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Hussey-Wadsworth family papers, 1830-1945

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Summary

Creator:
Hussey family and Wadsworth family
Abstract:
The Hussey-Wadsworth papers document the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars.
Extent:
255 items (1.25 linear feet)
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Rob S. Cox, 1997

Background

Scope and Content:

The Hussey-Wadsworth papers fall into two main categories, documenting the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars. While military involvement forms the core of the collection, there is also interesting material relating to the social and educational lives of upper class New Yorkers, business affairs, and of particular note, the Reconstruction period in Georgia. The collection centers around three main figures: George Tuttle Hussey, his son, George Alexander Hussey, and Andrew S. Wadsworth.

Highly educated and a gifted writer, George Alexander Hussey's letters are uniformly interesting and enjoyable. One of the most remarkable of his letters is a 61 page description of his tour through Bavaria and Switzerland, written in November, 1860. With room to spare, Hussey lavished attention on the sites in Munich, Zürich, and Dachsen, where he marveled at the waterfalls, and he was captivated by everything from the sublime mountains to a cheese maker's simple house, the Freiburg Bridge, and European power politics. Hussey's appreciation of the landscape, architecture and high culture, however, did not extend to the "ignorant" masses whom he observed groveling in prayer to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Shortly after returning from Europe, Hussey became a Union soldier and began relating his experiences to his father. A common complaint in his correspondence was his desire for a commission. Believing that influence and money purchased rank, Hussey told his father that both were necessary if he wished to become a first lieutenant and then a captain, and when his father did not respond with the alacrity which Hussey felt due, he scolded him. The delay, he insisted, had cost him one hundred dollars (67). Ambitious, young Hussey did finally achieve the rank of captain. He was discharged in November, 1863, reenlisted the following May, and again, almost immediately began his pursuit of a commission, this time, though, through the help of his friends rather than his father (81).

Tensions between George Alexander Hussey and his father extended deeper than the simple matter of assistance in obtaining a commission. The animosity may have stemmed from the length of time it took the younger Hussey to repay a debt he had incurred during his European tour. In December 1860, George IV borrowed forty dollars from K. Grossgebauer, a resident of Gotha, Germany (47, 53). George III apparently accused his son of lying about the debt, and in response, George IV complained that his father treated him like a child (53). By May, 1864, Private Hussey had paid off the debt, but the ill feelings continued to grow (80). As a result, he began directing his letters to his mother and sister.

George Alexander's letters also reflect some of the problems facing Union officers. In June, 1862, he wrote that ten officers of the 83rd Regiment had resigned in two months and that many more would have done the same had their resignations been accepted. Apparently, the officers did not get along well with the regiment's colonel, who was said to be "a perfect idol of gold and silver" (37). In March, 1863, eight more officers tendered their resignations, followed by seven more in June. This tumult in the officers' ranks was matched by ill discipline, and arrests were not uncommon. In July, 1863, for example, eight officers were under arrest, and in July, 1865, after some "unknown" soldiers "played a Yankee trick" on a general at Morris Island, the entire 165th Regiment was disarmed and sent as prisoners to Fort Sumter. Even the officers were placed under arrest, though according to Hussey, they had done nothing wrong (121).

Although the 165th Regiment was said to have a good reputation, in Hussey's opinion, it was a poor organization. While traveling on the Victor, the soldiers threw food valued at $1,000 overboard, some men were known thieves while in the service, and more than one hundred of the regiment's soldiers served time in correctional institutions, with about the same number listed as deserters (85). While at Hart's Island, two soldiers even tried to escape in a general's boat (80).

In addition to a fine description of the activities of the 165th Regiment, the Hussey-Wadsworth Papers includes a number of references to white opinions of African American civilians and soldiers and the general rise in racial tensions during early Reconstruction. In June, 1865, for example, Hussey reported that Black civilians were in control of the South Carolina rice plantations and he was impressed with their industriousness. Nevertheless, Black and white soldiers were involved in a number of altercations in Charleston, including one particularly violent incident in which African Americans were accused of using brickbats on the whites (121). Some white soldiers who refused to mount guard with Black soldiers were imprisoned at Fort Pulaski (121).

