Letter Penned on Battlefield Tells a Vivid War Story
155 years ago, someone wrote a letter to his parents from the battlefield.
Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn.
April 10th, 1862
My Dear Father and Mother: —
This is the first time since the battle that I could find time to write you. I ought to have written before, knowing what anxiety you would feel respecting my safety, but I have had a great deal of work to do. Our Lieut. Col. and Major were both killed, and all the captains but one besides myself were killed or wounded. The colonel was home sick; the captain who was not killed does not amount to much, and all of the labor of taking care of the wounded, burying the dead, etc., has developed upon myself and Adjt. Chas. F. Barber and the surgeons.
I had been back from my visit to Barton and Charles about three weeks when the battle commenced. We had been expecting for some time to attack the enemy at Corinth, but they got the start of us and when we were little expecting them, attacked us with their whole force. I had just eaten breakfast, put on a new shirt, and was about to commence a letter to you, when heavy fighting was heard near our camp. In a few minutes we were ready in ranks and marching to the scene of action.
“In the Hornet’s Nest”
We are in Hurlburt’s Division. Our brigade composed of four regiments was attached to the division to support Gen. McClearnand’s division. We were then placed in the hottest of the fight – the boys have called it the “Hornet’s Nest.” We were placed where several regiments had given away; all admit that our regiment was in the most dangerous position of any regiment in the fight.
We formed a line as ordered and commenced a heavy fire upon the enemy who was but a little distance from us. Several regiments to our right ran without firing a gun. They were not from Illinois regiments however. Several batteries not captured fell back on a run and ran through our lines – still did our regiment alone stand its ground. When the enemy saw the lines to our right broken and the men running, they pressed upon us. Several times did the balls from our muskets make them fall back, but again would they rally and charge upon us, but we mowed them down like grass. I saw hundreds of the poor devils bite the dust. Almost overpowered by numbers – probably six or seven regiments were pressing upon our regiment at once, we were compelled to fall back and form a new line. I looked for the Lieutenant Colonel to see what was to be done when I saw the enemy within a few rods of my company; could not see any field officers, the colores were gone and I had to bring my company back or we should (those not killed or wounded) have been taken prisoners. How proud I was of my company! I believe I have written you before – young men from my old home, Lake County, Illinois, and most all under twenty years of age. They fought like heroes and not one showed the white feather.
“Swore to Win Fight”
As soon as I found that the Lieutenant Col. and Major were both dead, and all the captains but two were killed or wounded, I then took command of the regiment and formed in line and went into battle again and fought where we could do the most good the rest of the day. We had many shots at the enemy and I tell you it was fun to see them tumble over. The enemy had, on Sunday morning, one hundred thousand men, we had 38,000. Several Ohio and other regiments ran, leaving the Illinois boys to breast the flower of the southern army. Had we not fought like bull dogs, they would have whipped us long before night. We swore by the Great Eternal we would die before we would be whipped by southern rebels. Although thousands of our men were killed and wounded they did not make us surrender; our regiment had 600 men Sunday morning and over 250 of them were either killed or wounded – we lost many of the wounded Monday.
“Reinforcements”
The enemy drove us inch by inch, outflanked us several times, and as night came on we had fallen back near the river, when, and thank God for it, Gen Buell with his army was seen approaching on the opposite side of the river. This cheered the boys and they charged the enemy several times, driving them back some distance, when darkness put an end to the first day’s fight of death and carnage.
Then, for the first time, did I begin to think of myself. Early in the morning during the battle a piece of shell had hit my breast and right arm. I spit blood during the day and I must have bled inwardly but did not feel any pain. A large minié ball hit me in the left side – it must have struck the rib and went under the skin, as I picked it out with my fingers.
The enemy were in our camp sleeping in our tents and we had to lay down on the wet ground, but not to sleep with our blankets over us. Then it was that my breast and arm commenced to pain me very much, but I thought I should be able to go into battle in the morning without any trouble. In the night it rained very hard, and I was wet all over and took cold and could not speak out loud in the morning or use my right arm. I did not complain – there were so many worse off than I was. I moved the regiment – what there was left of it – to where the brigade was and stayed with the regiment all day. The fighting at times was very hard but not as severe as the day before. I stayed on the field all day and our regiment made the last charge Monday night led by General Grant in person. That night the Adjt. Chas. F. Barber, who had been wounded, and I worked until 12 o’clock taking care of the wounded, then I went to my hut and found four dead rebels in it. They had been wounded the day before and crawled in out of the rain to die. I found some blankets and laid down to get the first sleep I had had since Saturday night. I pulled the dead rebels out of my tent by the heels.
