A Picture Says a Thousand Words: Photos as Memory during the Civil War

Union soldier, Library of Congress

In a previous post early last year I wrote about revenue stamps which were introduced in the US in 1862 to pay for what was likely to be a protracted war. Many items such as bank checks, mortgage documents, deeds, and even playing cards were taxed, for the most part, for one or two cents. Bear in mind that at that time one cent was the equivalent to today's 20 cents. For this purpose the Internal Revenue Department printed stamps in varying denominations. See my post here: https://ccowing.blogspot.com/2024/01/taxes-taxes.html

Photographs were becoming more common and less expensive. The first commercially viable type of photograph, the daguerreotype, was introduced in 1839 in France and after its introduction to the US by Samuel Francis Morse that winter daguerreotype studios were popping up in all major cities on the East Coast by very early 1840. Daguerreotypes were expensive and cumbersome to make. The sitter had to sit still for some minutes although with that time was reduced to a few seconds. The photographer had to go through a number of complex steps that needed to be done precisely in order to produce a good image. Daguerreotypes can be difficult to view as well. They were produced on a silver plated copper plate, so they have a mirror finish. They often have to be held at a particular angle to be viewed.

 

An important thing to remember is that at this time there was no digital, only analog. Images did not pixilate when enlarged. They could get blurry, but did not pixilate. Daguerreotypes are astonishing images for the intricate detail they record. Ambrotypes and tintypes, described below, are also remarkable for their fine detail. The image of a woman to the right is an enlargement of an ambrotype below. The fine resolution is remarkable for a picture that is only 2 x 2.5" in total. The wrinkles in her face, the pattern of her lace collar and even the details on the lace on her widow's cap are visible. If this were a daguerreotype the resolution would be even more crisp.

All the types of photography described here were available on both sides of the conflict. It is possible sometimes to make an educated guess that a tintype comes from the South depending on the style if it's a man. Oddly, the pictures of Southerners during the war tend to look more gaunt and angry--that's not something that  can be quantified. It's just an impression. In collecting these images I pass no judgment on the sitters, even though, if you have read my last few blog posts, you know that my gr. gr. grandfather died in the war on the Union side. At these level these soldiers and their families were just people trying to get through the day. They didn't have much time to sit and think about politics at leisure.

In the mid 1850's two new methods of taking photographs were developed. The ambrotype was an image produced on a piece of glass and encased for protection. It involved some work but was easier to make. Ambrotypes are easy to date because they were popular for only a decade, from the mid 1850's to just after the war in 1865. Even easier was the tintype, an image produced on a piece of sheet iron lacquered in black, generally, although dark brown was sometime used. A tintype could be produced in about 20 minutes start to finish so this became the preferred way to have a picture made. By the mid 1860's the tintype was king, the ambrotype was fading from use, and the daguerreotype was rarely made. It may be surprising that the technology changed that quickly, at a speed we wouldn't associate with the past. Think of it as what happens today when digital technology in phones, computers, and larger systems becomes outdated and is rapidly replaced with whatever is new.

When soldiers enlisted in either the Confederate or Union armies it was common for them to have their picture made as a tintype and either sent home if done in the field, or done at home before they left. Compared to today's money they only cost a few dollars and were durable images.

By 1864 the war debt on the Union side was growing rapidly. By the end of the war it was 2.7 billion dollars in contemporary money, almost 41 billion today. Revenue stamps helped pay this off by 1883.  In mid-1864 the tax was expanded to include photographs, including tintypes and CDVs (carte de visite--a small photograph on a card). This tax on photographs was in effect from 1864-1866.  It was a good source of revenue because so many people took advantage of this inexpensive way to have a photograph of their loved one.

I do not own any tintypes of Civil War soldiers in uniform in my collection because they are very expensive and desirable, although I hope to some day. However, one picture below may be of a soldier who returned to his family in the South. Notice that he is wearing light colored pants with a dark stripe down the side. That style of pants was never a fashion in the US. It was only military. It is known that former Confederate soldiers returned to a countryside and home that was a wasteland, and they had little money. Former Confederate soldiers sometimes wore parts of their uniforms years after the war, which I believe may be the case here.

A soldier returned from the war

I  have a collection of tintypes, ambrotypes, cartes de visites (CDVs), and a couple of daguerreotypes of average people from before and during the war, however. A few have revenue stamps, three in particular have revenue stamps that were cancelled by the photographer when the customer paid for the picture. Many times the stamp intended for playing cards were used, but quite often stamps were used for any tax regardless of the wording on the stamp as long as the amount was correct. In the example above, this tiny tintype (this size is called a "gem,") is mounted into a card, a very common way to mount the picture. On the back the tax was paid with a 2 cent bank check stamp. It was cancelled by the photographer, which was done by hand often with the date. It is notoriously difficult to date pictures from this period, in which hair styles and clothing are the only clues as to when the picture was made. Here, I know the exact date, December 26, 1864. The big question is whether he was off to war. It's impossible to tell. 

