 Letters)
William B. Miller, Co. K, 127th New York (4 Letters)

Union troops landing on Cole Island in the mouth of the Stono Inlet in March 1863.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Addressed to Sergt. George B. Starbird, Troop E, 1st New York Mounted Rifles, Williamsburg, Va.; envelope endorsed as soldier’s letter by Major E. H. Little

Cole Island, South Carolina
Day after Christmas, December 26, 1863

Dear Brother George,

Received your letter last eve, 14 days after twas written. Five days ago received one from M[arianne] at Utica dated December 6th. She is of course now at Mr. W’s in Jersey City. Have just mailed one to her directing it to care of Mr. W. I must say that although I have had no fear of your being careless of health or anything else, yet I have sometimes almost longed to see a few lines from your pen, so I hope that though you have nothing new to write, you will not allow long periods to pass without some token from you. I will here state that I have tried to get possession of stamps enough to pay post on a book—Kinglake’s Crimean War—which has been wrapped to send you these 3 weeks. Think I shall succeed soon. I wished to surprise you but can’t wait to keep it from you. But you must wait till it reaches you somehow. Ere this you would have had it but stamp holders are so tenacious & I can’t bother M. to send.

Well we get on in the same stupid way. Don’t know when I will be relieved [of] this scout duty. But wind blows fierce & cold almost all each day so I can do little with glass. Besides, I’m not expected to chill self to death. Lately, say for a week, I’be been in quarters at ease except two afternoons. No roll calls or company inspections for me. In fact, only such as I choose at any time. Meanwhile my musket & things I keep shiny for sake of exercise. Wish to heaven I were in your regiment where something is ever going on.

Yesterday morning at daylight, the Marblehead (gunboat) lying about a mile and a half up Stono was attack[ed] by 13 reb field guns on a line half mile back from W shore Stono & about a mile from Marblehead. The Pawnee soon came up & helped to drive rebs from position, but the Marblehead, tis reported, lost three killed & 5 wounded. Reckon it was only a Christmas salute.

I’m going to apply to Washington for permit to appear for examination for commission in Colored Regiment. I [am] so damned tired on this inactivity—just throwing self & time away. Besides, just see this cursed mixing of politics with military affairs. A commission came here the other day for a private in Co. C next us. But said private was in guard house just then & must wait sentence of court martial at any rate. Out of spite, they managed to keep [him] in guard house although tis said the commission is dated previous to his arrest. But I think he’ll get discharged by sentence for they can from his quitting post as “signal private” without permission. They may reduce him to ranks, now the law gives the power. But the officers are all made that the said private’s brother—a New York politician—has succeeded in squeezing a 1st Lieutenant’s commission out of Gov. Seymour for this private in Co. C.

But the most stupid act is for Gov. Seymour to be deluded into sending a 2nd Lieutenant’s commission for our little, greasy, stupid under cook. We never thought him fit for cook proper. But some active, influential relation on Folly Island got him berth as errand man (orderly) at telegraph station over there & now another politician has made an officer of him. Oh Hell! to think the stupid ass might have power to command me. I feel like kicking him! — S. B. S.

41st Ohio Infantry, Siege of Atlanta

1864: William Campbell Cook to Linda Hughes

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The following letter was written by William C. Cook (1843-1936), the orphaned son of Asa C. Cook (1810-1850) and Mary Margaret Campbell (1814-1846) of Dalton, Wayne county, Ohio. William entered the service at age 18, enlisting for three years on 30 August 1862 in Co. C, 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). He made the jump from musician (drummer boy) to sergeant on 9 July 1864 and was appointed the 1st Sergeant of his company on 9 January 1865. He mustered out as a veteran on 27 November 1865. William married Eliza Ellen Fletcher (1847-1914) in 1868 and was a merchant in Dalton in the latter half of the 19th century.