When not fighting or quarreling with each other, the Union soldiers spent some of their time battling Confederates. Hussey's letters include accounts of several skirmishes, most notably of the Siege of Suffolk in May, 1863, which left forty Union privates and four officers wounded, including Hussey (61). Among Hussey's other duties was escorting Confederate prisoners to camps and forts. In September, 1864, he accompanied 150 prisoners to Camp Chase, Ohio. Along the way, Confederate sympathizers tried to give the prisoners money, food, and clothing (92), and given the strength of this sentiment, it is not surprising that a month later, when leading 200 Confederate officers to Fort Delaware, Hussey wrote that they were all "secessionists to the backbone" (93).

During the presidential election in 1864, Hussey appears to have been in the minority of his regiment in supporting Lincoln. Four-fifths of the 165th Regiment, he wrote, favored McClellan (94), though all of the soldiers of the 165th mourned the president's death (112).

Andrew S. Wadsworth's letters also provide valuable documentation of military experience, focused on the period of the American intervention in the Philippines. His letters provide several accounts of skirmishes with Filipino insurgents, including a vivid description of the skirmish in which he was wounded and a quartermaster sergeant was killed. The letters are equally important in documenting an average soldier's attitudes toward the enemy in one of America's first imperial wars. Wadsworth had few kind words for the insurgents, whom he frequently referred to by racial epithets, and commented not only on their primitive weapons -- mostly bows, arrows and shields, but also on their tactics. By Wadsworth's reckoning, the insurgents battled American soldiers two or three times a week, and were known to jump out of trees in ambush (173).

In other letters, Wadsworth turned his eye to the battered Spanish gunboats in Manila Bay (158), the American victory at Manila (160), Filipino civilians (158, 159, 160), and Chinese laborers engaged in the novelty trade (160, 161), and whom the Filipinos hated (161). Referring to Manila, Andrew wrote that it was "behind the times," but that it had the finest electric lighting he had ever seen. He asserted, however, that the Filipinos were not concerned with cleanliness: people suffering from either smallpox or leprosy walked the streets of Cavite openly, and Filipino civilians removed the clothes of dead Spanish soldiers and resold them. Andrew himself bought a pair of pants and a shirt.

The Hussey-Wadsworth Papers also provide a brief but interesting description of trenches and bombing during the First World War (210), and there is brief commentary on censorship, the German retreat, and the determination of American soldiers (208, 210). One letter refers to the bombing of London during Word War II (232) and to war rationing in both the United States and Great Britain (231, 232).

According to Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, George Tuttle Hussey sold stamps to collectors and issued bronze pennies. Examples of these stamps and coins, dated 1863, are housed in the Postal History Collection.

Biographical / Historical:

Hussey, George Alexander, 1843-1929

Rank: Private; 1st Lieut. (1862 December 31); Capt. (1863 June 1); Private (1864 May 6)

Regiment: 83rd New York Infantry Regiment. Co. I (9th New York State Militia) (1861-1865) (1861 July 17-1862 December 31)103rd New York Infantry Regiment. Co. I and E (1861-1865) (1862 December 31-1863 November 18)165th New York Infantry Regiment. Co. A (1862-1865) (1864 May 6-1865 September 1)

Service:1861 July 17-1865 September 1

Wadsworth, Andrew S., 1870-1945

Rank: Unknown

Regiment: 1st Nebraska Infantry Regiment (1898-1899)

Service:1898-1899

George Tuttle Hussey was born February 27, 1812, the posthumous son of George Hussey II (d. 1811). When George Hussey's widow, Elisabeth Nichols Hussey, remarried to David Wheeler Tuttle, the step-father's surname was appended to the baby's as a middle name. Despite the resulting differences in names, the baby was routinely identified as "George III" and, in turn, his son George Alexander Hussey (1843-1929), was called "George IV."

