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

This collection contains around 150 incoming letters that Miriam Kline of New York City received from men serving in the United States Armed Forces throughout World War II. They described their experiences and exercises at army training camps and other military bases within the United States.

This collection contains around 150 incoming letters that Miriam Kline of New York City received from men serving in the United States Armed Forces throughout World War II. They described their experiences and exercises at army training camps and other military bases within the United States. She also wrote 2 letters and sent 2 Christmas cards to soldiers.

Sergeant Walter C. Jessel and Private David W. Hoefer wrote most of the earlier letters between July 1941 and June 1942. Jessel, a friend, shared his experiences in the army both before and shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks, and Hoefer often wrote Miriam about his life in the army and about his affection for her, though he wrote less frequently after she declined his romantic advances in mid-June 1942. Throughout the war, Kline continued to receive letters from Jessel, Hoefer, and 14 other servicemen, primarily from bases in the United States. They described many aspects of everyday life in the army, army air forces, and coast guard.

Enclosures include 3 photographs of Walter C. Jessel in uniform, newspaper clippings, and humorous cartoons. Jessel drew a picture of his transport train in his letter postmarked October 13, 1941. Later items include letters that Miriam wrote to Jessel and to Lieutenant R. H. Davis in 1945, as well as Christmas cards she sent to Davis and to Allan Isakson.

As a soldier in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War, Charles Maxim wrote to his family about his and his fellow soldiers' political beliefs, the morale and motivations of soldiers, and opinions on the performance of African American troops.

The Charles Maxim papers shed light on the attitudes of a Union soldier in the trenches during the last year of the war and the earliest period of Reconstruction in the South. An outstanding reporter of political views -- both his and his fellow soldiers' -- Maxim is at his best in discussing the morale and motivations of soldiers and the formal and informal politics during the election years of 1864 and 1868. Not inclined to extremes in his politics, he plied a middle road between the abolitionists and racial equality persons on one side and the much-despised copperheads on the other, yet never foregoing his strong Unionist principles. Even the postwar letters continue the thread of opposition to Democratic copperheadism.

Few letters in the Maxim papers contain discussions of military activities in the limited sense, though two letters include interesting discussions of the Battle of the Crater and what Maxim perceived as the failure of African-American soldiers under fire. More generally, several other letters, however, include discussions of generalship, morale, and soldiery, and the palpable increase in his resolve as the war winds down in the late spring, 1865, makes an interesting case study.

Finally, two letters from Maxim's friend and fellow veteran, J.C. Bolles, are worth special mention. In the first (July 17, 1869) Bolles describes his new homestead in Ottawa County, Kans., and the absurd fear on the parts of whites of Indian attack. The second letter (1870 June 1) includes an emotional reflection upon their service during the war, sparked by a Memorial Day celebration by members of the Grand Army of Republic.

In February, 1864, Andrew S. Parsons left his farm to become a recruit in a veteran regiment, the 33rd Wisconsin Infantry for the duration of the Civil War. His letters to his wife Louisa give detailed accounts of battles and campaigns, and provide glimpses into his home life and relationships with his wife and children.

The Andrew S. Parsons papers document the life of a recruit added to the rolls of a veteran regiment of the western theatre. The 47 letters written by Andrew Parsons to his wife, Louisa, comprise the bulk of the collection, along with two letters to his children and one to a temperance society of which he was a member. In addition, there are two letters from Parsons' nephew Charles Spencer to Louisa Parsons, and one letter from a friend named Laura to Andrew Parsons. Well written and eventful, Andrew Parsons' letters have many strong points. Among the letters are detailed accounts of skirmishes in northern Mississippi, the battles of Blair's Landing, Franklin and Nashville, and Spanish Fort, as well as the Red River, Tupelo, Missouri, Franklin and Nashville and Mobile Campaigns.

Equally interesting are the glimpses that emerge through Parsons' letters of his home life and his relationships with his wife and children. His letters are laced with a fine sense of humor, and convey a sense of concern for the well being of his home and family. The occasional hint of jealousy that peers subtlely through some letters is leavened by his advice to Louisa on managing the farm, caring for the children, and seeing to the family finances. He seemingly accepts the trying circumstances of a wartime separation, and tries to make the best of the situation, all the while eager to return home.