The production of tintypes expanded rapidly as more soldiers were drafted or enlisted, and after the war it remained common. Glass plate negatives were coming into use during the war, and they eventually dominated the market because unlimited prints of the photograph could be made from one negative, whereas all the previous methods produced unique images. On early CDVs will often appear the phrase "negatives preserved" meaning the customer could come back and have more copies made. Copying the tintype was different. The typical tintype was 2.5" x 3" and the tiny "gem" size pictures were made with cameras with multiple lenses, sometimes with as many as twelve lenses, so multiple images could be made at once because of their small size.

The other side of memory is just as poignant. Soldiers on both sides very commonly had small tintypes or ambrotypes of loved ones. Many stories are told of a dead soldier being found on a battlefield with a tiny picture of a loved one in his hand, presumably looking on their image in his last moments of life. The three photographs below, one tintype and two ambrotypes, are all small. The tiniest is that of the young girl, which is less than two inches square. The other two are 2 by 2.5 inches. Any and all of these could have been cherished by a soldier who may or may not have come home.

Young girl, tintype, ca. 1857-1862

Widow, ambrotype, ca. 1857-1862

Young woman, ambrotype, ca. 1857-1862

Southern couple, ca. 1860's

Occasionally couples would have their photograph taken together. The picture above of a couple in the 1860's is an excellent example. It could be one that the husband had taken before he left for the war. I believe it to be from the Confederacy because of the style of the husband's beard, which wasn't nearly as common in the North as it was in the South. It's likely their sober expressions are a result of having to wait a few seconds for the exposure. I have to wonder, though, if the wife's expression of steely determination is in anticipation of her husband going away to war, perhaps never to return. Or, perhaps he had just returned home to a region that had been devastated by war and they knew their prospects were bleak.

George Lewis, my gr. gr. grandfather, was able to have an albumen print made from a glass plate negative, often referred to as a "dry plate" because the chemicals on the plate's surface were not wet. It is possible that his uncle I.C. Lewis paid for it. We'll never know.

The Empty Chair, the Next Generation: Disease in the Civil War

Soldier's graveyard, winter camp, Falmouth. Forbes, Edwin, 1839-1895, Library of Congress

 Disease was a persistent problem during the Civil War for several reasons. Camps were completely unsanitary and periodic long periods of encampment, especially during the winter, led to the spread of a wide assortment of illnesses.

The main factor in disease at this time was the state of medicine. The “germ theory,” as some older physicians called it, was still not widely accepted and older, established physicians rejected it as the cause of infection and disease. In general, physicians knew that certain conditions could and would result in illness, but they couldn’t identify what was present in those conditions that would cause illness.

Medical care was available from the beginning on both sides, but sanitation was not. Once the Sanitary Commission was created in 1861 the deaths from infection in hospitals went down dramatically. This did not apply to camps, however.

The Union’s Falmouth camp, across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia, was notorious for illness. Some of the soldiers in Burnside’s army, including the 15th Connecticut, had spent months guarding the bridges that crossed the Potomac into Virginia. The Potomac was, as it is now, a swampy river, and at the time it was rife with malaria and dysentery. A mosquito bite was often a one way ticket to a casket.

 Respiratory illness, intestinal illnesses causing diarrhea, fever such as that caused by malaria, and infections were the most common illnesses.  In his Outlines of the Chief Camp Diseases of the Present War (1863)  Joseph J. Woodward, M.D., a regimental surgeon, writes: "Diarrhoea and dysentery have been the most frequent of all damp diseases, and although not nearly so fatal as fevers, have caused a very large mortality" (p. 206). He observes that diarrhea probably caused more deaths that were listed as caused by the condition, possibly because the soldier may have died of something else but was weakened by chronic diarrhea, or, if the soldier was discharged because of the condition, he might have died later at home. Discharging a soldier on disability was an option if a soldier became so sick, and was one that George Lewis was offered. He declined, however, fearing that he would be seen as a coward.

Diarrhea could have been seasonal, caused by contaminated water or unripe fruits and vegetables. With intestinal diseases diet was a huge factor. The diet of soldiers in camp was horrendous by modern standards, including bacon, which meant lots of grease; hard tack, which one soldier famously observed was so hard that it could stop a lead bullet; and whatever could be gathered from the countryside. Fresh fruit was intermittent, and vegetables were boiled so long as to leach any and all nutrients from them. In short, their dismal diet set up soldiers for intestinal problems that potentially could be fatal.

Occasional diarrhea was very common, but common enough was acute diarrhea such as George Lewis had. The symptoms that George's sergeant describes fit with the description of this condition. It included abdominal pain, fever, and weakness:

Occasionally, however, the disease . . . may persist, and pass into a chronic form, eventually terminating in one or another of the varieties of chronic diarrhoea  hereafter to be described; or, instead, it may run rapidly on to a fatal issue. In the latter case, the abdominal pain and tenderness increase, the febrile action assumes an adynamic character, the pulse becomes frequent and feeble, the mind wanders, delrium sets in, the tongue becomes dry and red, the evacuations from the bowels exceedingly frequent, and death terminates the scene (pp. 219-220).

