Letter – Asbury Fouts, 16 January 1865

2015.002.039a

Hi-resolution scans of the full document can be made available for a fee. Please see our Image Request page for details.

Letter written by Private Asbury Fouts of Company I, 9th IA Infantry, to his parents, from a camp near Nashville, TN, during Hood’s Tennessee Campaign. Fouts writes about marching out to the breastworks under the command of General James B. Steedman, where they could see Confederate rifle pits. The brigade was ordered to draw the Confederates out, though heavy fire caused them to leave before doing so. Two days later they were ordered to Fort Negley to hold the breastworks. On December 19th, 1864, they started for Murfreesboro, and went as far as Huntsville, AL, when they heard the Confederates were at Decatur. A hard march brought them to the Tennessee River, which they crossed on gunboats. The Confederates shelled them, and the town was eventually evacuated.

---

-Page 1-

Camp Near Nashville

Jan the 16^th 1865     

Dear Parents

It is with pleasure that I seat myself down to write you a few lines, for I have not had time to write until now. For about 6 or 7 weeks I wrote you a few lines while at Courtland but do not know whether you received them or not. I wish I had kept an account of our movements since we came to Nashville. I have forgotten all the dates, so I will not attempt to give an account of the Battle of Nashville. Four days after we came to Nashville we drew our arms for the defense of the city, and marched out to the breastworks on the left under Gen.

-Page 2-

Steedman’s command. The Rebs’ rifle pits were in plain view about a mile and a half off. We remained in this position for 8 days without disturbance from the enemy. I believed they would have stayed there all winter without attacking us if we had not drove them out. One day our brigade [Col. A. G. Mallory’s, Capt. C. C. Cox’s Battalion] was ordered out on skirmish for the purpose of drawing them out of their works. Our reg[iment] advanced along in front, with the reserves down under the hill. We fought them until the [fire] got too hot for us, and fell back slowly without accomplishing our purpose. The man standing next to me was wounded. Just before the fight one of the boys gave his revolver to his comrade and said, boys, this is the last time I will have of

-Page 3-

speaking to you. Pointing to them, he said there is the Rebels, they will kill me. He was shot through the neck and killed instantly. In two days afterward our corps was ordered over to the right, or rather in front of Fort Negley, to hold the breastworks. That day our forces attacked their works. A heavy cannonading was kept up all day. The second day still heavy infantry fire – very heavy. The fight became general all around. Our company was not in the fight at all. [We were] held as reserves in the breastworks. It is hardly necessary for me to try to give a description of our brave boys fought; it is old news to you before this time. The Rebs fought

-Page 4-

well. On the 19^th of December we started for Murfreesboro, there taking the cars, went down as far as Huntsville, Alabama. There we heard the Rebs was at Decatur. We started for that place on the 25^th. After marching through mud knee deep, wading swamps & rivers in cold weather, we reached the Tennessee River opposite Decatur about noon on the 28^th. [We] crossed over on the gunboats above the city. The boats played on them while we prepared for a night attack. They shelled us a while, but did not pay much attention to them. About ten o’clock they evacuated the town. It was well fortified. It is getting dark. I will close for the present.

[balance of letter missing – unsigned]

---

Asbury Fouts, from Taylor County, IO, enlisted at age 19 in Company I of the 9^th IA Infantry on October 19, 1864. When en route to the 15^th Army Corps (W. T. Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee), via Nashville, Fouts was assigned for temporary combat duty at Nashville along with other recruits and also veterans returning to active service. He was placed in Colonel A. G. Mallory’s brigade, Capt. C. C. Cox’s battalion, and participated in the reconnaissance of December 13^th along the Murfreesboro Pike toward the Rains farm. Mallory’s brigade suffered 10 total casualties. Fouts joined the 9^th Iowa in March 1865, and was discharged at Louisville, KY On July 18, 1865.

Letter – William Shafter, 19 December 1864

2015.002.015

Hi-resolution scans of the full document can be made available for a fee. Please see our Image Request page for details.

Letter written by Colonel William R. “Pecos Bill” Shafter of the 17th U.S. Colored Troops to his sister Ann Shafter Aldrich, from Nashville, Tennessee. Shafter is writing to his sister after the death of her husband, Captain Job Aldrich, at the Battle of Nashville. Shafter found his body on the field the next morning and will send Job’s belongings home. He also mentions that Captain Gideon Ayers was killed, along with 110 others.

