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Letter of Private John S. Brown of Company F, 39th NC Infantry (illiterate), written for him by Private Samuel W. Cooper of Company K, 39th NC Infantry, to the family of Sergeant John Wiggins. The letter is sent from Ringold, GA, and while dated the 14th, this is likely a mistake as official records mark that he was wounded on the 19th at Chickamauga. It informs them of his death after being wounded on September 19th, 1863, at Chickamauga, TN. Wiggins was shot in the thigh and brought to a hospital, where he died on September 21st. Sergeant Wiggins’ brother, Joseph, was with him when he died, and had him buried. Brown writes favorably of Sergeant Wiggins, and mentions that he was a good soldier and well-liked in the regiment.
Ringold Ga Sept 14th 1863
Asteemed [Esteemed] friends it is with sorrow that I right [write] at the present from the fact that I have sad news to wright your son & bro is Dead he was shot Saturday in the first charge, he was shot in the Thigh & the ball Broke his thigh & he was caried to the hospital where he remained till Monday he Died a monday Evening & he ast me to wright home & tell you [???] that he was wounded. John’s Bro, Jo. came to him before he Died & he stayed with him untill he died & he had him Buried there was is one consolation to wright that is he was a good soldier & fought & died for the good of his country & all of the Boys in the Regt Like Sargt Wigeons he all ways done his duty & acted like a gentelman & was good to all of the Boys I recking I had better bring this letter to a close so no mor your friend John, Brown,
written by S.W. Cooper
John W. Wiggins, age 19, from Cherokee County, NC, enlisted in Company F, of the 39th NC Infantry, circa February 23, 1862. He is listed as a sergeant as of November 25, 1862, and was wounded at Stones River on December 31, 1862, but returned to duty the next day. He was promoted to 1st Sergeant of Company F on March 1, 1863. He was fatally wounded at Chickamauga on September 19, 1863, and died in the hospital on September 21st. He was twice reported on the Confederate Honor Roll for valiant service, at Stones River and Chickamauga.
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Letter from George Jones to his cousin Helen Sofield, dated November, 1863. Jones is writing to express his condolences to Helen on the death of her husband, Alfred J. Sofield, who was killed in action at the Battle of Gettysburg. He writes about faith, and that God will support her through this difficult time.
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Dear Cousin Nov.
I intended to have written long ere this time, but I have been busy and have neglected it longer than I ought. Indeed, cousin, I can sympathize with you. I felt sorry when I heard of Alfred’s death. We talked of your troubles long before I received your letter. I often think of Willie, James, & Benny. Dear cousin, there is a care exercised over us by Our Heavenly Father that we fail perhaps to realize until we, through affliction or misfortune are brought to turn our minds or thoughts to things beyond this world. We can then trace God’s goodness to us through all
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our past life. Tho we were perhaps unconscious from where or how that care has been exercised over us, still we must acknowledge God’s care through all the past. It is said that all things work together for good to those that love God. Although you have been bereaved of a husband and your parents have long since been taken away, and we may utterly fail to see any Providence in these things, yet we are led more fully to realize the truth that there is a high power where we hope to gather strength, and to more fully trust in God.
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We will pray that God will be a father to your fatherless children, and the widow’s God in bringing you through all your affliction, and providing a way for your comfortable support – here below. We are all well at present. Lyman had the eggy five weeks after they came from the 90 days’ call of the governor. We are sometimes a little too hasty. I scolded Henry & Perry a little this week, and Henry run away and I have not heard of him since. Lee joined a conscription company which cost me $80.00. I earn it you know by hard work, and if I had known it would be lost I would much rather have given it to you. So goes the world. I will be happy to hear from you whenever you can make it convenient to write.
From your affectionate cousin,
George Jones
Alfred J. Sofield was a clerk/justice of the peace in Wellsboro, PA when he enrolled as a Union Army Officer. He served in the Civil War as Captain and commander of Company A of the 149th PA Volunteer Infantry. During the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he was stationed along Chambersburg Pike north of the McPherson Farm. His unit under artillery fire from the Confederate batteries on Herr Ridge, and was struck by a round, which killed him as well as Private Edwin D. Dimmick and Corporal Nathan H. Wilcox.
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Letter written by 1st Lieutenant Lewis Bodine of Company A, 149th PA Infantry “Bucktails,” to Helen Sofield, from a camp near Culpeper, VA. Bodine writes that he has procrastinated too long in writing to Mrs. Sofield. General Ulysses S. Grant is secretive about his plans, so the army is unsure of what will happen next. Bodine inquires about Mrs. Sofield’s planned trip to Gettysburg, as he would like to accompany her. He expresses his condolences on the death of Mrs. Sofield’s husband, Alfred Sofield, who was killed in action at Gettysburg.