In short, the person dies from dehydration, although oddly, that term did not exist at the time.

There were treatments including the use of opiates, which in sufficient strength can cause constipation and relieve pain. George's sergeant suggested taking some medicine which was probably some sort of opiate, and he felt better for awhile. Improvements in diet were also prescribed. Good luck with that in winter camp.

What physicians could not have understood at the time was that replacing the fluids lost in diarrhea would help significantly. Anyone who has had a sick child with diarrhea knows to keep Pedialite or something similar at hand. They also did not have antibiotics. If something as simple as penicillin had been available at that time the death rate would have been much lower.

A Union Hospital (source: www.thechaplainkit.com)

In general, disease killed twice as many soldiers as battlefield wounds. This was true up to and including the First World War. Soldiers were routinely exposed to dismal conditions and forced to eat bad food which either led to infection and illness or predisposed them to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion

The Empty Chair, the Next Generation: The Battle of Fredericksburg, George's Death

Civil War Ambulance at Fort Scott National Historic Site, Kansas (https://www.nps.gov)

 

The Union Army under the command of General Ambrose Burnside arrived at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 10. He had ordered pontoon boats, but because of delays in deploying the boats they were not in place until December 10, which gave the Confederate forces plenty of time to fortify Marye’s Heights outside Fredericksburg. The resulting battle included thirteen assaults on the impregnable heights, with the slaughter of thousands of Union soldiers.

Assistant Surgeon Charles C. Lee summarized the battle well in a report filed after the battle:

In this battle, which may be said to have lasted three days, beginning with the bombardment of the town, December 11th, an attempt was unsuccessfully made to dislodge the rebel army from the heights of Fredericksburg by our right and centre, while our left, under General Franklin, should penetrate their extreme right, and cut off their retreat. In the efforts to bridge the Rappahannock, on December 11th, General Franklin alone succeeded in laying pontoons. On the right, the enemy’s sharpshooters, protected by the houses along the bank, kept our engineers at bay, in spite of the continual bombardment of the town. On the following day little or nothing was done, on account of the dense fog that obscured everything. At daybreak, on December 13th, two pontoon bridges were laid opposite the town. Our troops crossed, and met with comparatively little opposition until they attempted to storm the heights. These attempts were continued until late in the evening, with what disastrous result is known to all. Though repulsed from the heights, they held possession of the town, where all the wounded from our right and centre were collected in the churches and other temporary hospitals; and in this condition, constantly expecting another attack, we remained December 14th and 15th. On the afternoon of the 15th, the medical director transmitted an order from the commanding general to remove all the wounded immediately across the Rappahannock. By means of the ambulances, this was done as rapidly as possible during the same afternoon and evening, and the following night the entire army recrossed in safety to their former camps. * .* The wounded were conveyed to the division hospitals previously organized by the medical director. Five series of these, belonging, respectively, to the First, Second, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Corps, were soon in operation at convenient points within half a mile or a mile of the river.

Medicine wagon (Wikipedia)

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861-1865) Vol. 1 Part 1, p. 130.

The wounded were kept in camp until Christmas Day when they were transported to hospitals in Washington.

George began to feel sick around the time that the march to Fredericksburg took place in early November, according to his Sergeant, S.S. Goodsell.

At the request of George's widow, Elizabeth, Sergeant Goodsell wrote to her giving an account of the last few months of George's life before his death on Feb. 11, 1863 at the Eckington Hospital located in the Gales Mansion, located at what is now 200 T St. NE.

Sergeant Goodsell wrote:

Newport News Apr 2nd/63

Mrs Lewis,
I received your Letter written Mar 11th, not until Yesterday, for it was directed to the regs’t, And I am forty five miles from the reg’t & went down there (to Suffolk) And my Capt. Told me He had it about 2 weeks, And now after so much delay, I will most willingly answer Yours, And give You all the Information that I can respecting the Sickess & Death of Your Husband — from the Day that George left Camp Casey [Chase?] near Alexandria on Arlington Hights, he seemed to commence feeling bad, and looked pale and languid, and on abt 7 days March I gave Him up my Horse to ride, And after we got to Falmouth before Fredericksburgh, He appeared to be about the Same, And I told Him he need do no duty, (although the duty was light)

2/ And that He had better put Himself under the Doctors care, but He was afraid He would have to go into the Hospital, then I Saw the Doctor, and He told me that if George would come and see him, He would give Him medicine to take, and He could continue staying in the Corps. I told George what I had done and not until then did He consent to take medicine, And George Seem to think that it helped Him, but I did not, And told Him that if He would go to the regt I would Surely get Him discharged, but He was fearfull again that He would have to go into the Hospital (and I did not blame him for that) and from that time (about 1st of Jany) He would have spells of putting his elbows upon His knees, & His Head upon His hands, and appear to be in deep thought, and almost Stupid, So much so that I would always have to speak twice to Him and I remember a number of times, when finding Him So