---

Nashville Tenn

                               Dec 19^th 1864

My Dear Sis,

     For the first time since the fight of the 15^th inst. I have had time and opportunity to write you[.] It is useless to attempt by words to soothe your sorrow, and though you are the sorest afflicted, believe me when I say that you have shed no bitterer tears than I when I found poor Job. He was as dear to me as either of my own brothers. It was an awful battle, Sis, and we are of the many who are called to mourn. Job seemed to have a presentment that he should die, and the night before the fight wrote you a letter, the most affecting I ever read. He left it with Hattie [Col. Shafter’s wife, who was visiting Nashville] to send you if anything happened. Hattie will bring it to you in a day or two with the rest of his things. I hope his boys will remember the last words of their father. Job never knew what hurt him. He did not suffer an instant. May my last

-Page 2-

end be like his! He died for his country, than which there can be nothing more glorious. He left all his money and valuables in camp. Hattie has them. The circumstances were these. We were ordered to drive the enemy out of a piece of woods and take the battery on the other side. We drove them from the woods, but there was just in front of the battery a deep cut (r.r.) at least twenty feet deep. We went to that and had to stop. Job was killed there. We had to leave him. I was on the right side of the regt., and did not know he was killed till we had fallen back, or I should have seen him off. We got the ground in the morning and I was the first to find him. He lay on his face. The Rebs had taken all his clothes, everything. I had him taken up and sent to town. I had to go on myself for another fight. We have been in [the field] two days since, and last night the regt. left Franklin for Murfreesboro. We go from there to Tuscumbia, Ala. I came back after ammunition and leave at daylight tomorrow. I hope I shall get through safe. Jim is sick and can’t go. Hattie will be home in a day or two.

-Page 3-

I will get Job’s things all fixed up without a bit of trouble to you. Be of good heart, Sis. I feel for you from the bottom of my heart. I will write soon again.

                        Love to all,

                     Your aff. Brother,

                            Bill

Col. Wm. R. Shafter, 17^th U.S.C.T.  letter Dec. 19, 1864 – 2

Capt. Gid[eon] Ayers was killed at the time Job was. He was left on the field, did not die for an hour or two. The Rebs stripped him while yet alive, and begging them not to hurt him so. One of the wounded men lay right beside him. Our wounded that were left were not hurt, but all the dead ones were stripped. 110 of my men & several officers were killed and wounded.

                            Bill

-Written crosswise on Page 1-

The good die first, while those whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.

---

Colonel William Rufus Shafter, enrolled as a 1^st lieutenant in the 7^th Michigan Infantry on Aug. 22, 1861 and mustered out Aug. 22, 1862. He was appointed major of the 19^th MI Infantry on Sept. 5, 1862, and promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 5, 1863. He was captured at Thompson’s Station, TN in March of 1863. Shafter became colonel of the 17^th USCT on April 19, 1864, and received a brevet to brigadier general, March 13, 1865 for war service. He mustered out November 2, 1866, but was appointed lt. col. of the 41^st US Infantry, July 28, 1866, colonel of 1^st US Infantry, March 4, 1879, brig. gen. May 3, 1897, and maj. gen. of volunteers, May 4, 1898. He as dubbed “Pecos Bill” while commanding the V Corps during the Spanish American War. He was awarded the MEDAL OF HONOR June 12, 1895 for his actions at Fair Oaks, VA on May 31, 1862. After a long and distinguished service Shafter was retired as a major general of volunteers July 1, 1901.

Job Aldrich, the owner of a hardware store at Galesburg, MI, enrolled as a 1^st lieutenant and adjutant in his brother-in-law’s regiment, the 17^th USCT, on Dec. 21^st 1863 at the age of 35. In October 1864, Job was appointed to a vacancy in Co. G as captain. He was killed instantly by gunfire on Dec. 15, 1865 at the Battle of Nashville. He and his wife, Ann Eliza Shafter Aldrich, (married to Job November 5, 1856, remarried to William Decker, July 1867) had three children: James H. (Dec. 3, 1858); Hugh S. (May 30, 1861); and Willard S. (June 27, 1863).