Over the years I have transcribed a few other letters by soldiers in the 41st OVI; three of them by members of Co. C: These letters include:

Norman Chaffin, Co. C, 41st Ohio (1 Letter) 
Joseph Alexander McGonagle, Co. C, 41st Ohio (2 Letters)
Jacob Shanklin, Co. C, 41st Ohio (1 Letter)
John Henry Wakefield, Co. D, 41st Ohio (2 Letters)

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Addressed to Miss Linda Hughes, Farmer Center, Defiance county, Ohio

In front of Atlanta, Georgia
August 21, 1864

Miss Linda Hughes, kind Friend.

Thinking a few lines from a soldier friend would prove acceptable to you, I take the liberty to address a few lines to you. As I have not written to you yet, although I believe I promised to write soon after I left Dalton [Ohio] for the army.

We are having a different time now that we had last winter. We are marching or fighting most all the time—more amusement than I like. I would rather go to Orrville to a concert and see the picture of a battlefield as some we see here. How should you like to take another wagon ride? I think I could enjoy one now very well. But the party that took that ride will never be all together again. I heard from Dalton a few days ago. Gust [Augusta] McDowl [McDowell] is more than down on us boys. She does not believe Ed was killed She says we do not know anything about it. Well perhaps we don’t, but I know she will never see him again as I never knew of a dead man coming to life yet.

Since we left Dalton, we have seen some hard times. We have been under fire almost every day since the 6th of May. Now we are in sight of the rebs and are skirmishing with them every few days. There has been some hard fighting along the line but none in our front. But we have our share. We are close to Atlanta but there is going to be some hard fighting before they let us go in.

Today is Sunday and is midling quiet but can’t tell how long it will last as they start up firing all at once sometimes. We can’t tell one minute what shall happen the next. Don’t care much either. If we have to fight, I want to do it and get home again—that is, if they don’t hurt me.

Linda, I hardly know where to direct my letters to as I do not know whether you are at your home or not, as it has been quite a while since I heard from you. Milt Fletcher says he wrote you some time ago and never received any answer. It is now getting late and I shall have to close for this time but if I am so lucky as to receive an answer, I will write more the next time. Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain your friend, — W. C. Cook

P. S. Milt & Will sends respects. Direct to W. C. Cook, County. C, 41st O[hio] V[et.] V[ol.] I[nfantry], Marietta, Georgia

18th New York Light Artillery, Battle of Port Hudson, Donaldsonville, Louisiana

1863: Alfred H. Bryant Letter, 18th NY Light Artillery

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The following partial letter was penned by Corp. Alfred H. Bryant (1840-1902), a 23 year-old machinist in Rochester, New York, when he enlisted in the 18th Independent Battery—Capt., Albert G. Mack. This battery, known as the “Black Horse artillery,” or “Billinghurst battery,” was recruited and organized by Capt. Mack at Rochester, where it was mustered into the U. S. service for three years on Sept. 13, 1862.

The 18th Independent Battery left the state on Dec. 2, 1862, and joined Sherman’s division, Department of the Gulf. It was attached to the 19th Army Corps and was active at Fort Bisland, the Amite river, Plains store, and the siege of Port Hudson, La., where it participated in the assaults of May 27 and June 14. After the surrender of Port Hudson it went into the defenses of New Orleans; was engaged at Bayou La Fourche in July, 1863; took part in the expedition to Clinton and Liberty creek, La., in Nov., 1864; and in the spring of 1865, participated with Gen. Canby’s forces in the siege of Mobile, engaging at Spanish Fort, and at Fort Blakely and Mobile. It was mustered out under Capt. Mack, at Rochester, N. Y., July 20, 1865, having lost during service 4 men mortally wounded, and 23 men by disease and other causes, a total of 27.

In July 1863, the fort and buildings burned during the Bayou Lafourche campaign were associated with Fort Butler (pictured below) at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, and the surrounding Kock’s Plantation. The destruction occurred during the Battle of Kock’s Plantation on July 13, 1863, after Confederate forces under General Tom Green engaged Union troops. Fort Butler, an earth-and-log fortification designed to guard the confluence of the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche, was the anchor point of the Union stronghold in Donaldsonville. Union troops and gunboats shelled and burned portions of the surrounding town, while retreating or attacking Confederate forces also destroyed nearby government and plantation buildings.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

[Editor’s note: This partial letter begins on page 5 of an eight page letter. It was probably datelined from Donaldsonville, Louisiana in mid July 1863.]