3/I would ask Him what was the Matter, And ask Him if Anything was wrong at Home, He would always answer me quickly and as cheerfully as He could that there was nothing the matter at Home, And that His family was well, and that everything was going as well as He could wish for, and Always finished his remarks with a word of praise for His Uncle I.C. Lewis, And that if Anything was wrong He would do all He Could to make it right[. A]bout the first of Feby He did not feel as well (although He would always prefer going after His meals Himself, And he kept in the tent most of the time, but on the 3rd He was better again, and Said He had not felt so well in two months[. And on the night of the 5th went on guard (that to stand from half past Eight until Eleven near the [lieutenants] quarters to see that none of the Horses went that way) I told Him there was no need of his going, but He said he felt so much better that he would go on[. T]he Morning of the 6th He said He continued to feel

4/better, and packed His knapsack for the march to Bell Plains, as he Expected to move any Moment, He put everything of any value that He wanted to take with Him in His knapsacok, except His gloves (And then I saw Put in afterwards) the 15th regmt had then gone to Acquia Creek) we were ordered to hitch up but I told George to favor Himself as much as possible, and when we started that he might ride in one of the ambulances, but just as we expected the order to move, it came to unhitch and move the next morning at 8 A.M. George said that He was glad that we were not going that day, for He did not feel quite as well, and He thought He would feel better in the morning. He eat two Hearty meals that day, but at Supper time did not eat much, and said He did not feel as well. I asked Him if He would not here the Sergeon of the 13th NH regmt come and see him (as I was acquainted with Him and knew Him to be a man as well as a good Physician. He laughed at me and said no, He was not sick, but did not feel very well, & Sat in the bed about 8x1/2, and as He had been lying down through the Evening, Come to get up, He could not Bare His weight upon his legs And had Some Strong Pain Curer in the wagon

5/and asked Him if I Should not get it & have the boys bath his legs with it but He did not think it best, and before I left the Cabin He said He felt better, but I left one of the boys to sit up with Him thinking that He might want something through the night, if George grew worse to Call me, He Called me just before Daylight, He said George did not feel as well, but that He had rested pretty well all night. I got  and went to the cabin and found two of the boys helping Him up, And as soon as I saw Him I knew that He was out of his head. I asked him what He wanted, but He made me no reply. I told the boys that George was pretty sick and that I must get Him under the Doctors care as soon as possible, and told the boys to get a Stretcher and put him upon his blankets and take him to the 13th NH Doctor. I went and called the doctor up and we had everything ready for His Comfort. As soon as the boys arrived with Him, the Dr

6/said that He was very strongly sick and He did not think that George would live until He got Him to Washington, but that He should have every Possible care, and you may rest asured that He did have until He got into the Hospital at Washington. I addressed a letter to His uncle as soon as possible, and in due time received a kind from Him. We had a long tegious time in getting here, but as soon as we got here I met the Doctor that Gov Be Kinham (?) Sent through the Hospital, and He told me that George died. As you wrote me, & that a Mr Lewis took Him Home, , I supposed it was His uncle at the time. I hear that Mr Lewis has been Here And I would have liked to see him, for then I could told Him better then to write you. George was payed up to Nov 1st and had (I think He told me) $21,00, and some change, and he broke a $20,00 note in to fives, and I saw him send a number of them, but they might never have got home,

The first page of Serg. Goodsell's letter

7/ he received the P.S. Stamps, and they besides 40 its was all He had in his part money. I had the Boys look in presence of the Hospital nurse so to take and send Home if he had any money, but we thought we had but to leave what he had everything that belongs to him, He had packed Himself. As we looked closely to see if there was anything left behind, but found nothing but a small rubber pouch which He kept His tobacco in, & we thought as it had got torn it would not be worth while sending it Home. So George had due Him when He died, 3 months, & 11 days pay from Nov 1st until Feby 12th, And as soon as I can get arrainged I shall see the Comdg Officer of Comp F, and get His discipline list and send you (if I can) and then you Can Collect the money there. I should have written upon the recipe of your uncles letter, but thought it was Him that went to Washington and would get the particulars concerning His Death, after He left me, but as it is I think I have told you all I know of him, Except that He always done His duty, most

8/readyly when asked to do it, and felt anxious to stay Here & be discharged when the rgmt was, for He said He did not want to leave before, and have the name of Coward flung in His face, and I must say here then, He had to part with us, that I missed one of the best men I had, and then come to learn the most, and from that time I have that Sympathy for you (His wife + Children) that being in the Army has not and as my wife heard the Sad news, She too sympathyzes with you, and would to God that this Controversy might come to an end that no more might be so sorely afflicted. If you wish any more information, let me know from you + I will do what I can to inform you, if it is in my power, while

I remain most
Respectfully
Sergt S.S. Goodsell

The telegraph to I.C. Lewis reporting George's death

Ambulance Corps 3rd div
9th a.c
Sent Robinson [illegible]!

George died on February 11 and it appears that one of his uncles, Jared Lewis, went down to retrieve his body to bring it back to Meriden. He telegraphed his brother, I.C. Lewis, to tell him what he found. Presumably Jared had him embalmed, a service that was provided by embalmers who moved with the army. It wouldn't have been cheap but the Lewis family could certainly afford it.

