Isaac Mark Abbott letter to Home,
04-22-1863
Isaac Mark Abbott letter to brother Roe Abbott,
05-30-1863
Dear Brother Roe,
I received your little note of the 28th inst. by yesterday’s mail & you may be sure I was glad to hear from you & especially so to hear that you was so well taken care of & that you liked the place so well. & I hope you will not get tired of the hospital before you get well, but I am in hopes that you will not have to stay in any hospital long enough to be tired of it. Hell! The Mail is here & Henry Wood just handed me two letters, both of them from Jones Station. One of them is directed to me & it is from Cousins Belle & Hatt Churchill. The other one is for you & I suppose it is from your dear Marinda-Ann! I will send them all to you with this. I got a letter from home day-before yesterday & they were all well. They said that they hadn’t heard from us since you went to the hospital & they were awful uneasy about you! They wrote that Bill Truitt was dead & his funeral was preached at the school-house on the 23rd inst. by Elder Conely!! John Thompson’s house took fire the same day & burned to the ground! Kate Stewart’s sister lived in the house & she lost nearly everything she had! I haven’t had any letter from John yet & I think it is mighty strange that he don’t write. Lydia wrote that Governor Brook was at home; she said he had the most sneaking look of any fellow she ever saw & she said when he came up to shake hands with her, he looked right down to the ground & wouldn’t look her in the face. I think he must make a fine appearance after being away so long! But it is not to be wondered at that some of the boys that have been in the army are ashamed to meet their friends at home & if I had indulged in such practices as they have, I believe I should not want to see any of my folks again. Nor be seen by them! It has been raining this morning & it rained considerably yesterday & last night, but the sun is shining out now as hot as Hanner. There is nothing new going on in camp & there has not been any promotions in the Co. yet! I think Brewington showed his ass in not looking after you as he promised to do. You wanted me to give you Will Cornell’s address. When I wrote to him I just directed to hospital no. 13 & the letter went all right. I don’t know what ward he is in. I have not heard from any of the boys in the hospital since you left. I am in hopes that this will find you a great deal better than when I saw you last! Lizzie wrote that Mrs. Truitt & our folks were going to send Tom & us a box & I do wish you could be here when it comes to help eat the things. The boys are in about the same health as when I saw you. Buck-Cat has gone to the hospital. Well, I guess I have written all I can think of this time. So I’ll quit & got to cleaning up my traps for inspection. Now take good care of yourself & whenever anything new turns up you will hear again. Write soon, From, Ike. |
" ...a hospital here and one in the states are different institutions entirely." -Isaac Mark Abbott |
Isaac Mark Abbott letter to family,
09-30-1863
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Sept. 30th 1863
Dear Father, Mother, Sisters & Brothers, Once more I find myself with the Reg’t. & seated with pen in hand to write you! In answer to your kind favor of the 13th inst. which came to hand a few days ago & met with a hearty welcome for I had not heard from you for quite a long while. I wrote you a short letter on the 9th! And one the 22nd but I was in such a hurry that I didn’t write anything about our march since leaving Lookout Valley or of the battle that was fought here last week. So as you will of course want to know how we came out I will tell you all about it to the best of my knowledge! We left our camp in the valley on the 10th & the next day about noon we started to go up the mountains. It was so steep that a one Co. of men was left with each wagon to help them along! We got started up a little before dark & we didn’t reach the top till after midnight. One of the wheels of our wagon broke down when we were about half way up so we had to send back to where another wagon was stuck & get one of the wheels off from it before we could go any farther. It was dark as pitch so you can imagine what a fine job we had getting over such a road in the dark. But we finally reached the top without any accidents more than a few sore shins caused by running against the sharp rocks & an occasional nose broken by coming in too close contact with Mother Earth. Our night on Lookout Mountain will be long remembered by more than one hoosier after other incidents of the march are forgotten! The next morning the reg’t went on and descended the mountain into the valley but the wagons didn’t go till the next day, for the Rebs had shown fight there a few days previous and had driven Negley’s division back four miles so it was not considered safe to take the wagons down until the men went on& cleared the way. But the Rebs skedaddled on down the valley at our approach so on Sunday the 13th we started down the valley on the Chattanooga