..and attacked Banks force here. They had an idea that they could draw our force away from Port Hudson but their plan didn’t work. This place is situated on the bank of the Mississippi River about 100 miles from New Orleans.

We have had two terrible battles here—one while we was at Port Hudson and one the day before we arrived here. They tried to take the place but our troops kept them back at the point of the bayonet until our gunboats arrived and burned the place down. We have a small fort here but there wasn’t men enough to man the guns at the time of the fight. It was a terrible sight the day we arrived here. The buildings was all burned to the ground and was still smoking while the dead still lay upon the ground, unburied, left there for their friends to recognize them while there was hundreds of man made graves all along the road while the wounded was being carried to the hospital at Baton Rouge.

How long we will remain here, I do not know. The rebel force is about 15 miles from here. I do not think they will give us a chance to try our big guns again right away. We have a large force in their rear and I think we will be apt to bag them all. Fighting is about played [out] in this state and I guess it is all over. I think the rebels have found out that the Yankees are too much for them, If they hain’t, it is about time they had. I told a reb in Port Hudson that I could whip 3 rebels and keep it up 7 days in a week.

I will have to finish this letter the same as I did my pants the other day—haft to patch it.

There is rumors in camp that there is proposals of peace at Washington. We have a few in our company who correspond with the Rochester paper. I will send you some papers as soon as I get some stamps. I have one or two letters that I will send you. One was taken from the New York Herald. It will give you a slight sketch of our doings. We have nigh 7 months pay due [us]. It is hard telling when we will get pay. My health is good at present. I have had a slight touch of the fever but I am better now.

I must close this letter for there is a dreadful shower driving up and I must try and fix my shelter tent so as it won’t leak. This is a dreadful rainy month. One hour the sun will shine dreadful hot and the next it will rain. It has rained every day for the last two weeks. Goodbye. Remember me to all my friends. Farewell from your ever affectionate brother. Write soon. Please direct to Mr. Alfred H. Bryant, 18th New York Battery, Care of Capt. A[lbert] G. Mack. General Banks’ Expedition, New Orleans

We are not in the 108th Regiment.

7th Connecticut Infantry, Battle of the Crater, Port Royal, South Carolina

1862-64: Charles L. Hewitt Letters

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I could not find an image of Charles but here is a watercolor of Pvt. John H. Bario of Co. C, 7th Connecticut Infantry

Charles L. Hewitt (1844-Aft1919) enlisted in the Union Army on 27 August 1861, was mustered on 7 September 1861 into Co. E, 7th Connecticut Infantry Regiment, and was mustered out on 12 September 1864. Charles was the son of John and Eliza (Platt) Hewitt of West Winsted, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains a collection of 31 letters written by Charles L. Hewitt to his parents and siblings and a notebook in which Hewitt recorded the fates of nearly 120 of his fellow soldiers, including those who were wounded, killed in action, promoted, or deserted along with the dates and locations of these occurrances. Hewitt’s letters, written onboard a gunboat and from various locations in Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, document army life; his evaluations and speculations; his time drilling, serving in a boat infantry, and picketing; descriptions of his surroundings; family and social news; and descriptions of fighting.

The University of South Carolina’s Manuscript Divisions has six of Charles L. Hewitt’s letters written between January 1862 and November 1863.

After mustering out of the service, Hewitt returned to Connecticut where he worked as a carpenter and farm laborer, raising two children with his first wife, Jennie, whom he married about 1868, and two more children with his second wife, Charlotte Lawrence Sage, whom he married in 1879.

Letter 1

Addressed to Mr. John Hewitt, West Winsted, Conn.