The Empty Chair, the Next Generation: A Letter to Home

While serving in the Union Army in 1862 George wrote home rather infrequently, it appears. Letters were an emotional mainstay for soldiers but also for families back home. No word from their soldier for an extended period of time could easily cause them to worry that he had been killed or seriously wounded.  In this letter George asks Elizabeth to write more frequently.  This long letter is remarkable in that he discusses his political position in line with the Democratic Party which supported a negotiated peace and separation from the Confederacy. He states several times that he has no concern about freeing the slaves even though he also states that he isn’t in favor of slavery.  

The last page is very touching. George asks his wife to kiss the children for him and to tell them to be good. He must have had the real possibility of death in the back of his mind and was obviously helping to prepare Elizabeth and the children for that possibility.

Note: this letter contains language that today is considered racist.  I include it for historical purposes, not to offend anyone. This language does not reflect my own views.

The number at the head of each section indicates the page number. The original spelling has been retained including misspellings.

 No. 2

Camp Chase Oct 19th 1862

Dear Wife
    Again the Sabath day has come and I take the opportunity to write to you. Our company has gone to the brige that is all that are able to go unless they are left for camp guard. There is about thirty of our company sick. I do not have to go so I am exempt from guard duty & I have got the day to myself and shall not even have to answer to roll call until tomorrow night. I can tell you it makes some difference with me and I like the plan of going to bed every night I do not doubt but what you will believe this last statement). We went to Washington yesterday to be reviewed by Genl. Casey & Banks it was a very fine affair the review was held on Capitol Hill and I had a better chance than I ever have had before to see Washington it looks very nice in the neighborhood of the Capitol. The grounds around the building are beautiful it is enclosed by an iron fence and the trees a great many of them are varieties that I never saw before. I wish you could see it and I hope that sometime you will have a chance. I am well and so are all the boys from east side. I have told Henry Warnock a good many times that his people want him to write and I told him last night and he says that he has writen three letters one to Matthew and two to Mr. Thorp and has got no answer. He wants 

2/ those answered before he writes. He is well and has not been sick a day since he has been here that I know of. I have written to uncle Ike [Isaac] to Horace Yale and to little Ike but I get no answer from any of them. I hear from Meriden that I have got be an abolitionist. I am not and I never shall be. I am a Democrat and in the fullest sense of the word. I do believe in Equal and Exact Justice to all men of whatever State or Persuasion Religious or Political and I do believe in asking nothing but what is Right and in submitting to nothing that is wrong. I want this war to come to an end and hoe that when it does and that that Slavery will end with it. The North did not take up arms against the South until they made an attack upon us and now because they cannot have their own way they would raise a black flag and make it a war of extermination. If Congress has got the power to confiscate the nigers I don’t care how quick it does it and sends them out of the country with Greely Garrison Philips and the rest of the agitators and give such men niger enough but I must stop here I have written almost a page on a subject that you care nothing about. If I was only out of the mess at home and about my own business they might niger it to their hearts content. But here I am and if ever take prisoner by the fiends what can I expect. If it comes to a war of extermination there will 

 3/ be some such fighting as the wourld never saw before. The South may win and If it does our whole nation is ruined as it is it is takeing some of our best men. The army takes the best men in the country the Government does not want the aged or the decrepit it is takeing them that are in the prime of manhood and without doubt fifty thousand of our soldiers have fallen either by disease or by the bullets of the enemy to say nothing of the thousands that are made for ever useless by wounds and diseases that will follow them to the grave and all about what, about some thing that might have been settled without the fireing of a gun. If both sides had been willing to have rendered Equal and Exact Justice, but it is with nations individuals a man will sometimes ruin himself for the sake of haveing his own way and so will a nation. I hope I shall be home by another spring, but I can see nothing now that indicates it and I do not see the war is any nearer a close than it was two years ago but even if I have to stay the whole term of my enlistment I will be satisfied if I can go home at last in as good health as I left it. If I was only there now and knowing as much as I do now I should say let them go that like it. I cannot see how anyone that has been once should want to go again—even if it was in times of peace and I could make as much here as anywhere. I should not like it and I don’t suppose I should like my 

 4/ reputation in which there is as much restriction as there is here. If I was out of it and with my present feelings the bate would have to be a good one to get me again. There is some men in the regiment that I do not know what they are kept here for unless it is to die. When a man is so near gone as to be of no use why not let him go home and give him a chance to get well if he can. Liby if I do get home I will never leave my family voluntarily to go on any such an expedition again. I long to see you all Fredy and Samuel must be good boys and help Mother all they can and so must Josephine. Tell her to be a good girl. Father hopes he shall live to come home again and he wants to have them all be good children. Take good care of little Willie the dear little fellow. How I wish I could see you all you had not better send Sam to school this Winter but get Fred & Phina some good warm clothes and make all of the little fellows as comfortable as you can. There is no need of my telling you too. I know you will kiss them all for me. I wish you would write oftener it seems so long between your letters and you don’t know much good it does me to hear from home. If you will mark your letters as I told you in my last and as I mark mine we shall know if we get all the letters. The Quarter Master has finally got us some potatoes and we have enough to eat. If we have anything that I don’t like I can go and toast my bread and good bread we always have and enough of it. I don’t know but what they will keep us here until the end of the war all the rest of the troops that come here are marched off after a few days stay but they keep us for the stand by I hope we shall stay some regiment has got to and it might as well be us as any one else and I think if the men will only behave themselves that we may. I know it is hard work to have to do so much guard duty but we have no long marches to perform. Give my love to all enquiring friends and except a large share for yourself when you write you must write all of the news. How is the colt growing. Is he alive you don’t say anything about it write soon.