road. & the next day arrived at Pond-Spring about 16 or 18 miles from C. We stayed there till the 18th and the Rebs were within three miles of us all the time & skirmishing was going on nearly every day on the night of the 19th the wagons were started down to Chattanooga to prevent their being captured! While the Reg’t started for Crawfish Spring the Col. ordered all the cooks to go with the wagons so of course I had to go although I would have liked much better to go with the Reg’t. We drove on nearly all night & towards morning we stopped & went to bed in the wagon when we woke up it was late in the morning & we found ourselves right at the base of the highest peak on Lookout Mountain. We could hear heaving cannonading that day in direction of the spring but we were too far off to hear the report of the musketry. We didn’t move that day at all! The next day (the 20th) the first sound that greeted our ears in the morning was the heavy report of canon; & it soon became a continual roar & it was so fast that it was impossible to distinguish between the reports of the guns but it sounded just like thunder & it fairly made the earth tremble it was so terrific. About 4 o’clock PM we hitched up & drove on in a big hurry for our men had fallen back so far that we were in great danger of being captured. We were on the road till about midnight when we came to a halt within a mile of the city. We went in the next morning & our wagon was unloaded at the Subsistence Depot & sent to the reg’t with provision. I was left with the things until the wagon should return so I had a good view of the great city & its surroundings. It is about as large a place as Dillsboro, but has been a very business place before the war on account of the railroads running into it & the river is also navigable only in times of very low waters! So it was consequently a great place of trade & since the war broke out it was a very important point to the Confederacy for by its R.R.s communication was kept up between the eastern, western, and northern states of the rebellion! Here were some good fortifications here when we came & if they had got in here with their reinforcements before us we would have had a hard time getting them out. But thanks to Old Rosey we were too quick for them & now if they choose to have a battle of Chattanooga! Recorded in the history of this war they will have to fight us in the fortifications behind their own breastworks. While they take the open field for it! But I am getting off from my story. The wagon got back that night & the next day we crossed over to the other side of the river. Roe got to the reg’t on the 21st all safe & sound 7 on the 23rd I saw him for the first time! & you had better believe I was glad to see him back again & looking so well! For I was afraid that when he got to the reg’t he would not be able to stand it and get down again! But I never saw him looking better in my life & he says he feels firstrate so I am in hopes that the hospital & us both will be strangers hereafter! But yesterday we got orders to cross & in the evening we packed up & came to the reg’t & you’d better believe I was glad to get back again after being away from the Co. so long! I have now given you an account of my travels since leaving Pond-Spring & now I will give you a history of the exploits of the reg’t since then as I got it from the boys they left the spring the same night that we did & after marching all night they arrived at Crawfish Springs early the next morning & found the enemy there in position for a fight & they were soon at it rough & tumble! The Rebs kept gradually developing their whole force & old Rosey in turn massed his forces & soon the entire armies both Union and Rebel were into it head & ears & our brigade suffered terribly that day & our reg’t was so badly cut up! The reg’t was under fire about 2 hours & our loss was 17 killed, 105 wounded & 14 missing. Co. K had five wounded & two missing. Bill McGehan was the only one mortally wounded. He was shot in the head & afterwards taken prisoner. It is supposed that he is bad ere this! Sanford Lewis & Tom Truitt were the two missing ones. We don’t know what became of them. The may both be killed or wounded, or they may have been taken prisoner before they were hurt at all. At any rate we have not heard nor seen anything of them since the fight of the 19th. On the 20th the fight began again at daylight, harder than ever, but our brigade was not in a very hot place that day & although it was twice as hard a battle as the day previous. Our reg’t only had one or two wounded & none killed. The object of the Rebels was to get into Chattanooga by cutting their way through our lines & they fought desperately to get possession of the road & no other but an American army could have checked their fierce assaults & withstood such showers of grape Shell & Canister as they rained upon our boys. But every time they made a charge they were as quickly hurled back with their ranks thinned & bleeding from the effects of our deadly fire of mini balls. They shoot a different cartridge