Foundation Stone, Washington Park, Cincinnati Ohio

Erasmus Anderson enlisted in the Union Army in August 1862 and mustered into the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) at Wooster Ohio. It was a year after the first great recruitment efforts with public rallies and speeches, but the war was not ending as quickly as the Generals had thought, so a second push was made for volunteers.  Since Erasmus was 32 years old and had a wife and small child, he does not seem a likely recruit, but his first Civil War letters to his wife Suzanne, shows his enthusiasm for the task ahead.

Erasmus and other men from Holmes County were assigned to Company E. From Wooster the troops went to Columbus, Ohio, and then to Cincinnati where they would be trained at Camp Dennison. Erasmus didn’t think much of Ohio’s capitol city.

Cincinnati was a different  story, he explains, because the residents were afraid of invasion because of their important position along the Ohio River and at the center of railroad transportation, and were therefore welcoming to the soldiers. He continues his description of Washington Park. (Note: a ‘nigger head’ is apparently a large water container.)

Washington park, that he describes here, had been constructed just one year before in the area known as Over-the-Rhine.  You can still visit Washington Park, now refurbished for a modern age.  Erasmus is pretty happy hanging out with his buddies at Washington Park. As he does in many of his letters, he mentions food.

I italicized a phrase that makes me sad every time I read it, since I know that Erasmus did indeed die for these–and other people.   But in September, he is just beginning the adventure, and fortunately, he cannot see ahead.

“the gap” that he mentions is the Cumberland Gap. From October to November 1862, the OVI 16th was assigned to the 4th Brigade, Cumberland Gap Division.  So while, the soldiers frequently had no idea of the larger picture they were involved in, Erasmus apparently knew that he would be going through “the gap.”

Erasmus signed his letters “E”.

We’ll hear more in subsequent letters about the problem with not having enough weapons to go around. On next Tuesday, I will be speculating about what food those kind women were serving the soldiers.  And next Friday, excerpts from Erasmus’ second letter, which he wrote in October, from Camp Dennison, the training camp, just north of Cincinnati.

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See Letter 2 HERE.

Notes:  This series of Erasmus Anderson’s Civil War letters is definitely a group project. First I must thank the owner of the letters, who kindly sent me the transcript of the letters, and allowed me to learn about Erasmus.  Second, my brother and sister know far more about the Civil War than I do, and they are helping me with the background information on Erasmus the soldier.

Besides the Civil War letters, sources here include

• The Cincinnati Parks Department website
• A site devoted to the 16th OVI that is a real treasure trove of information about Ohio’s soldiers in the Civil War.
• Ancestry.com where I find birth, census death, military and other records of my ancestors.
• Picture from Flickr.com with Creative Commons license. See more by clicking on the photo.