From your affectionate husband
G.H.L.

 

Next: The Battle of Fredericksburg

The Empty Chair, the Next Generation: Off to War

July 12 Proclamation By the Governor of 

Connecticut

 In my last post I wrote about George Lewis' life in Meriden before entering the service. He heeded the call issued by President Lincoln on July 1, 1862 for 300,000 infantry troops. The governors of many of the states issued their own proclamations calling for the formation of new regiments. Connecticut's governor called for at least six regiments. Several of these regiments, including what became the 15th Connecticut Volunteers, formed out of New Haven County. The regiment had two companies out of Meriden, Companies A and F. George was listed in Company F.

The new volunteers trained for several weeks while their regiments were organized, and by mid August they were ready to depart. They mustered on August 25.

In his History of the Fifteenth Connecticut Volunteers in the War for the Defense of the Union (1893) Sheldon B. Thorpe notes:

Studied closely as a whole, no regiment was put into the field by the State of Connecticut containing so large a percentage of education, morality, and religion as was embodied in this." (p. 13)

 Thorpe, who also served in the regiment, relates a story that transpired a few days before their departure the Atwater Armor Company in New Haven had made a killing selling iron plate bullet proof vests to more than two hundred soldiers. They thought them a good idea, but when they put them to use in Washington they tossed them in the Potomac River because they.were useless and too heavy.

The Long Bridge, near where I-395 now crosses

On the 28th they reached New York City and marched down 4th Avenue and Broadway to the Battery where they boarded a transport. The next day they reached Washington, marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and then on to Arlington Heights. They reached the Long Bridge, one of the two main bridges that crossed the Potomac into Arlington. For the next two months they camped at Camp Chase and guarded the Long Bridge. From Camp Chase they could hear the artillery firing at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Thorpe describes the condition on the banks of the Potomac that he describes as "poisonous marshes":

The immediate duty of the regiment at this time was the guarding of the Washington end of Long Bridge, and the commissary stores at Fort Runvon. The fort was a veritable death-trap. Situated on the great marshes bordering the Potomac, it was in the midst of a most foul and fever breeding district — the air was filled with poison, and on the unacclimated lads of the North it fastened with a deadly grip. The ague became prevalent in camp, and in a short time numbered its victims by the hundred. (pp 21-22)

It is well known that two soldiers died of disease for every one that died of battle wounds. As Thorpe notes, for New England men this was exacerbated because they did not have a built up resistance to the illnesses present in a southern climate.

96th Pennsylvania drilling in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Source: National Archives & Records Administration.

 The rest of September was occupied with drilling and parades and reviews in Washington.

George became a part of the newly established Ambulance Corps, which was formed when the magnitude of battles became obvious, and the need was recognized for an ambulance corps to rescue wounded soldiers off a battlefield and get them to a hospital.

DAILY DUTY A. M.

Reveille. 6.00. 

Surgeon's call, 6.15. 

Squad drill, 6.15 to 7.15.

Breakfast, 7.15. 

Guard mount, 8.00. 

Officers' drill, 8.30 to 9.30. 

Company drill, 9.30 to 11.00.


1st Sergeant's call, 12.00. Dinner, 12.00. 

P.M.

Inspection quarters, 1.00.

Battalion drill, 2.00 to 4.00.

Dress parade, 5.30.

Supper, 6.00.

Officers' meeting, 7.30.

Tattoo, 9.00.

Taps, 9.30.

Next time, George's letter home.

The Empty Chair: Part 4, The Next Generation

 

George Hallam Lewis, 1862

This is the first in a series of blogs about another ancestor of mine. He wasn’t famous. He was just another one of the 650,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War. My family’s memory of him lasts, though, because of his early death.

George’s story, intertwined with his family’s story, was repeated over and over, almost three quarters of a million times. His family was lucky in that his body was retrieved and they knew exactly what happened to him. Many families never knew the fat of their loved one other than the presumption that he died. They wouldn’t have a casket and a grave. 

George is the first ancestor that I have a connection to through family artifacts. Have a number of things that belonged to him, such as several books, a photograph he had taken before he left for the war, and a few other items. Two letters remain, one he wrote to his wife back home, and another written by his sergeant to my great great grandmother after he died. Those will come in a later post.