from ours. For while we shoot but a single bullet, they shoot a ball & three buck shot & that is the reason why they wounded so many more than they kill. While we kill about as many as we wound for when we level our old enfield on a Reb he may as well prepare to go up the spout! Old Rosey got all his men safely into the city on Monday & he at once began to strengthen the defenses of the place & we have been busy throwing breastworks ever since. We now have a splendid line of works entirely around the city. & now if they want to try their hand on us again we will have the advantage of fortifications & that is half the battle we are now camped in a line around the line of works & we have to get up every morning long before daylight & put on our accoutrements & keep them on till sunrise so they will not be apt to catch us napping. They are in for about three (Transcript abruptly stops.) |
"War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible." - Abraham Lincoln, 1864
Isaac Mark Abbott letter to brother John Abbott,
08-06-186
Chattanooga
Aug 6th /64
Dear Brother John, Your long and very welcome letter of the 30th came to hand the 4th inst. and I need not tell you was joyfully received for I am always glad to get a letter from you. I am glad to hear that you are having such fine times since you got home and if it was practicable I would like very much to be with you. The girls didn’t say anything about the visit to Uncle Edd’s for they said they supposed you had told me all about it. I am glad to hear that Adrial is doing so well for I believe that he is about the right of a man. I was never treated better in my life by anyone than what Roe & I were by him and his family while we were at Indianapolis and I think we will never forget their many acts of kindness toward us! You are lucky in having the nack of getting along so well in fashionable society and I wish that I could say as much, for it is a very desirable gift, but I never did know much about etiquette and I will go home when the war is over a regular Joab Squash. Is Nealie as much of a dandy as he used to be? I rec’d a letter from Isaac Hubbart the other day. They are all well when he wrote and very busy harvesting. Isaac says they have 30 acres of small grain this year and they were running a reaper. I have an idea that Jim is doing well out there. Isaac sent me his likeness. He looks a great deal as he used to, only that he is a man now, instead of the small boy that he was when we saw him last. The 32nd Ind. came in here the other day. They are on their way to Indianapolis to be mustered out. There is out the 24th inst. and they will go on to the states I suppose in a few days. They are about as jolly a set of Dutchmen as you generally find! What is Will Deane doing now? Has he recovered his health yet? I shouldn’t think that he & Agg. could not live agreeably in the same neighborhood, after the scandalous reports that has been made about them. How did you find the women about Milan anyhow? Do they put on as much dog as of old? It is raining today and it has rained nearly every day for over a week and we have had no lack of it any time this summer. The crops in this valley are as good as I ever saw and we will have roasting ears in abundance about next week. And the loyal Tennesseeans will have to sell them to us about right or we will go out and confiscate a few. They have been boring us all along with their truck *as they call it) by charging more than double what it was worth. For instance, 25 cts. a quart for berries when there was ten thousand bushels to be had for the picking and 50 cts. a dozen for little onions & c. but we will have the deadwood on them about the corn for there is plenty of it within three miles, and we can get a pass to go out whenever we ask for it. So they will have to come to Limerick! I got a letter from Roe the other day, he was well but dissatisfied and had been trying to get the doctor to send him to the Reg’t but didn’t succeed and I am glad of it. Not that I want him to be disappointed but he couldn’t begin to stand it with the reg’t and I don’t want to see him get down sick again. John, if you send the printing press I wish you would send the rates that your man charged for printing, so that I will know how to begin. One of the boys of your Co. who was captures before Richmond and had escaped from the Rebs passed through here about two weeks ago on his way home. I didn’t see him but one of our boys did and he said that he was going to our house. Have you seen anything of him? Everything is quiet here and if wasn’t for the fine strings of Johnies that Sherman sends in here nearly every day we wouldn’t realize that there was any campaign going on in this department. I believe I have written all that I can think of at present so I will close by asking to look over all mistakes write often and believe me your true brother, Ike |
"For medical practitioners in the field during the Civil War, germ theory, antiseptic (clean) medical practices, advanced equipment, and organized hospitalization systems were virtually unknown."
