March 8, 1864 This letter covers quite a bit of ground, so I chose to focus on a couple specific things Abbott mentions. Abbott writes at length about what his regiment has been involved with over the course of the past month or so. On January 17, 1864 a battle occurred near Dandridge, Tennessee. Abbott briefly references Dandridge as a place his company had retreated from prior to the writing of this letter. The fact that Longstreet was one of the commanding officers of the Confederates during this battle also indicates the likelihood of this being the same Dandridge event Abbott is speaking about. Eventually, the Union had to retreat as the Rebel forces were persistent in their fighting. The Union troops retreated to Newmarket and Strawberry Plains, TN, the former being where the letter was written and the latter being referenced in the letter. He then discusses pursuing Confederate troops to the front. For example, Abbott mentions that they were called to the front to hopefully engage with Confederate General James Longstreet and his forces. However, upon reaching their destination, they were informed by townspeople that Longstreet had already come and gone. I didn’t know anything about Longstreet, so I looked him up. He actually was a pretty interesting fellow. General James Longstreet seems to have been a talented military man but also attracted some ill-will. By 1864, for example, he had gained a rather poor reputation. One of the reasons was his opposition to General Lee’s attack plans for the Battle of Gettysburg. However, despite his less than favorable feelings towards those plans, Longstreet still carried them out faithfully. By the time Abbott’s regiment encountered him, Longstreet and his men had had a pretty rough winter after failing to gain command of East Tennessee. Furthermore, after the war, Longstreet’s reputation in the South fell still further. He shocked many former Confederate sympathizers by becoming a Republican after the war and fully supporting “biracial politics as the South future.” His political views did a complete flip in the opposite direction. After their unsuccessful attempt to find Longstreet, the company settled itself into a deserted Confederate winter camp, which consisted of “good comfortable long shanties…and good fireplaces.” It’s interesting that the group could just move into Confederate lodgings. Obviously, the Confederate troops weren’t expecting to move on so quickly, otherwise they more than likely wouldn’t have taken the time to build such a nice shelter. Abbott and his fellow soldiers certainly benefited from it though! Works Cited/Photo Credit: Civil War Academy.com. “Civil War Battles in Tennessee.” http://www.civilwaracademy.com/civil-war-battles-in-tennessee.html (accessed February 21, 2014). The Civil War Trust, Saving America’s Civil War Battlefields. “James Longstreet: Lieutenant General.” http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/james-longstreet.html (accessed February 21, 2014). Piston, William Garrett. "James Longstreet (1821–1904)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 5 Apr. 2011. http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Longstreet_James_1821-1904#start_entry (accessed February 21, 2014).
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May 28, 1863 Abbott again wrote two letters today. The first was written to two of his sisters. Overall, it has a very light-hearted tone and, while the content is not really at all about military life, it is a pretty insightful letter. He mentions that Roe is being moved to a different city to continue his recovery, something which Abbott is grateful for. Abbott went to visit Roe and found out he was being transferred to another hospital. This was probably for the best as many hospitals had to deal with the issue of overcrowding, such as Douglas Hospital in Washington D.C., which had to erect tents outside “to accommodate the overflow of the wounded.” He tells the girls that Roe “was better in some respects than when I saw him before, but he had lost the use of his feet so that he couldn’t stand up at all!” Abbott doesn’t sound overly concerned about this, as it’s the only time it is mentioned in the letter but that can’t have been a pleasant experience for Roe. Indeed, hospital stays in general during the war didn’t seem to be the most ideal of circumstances. Naturally, medicine wasn’t how it is in today’s world. Little was known about surgical techniques and sterilization methods, for example. Infection was a major issue as doctors didn’t yet understand how germs spread, thus accidentally distributing diseases amongst other wounded soldiers. Indeed, “during the Civil War, the experience and training of doctors wasn’t well regulated.” Number one, I’m sure that would have been a hard thing to keep track of in the chaos of battle. Number two, perhaps it wasn’t necessarily a priority that the doctor