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Camp near Culpeper, Va
April 23d 1864
My Dear Friend
I have been allowing myself to procrastinate quite too long, but trust you will forgive me & I will do better hereafter. It is not because I do not love to hear from you, but only another of my lazy habits which I am sorry to say I abound in. We are having some very fine weather. The roads are becoming quite good & the army getting uneasy about what is to be done. But, thanks to General Grant, he does not let his plans become public, so that none of us can ever surmise what is to be done, but all wonder at our being
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permitted to lie here so long, but patiently await the result. Fish still continues to float about Washington & I think will till he emerges into a citizenship [he received a disability discharge 4-24-1864], which he would like if not permitted to splash about the city. He is in reality a band-box ‘soger’ of the first cut, & I think should be carefully laid away in cotton or snugly packed in brand[y] or he will spoil. Col. Stone has sent up a recommend for his discharge, which I hope he will get, & very soon, as none wish to see him back. I had to laugh at the idea of Calkins being made A.A.G. He has quite all he can attend to where he is. You spoke of making a visit to Gettysburg this
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summer or fall. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be privileged to accompany you, & perhaps kind Providence will deem it proper for me to do so. If you put it off till fall, who knows? You speak of your deep sorrows. I wish I could shoulder a part of them, ‘tis best for every heart to know its own bitterness. But dear friend if I can aid you in any way let me ask you to name it & I will gladly do it. Do it not only for your sake, but for one who I learned to love & respect as a dear brother. Let me be a brother to you as I was to him, I will feel that I am honored. I am really
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glad that you have placed confidence in me, & I hope never to betray it by words, deeds, or actions. I know now that you will not distrust me, & hope you will feel free to ask for any aid I may be able to render you. I have thought many times I would offer you assistance in your business, then thought I, she would not thank me for it, but I will now offer to do it & if you think best to accept of it no one shall know from me that you have had it. I suppose you have heard long ere this of Col. Dwight’s exit from the army, & what pleases me more, is that Major Irvin last night
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received his commission as lt. col., & Capt. Glenn as major. You likely have seen the disposition which has been made of the 1st A[rmy] C[orps]. We are now 3d Brig. 4th Div, 5th Corps & wear a red badge instead of a blue. Stone commands brig, & Wadsworth the div, Warren the corps. I cannot think of more to interest you with, so will bid you a kind good night. Love to the boys, & write as soon as you receive this.
Believe, as ever your
sincere
friend
Lew
Alfred J. Sofield was a clerk/justice of the peace in Wellsboro, PA when he enrolled as a Union Army Officer. He served in the Civil War as Captain and commander of Company A of the 149th PA Volunteer Infantry. During the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he was stationed along Chambersburg Pike north of the McPherson Farm. His unit under artillery fire from the Confederate batteries on Herr Ridge, and was struck by a round, which killed him as well as Private Edwin D. Dimmick and Corporal Nathan H. Wilcox.
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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 19th 1864
My Dear Sis,
For the first time since the fight of the 15th 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
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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.
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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, 17th 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
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The good die first, while those whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.
Colonel William Rufus Shafter, enrolled as a 1st lieutenant in the 7th Michigan Infantry on Aug. 22, 1861 and mustered out Aug. 22, 1862. He was appointed major of the 19th 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 17th 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 41st US Infantry, July 28, 1866, colonel of 1st 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 1st lieutenant and adjutant in his brother-in-law’s regiment, the 17th USCT, on Dec. 21st 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).
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Condolence letter from Charles G. Loring to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.
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My Dear Friend,
I cannot forbear [???] of my heartfelt sympathy with you in this time of affliction – Altho we seldom much, – my heart always beats warmly towards you, – & can never be forgetful of your many kind & self sacrificing services in days long gone by.
I had not the pleasure to know Arthur, but I could not doubt what the son of such a mother & such a father must be; & every where hear that he was all you could desire.
You have therefore this font of consolations, in his character & honorable life, – that it will ever be delightful to remember him as your child, – & a cause of gratitude that he was given to you even for the brief period of his life. To this you haved added the hardy [???]
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reflection of his noble & honorable death; – that he fell in defence of the highest and holiest cause in which a young man could die; – and that death at such a cause sacrifices a life however short is of far higher value than a long one, as ordinary [???].
I too, as you know, have a son in the army; & my mind was, as yours, full of anxiety during the battle, with knowing that the telegraph might not, at any moment, announce his fate. But I felt & in the future conflicts in which he may be engaged, shall feel that if he must then lose his, I had rather have my dead son, thus dying nobly in defense of his Country & freedom & law than any living one insensible to his duty.
May God bless & comfot you my Dear Friend until reunited with those you so dearly and most justly loved.
Ever with great affection
your friend Charley Loring
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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Condolence letter from James Oakes to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.
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49 Long Wharf
Boston, December 19, 1862
My dear Mr. Dehon:
I beg that you will not think that I could rudely invade the sanctity of your overwhelming private and domestic sorrow, by addressing you in this, the stormy hour of your life. No, a different motive prompts me to offer you my deepest and most sincere sympathy – the sympathy of my whole heart! in the great bereavement that must so heavily weigh your very soul to the dust!