- American Battlefield Trust |
Isaac Mark Abbott letter to brother Roe Abbott,
09-17-1864
Chattanooga
Sept 17th /64
Dear Brother Roe I am almost ashamed to write to you again after neglecting you so long but when I give you my reasons for not writing sooner I am sure that you will excuse a good share of my negligence, and I will endeavor to do penance for the remainder by writing you a whole sheet of fools cap! Well in the first place we left her on the 1rst to run Old Wheeler away from our Crackerline and were out 12 days and of course I had no opportunity for writing during that time. Then the day after we got back Cap received a letter from the Surgeon of our hospital stating that you had been furloughed home on the 7th so I thought that if you was at home it would be useless for me to write to you at Madison and I just sat down & wrote a letter home thinking that that would answer until I heard from you again. But when the Mail came this morning Dawson handed me a letter and I was somewhat surprised to see that it was mailed at Madison and when I read it and saw the date (he 13th) and found that you said nothing about being at Home I didn’t know what to think about it and I told Dawson that he was mistaken. But he says that cap rec’d the letter and that he (your surgeon) wrote that you would be sent to the reg’ts just as soon as you got able for duty. Your letter of the 3rd was waiting for me when we returned from our expedition. Also, one from home and one from Lydia written at Delaware and you know from your own experience what a treat they were to me after not hearing from any of you for so long! But I suppose you will want to know something about our railroad scout so I will endeavor to enlighten your understanding a little on that subject. We got on the cars here the morning of the 1rst together with all of the available troops at this Post. We took the Nashville road and at 11 o’clock that night we landed at Murfreesboro. We found the troops there in a big scare. They told us that the Rebs were 16,000 strong under Forrest & Wheeler and that they had been fighting at Nashville all the afternoon. And they had heard the cannonading till late at night, and they thought that we would get to see the Elephant sure if we went any farther towards Nashville. We got off the care, made coffee, and laid down for a little sleep, but we didn’t get to lay long for at 3 A.M. we got up & started down the pike towards Nashville as fast as we could pad it down without going double-quick. I reckon you remember about the distance from Lavergn to Murfreesboro for you know we marched it one day about 1 ½ years ago. Well, we marched it an went into camp on the other side of the R.R. at just half past 10 A.M. so you can judge of the way we marched! I had on a pair of new shoes and not being used to marching, my feet were blistered and so sore that I could hardly travel. The Rebs had been there the day before and they had tore up the track considerably near there and burned a lot of Wood belonging to Uncle Sam! The Cavalry from Nashville was fighting them near Franklin and we could hear the artillery very plainly. But we had orders to remain at Lavergn and wait for Wheeler to come to see us! So we laid down there till about 5 P.M. & then formed our line for battle and moved up to where the road comes into the pike from Franklin and there we expected to either whip somebody or get badly whipped ourselves. Our reg’t was laying within 200 yards of the very spot that we camped on when we marched from Nashville to Murfreesboro a year ago last spring and as we lay there in battle array I though what a change had taken place with the 68th and especially with Co. K since that evening! Then Lieut’s. Breweington and Gould were both with us! And McKeighan Jones and Tanner and Wilson, Galt & Cravens were all there at roll-call with as good prospects of going through the war safe as any of us, but alas! They are numbered among the silent dead! Martyrs for the freedom & liberty of our country. Then I thought of our Old Mess we numbered seven in the old tent that night, but now I & Nelson is all that is left! Two dead, two in Southern dungeons, my own brother desperately wounded and in a hospital among strangers, and the other two worn out by sickness. It was a sad