had extensive training. During battles, maybe it was best to have someone who had any medical knowledge. In fact, both the Union and Confederate armies “were willing to take anyone who considered himself a physician.” They must have been pretty desperate to resort to less-trained people. According to the Civil War Trust, a majority of doctors carried with them a military surgery manual written by Dr. Samuel Gress. Clearly, those with solid medical expertise were few and far between. He also jokes with Lydia about her coming to the camp and baking gooseberry pies. It still is enjoyable to witness these little sibling interactions. He also reminds them to make sure that they are making “the most of everything” even though he and Roe are not there with them. This is a nice reminder for the family. It was hard for them to deal with the brothers being engaged in the war but they still needed to live their lives and enjoy life while they could. Abbott made sure they knew that they shouldn’t feel guilty. Works Cited: The Civil War Trust, Saving America’s Civil War Battlefields. “Two Week Curriculum for Teaching the Civil War.” http://www.civilwar.org/education/pdfs/civil-was-curriculum-medicine.pdf (accessed February 19, 2014). Photo Credit: The Civil War Trust, Saving America's Civil War Battlefields."Civil War Medicine Modern Medicine's Civil War Legacy." http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-medicine/civil-war-medicine.html (accessed February 19, 2014). July 28, 1864
While today’s letter has a variety of topics covered, the part I personally enjoyed the most was Mark’s brief mention of the upcoming presidential elections. It’s strange to think that roughly half of the country didn’t vote in 1864’s elections, as the Southern states obviously would not be involved in the United States presidential election. Mark does refer to the elections again later on but this seemed like as a good a time as any to chat about that year’s election. The Republican Party ticket consisted of Abraham Lincoln and his running mate, Andrew Johnson. They were up against the Democratic nominee George B. McClellan and his VP hopeful George H. Pendleton. Also, do keep in mind that at this point in history, the political parties were not the same as they are today. In fact, the platforms of each were just about opposite of today’s parties. In other words, contemporary Democrats are more the equivalent of 19th century Republicans and contemporary Republicans more like 19th century Democrats. That’s just a little fun fact to keep in mind when thinking about the election! It’s significant that Lincoln won because throughout 1864, Yankee morale had been decreasing as the Union forces encountered defeats at places like the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. Yet, in the months immediately preceding the election, the Union efforts gained ground again. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign took off and Union General Philip Sheridan “secured Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in October. Abbott comments in the letter that he’s confident that most or all of Company K would cry a “universal shout for Lincoln and Johnson.” Evidently, his company’s political beliefs were echoed by a majority of Americans as well come election time. The Lincoln/Johnson team won the election handily on November 8, with 212 of the electoral college votes compared to McClellan/Pendleton’s 21. Additionally, Lincoln easily won the popular vote as well, with roughly 2.2 million voters and 55% of the vote. He also won every state but Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware. Clearly, Americans still believed strongly in Lincoln’s leadership capabilities. Another little tidbit I found amusing was that Abbott very nonchalantly comments to Roe that, “The Johnies have it appears all taken a notion to come to Chattanooga, for they have been coming in here by the train-load…”. It seems as if the Confederates are coming in droves towards Chattanooga yet Abbott does not seem remotely concerned as that is literally the only line he writes on the topic. Furthermore, immediately after that comment, he starts talking about a new watch. He does this at various times throughout the collection, where he talks about something potentially serious and then smoothly transitions into a happier topic. It makes me wonder personally if the Confederates weren’t seen as a threat to Chattanooga at this point or if Abbott himself wasn’t too worried. Regardless, I think it’s funny how casually he mentions it! Works Cited: Drexler, Kenneth, Digital Reference Specialist. “Presidential Election of 1864: A Resource Guide.” The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/elections/election1864.html (accessed February 17, 2014). The History Channel. “This Day in History: Nov. 8, 1864: President Lincoln is Re-elected.” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-reelected (accessed February 17, 2014). July 24, 1864 Letter starts out on high note as Abbott describes a little jaunt he was able to take outside of the camp. Abbott and four others received passes to leave camp for the day to pick blackberries. They also came across an African-American woman who gave them gingerbread and milk. As camp life was extremely monotonous, getting passes to leave for a bit would have been a welcome escape. The letter then takes a more somber turn when Abbott mentions the death of Union Major General James B. McPherson. Abbott talks about “a general engagement” near Atlanta which actually turned out to be the Battle of Atlanta. While the city did not actually fall during this time, the battle was part of its eventual downfall. On July 22, McPherson went to the front lines to see how his troops were faring. At this time, he was shot and killed on the battlefield at the age of 35. His death had a huge impact upon the Union army with General Ulysses S. Grant reportedly saying, “The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have lost my best friend.” McPherson was very much an effective leader, as he was “one of the Union’s most brilliant strategists, who helped bring victory after victory to federal forces.” He was such a revered figure that some historians believe that, had he lived, McPherson had the potential to eventually become the president of the U.S. Abbott was able to go to the train station when McPherson’s body was put onboard to head North. He praises McPherson as a leader, saying “the country has great cause to mourn for in the death of McPherson she has lost one of her ablest defenders!” Imagine how the Union army must have been feeling at this point. Losing one of the most capable military leaders that far into the war had to have been difficult. The Battle of Atlanta was part of the larger 1864 Atlanta Campaign. The primary leaders of this battle were Union Major General William T. Sherman versus Confederate General John Bell Hood. Hood’s goal was to “attack Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s Army of the Tennessee.” The battle itself seems to have witnessed smart tactics through which both sides made gains, though ultimately, Sherman was able to repulse Hood’s forces. By the end of the battle, it was reported that there was an estimated 12, 140 casualties total (remember this means both injuries and death). The Union army saw about 3,641 casualties while the Confederate totals neared 8,500. Based on the statistics, the Union handily won the engagement. This is consistent with what Abbott writes. Works Cited: Horn, Kristina Smith. “Civil War Gen. James McPherson was Revered after Death at Battle of Atlanta.” Port Clinton News Herald, July 16, 2011. http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/article/20110716/NEWS01/107160320/Civil-War-Gen-James-McPherson-revered-after-death-Battle-Atlanta (accessed February 17, 2011). “Great Battle Upon the Left Particulars of McPherson’s Death Prisoners General Rousseau’s Raid.” The New York Times, August 1, 1864. http://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/01/news/great-battle-upon-left-particulars-mcpherson-s-death-prisoners-general-rousseau.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed February 17, 2014). National Park Services, CWSAC Battle Summaries. “Atlanta.” http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/ga017.htm (accessed February 17, 2014). Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._McPherson August 19, 1888 In today’s letter, we have jumped ahead another three years. The letter was written by I.M. Abbott’s brother John to Mark. At this point, John is an attorney and seems to have opened a law practice with a fellow attorney, Samuel M. Ralston. Just for kicks, I decided to look Ralston up. It turns out he later would become a United States Senator! In the letter, John tells Mark that is partner is “running for joint Senator, and can give but little attention to business till after the election,” meaning he has to shoulder many of the practice’s cases. Ralston doesn’t actually win his bid to become an Indiana state senator this year but down the road would enjoy a few major successes. He was governor of Indiana from 1913-1917 and became a Democratic United States Senator from March 1923- October 1925. Also, according to RaIston’s page on the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, he was admitted to the Indiana bar association in 1886 and then opened his practice with John A. Abbott, in Lebanon, IN. I personally find it pretty neat that one of the people I’ve been reading about in this collection ended up knowing and working with a future senator. It’s not really something I expected since the Abbott’s aren’t a well-known family in terms of Civil War history. Therefore, it’s cool that they are connected to someone that did gain