Virtually all of Henry Pippitt's surviving Civil War correspondence consists of letters addressed to his mother, Rebecca, documenting two intertwining themes: the Petersburg Campaign from start to finish, and Pippitt's personal campaign to keep himself and his family in good order.Pippitt's letters offer commentary on the last year of the war as seen through the eyes of a young working class man, grown up far beyond his years.

Virtually all of Henry Pippitt's surviving Civil War correspondence consists of letters addressed to his mother, Rebecca, documenting two intertwining themes: the Petersburg Campaign from start to finish, and Pippitt's personal campaign to keep himself and his family in good order. Well written, if not particularly polished, Pippitt's letters offer fine commentary on the last year of the war as seen through the eyes of a young working class man, grown up far beyond his years.

Pippitt's personal struggles weave throughout the collection, surfacing at numerous points, and his various ways of dealing with his ragged home life are reflective both of the depth of his difficulties and his resourcefulness. He alternately castigates, cajoles, threatens or ignores his dead beat father, does his best to assuage his mother's depression over losing her son to the army, and her jealousy of the woman he courts, and he does his best to deal with or explain away his financial problems and his own lapses into drink. Throughout all of his experiences, military and personal, Pippitt matures physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Of particular interest is the letter of September 4, 1864, in which Pippitt describes why he is (again) out of cash. After sketching a somewhat fantastic tale of heavy rains, floods, and an entire camp swept away in the deluge, he swears that the story is the truth and not a lie. This and other letters illustrate an interesting dichotomy in Pippitt's character. Having grown up in a lower-class family, he is constantly aware of the shortage of money, both in camp and at home, but despite his frequent promises to send home sizable sums, he manages to fritter away most of his pay and at times, dips liberally into the already slender family purse to supply himself with what he calls "necessaries."

In more narrowly military terms, the collection contains several brief, but powerful letters describing the hard life in the Petersburg trenches, skirmishes, and the battles of Petersburg, the Crater, and Cold Harbor. A curious side note is Pippitt's tale of the Confederate defenders of Petersburg under-mining Union forts facing the city following the Crater disaster. The series of letters written from Point of Rocks and Chafin's Farm illustrate not only the constricting stagnation of the siege effort during the winter of 1864-65, but the gradually deteriorating morale of the Confederate forces, seen in a flood tide of deserters.

Finally, Pippitt's use of language is often as interesting as what he says. His use of phrases such as "dead beat" (24:45), "helter skelter" (24:66), "if he don't like it, he can lump it" (24:37), or "let [the landlord] know that you haint a going to be shit on by him" (24:38) seem thoroughly up to date, and are an excellent record of urban, working-class patterns of speech.

The Francis Brown papers describe Brown's experience as a cook for the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery Regiment stationed outside of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.

The Francis Brown papers consist of twenty-six letters, twenty-three of which were written by Brown to his wife and son while in the service of the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery in the defenses of Washington. Brown describes his duties as cook, the menu for the troops, and his methods of supplementing the army diet, such as fishing and collecting fifty cents from each man to purchase fruits and vegetables. He also discusses a side line he had developed to earn extra income: selling grease from the cookhouse. In addition to bits of everyday camp life, Brown discusses reforms in system of draft substitution, absentee voting by soldiers, and the problems caused by drunkenness and prostitutes. In writing to Frank, Brown urges him to help his mother and to practice his writing so that he can write to his father.

The collection also contains one letter from Mary to Brown and two from Jonathon Sleeper to Brown. Nearly every letter is accompanied by an envelope pre-printed with Mary's name and address, an oddity for a private soldier.

Albert Martin, a Canadian citizen, enlisted in the 16th New York Cavalry at the age of 18. His letters home during the Civil War describe skirmishes with Mosby's Rangers and the frequent desertions from his regiment, as well as his stay in Belle Island Prison.

Albert Martin's letters provide an interesting point of view on the Civil War. The anguish expressed in the first three of his letters is particularly moving, as he attempted to come to grips with the feeling that he had abandoned his mother and to console her and let her know that he intended to behave as a moral man. While in the service, Martin provides two very good, though brief, descriptions of scrapes with Mosby's Rangers, and his reactions to the desertions in his regiment and his thoughts on the war are of interest because they represent the views of a Canadian citizen, rather than a native New Yorker. Finally, the single letter written from Belle Isle stands in stark contrast to the miserable impressions of the prison found in other Union soldiers' letters: "I cant complain of the useage for we get used vary well here all is a fellow cant run about as much is if he was in his own Lines" (1863 November 6).