My family has a long memory. The Lewis family has been in Connecticut since the founding of the colony in the 1630's. In the Lewis line, my immigrant 9 gr. grandfather, William Lewis, settled in Farmington. The family stayed there for several generations before my branch of the family moved to the newly settled Wallingford in 1670. In Meriden, where generations of the Lewis family were born, lived, and died, family houses still stand. There is a street named after George's uncle, I.C. Lewis. Other branches of my family have been in Connecticut for centuries, so combined, it makes for a long memory. I have been aware of George my entire life, and grew up with objects from him. In an odd way, he has been a presence throughout my entire life, even though he died almost a century before I was born. My middle name is his last name.

My great great grandfather, George Hallam Lewis, was born on January 16, 1833 in my hometown, Meriden, Connecticut. His parents were Partrick and Mary Lewis. Partrick is the ancestor I wrote about in a series of blog posts a couple of years ago. His business went bankrupt and he travelled west to Iowa to homestead, and instead became deathly ill and died in Burlington, Iowa. George would have had only faint memories of his father since he was just four years old when he left in 1837.

I.C. Lewis teapot, 1848-52

George’s name is an interesting place to start. “George” is a very common name. Many parents named their sons “George” or “George Washington Xxxxxx” in honor of our first President. But his middle name has intrigued me for a long time. I have discovered the source, however, in the world of poetry. Apparently a close friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson was a poet named Arthur Hallam. He was engaged to Tennyson’s sister, and there was a scandal of sorts surrounding the engagement. Hallam was a published poet, and had a following.

Arthur Henry Hallam was not long to live, however. He died suddenly on September 15, 1833 in Vienna of apoplexy resulting from a congenital malformation of the brain. He was mourned in the world of poetry. The timing with George’s birth must be more that a coincidence, with George being born only a few months earlier.

What probably happened was Partrick and Mary added the middle name “Hallam” to George’s name in memory of a poet who was memorialized in Tennyson’s later, much loved poem “In Memoriam.” Hallam was a romantic poet like Tennyson. His poems bear the same romantic feelings found in poets of that period.

It would not be surprising if Partrick and Mary were familiar with Hallam’s poetry. Given the timing of his death and George’s middle name it seems certain.

Isaac C. Lewis in later life.

I.C. Lewis trademark

George lived in East Meriden. In 1850, at the age of 17, he was living in the large household of his uncle, Isaac C. Lewis, who was able to thrive in the same trade that his older brother Patrick had failed in. Isaac C. Lewis went on to help found the Meriden Britannia Company, which became International Silver Company.

George's signature in the book on horses

I.C. Lewis became a surrogate father for George. We will see in a subsequent post how Isaac felt responsible for his nephew.

Colorful frontispiece to Sartain's Magazine

My family has several books that belonged to George. One is a popular book on horses from 1854. Another is an 1852 bound volume of a popular magazine. Monthly magazines were very popular, providing new reading material. Bound volumes such as this were prized long after they were published. This particular volume is the January-June, 1852 issues of Sartain's Magazine of Literature and Art, which he acquired in 1855. It is filled with poetry, short stories, and travel accounts from Europe.

One last book is a biography of the Empress Josephine given to Elizabeth in 1851, the year before they were married.

George and Elizabeth had four children:

Josephine Elizabeth (1854-1906)

George F. (1855-1921)

Samuel Clinton (1857-1939) My great grandfather, my father's maternal grandfather

Wilbur Alton (1861-1886) 

All were obviously young when their father left for the war in the summer of 1862.

Next time: George leaves for the war.

Lexington and Concord: A Family Connection 250 Years Later

 Growing up in the 60’s in suburban Connecticut, history was a the very heart of our family’s life.  Through my mother’s genealogical research and my father’s long collective memory of past generations we had a better sense than many of the relative longevity of our family in New England. In the decades since then I have been able to solve some genealogical mysteries and flesh out different branches of my family’s past. With the advent of genealogical research online it has become vastly easier.

Engraving by Amos Doolittle, based on eyewitness accounts, December, 1775

I don't do genealogy to find famous ancestors in order to brag about them. Some of my notorious ancestors are nothing to brag about. But, you can pick your friends but you're stuck with your family. I do genealogical research to understand who I am and where I come from. My identity is hardwired in New England, where much of my family on both sides lived for centuries.

I made one of my earlier discoveries in the 80’s, when I discovered that through my father I was descended from one of the eight minutemen who died on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775.

So here’s how I found him. Skip this paragraph if you’re not interested in the details.  I can’t remember exactly when. I used to go to a local Mormon church that had a genealogical research center, where all were welcome whether or not you were a member. It was a wonderful resource. On one trip I was tracing back a line in my father’s family. We had known for quite awhile where the Cowing line came from, back to a Scottish ancestor who was sold as an indentured servant in Puritan Massachusetts after the last English Civil War in the 1650’s. There wasn’t much to find out there. However, we hadn’t done much with the Page line. My great grandfather, Walter Cowing (1845-1913) married Caroline S. Page (1860-1942) who was from Boston area. I started to go back and see what I could find. The Page line went back into Lexington, Massachusetts at the time of the Revolution and before that. That was interesting. My 4 gr. grandfather, Timothy Page (1778-1860) married an Isanna Harrington (1779-1861).  I discovered that the Harringtons were a huge family in Lexington at that time. Isanna’s mother (my 5 gr. Grandmother) was Anne Munroe (1740-1811). Munroe was another prominent name in Lexington. Anne’s father was a Robert Munroe (1712-April 19, 1775). That date in 1775? Why was that date familiar. I knew it had something to do with the beginning of the Revolution. It took a minute but I realized what it was. I sat there, stunned, for several minutes. Nobody in my family had remembered this. Maybe everyone collectively forgot it. It blew my mind. That night I called my parents to tell them, and they couldn’t believe it. We had spent a decade portraying a British regiment in Revolutionary War re-enactments, so we all knew quite a bit about the weaponry of the time, and how battles were fought.