My wounds do not trouble me much and I am pretty well now. I beg of you to not worry about me. Mother’s good letter just received. Soldiering is no fun but I shall stay in the Army if I am able until the Union you taught me to love is restored. I will write you again soon.
With lots of love to all,
Affectionately your son,
George
He was one of my great-grandfather’s three brothers, in the 15th Illinois Regiment. My great-grandfather was in the Supply Corps.
Family history is so very important. Without it, we don’t know where we really came from or who came before us.
Do not let it fade into nothing.
Category: Historical
Wow – that is awesome. What a treasure that you have it. We have two letters from my great-grandfather in WWI, and they’re both amazing to read, but nothing like this one!
Ex- What SSG E said. It is awesome and I am very jealous. Do you know whether he recovered and survived the war?
Strike that. No letter. No awesome. I am not jealous, but I do want to know whether he made it.
Yes, Great-Uncle George did survive. He returned after the War to Lake County and married my mother’s Aunt Effie, and put out his shingle as a lawyer. As I dig through boxes of stuff, I may find out more.
My mother said he never really talked about any of it, but he drank a lot. She didn’t know her grandfather (William) at all, because he passed before she was born, but I have her baby picture with her sitting on her grandmother’s lap.
Glad to hear it, and while I did have to downgrade the awesome, the newspaper clipping qualifies as “neat” or, if you prefer, “neato.” qualifies
“When we arrived about 30 paces from them the prince turned around to the soldiers “Comrades, you are about to suffer a furious discharge, but after that you will make short work of those fellows.”….”Yes, sir, that instant was such a rataplan of musketry that one might have imagined that the infernal regions had opened. Those who were not killed felt the heat of the flames. I opened my eyes, astonished to find myself alive and even unhurt; a third of the squadron was lying on the ground , wounded, dead, or dying” – from “Twenty Years After” by Alexandre Dumas pere.
Yep, walk up in a big mass to about 80 feet or so from a bunch of people shooting bullets three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
That letter was published in a local newspaper at the turn of the century. I don’t have the exact date, but if there were other letters he wrote, they vanished some place.
It’s really important to keep such things preserved. Otherwise, we lose the sense of the real events and they become dates in a timeline.
Man. That sucks. Thought you had the actual letter.
I wish I did, AirCav. I have the very fragile newspaper clipping and a couple of photocopies, and that’s it. I do at least have my granddad’s journal from his trip to the Klondike, which is very informative. But the rest of family stuff is just gone.
Roger that, Sis. Always remember. ALWAYS!
I’ve found several family reunion photographs that have no corresponding names on them. I know some of the people because I knew them from my childhood, but the others are a mystery to me. It’s just sad to lose those connections, to see people you’re related to and not know who they were, because no one wrote their names anywhere on the picture.
Similar here. Grandma Josefina (dad’s mom) knew eleven generations of family history. One of my sisters told me of this and that grandma wasn’t doing too well (90+y.o.) at the time. So, I tried to pull together a camcorder and planned to go and with my sisters help, record her descriptions of who the people were in the boxes of photographs she had. Never could save up enough bucks and then she passed, and then my sister passed. Nearly all of the photos disappeared immediately afterward, along with letters from family from the Spanish-American War through Korea. I’m pretty sure some family member did it … which really ticks me off but, what are you gonna do?
ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH. That hurts.
I sympathize, I have a daguerreotype of an unidentified ancestor in a Civil War uniform flaking off its glass backing… all I can tell is that it is a Union uniform. Wonder what he could have told…
David and Mike P: Here’s a link that you will find helpful. Light and temperature can kill!
https://psap.library.illinois.edu/collection-id-guide/directimage
I toured the battlefield at Antietam/Sharpsburg once. Actually seeing the geography and how crowded those small areas like the cornfield were makes your stomach churn when you visualize men walking shoulder to shoulder into the muzzles of muskets and artillery. You wonder how anyone survived.
