Tag Archives: 16th OVI

Erasmus Letter #3: Hard March to the Kanawha Valley

“…if there is fighting to do I want a hand in it for that is what I came for.  I would rather fight like thunder and get home the sooner for I would rather be at home than here and so would any man that cares for his family as I do.”

Snow coming down

Erasmus Anderson, 32-year-old farmer from Holmes County Ohio,  is cold. His boots pinch his feet. His legs ache from miles of marching. His back aches from carrying an unaccustomed heavy pack.  He has, two months after his enthusiastic enlistment, faced the reality of the effects of war on the land and its people.

Erasmus has a great many things to say in this letter of October 26, 1862, as the new Ohio  recruits march from Camp Dennison to join the 16th O.V.I. troops who enlisted a year before.  He mentioned in Letter #2 that he was expecting to see those soldiers arrive at Camp Dennison, but as I mentioned, it did not happen that way. Instead the new recruits marched East where they met the battle-worn men near Oak Hill Ohio, on October 21. A few days later they were on the march first to Gallipolis on the river, and then into the Kanawha Valley (then Virginia, now West Virginia).

To see a Google Map of the troop movements click here.

Among these early recruits was Erasmus’ younger brother William McCabe Anderson (1841-1902), Company B,  who had been among the first to enlist. It must have been a most welcome reunion.

Despite the fact that he is exhausted by the unaccustomed long march carrying a heavy load, he is observant as he describes the Kanawa Valley.

Observes Scene

Kanawha Valley in warm weather

Kanawha Valley, West Virginia in warmer weather. Photo from Flickr used with Creative Commons license

“A more beautiful country than these mountains could not be found….It is a tolerable nice valley from one to three miles wide and from all appearances very mountainous on both sides; the sesesh have just left this valley and they have left a hard sight behind.  We have come through some little towns on the way and such a sight as they make is deplorable indeed.  No men hardly to be seen, a few women and children.”

Erasmus feels a combination of pity for these starving people, and anger at the enemy. The sour look of the people who watch the march of the Union soldiers “as though it is their funeral procession” makes him want to

“…run my bayonet through everyone of them for they are all sesesh with a few exceptions. Thank God they have had some of the benefits of session for there is not an apple, chicken, beehive, cornfield, fence or anything else to escape the ravages of war.”

Union Troops Treated Poorly

The sesesh are not the only ones suffering deprivations, though. Although it is “snowing like blazes,” he reports the Union soldiers do not have overcoats and his boots are too small. He needs gloves, but there is no store anywhere, and besides they have yet to receive any pay. And he mentions that there are not enough guns to go around.

For the first time, Erasmus considers the possibility that some soldiers will rebel at such treatment, but concludes that they are too ‘true to their country’.

Kanawa Valley old house

Kanawa Valley Pt. Pleasant where the troops crossed the Ohio River. Historic house that would have been standing there. photo by J. Stephen Conn. Click on photo for more information.

Tough March

For a farmer used to having wide open spaces to himself, marching under orders with hundreds of other men and being confined in a tiny tent in the evening is hard to get used to. Erasmus gives us a vivid insight into what it is like for these new recruits on their first long march, as they meet up with the “old” 16th O.V.I. (the battle-hardened men who signed up in 1861 and fought a futile attempt to capture the Cumberland Gap.)

” My feet get a little sore on the march but they feel pretty well today. We have pretty good loads to carry.  We have to carry two days rations at a time and forty rounds of ammunition.  Each cartridge weights 3 ounces then our beureau(sic) as we call our napsacks and canteens and guns make a load for a jackal.  I thought in my soul the first day would kill me, the meanest looking little runt among these old soldiers can stand a day’s march better than the best of us green recruits. It don’t go half as hard with me as it did the first day.”

Another View of the Reunion

To see the picture of this reunion from the point of view of the “old soldiers”, including his 22-year-old brother Will, we need to turn to the Holmes County Republican newspaper, 1881, “Camp and Field” by Cpl. Theodore D. Wolbach, who was with Company E of the 16th O.V.I. from the beginning.

Over 100 new recruits reached our bivouac here but as we were so very lousy”…”we kept these “slick, clean-looking fellows separated from us until we could draw new clothing.”

Wobach’s report is always more optimistic-sounding than is Erasmus, perhaps because it was compiled 20 years after the fact, and Erasmus is writing of his immediate feelings.  For instance, where Erasmus mentions the heavy snow several times and says he would have rather seen the enemy coming than “what did come and that was this snow storm for it is still snowing like blazes yet.” But on the same day, Wolbach says that it snowed heavily but cleared up.