Jones Island
Fort Vulcan
March 11, 1862

Dear Parents,

I received your letter of the 16th of February and was very glad to hear from you and that you was all well. How is Uncle Charles’ folks getting on? I have not had a letter from there in two months. They have not answered my letter yet. I received the combs, thread and buttons and vest. I mentioned it when I wrote my last letter. The Rowly boys have not got their box yet. You needn’t send me any more combs at present for I have plenty now. Sterling Milliman had a letter stating that Jake had got home. When you write, please write and tell me if he brought that box that I sent by him. I paid him for carrying it.

We are not afraid of the rebels now. I came on guard to the battery on the Savannah River today. She mounts 9 guns: two 30-pound rifle cannon about 12 feet long with 3 or 4 smaller ones, one 24 Howitzer and one Columbiad, one which carries a shot 11 inches through, besides which we have got a battery right opposite across the river of 6 rifle cannon [and] two gunboats to support them—the Western World and E. B. Hale. 1 Our men took two secesh this morning. Savannah isn’t taken yet. There is no land cultivated in this part of the country. We have not time for that for green peas I have not seen some yet since I left home.

As for the Darkies we keep them mostly for oarsmen. They make the best oarsmen in the world. They will row from morning until night without stopping. Rowing is their delight. Gen. [Egbert Ludovicus] Viele has got six of them to man his boat. He has got them red shirts and blue caps and they feel big, you can bet.

I received the paper that you sent me at the same time that I received the letter. You can tell Duck that I got her letter and wrote her another one. I get the letters directed either way but the best way is to direct to Port Royal, S. C., and tell her to let Frank have 50 cents of she wants to borrow it again and I will pay her. I shall be much obliged for the beef. As for the pickles, I rather think I can make way with them. I have not tasted of one since I left home—only as one of the sailors on board the Western World gave me part of one the other day. It was a luxury you can bet.

Our boys think they have a hard time here standing guard in the mud. The mud is about like it is at home in the spring when the frost begins to come out of the ground, only there ain’t no bottom to it. But the 48th New York have it worse than we do. They have to make the battery of it and get it all covered with mud from head to foot.

My paper is getting scarce and I must stop by sending my love to all. — Charles L. Hewitt

1 On 14 February 1862, Western World and E. B. Hale drove off four Confederate vessels which attempted to break the Union blockade of the Mud and Wright’s Rivers, tributaries of the Savannah. This restricted Confederate activity upon the Savannah River and protected the newly installed Federal battery at Venus Point. After remaining off the Savannah through May, Western World returned to Port Royal on 2 June. [Source: Western World (Screw Steamer)]

Letter 2

Charles wrote this first letter to Samuel Lloyd Andrews (1811-1882) of Winsted, Litchfield county, Connecticut. Samuel was a 50 year-old master carpenter in Winsted who had previously employed and boarded Charles with his family. Samuel’s son, George L. Andrews (1840-1907) married Sarah Jane (“Jennie”) Fenton (1842-1908) before the Civil War; he enlisted in 1862 as the Orderly Sergeant of Co. F, 28th Connecticut Infantry (having previously served in Co. F, 2nd Connecticut).

Charles tells Samuel that the regiment has just returned from an expedition that attempted to destroy a part of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad near Pocotaligo led by General Terry. Two days after this letter, the regiment left Hilton Head for Beaufort.

Hilton Head [South Carolina]
October 29, 1862

Dear Friend,

I received your letter and should have answered it before but we had to go off on our expedition and when we got back, we were pretty much tired out. I hope you will excuse me this time and I will try and answer your next letter sooner. I sent you a paper the other day that is printed here with an account of our last fight in this part of the country. I sent you $5 through our folks. I sent it to them because I could send it all together. They will hand it to you and I will see that you get the rest before long.

Heard that George had gone out as Orderly Sergeant. Is that so? Wheelock [T. Batcheller] has been promoted to Lieut. Col. [of the 28th]?

If we get reinforcements down here, you will hear some good news from this quarter before long for we have got a man at the head of the department that means [to] fight—Gen. O. M. Mitchel. We cannot muster more than 5 or 6 thousand men to start off with here now but he has started us twice already—once to Florida and once for the railroad between Savannah and Charleston.