national recognition. The rest of the letter focuses on John relating what has been going on personally as of late. He touches on the health of various family members as well as how busy his work life is. One interesting bit is when he launches into a fairly in-depth account of his feelings towards politics. He believes that he is essentially a “political orphan.” I took this to mean that he didn’t feel any strong connection to either party. He seems pretty disenchanted with politics in general. I think this type of apathy is kind of similar to what many Americans today feel regarding political goings-on. It’s fascinating to see how history does have certain trends that stay present all throughout the course of history. Works Cited/Photo Credit: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. “Ralston, Samuel Moffett, (1857-1925).” Dictionary of American Biography. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000020 (accessed February 14, 2014). November 21, 1863 Today’s letter was written by Roe to his friends and family back home. Most of it concerns specific information regarding various people and events from home. However, one part that I thought was pretty neat was that Roe mentions Fort Snelling, so we have a nice little Minnesota connection! Evidently, Roe and Mark’s brother, Hiram, is stationed at Fort Snelling. The only additional information we get is that he is well and Roe believes it is better that he is there and not out in the field. I figured it would be interesting to look up Fort Snelling’s role in the Civil War regarding Union soldiers. It’s a place I’ve driven by but never actually visited. Did you know that Minnesota was the first state to offer troops to fight for the Union? When the war broke out in April 1861, Minnesota’s governor, Alexander Ramsey, had been in Washington D.C. On the spot, he told President Lincoln that he would make sure Minnesota formed a regiment of 1,000 volunteer soldiers. It’s pretty cool that Minnesota was the first to commit troops to the war. Due to the need to train these new recruits, “Minnesota re-opened Fort Snelling to serve as a rendezvous and training center for the volunteer soldiers.” Throughout the war, troops would be taught army basics and spent large portions of their time marching and drilling. This is similar to what Isaac Mark Abbott describes in his letters. He often remarks that a majority of his time is spent practicing various methods, which includes drilling and parade marches. By the end of the war, almost 25,000 soldiers went to Fort Snelling before continuing to fight the Confederacy. Along with serving as the starting point for many troops, Fort Snelling also was the “mustering-out point” for the men who were heading back to civilian life. Even though Fort Snelling wasn’t located in the areas most directly associated with the Civil War and its various battles, it still played a crucial role in the war. Overall, the fort produced “eleven infantry regiments, two companies of sharpshooters, several unites of artillery and cavalry, and several dozen sailors.” It definitely provided support to the Union efforts as many of these regiments found themselves in some of the war’s decisive most battles, including Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. Works Cited: Minnesota Historical Society. “Historic Fort Snelling: The Civil War (1861-1865).” http://www.historicfortsnelling.org/history/military-history/civil-war (accessed February 12, 2014). Photo Credit: Minnesota Historical Society. “Historic Fort Snelling.” http://www.historicfortsnelling.org (accessed February 12, 2014). August 6, 1864 While writing to John, Mark mentions that a soldier from John’s company, who had been captured by the Confederates, passed through Company K’s camp on his way home. He had apparently been able to escape his Confederate captors. This is one of the only times Mark mentions prisoners of war. It seems like an interesting topic, so I thought I would look up some general information about captured soldiers. By war’s end, over 400,000 soldiers had been captured. The treatment of such captives varied over the course of the conflict. At the beginning of the war, captured Union soldiers were traded for captured Confederate soldiers, and vice-versa. This was done in the hope that it would “keep the total number of prisoners manageable for both sides.” However, as the war progressed, that trade system began to fall into disuse. Towards the end of the war, both Union and Confederate prisoners faced far harsher conditions. For example, thousands of Southern prisoners died at a camp in Elmira, New York and a prisoner camp in Andersonville, GA, holding Union soldiers, is one of the “most infamous in the history of war.” Clearly, both sides involved in the conflict had a hard time dealing with prisoners and maintaining adequate living conditions. An example of a prison camp