When the troops marched on the 29th and camped near Charlestown where the Elk River empties into the Kanawha:

We located our camps on the east side of the river, about three-fourths of a mile from town. Good water was plenty, but fuel had to be hauled in from the hills. We suffered no inconvenience for any of the necessaries of camp life. Rations were good and sufficient, and we had ample facilities for cooking them well.”

Wolbach relates that the “boys” took the “twisted and gnarled” laurel wood and carved pipes and small animals. They also harvested fresh water clams from the river and made them into rings and other jewelry.

The Two Local Companies

“I went to Tanyhill’s  Company (Cpt. Richard W. Tannyhill, Co. E) . I could not get into Liggett’s Company (Cpt. Robert W. Liggett, Co. B) and if it had not been for the boys I would not want in it for we have the best officers by a good deal.  Tough our two companies camp and march together all the time and it don’t make any difference.”

Company E was made up mostly of men from Monroe Township, Holmes County.  Company B was composed of both Holmes County and Ashland Counties.  Company B was designated as a “color company” meaning they carried the flag into battle.  You can read a lot about Company B at the 16th OVI website.

“the boys” that Erasmus refers to in Company B most likely are:

  • his brother Will (William McCabe Anderson).
  • Ephraim Cellars, a neighbor and apparently a cousin of Erasmus in some way that I have not yet determined.

I know that when I have a chance to cross reference the Monroe and Killbuck Township census for 1850 and 1860 with the company rolls,  I will find more names of men in Company B and Company E that were neighbors, if not relatives of Erasmus.

Closing

As Erasmus nears the end of his letter from the Kanawha Valley, he turns to thoughts of his wife and his farm (after just a hint of  ‘poor me’). And he ALMOST says something sweet to his wife, but turns it into concern for the sheep instead.

“This snow and stormy weather makes me wonder a good deal how you are getting along.  I have no uneasiness about myself though I expect to suffer from cold and likely on short rations but I have no fear but I can stand it. I want you to get along as easy as you can so the sheep gets a good chance. I don’t care for any of the rest of the stock very much.  I don’t know when I will get a chance to write again.  It is a poor chance to write now with all the crowding around in a little tent.  Goodbye to you all.” E. Anderson 

See Letter 2: “In a Bad Humor” at Camp Dennison

See letter 4 HERE

 

Besides the Civil War letters which I use with the permission of a descendant of Erasmus’ widow and her second husband,, sources here include.

  • 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.
  • Two pictures from Flickr.com with Creative Commons license. See more by clicking on each photo. The snow storm photo is my own.

Erasmus Letter #2–“In a bad humor” at Camp Dennison

Camp Dennison

Camp Dennison Old Guard House as it looks today. Photo by William J. Bechmann III, Cincinnati, OH

Nothing more but am truly yours until death. E. Anderson  

As we read through the letters from Erasmus, we learn about his personality. The man reflected in these letters is not much given to sentimentality. The only feelings he freely expresses, it seems, are negative ones.  So although I’m telling you about this letter on Valentine’s Day, and he is writing to his wife, Suzi, do not expect a love letter.

In his first letter, which started, “Dear Suzi”,  the closest he comes to warmth is

“Don’t be uneasy about me and try and take care of yourself and them two little boys till I can get back to help you.”

In letter two, we find that the new recruits have left the cushy life in Washington Park in Cincinnati and are in Camp Dennison, just north of Cincinnati at a place called New Germany.

Camp Dennison

Camp Dennison, Cincinnati, as pictured in Harper’s Weekly

It is October 7, 1862 when he starts his letter with sarcasm.

Well old lady in rather a bad humor.  I set down to send you my thanks for not writing.  I have looked strong for a letter every day but every day as the mailman come I was disappointed which made no more sure of getting one the next day but when the usual old disappointment come today I felt too wrathy to hold in any longer.

Well! That is quite a scolding for Suzi. Then he starts issuing orders.  Perhaps this man in his thirties, who has been his own boss on his own farm is beginning to chafe at having to follow orders all day. Particularly, since he does not appear to be the sort who would not question things, It only takes one cent to mail him a newspaper,he says, so he wants her to send them. He has heard some local boys have been drafted and wants to know who. He doesn’t want  the Pittsburgh paper, he specifies,–

 It is only our county paper I care anything about.  I think when you can you had better mail your letters in Millersburg, for I believe they mostly lay in Oxford [former name of Killbuck] three or four days.