George—or “Lengthy” as we call him here—is well and getting along first rate. He says he will write to you before long. He sends his best respects and so does Jim.

We do not have much to do now for a few days back. We are resting from our labors in the last fight. We get soft bread every day and fresh meat every few days. We are living pretty well now.

How does Jennie get along without her George? Give her my best respects and tell Mother Andrews that [even] with all our fresh meat and soft bread, I had rather board with her. I hope this war will close before long for I, for one, am sick of it. Give my best respects to all the folks and save a good share for you and Mother Andrews.

Write soon and I will try to answer quicker next time. — Charles L. Hewitt

Letter 3

Addressed to Mr. John Hewitt, West Winsted, Connecticut

Bermuda Hundred, Virginia
August 7th 1864

Dear Parents,

I received your letter of July 31st and was very glad to hear from you that you was well as this leaves me at present. I received the box the day before I received the letter. The things came all right except Jim’s and Sterling’s ¹ cheese that was moldy but mine come pretty good. It was moldy a little on the outside. Some of the lemons came all right and some were rotten. Sterling’s rusk were all spoilt. The rest of them were all right except the medicine which did not come at all.

We have some very hot weather with very little rain. We are not having duty quite so hard just at present. We have to go on picket once in 4 days and fatigue once in awhile.

New potatoes are 8 cts. a lb. That is $4.80 acts. a bushel at the sutlers. Tobacco $1.50 a lb. Milk 70 cts. a can, butter 60. Apples as big as walnuts a cent apiece. So you see we feel the high prices here as well as there. We are not troubled with buying much for we have not seen the pay master yet. We get orders on the sutler though — two dollars a month — which won’t much more than get a good meal. I think I shall have to stop chewing tobacco. It cost most too much.

I saw Jonas Leroy ² the night before the fight at Drury’s Bluff. Give him my best respects if you see him again. I hope to dinner within 5 weeks from today — just one month more to serve Uncle Sam in and then I shall bid him good day and tell him I want to settle with him.

There is no news here at present. There was very heavy firing at Petersburg the other night but I have not heard how it turned out. ³ There are rumors afloat that the rebels blowed up one of our batteries and made a charge but Gen. Grant found out that they were mining and built another battery in the rear of the one they were mining and removed everything out of it and when they charged they did more than give it to them. I don’t know how true it is though.

Give my respects to all enquiring friends. The boys all send their best respects. My love to you and mother and all the rest. Write soon. You won’t have many more to write.

From your son, — Charles L. Hewitt

¹ Corporal Sterling D. Milliman served in Company E, 7th Connecticut, with Charles.

² Jonas Leroy (1843-1921) was from West Winsted, Litchfield County, Connecticut. He served in Company G, 117th New York Infantry. Prior to that he served in Co. A, 1st New York Infantry.

³ Charles is no doubt referring to the Battle of the Crater which took place in the early morning hours of July 30, 1864.

12th Ohio Infantry, Battle of Scary Creek

1861: Titus Andrew Euson to James Montrose Euson

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This letter was written by Corp. Titus Andrew Euson (1837-1885) while serving in Co. C, 12th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The 12th was first organized as 3-months regiment in late April 1862 under Col. A. De Villiers but before the end of June, it was mustered in for three years under Col. John Lowe.

The regiment first saw action in the Battle of Scary Creek—little more than a skirmish really—in Western Virginia on July 17, 1861. It was up against an enemy that has already settled in for a fight beyond a ravine. The Twelfth fought for three hours and completely running out of ammunition, fell back to its camp at the mouth of the Pocotaligo. Official records stated the Union loss as 5 killed, 30 wounded and 4 missing—figures that vary widely from those reported by Corp. Euson who had the honor of carrying the colors of the 12th Ohio into the battle.

For a great summary of the battle, I recommend “A Scary Affair at Scary Creek,” by Dan Masters.