was Libby Prison, located in Richmond, Virginia (the capital of the Confederacy). This prison was for Union soldiers, who dealt with tight living quarters and shortages of food. I chose this prison to look at because a pretty big escape happened there. While it’s unlikely that the escaped Union soldier Mark encountered came from Libby, I thought it would be a good example of an escape attempt. The captured Union soldiers tunneled their way out of the prison in February 1864, working diligently for weeks to create the roughly fifty foot long tunnel. While 109 prisoners went out, only 59 lived to enjoy the escape, with 48 being re-captured and two drowning during the escape. It makes you wonder how the soldier mentioned in the letter escaped and from where. Based on the terrible conditions in prisons, this soldier was probably very lucky to have successfully fled from his Confederate captives. To close, I found a fact that I found pretty surprising: “Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as died fighting in Vietnam.” That’s an insane statistic. According to the Civil War Trust, which has a graph showing American fatalities in major wars, around 58,209 soldiers were killed in Vietnam. That means just about 58,000 Civil War soldiers died as prisoners of war. Works Cited/Photo Credit: Zombek, A. M. "Libby Prison." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. The Civil War Trust: Saving America’s Civil War Battlefields. “Civil War Facts: Answers to Your Civil War Questions.” Civil War Trust. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/faq/ (accessed February 12, 2014). March 30, 1863 Mark’s letter, addressed to his sisters, is fairly lighthearted. He boasts of his culinary expertise and also thanks them for sending him a long letter. He states that “it always does me good to receive such long letters from anyone for it shows that they are interested in my welfare and willing to do me a favor.” Just by reading the letter, one can tell how grateful he was that they took the time to sit down and write him a lengthy note about their lives. In his mind, this was their way of showing affection. Indeed, it must have been disheartening for soldiers when they would write a few pages to family and only receive a few lines back in response. Sending and receiving letters was a very significant part of the Civil War. It wasn’t just Mark who loved hearing from his family! For example, with the typical day in camp being devoid of any excitement, “the arrival of newspapers or mail from home- whether letters or a care package-…was always a cause for celebration.” It was exciting and uplifting for the soldiers to receive something from home, helping them to remember the good times and also be updated on the family. Furthermore, soldiers “needed the occasional word from home to know that they were not forgotten.” In an age where Skype and the internet were still over a century from being invented, letter-writing was really the only efficient way to keep in touch with people. However, the postal service encountered difficulties during the war. When soldiers were at their main camp for longer periods of time, it was fairly easy to track them down and deliver their letters. When a regiment was on the move for a while, it became far more challenging to successfully deliver the letters to the soldiers. This is something Mark experiences at different points during the war. In a letter home, he’ll comment that he had sent two or three letters recently and not received any response. His experience with the sometimes unreliable postal service during the war definitely mirrors other soldiers’ experiences, such as Newton Scott, who told his childhood friend that he had sent her “about a dozen letters…and received but two or three letters.” Clearly, letters were an integral part of the average Civil War soldier’s life. Works Cited: Burke, Kathryn, National Postal Museum. “Letter Writing in America.” http://postalmuseum.si.edu/letterwriting/lw04.html (accessed December 4, 2013). Helm, Gary, The Civil War Trust. “Life of the Civil War Soldier in Camp: Disease, Hunger, Death and Boredom.” http://www.civilwar.org/hallowed-ground-magazine/winter-2013/life-of-the-civil-war-soldier-camp.html (accessed December 4, 2013). Photo Credit: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. "I take up my pen: Letters from the Civil War." https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-civil-war/interactives/i-take-my-pen-letters-from-civil-war (accessed February 7, 2014). |
AuthorTessa Wakefield, student intern at the Concordia College Archives, assembled these blog entries in 2013-2014 for the Isaac Mark Abbott Civil War Letters Collection. The posts summarize the content of the letters, interpret Abbott's experiences and place them in the larger context of the Civil War. Archives
March 2014
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