With the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord tomorrow I’m thinking about Robert Munroe and the world he lived in. He had served in the 7 Years War in Roger’s Rangers in the 1750’s, as Britain and France fought for control of what is now eastern Canada. He had seen war up close. At 63 he was elderly by the standards of the time, and instead of carrying a musket (which weighed well over ten pounds) he was the ensign, carrying the flag. Today a flag in battle may seem a superfluous thing to someone not acquainted by war, but at the time the flag was a marker, a signpost. It told the soldiers where they were supposed to be. It was honorary to be the ensign but also immensely important and practical.

Robert Munroe was a farmer like many in his community. He was born in Lexington in 1712. He was related to the Harringtons, several of whom also took part in the battle on Lexington Green. One of them famously crawled to the front door of his family home and died at the feet of his wife.

In our re-enactment days we used to joke about how the Lexington Militia stayed up all night at the Munroe Tavern waiting for the British force they were sure was going to come. We all realized that they weren’t just drinking lemonade. Perhaps the militia line was a bit ragged the next morning.

What happened early that morning was far from funny, though. As the militia line waited the 700 British soldiers marched on to the Green opposite the militia line. From my re-enactment days I know that the maximum distance the British line could be was about 100 yards away if they had any hope of hitting anyone. At that distance they would have only half a chance of hitting someone. At 300 yards only one quarter of a chance.

It’s important to recognize the limitations of the firearms of the time. The British Long Pattern Brown Bess musket was an effective weapon as it was used, but it had limitations. Introduced in 1722, it had a flintlock firing mechanism. I won't go into the details as to how it was fired, but it wasn't just a matter of putting in bullets and pulling the trigger. Nearly five feet in length, the musket has a smooth bore varying from 75 to 80 caliber (100 caliber is an inch), and the balls that were fired were smaller, about 69 caliber, because the carbon buildup inside the barrel would clog it after a number of shots. Brown Bess muskets had a smooth bore, with no rifling, and the balls exited with much less force. A trained soldier of the line would be able to fire three or four shots a minute in the heat of battle. These muskets did not have sights. A soldier did not fire at an individual. They fired in mass volleys at the opposing line. If you had the misfortune of being hit in a limb with a lead ball almost 3/4" in diameter you were guaranteed to lose that limb. The ball would not go through. It would flatten out and shatter a leg or arm bone beyond repair.

Me firing a Brown Bess, ca. 1975

Robert Munroe was the first person in the militia line to be killed, and that was no accident. The British may have had a sniper armed with a rifle to pick off the officers. Munroe was third in command of the militia and with the flag he would have made an excellent target. In the end eight militia members were killed.

But the big question--who fired the first shot?

Here's my take. In my opinion a British soldier would not have fired the first shot. These soldiers were trained to collectively follow commands to the letter, not to act independently. I am fully convinced that the first shot was fired by a militia member. They also knew the tension of the moment. Perhaps one of them decided that standing in lines facing one another was too much and they fired a shot to get things going. Or it may have been a misfire. Flintlock muskets can certainly misbehave at times. Or it may have been the consequence of staying up in the tavern all night. We will never know.

After the initial confrontation the British continued on to Concord, their destination, in order to seize a store of gunpowder. The militia followed, and the Concord Militia was alerted. The ensuing battle at the North Bridge in Concord, followed by a ragged British retreat to Boston ended the day. The militia picked off many British soldiers from behind stone walls.

It's easy to romanticize this day,and many will undoubtedly do so. I do not. I've been in enough re-enacted Revolutionary War battles to know that isn't realistic. A battle at that time was hot, very dirty, and very dangerous. On this day the militia must have known that armed conflict with the British military would have severe consequences but they did it anyway. They could not have imagined what would flow from this brief conflict on their front lawns. They were defending their homes.

Me with my parents, 4/20/75

I don't like to think of war as inevitable in any situation, but it's not surprising that this happened. After the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in December, 1773 the tensions in Massachusetts were in the red zone. If this conflict hadn't happened this day another conflict would have happened on another day. Everyone was on high alert.

It's always interesting to think about the implications of any historical event, in this case the implications of a bunch of farmers standing in line against hundreds of British soldiers. For myself, I like to focus on the event itself. We have the luxury of knowing what happened after. They did not, and it is important to look at it from their perspective.