Titus was the son of James Montrose Euson (1811-1891) and Hannah Harden Gage (1817-1872) of Troy, New York.

Corp. Euson’s stationery is headed by this patriotic imagery captioned. “Wait ‘Till the War is Over” by Mumford & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Camp D’Villiers
4 miles above Red House on the Kanawha [River], Virginia
July 21st 1861

Dear Father,

Not waiting for an answer, I hasten to give you the report of the Battle of Camp Scary which I judged by this time has circulated freely through the papers.

On the morning of the 17, the 12th [Ohio Regiment] was ordered to proceed six miles up the river and take a battery of three guns and engage some 4 or 400 rebels under Gov. Wise. As we marched within 100 rods of the battery which was unseen, our cannoneers opened fire on their trenches and then their (rebel) battery began first by two charges of grape and after by round shot to clear the road. None of the rebel shots hit our ranks but the shots from our rifled cannon told every time somewhere and made the rebels scatter. After the 4th round, our artillery changed positions, and after 2 shots silenced their battery and with a shell blew up their caissons.

During the time the artillery were engaging the enemy, our men were crossing a field on the left of the road to gain their position. The shot from their cannon made merry music for our ears but did no harm. After taking up the ravine, we took our position on top of the hill and fired by company. Pretty soon the Jeffies began to run, and then our boys charged bayonets, driving them from their trenches and battery, and driving them across the bridge leaving the field entirely to us. Lucky for our boys they did not pursue them across the bridge for as soon as they (the rebels) were over, [they] fired a train and blew the bridge to atoms.

Just as we were all cheering over our victory, we espied a rebel reinforcement of some 1600 coming to their aid. Then our hearts come up in our throats for we knew we must lose the battle as we had no reserve to hold our position gained. After some firing and skirmishing with the rebel reinforcement & our boys finding their cartridges giving out, they beat a retreat for camp, feeling rather down-hearted over their loss of victory. My position during the battle was that of color guard. We were ordered not to fire unless attacked at close quarters although at times the bullets and round shot fell like hail around us.

During the retreat, I give out from the effects of heat and with some wounded lay an hour after all our forces had left. After that time, some of the wounded could get up and walk and those that could help support them till we got down the road did where we all were taken into a baggage wagon and brought into camp. The effects of the heat I have not got over yet, but I will be all right in two or three days. During the first part of the fight, I had a cannon shot come so near me as to have the wind of it knock me down. It frayed the binding to my fed hat—near enough to suit my taste.

Gen. Jacob D. Cox—“advised to resign and is pronounced by both officers and men to be a good for nothing; cowardly, incompetent, and worse than worthless general. The 1st & 2nd Kentucky Regiments swear they will shoot Gen. Cox the first battle they get into providing he is brave enough to go with them into a fight.”

Our defeat can be laid onto Gen. [Jacob] Cox as he stayed here to plan and kept three regiments here to guard him while [only] one regiment (or 7 companies; 3 companies absent) done all the fighting. At the time we need reinforcements, a messenger came to Gen. Cox stating the fact to him. After the firing ceased, he sent the 21st with some ammunition for us (5 rounds). Now at present, there are 6 regiments of infantry, two batteries, and one company of cavalry here at present (2 regiments come today). Gen. Cox has been advised to resign and is pronounced by both officers and men to be a good for nothing; cowardly, incompetent, and worse than worthless general. The 1st & 2nd Kentucky Regiments swear they will shoot Gen. Cox the first battle they get into providing he is brave enough to go with them into a fight. The 2nd Brigade is composed of the 1st and 2nd Kentucky, 6th, 8th, 11th & 21st Regiment O. S. V., Co. A—Cleveland Light Artillery, and Ironton Cavalry Battalion.

I don’t know whether this letter will reach you or not as we have to pay individuals money instead of having stamps to put on the letters where if we had stamps they would be sure to go. Martha Hull wrote me a letter which I answered giving her an account of the Battle at Scary Creek.