In 1836, at the age of twenty-four, George Tuttle Hussey embarked on what would become a thirty-five year career at the Bank of New York in New York City. On the side, he assisting in founding the Bank and Insurance City Post in September, 1854, which changed name four years later to Hussey's Instant Special Message Post. Hussey and his employees presented drafts, notes, and checks at banks for payment or certification, and the firm employed between 25 and 40 messengers, who delivered notes, packages, and bundles to Brooklyn, Jersey City, Yorkville, Harlem, Staten Island, and other places in the metropolitan area. Besides founding the Message Post, Hussey helped establish the Church of Atonement in Brooklyn. He died July 3, 1890, aged 78, and was survived by his wife, Mary Jane Alexander, and two children, Mary Hussey Blair and George Alexander Hussey.

George Alexander Hussey was born December 23, 1843, in either Bergen, N.J., or New York City. As a young member of the economic elite of the city, Hussey took the de rigeur European tour at age seventeen, traveling across Switzerland and Bavaria, brushing up on his German and soaking up the local culture, but he had a rude awakening on returning home: political crisis. In July, 1861, three months after the Civil War began, Hussey enlisted as a private in Company I, 9th New York Militia Regiment (the New York City Guards), which was mustered into the federal service as the 83rd New York Infantry Regiment. During most of 1861, the 83rd Regiment was stationed in the ring of forts surrounding Washington, but late in the fall, they were reassigned to western Maryland and served for a time as the body guard for Gen. N.P. Banks. During the summer, they took part in the Shenandoah Campaign, and returned to the eastern part of the state, arriving to participate in the Bull Run campaign.

During the 2nd Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862, Hussey was wounded in the chest and spent time recuperating in Philadelphia's National Guard Hospital. After recovering, he accepted a commission as first lieutenant in Co. I of the 103rd New York Infantry, formed in part from remnants of the 3rd German Rifles. The 103rd served primarily in southeastern Virginia, and were present at Suffolk during the siege, where on May 3, 1863, Hussey was wounded in action for a second time. Just under a month later, he was promoted to Captain of Co. E, and that November, he was discharged at the expiration of his two years' obligation. He returned to military life one final time, beginning May, 1864, as a member of New York's 165th Regiment, serving through the end of the war and receiving an honorable discharge in September, 1865.

Returning to civilian life, George served as his father's secretary from September, 1865, to October, 1866, leaving that position for a job with the Merchants' Union Express Company. However when that company merged with the American Express Company in March, 1869, George was let go. Four months later, he landed with the Fourth National Bank of New York City, where he held a number of positions. While employed at the bank, he married Carrie Elisabeth St. John on November 25, 1875. Sixteen years later, George resigned as coupon collection clerk. According to a biography of the New York Volunteers of the 103rd Regiment, he later received a job with the Treasury Department. At the time of his death in 1929, he was a resident of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Andrew S. Wadsworth was the son of John Gilbert and Sarah Ashby Wadsworth. Born in New Lebanon, N.Y., on October 2, 1870, he enlisted in the 1st Nebraska Infantry on April 27, 1898, only a few days before Admiral George Dewey moved his fleet into Manila Bay. In July, Wadsworth and the 1st Nebraska Regiment arrived in the Philippines and commenced active campaigning. On April 23, 1899, while fighting Filipino insurgents, he was shot twice in the leg, and spent the next nine months as a convalescent in Manila and San Francisco hospitals.

After returning to the States, Andrew spent much of his time trying to get his military pension increased, which, in 1901, was set at only fifteen dollars per month. It was twenty years before he saw any increase in his pension, which fluctuated wildly in value during the Depression before peaking in 1944, at a rate of sixty dollars per month. In the following year, approximately forty-six years after being wounded, he was awarded the Purple Heart.

The Husseys are related to Andrew Wadsworth only through George T. Hussey's great-grandson, George William DeBell, who married Wadsworth's niece, Jean Wadsworth Hasbrouck.

Acquisition Information:
1986. M-2264.3 .
Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Hussey-Wadsworth Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

Hussey-Wadsworth family papers, 1830-1945
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Total components 14
Last indexed 2023-08-09