Through with micromanaging for the moment, he goes back to complaining. He has only had two letters from his wife and Albert has none for a long time. He also mentions in this letter that Albert has been sick with mumps and fever but is getting better. (We will hear more about Albert, who Erasmus says now wants to be furloughed.)

You must bear in mind I have more letters to write than you have. Besides I have some to write for other fellows that can’t write and I can’t help it.

Ahh, that reminds us that many of the Civil War soldiers were illiterate, and Erasmus ability to read and write give him some extra chores, if not respect.

Civil War Regimental Flag

Civil War 16th OVI Regimental Flag

Turning to his immediate surroundings, he says they are looking for the 16th O.V.I. to march in soon.  This is the contingent that enlisted at the beginning of the war, which includes men from Holmes County–many that he knows.

They have made one of the most toilsome and hazardous marches ever made during the war and who is well and who is with them is more than I can tell but when I see them I expect to see a poor lot of ragged dirty worn down soldiers.  Poor fellows they have seen hard service by marching if not by fighting and now they are just where they started one year ago.

From a website that carries a wealth of information about the 16th O.V.I., Erasmus’ expectations are confirmed.

I would like to pause here and introduce a source I will be using as we continue to read E’s letters.  In 1881 and 1882, the Holmes County Republican published a series of dispatches called “Camp and Field”. They were written 20 years after the war by Cpl. Theodore D. Wolbach of Company E (the company that Erasmus joined), and cover the troops official and unofficial activities from the beginning in 1861 until they were mustered out in 1864. 

Wolbach’s description of the 16th’s fight and retreat from the Cumberland Gap back north across the Ohio River shows what a grueling journey it was. The troops marched on 1/4 rations and left behind anything that might slow them down. “earth our bed and sky our covering. Lice, of which we had an abundance…”  In August  nearly all of his company ( a company started out at about 100 men) had been captured by the rebels, but after a couple of weeks they were released and escorted back to their lines.

They were constantly harried by the Southern forces. Sometimes the sick were left behind to be taken prisoner rather than endure torture by jolting rides over rough roads. On September 18, the order came to retreat north. But no sooner had they crossed the Ohio, and caught their breath, than they were on their way back to the Kanawha Valley in Kentucky for more fighting. In his next letter, we learn that Erasmus and the new recruits marched five days  down to meet the “old 16” rather than seeing them in Camp Dennison as he was expecting. The military grapevine is active, but not always accurate.

Surprisingly, Erasmus tells his wife not to send food, because they have all they need and “we know how to enjoy it.”  In fact he and Jim and John McCluggage and John Jordan” went out in the country and got half bushel of apples… for 25¢.”  The McCluggage boys, from Holmes County, later transferred from the 16th to the 114th regiment.  John Jordan died in the regimental hospital in Vicksburg the following May.

See Letter One: Cheerful Beginnings

See letter Three HERE

Civil War Letters From E: Cheerful Beginnings

Cincinnati park

Foundation Stone, Washington Park, Cincinnati Ohio

” Dear Suzi, We came here last night and are lying around in what is called Washington Park. It is a beatuiful place in the middle of the city with a nice fountain in the center full of fish and nice flowers, shrubs and trees, lots of pet squirrels playing around”

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.

…but oh this is not Columbus.  God curse that hell hole.  They would not even board us and when they came to see us it was to cut the money out of our boys pockets while asleep or sell them provisions at an awful high rate, anyway at all to get our money.

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.)

…for spring water we have a beastly big nigger head with holes bored in it and corks to draw water out, while little girls and boys and babies are playing around us and kind hearted women are sewing our clothes and gives us good things to eat.

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.

Here the women and children are coming and filling our canteens with good coffee and giving all that is good to eat.  I could willingly die for such people; while we draw our regular rations at the market house.

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 boys are all well and in the best of heart and would willingly fight if they only knowed how but we would be of little service as we are not drilled as much as we might be or would like to be.  I like it first rate and hope we will soon get through to the gap for I am uneasy about them boys there.

“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.”

I don’t believe we will attempt to go through until the way is open as we have drawn no arms and I don’t think we will till we get to 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.

If you would like to follow along with Erasmus and ensure that you do not miss his letters, be sure to subscribe to the weekly E-mail from Ancestors in Aprons. Just click here.

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.