If it would not be unhandy, I wish you would send me a few stamps as we cannot get them here for either love or money. Money we don’t get anyway. Give my best respects to mother, the children, and all kind friends, and do not forget a large share for yourself.

Trusting in God and thanking Him for my past preservation, I await an answer from you hoping at the same time this will find you all in good health an fine sprits. I remain your son, — Titus A. Euson

Titus A. Euson
Care of Capt. Watts McMurchy, Co. C. 12th Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Ohio State Volunteers, District of the Kanawha, Western Virginia via Gallipolis, Ohio

The Battle of Scary lasted two hours and 40 minutes. Our loss was 9 killed, 10 taken prisoner, and 20 wounded. Col. D’Villiers & Norton of the 11th & 21st [Ohio] were taken prisoners among the rest. They were a mile off looking on the fight and when they saw our boys drive the rebels, at the time their reinforcements came up and thought we had gained the battle and come riding over to congratulate us when they fell into rebel hands as prisoners. They would not have advanced so boldly but the rebels came up under the stars and stripes and when they had their position, raised the “3 bars and 5 stars.” 1

The rebel loss by their own account was 65 killed, 200 wounded, and 10 missing.

1 It’s true that both Col. De Villiers and Col. Jesse S. Norton of the 21st Ohio were taken prisoner in this action but not quite the way Corp. Euson reported it. Norton was shot while personally leading his regiment, fell on the field, and was taken captive. De Villiers of the 11th Ohio, however, was taken prisoner after sundown along with other Union officers when they saw buildings burning at Scary Creek and assumed Union forces had won the engagement. They crossed the river in a skiff to join in the celebration only to discover that the revelers were Confederate forces commanded by Capt. George S. Patton & Col. Christopher Q. Tompkins. For their error, they had the pleasure of being a guest at Libby Prison.

11th USCT

1863: Enlistment Papers for Anderson West, Co. B, 11th USCT

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Anderson West was an 18 year-old “farmer” from Jackson County, Arkansas—presumably a former slave—when he enrolled as a private in Co. B, 11th US Colored Infantry at Fort Smith, Arkansas, for a period of three years. The original enlistment papers, signed by Capt. James M. Steele of the 12the Kansas Volunteers on 21 December 1863, made it official. The enlistment could only be official after Anderson was examined by a physician to determine that he was of sufficient physical fitness to serve. That duty was performed by Asst. Surgeon Alijah D. Tenney (often spelled Tenny) of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers who described Anderson West as a 5’4″ tall Black man with “black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion.”

Though Anderson may have been healthy when he was examined by Dr. Tenney, we learn from his muster roll records that a month later, on 26 February 1864, Anderson was taken to the General Hospital at Fort Smith and that he died there on 9 March 1864. His cause of death was described as “Febris Remittent.” His clothing withdrawal account records are consistent with his enlistment date of 21 December 1863.

The officer signing the Volunteer Enlistment papers was Captain James M. Steele (Lawrence, KS) of Co. E, 12th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was formed in September 1862 and spent much of its early deployment guarding the Kansas-Missouri border. In 1864, the 12th Kansas transferred to Arkansas, where Co. E actively engaged Confederate forces and operated out of Fort Smith.

The following images were downloaded from Fold3 which are consistent with the above enlistment papers of Anderson West.

Weekly Summary Podcast

Spared & Shared Podcast 7: Week ending July 3, 2026

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Pip: Every letter in this episode was written by someone who had no idea if it would be the last one — and Griff has been collecting them anyway, one careful transcription at a time.

Mara: That's the thread running through this episode. We're looking at infantry letters from the front lines, and a shorter segment on cavalry and artillery correspondence — voices from the field, the siege lines, and the garrison forts.

Pip: Let's start with the infantry.

Infantry Letters From The Front

Mara: The question this segment keeps circling is a simple one: what does a soldier actually write home about when the war is right outside the tent?

Pip: And the answer, it turns out, is chestnuts. The unidentified Louisianan Zouave writing from Camp Rightor near Yorktown in November 1861 sets the tone early, describing camp life with genuine warmth.