You read signs like “5,000 men of the ?? Division camped at this spot on the night of XXXX”. Then you imagine the smell of thousands of men packed into a small area and understand why dysentery and other diseases caused more casualties than enemy fire.
As far as I am concerned, that was “The Greatest Generation”.
“You wonder how anyone survived.”
Me, too.
Very nice letter, Ex. Had done research on my Great Grandfathers while doing my family genealogy and found out that the maternal GGF was a for the duration (1862-1865)Corporal in the 46th Indiana Infantry, but the paternal GGF was a “100 Days” soldier in the 153rd Indiana Infantry. Both had brothers that also served in the 13th Indiana and 151st Indiana. As a coincidence, when my father first went in the Army prior to WWII, he was assigned to the 153rd Infantry of the 38th Inf Div down at Camp Shelby, MS.
As a side note, (per your request about Frank Sutton), I did some snooping and posted the findings over on the WOT.
Thanks, Glaw! Glad to know that!
“……Family history is so very important. Without it, we don’t know where we really came from or who came before us…Do not let it fade into nothing.….”
This is so very true, and thank you so much for sharing the letter.
I’m fortunate enough to have been able to find, save and hopefully put into some context my family’s military history. It was one of the most rewarding projects I believe I have ever done. I of course knew about my dad (a WWII vet who served in Europe ….14th Field Artillery Observation Battalion) and my Granddad (a WWI vet who was deployed to France …350th Inf Reg, 88th Division).
What I hadn’t known was that I also had 2 Great Great Granddads who were Civil War vets. Both Illinois Men, one a Private in the 102d Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment (part of Sherman’s Army) and the other a Private in the 17th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry (the unit operated in Missouri).
I have some mementos from all of them and few books that cover the unit histories of the outfits they were assigned to. I have “seeded” my research through the family …..copies and scans of the research along with pictures of the items I have in my possession, to my Sister, Brother, and a Niece and Nephew .
I’m the only one of my generation in the family that served in the military and none of my children or nieces and nephews have served. If I live long enough to see any of my grandchildren or great nieces or great nephews serve honorably then I’ll pass the collection on to them. If not it will go to my daughter (who does show an interest in the family history) and she will decide when it will go when she’s done with it.
Thanks for sharing EX-PH2! What is shocking is how fast these men went from citizen to soldiers.
In a modern context it would be like having a mid-twenties something guy working as a low level manager in retail in a department store who finds himself filling a Brigade commanders Job in Afghanistan a year later.
Glad he made it through My Paternal side had three of my direct forefathers in the Confederate army. One was only 17 and deserted from the militia, another died while home on furlough after being captured and paroled and the last died of disease after fighting at Seven Pines and Gaines mill in Aug 1862.
On my Maternal Side one served as a Corporal in a 6 month Regiment that guarded Harpers Ferry from July 63 to Jan 64.
“…..daguerreotype of an unidentified ancestor in a Civil War uniform flaking off its glass backing… all I can tell is that it is a Union uniform……”
David, I inherited 4 daguerreotype pictures a few years back. They were the ones about 1 1/2″ X 2″ that folded up into a small box (one was a picture Great Great Granddad in uniform that his fiancée kept when he went off to war and another was a picture of his soon to be wife that he carried with him while he was in the army). The other 2 I had no idea who they were. I found out that the pictures themselves were simply slip fitted into the boxes. When the pictures were removed the name of the person was written under them. One even had a lock of my Great Great Granddads hair tied with a small ribbon under it.
I don’t know if you would want to try this or not especially if the picture is deteriorating…… there might be there or not.
“One even had a lock of my Great Great Granddads hair tied with a small ribbon under it.” Such was customary long ago. I have a lock of hair that came in a suitcase crammed full of stuff. Relatives thought the hair creepy. I thought it was very cool.
I know that it was common in my mom’s family that they would keep a lock of hair from a child’s first haircut in a memory book.
I read you Letter Penned on the Battlefield and it was very moving. As I read it, i could of sworn that i was visualizing what was written. At the end when someone wrote how important family history is, I totally agree. I am the caretaker of my family history datin back to my grandfather in the US Army and discharged in 1918. So far i have identified 17 members of my family that have served.
How cool it must be to have such an amazing piece of not only history but your very own family history.
Thanks, Valkyrie!
Thank you for sharing! That was a bittersweet read.