There is no philosophy for the heart: therefor words of consolation to the ear of one whose bereavement is so intensely crushing as yours, would be but mockery, and tend to divest the mind from the mournful enjoyment of its
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own sad bu absolving reflection, which I believe to be the natural and, therefore, the best solace to a wounded heart: consolation, the, I will not attempt to offer, but again assure you of my inmost sympathy with your soul in its desolation! Having had little else to for for some months than to brood over private calamities, I am keenly [aware?] to the sorrow that is now making furrows in your heart.
There is, my dear Mr. Dehon, a melancholy satisfaction in the knowledge, that your son fell nobly in the discharge of a must sacred duty, which consecrates his name forever among the defenders of the Union of his Country. He died a hero in the truest and broadest sense. His name will illumine a
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prominent page in the history of this unnatural and bloody way, which has widowed and unchilded so many, and carried desolation to so many households, and wrecked thousands of hearts!
Let us not however sorrow like men without hope – but implicitly cherish the consolatory and reasonable trust that we shall meet again hereafter, – that this life is but a wretched segment of the Eternal circle of our Being. Yes, my friend, it is in God’s Justice that those who love one another truly and sincerely here, shall see and know Each other in a brighter, happier sphere; yes, our very longings after immortality, are the imperishable seeds planted in us by the hand of God himself, and
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their fruition will be Everlasting Life!
I am confined to my bed, when the remains of Col. Webster were “laid away” in the dark cold chamber of the pulseless dead, or i should then, have called upon you, and offered to you my heart’s sympathies. He, too, was a brave man, and a gallant soldier. Poor Fletcher! Peace to his ashes, and Eternal renown to his name!
How applicable are the words of the immortal bard to nearly every household, at the present hour, “One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, so fast they follow!”
May God bless and strengthen you, my friend, and all those who are dear to you on Earth, in this hour of your soul’s desolation, is the Earnest desire of the heart of your friend and obt. sevt.
James Oakes
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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Condolence letter from F.L. Papanti to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.
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Boston, Dec 26th, 1862
My Dear Sir
Allow me to express to you my deepest condolence for the loss of your brave and dear son – None but a Father can feel the sorrow of such a loss – Having known him since his boyhood, and from the attachment conceived for him make me feel more
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keenly the sadness of his too early departure.
Please extend my sympathies to Miss Dehon, and Master Henderson.
Very respectfully
Your devoted Friend
and Servant
L. Papanti
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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Condolence letter from Helen Wyman to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.She speaks of Arthur joining his mother in heaven.
My dear Mr. Dehon,
The Cross is laid heavily upon you – my heart weeps for you, but God alone can & will help you to bear it.
You brought me, sympathy & comfort; but in this dark hour, I can only you the former.
His life was short, but beautiful; & you have given him back to his sweet mother, as unsullied as she left him; if you have lost him, she has gained him, & together they wait & watch for you; it will be but a little while, when you can say to them – “All is Well.”
With deepest loving sympathy,
Helen D. Wyman
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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Condolence letter from Seth Gage to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.Gage also inquires how Mr. Dehon would like for some items his son ordered to be disposed of.
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Washington Dec 21 1862
Wm Dehon Esq
My Dear Sir Yours I have received and shall attend to the lost packages and shall hold for disposal to your order. The sad news with the remains of your son the brave Lieut Dehon is no doubt with you. My sympathies are with you in this bereavement for I have also lost a good Friend. The Packages marked to Capt Coxe I shall forward to him in a day or two. I have on hand a pair of pants which I was unable to deliver
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to Lieut Dehon. They were made to his order and I will return them to Dolan the maker for sale or make any other disposition you may think proper. Please advise me how [I] can [dispose] of the packet
Respectfully Yours
Seth Gage
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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Condolence letter from Francis Boyd to William Dehon upon the death of his son Arthur Dehon, who was killed at Fredericksburg.
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My Dear Sir,
Had I been in the city yesterday, I should have attended to the funeral services of your late son Arthur and silently mingle my sympathy with you in your bereavement. – from old military association, I am confidant you will excuse me in writing, even to simply assure you, of a deep and heartfelt sympathy, in the loss of your son, while in the service of his Country; perhaps, I feel it the more keenly, in the fact that my two eldest born, are now absent in like duty & exposed to peril, & it may become my lot to experience the same pains of affliction, under which I now know, you are suffering.
While we cannot see with our own eyes, why our Country
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is thus called upon to pass thro the fiery ordeal of today, or why we should be called upon thus to give of our sons, whom we so cherish, let us have faith, that its not done by an overruling Providence, without end, or object – to accomplish this, the cultivated, well from blood much mingle with that, not so [???] , that sacrifice you have been called upon to make.
Again I assure you of my own & I know of many others sympathy, among our old associations of the military in this city praying for Divine Aid in this your hour of trial, and with sentiments of utmost respect
Remain your friend
Francis Boyd
Dec. 23 62
Arthur Dehon was William Dehon’s son and a 2nd Lieutenant in Webster’s 12 MA Infantry.He was killed in action at Fredericksburg.
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