Mara: He writes to his "Dear Lou": "We have fine times roasting Chestnuts by our camp fires at night, smoking our pipes, spinning yarns, &c. — some fun practical jokes and occasionally a little row just for excitement."

Pip: So the upshot is that even on the Virginia Peninsula, in a unit doing picket duty along the Warwick River, the dominant mood in this letter is cheerful domesticity — a flourishing village, merry men, not twenty sick in the whole battalion.

Mara: Which makes it a useful counterweight to the letters from Frank Fletcher Rice, the young Vermont soldier whose correspondence runs from late 1862 through 1865. Frank enlisted at what was likely fifteen, and his letters to his mother and sister track the full arc — from cracking walnuts on picket duty near Alexandria to a late-war letter from Cloud's Mills still owed two hundred and sixty-six dollars in back pay.

Pip: Frank's letters have a quality the Zouave's doesn't — you can watch him growing up in real time across the pages.

Mara: By January 1863 he's writing from Camp near Fairfax Court House: "I think what I have see has learned me a good lesson and now I think if I was where I could enjoy the comforts of a good home as I had, I should be perfectly willing and contented to stay there."

Pip: That's fifteen years old doing philosophy by firelight.

Mara: Richard Welling Burt writes from a very different position — he's a first lieutenant of the 76th Ohio, twenty-two days into the Siege of Vicksburg in June 1863. His letter home describes earthwork construction, a man shot through the neck who asks "Who wouldn't be a soldier?", and five Tennessee deserters coming over to the Union camp.

Pip: The deserters reporting that Confederate officers claimed the Union had only six days' rations — while Burt is eating an excellent supper — is a small masterpiece of wartime information asymmetry.

Mara: Lewis Low's letters to his brother John run from Memphis through Sherman's march and cover more ground than almost any other collection here. He's writing about farm speculation in Minnesota, Spencer repeating rifles, a woman in Poynette he won't name directly, and by the final letter from Lowville in March 1865, he's home on furlough with a wife and a plan for the family farm.

Pip: Harmon Trask writing to his sister Calista from Memphis adds another register — shorter, more personal, asking her to go to school on his dime and urging her toward faith with real feeling.

Mara: And the earliest letters here, from Charles Barrett, Frank Parcher, and Edward Gammon of the 5th Maine, written in July 1861 from a camp on Pleasant Hill Farm, capture a moment before the weight of it all had settled in — Lincoln riding past, a balloon overhead, letters prized above gold.

Pip: Benjamin Nicholas writing from Fort Gaines in 1862 rounds it out — he includes a hand-drawn sketch of the earthwork fort, notes that someone stole his postage stamps, and asks his sister to write more often.

Mara: What connects all of them is that the letters are doing two jobs at once — reporting the war and maintaining the thread back home. The cavalry correspondence gives us a different angle on the same effort.

Cavalry And Artillery Correspondence

Mara: Martin Baxter of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry writes from camp near Corinth on May 28, 1862, the morning after his regiment's first skirmish, and captures the particular tension of waiting.

Pip: He'd just seen two rebels killed in a cavalry charge, returned to camp, and then sat down to write home while the artillery opened up around him.

Mara: His words: "The big guns are a booming today about as fast as you can count. I expect that the battle has opened this time which I hope that it will terminate in our victory. Our horses are all saddled, ready for a moment's warning."

Pip: What this gets you is the strange simultaneity of the Civil War letter — the man is writing and the guns are firing and both things are equally real.

Mara: Joseph Vail's 1864 letter from the Gayoso House in Memphis is a different kind of document entirely — he's writing to his father while facing a court martial he insists he's innocent of, composing six careful pages from a luxury hotel while his regiment scouts along the railroad without him.

Pip: From chestnuts at a campfire to a court martial at the Gayoso House — the mail carried everything.

Mara: What stays with you across all of these is how much the letters were doing — keeping families intact, processing fear, making plans for after.

Pip: And most of them got home. The next episode will tell us what else did.