picture, but it is only one among thousands that this terrible war has made! The Scouts came in every little while and reported that the Rebs were coming and kept in line ready for them, but presently a scout came in and reported that they had smelled a rat and that they were breaking off towards the Nashville road which crossed the pike about 6 miles below Lavergn so we filed out on the pike again & started down it at quick time. We were already about tuckered so that when we stopped after marching six miles we were so tired that we just laid down in our tracks and slept soundly till morning! IN the morning a negroe came in & reported the Rebs in camp about a mile & a half from us so we formed in line of battle and about 8 A.M. we started for them. We were on the skirmish-line, the day was very hot, and we were about played out and it seemed to me that I had never been so hot & thirsty before in my life, and it was all of no avail for the Rebs had been on the alert and as soon they found out that we were coming they got on their horses 7 left us alone in our glory! We marched & countermarched nearly all day and the next morning we went back to Murfreesboro. The next day (the 5th) we got aboard our trains and started back (as we thought) for Chattanooga, but when we awoke in the morning we found ourselves in the Memphis & Charleston R.R. going down into Old Alabama at the rate of 20 miles an hour. We passed Huntsville that day and when we arrived at the junction of the N. & D. R.R. we turned off onto it and when we woke up in the morning we were at Pulaski Tenn. 78 miles from Nashville and 156 from Chattanooga. The 9th Ind. Cavalry is stationed there. They were out after Wheeler but I saw Curt Hancock. He was sick and I tell you he looks pretty slim. He is a sergeant. About 9 A.M. we started back. We ran back 25 miles to Athens, Alabama & there got off the trains & went into camp. Wheeler was then somewheres near there making for the Tennessee River and the Cavalry was trying to prevent his crossing while we kept him away from the R.R. We laid there till the evening of the 9th when we received orders to march! My feet had been getting sore all the time after the first days march and one foot was so sore that I couldn’t wear my shoe so I was left behind. They marched that night to Muscle-Shoals on Elk River 16 miles and on Sunday night they came back again to Athens without seeing anything of Wheeler. The next day we got aboard of our trains again and started for Chattanooga where we arrived safe & sound at 11 P.M. after an absence of 12 days during which we had traveled more than 500 miles, done some hard marching as we ever did in our lives, and then came home again without seeing a reb or firing a gun, but we did manage to keep Old Wheeler from accomplishing his design of destroying the R.R. And now after a month spent on raiding for the purpose of cutting off Sherman’s communications, he can go back and (if he can find General Hood) report to him that the Crackerline is still open, and that he considers himself lucky in getting back again with his command without doing any devilment. You spoke about writing a letter to Cap & wanted to know if he got it. He did get it for I saw it but he didn’t say anything to me about it. We have three new lieutenants in the reg’t now. Serg’t Lincomfelter of Co. D and Corporal Holstead of Co. G were mustered first Lieutenants on the 31rst of August, and Corporal Hoffman of Co. B has been promoted to first Lieut. since we came back off the scout! Mike Growe has come back to the company again. Frank Moore is at Dalton acting commissary Sergt, Ramey and Hodgkins are also at Dalton on duty with a detachment of colored troops who are stationed there in palce of the 2nd Missouri which has gone Home. Their time having expired! There is considerable talk among the Ind. troops here about going home to vote and I believe that we will go. Do you hear anything about it? I havne’t heard from Louis for so long that I can’t remember when I did hear from him last. Well, it is about time to go to roost, and I expect I have written as much as will be profitable, so I will close. We are well and in good spirits. Hoping that I may meet you at the polls on Election Day to give Abe & Andy a lift. I remain your true brother. Mark |