Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Henry Grimes Marshall papers consist of letters written by Marshall to his family while serving with the Union Army, including time spent as an officer in the 29th Connecticut Infantry Regiment (Colored). Marshall's letters describe the events taking place around him as well as his thoughts about African American regiments, women's roles in war, and his reactions to the war.

Henry Marshall is among those writers whose letters provide insight into the workings of the mind, but also the workings of the heart. As a result, his surviving correspondence ranks among the outstanding collections in the Schoff Civil War Collections, providing a sensitive and deeply introspective view into the experience of a white officer in a "colored" regiment. An exquisite writer, Marshall was also among the most punctual of correspondents, rarely allowing a week to pass without sending something to his family at home. As a result of this fidelity and his meticulous eye for detail, it is possible to reconstruct nearly every day of Marshall's life under arms, the swings in his emotions, and the sudden changes in fortune that marked his career.

The high point of the collection is a remarkable series of letters written while Marshall was captain of Co. E, 29th Connecticut Infantry (Colored). Unlike the vast majority of white Americans, Marshall saw African-Americans as capable soldiers, brave and willing, and though afflicted with an unrelenting paternalism and sense of his own racial superiority, he generally refrained from swinging to the romantic extremes of many white abolitionists or the vicious extremes of his more racist compatriots. Marshall provides good accounts of daily life in camp, the inevitable rumors circulating among the soldiers, and opinions of officers. Of particular value are the ruminations on African American troops and their officers, living conditions while on duty guarding plantations in South Carolina or in the trenches before Petersburg, and the heavy labor while working at construction of the Dutch Gap Canal.

Among the military engagements described by Marshall are Fredericksburg, the sieges of Suffolk and Petersburg (particularly the battles of New Market, Darbytown Road and the Darbytown and New Market Roads), and the capture of Richmond. Furthermore, Marshall was involved in a number of minor skirmishes, many of which are exceptionally well documented. Overall, the best accounts are those for New Market Heights, where African American troops again distinguished themselves, and for a smaller, but significant skirmish during the Petersburg Campaign on October 12 and 13, 1864.

Marshall's letters are made more valuable in that his observational scope extends beyond the military, to report on such things as contraband children's schools (April 30, 1863), "shouts" and religious services (1864 July 5), and the local civilianry. An educated man with a keen interest in botany, he frequently sent home lengthy descriptions of southern flowers, often enclosing samples and seeds, and he left a rare record of the reading material available to a soldier. Marshall was also a keen observer of the religious life in his regiment, writing scathing attacks on his regiment's chaplain, whom Marshall felt was suspect of character.

This collection is a series of letters written by Sidney O. Little during his service as a private in Company B of the 118th Illinois Infantry. Little and his company fought in the Vicksburg Campaign.

In many respects, Sidney Little's correspondence from the Civil War reflects the attitudes and experiences of many soldiers from western states who saw hard service in the Mississippi Valley, but trudged through, and who remained unionists despite a deep antipathy toward the question of slavery. Little's disdain for African Americans, and his lack of concern for their welfare or for the institution of chattel slavery make him -- however unfortunately -- an unremarkable example of a Union soldier, simply because of the commonness of his opinions, but his ability to articulate these opinions and his observational powers truly set him apart.

During the Vicksburg Campaign, in particular, Little's descriptions of the southern countryside and its inhabitants can be outstanding, and many of his letters are larded with little vignettes on the recalcitrance of the southern resistance, the fears of southern women, or the all too brief account of seeing planters scatter when the Yankees come, taking their best slaves, "except the old ones that are not worth anything," and except for the resourceful ones who take flat boats out into the swamp, remaining there until the planters are gone (1863 April 14). This somewhat respectful description of resourceful self-liberation by slaves carried little weight in Little's opinions of African Americans, nor did his keen interest in the strategies that southern women used to cope with the chaos of war time translate into respect for women. His letters include several worthwhile discussions of the conditions under which the citizens of Louisiana and Tennessee, and particularly women.

The Little letters contain interesting accounts of a small number of engagements, all during the Vicksburg Campaign. His description of the rather minor role of the 118th Illinois at Chickasaw Bluffs supplements three excellent accounts of Arkansas Post (reported separately to his brother, sisters, and mother), and some very fine accounts of small maneuvers west of Vicksburg in March and April, 1863. His account of the capture of Vicksburg and the state of the city upon occupation is engrossing, though probably based upon second-hand sources, since he was hospitalized at Milliken's Bend at the time. Finally, Little's letters from June through December, 1863, provide a somewhat sketchy account of his experiences in hospital, highlighted by his personal cure for diarrhea -- pickled pigs' feet.

Typescripts are available for all letters in the collection. From the pagination of these, it is apparent that not all of Little's letters have survived in this collection, but the location of the others is unknown.