Elliot and Henry Bush, brothers who served in the 95th Illinois Infantry, wrote several letters home regarding the operations of the regiment in Mississippi and Tennessee.

The six Bush letters in the collection represent a small part of their correspondence to relatives at home, relating to the operations of the 95th Illinois in Mississippi and Tennessee. Both brothers are exceptionally well written and reflective, and there must originally have been a far greater number of letters. Each of Elliot Bush's four letters, in particular, is a gem, from his first, in which he writes about tough conditions on the march in Mississippi, about parrying with Van Dorn's cavalry near Holly Springs, and the desire of soldiers in his company for destroying and pillaging rebel property and his duty, as an officer, to prevent them; to his last, in which he describes the effect of Union occupation on the women and men of Natchez, Miss.

Perhaps the best letter in this small collection is the one in which Elliot describes the fortifications at Vicksburg, the thoughts that run through his mind during battle, conditions inside the town, and an armistice during which Confederate and Union soldiers mingled, sharing canteens and locating relatives and neighbours in the opposing army.

Charles M. Barnett's Civil War journal documents important events in southeastern Tennessee between August and October, 1863, including the Tullahoma Campaign, the retreat from Chickamauga, and parts of the Chattanooga Campaign.

Charles M. Barnett's journal is contained in a single volume, beginning May 1, 1863. The entries for 1864 are written in the front part of the same volume, with corrections as to day and date noted occasionally. The journal contains particularly useful information on the signal events in southeastern Tennessee between August and October, 1863, including the Tullahoma Campaign, the retreat from Chickamauga, and parts of the Chattanooga Campaign, including the opening of the Cracker Line and the Wauhatchie Night Attack.

E. C. Tillotson enlisted in the 14th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War, but was unable to serve on active duty because of frequent ill health. Among his papers are 29 letters to his daughter Mary and one each to his wife Angeline and son Charles, which describe the fate of Union dead at Chickamauga, the fortifications at Chattanooga, and other topics. His diary covers a one month period during the summer of 1863 and includes a description of the engagement at Hoover's Gap, Tennessee in June. A series of documents collected during his service include ordnance stores reports and surgeons' evaluations of Tillotson. The collection is completed by letters concerning Tillotson's death and the dispute between Angeline and Mary over his estate.

The Tillotson papers appear to be only a portion of his war-time correspondence, with only one letter present prior to 1863. Among the 80 letters, 29 were written by Lt. Tillotson to his daughter, Mary, and one each to his wife and son. The collection includes three letters from Benjamin St. James Fry and two from Lt. Van Meter concerning Tillotson's death and the dispute between Angeline and Mary over his estate. Finally, there are a series of documents collected by Tillotson during his service, including ordnance stores reports and seven surgeons' evaluations of Tillotson as unfit for duty.

As might be expected from a man so often removed from action, the collection is slight on military news. The diary, which covers only a one month period during the summer of 1863, includes a good description of the engagement at Hoover's Gap, Tenn., in June, 1863. Two letters mention the fortifications at Chattanooga, and one interesting letter discusses three soldiers in the 111th Pennsylvania Regiment and two servants, who froze to death while being transported by rail to Bridgeport, Ala. The best letter by far, however, is a grisly description of the supposed fate of Union dead at Chickamauga. Tillotson charges that Braxton Bragg refused to allow the Union to reclaim their bodies, and that the Confederate Army dismembered bodies, exposed them for hogs to devour, placed skulls on stumps, and took bones to carve into rings and other souvenirs for Southern ladies. An unusual printed poem "On Picket Guard at Stones River" is also noteworthy. On the home front, one letter mentions a gang of escaped prisoners from Johnson's Island who were terrorizing the neighborhood of Cedar Point.

The Tillotson papers will most likely be of interest as an unusual record of a soldier who spends much of his service sitting at home convalescing. Tillotson's mood swings and occasional dark thoughts during his long battle with "neuralgia" and other complaints, and his equally obvious inability either to serve or to secure a discharge are very interesting. The strained relations in his family are also of considerable interest, particularly after they develop into open hostility between mother and daughter over Tillotson's estate.

Brothers from Marion, Mich., Gus and June Smith both enlisted in the 22nd Michigan Infantry in August, 1862. Their letters depict their first year of service and provide useful descriptions of camp conditions, health, and morale in the regiment. The collection also contains four receipt rolls, returns, and other documents signed by Gus for material issued to his company.

The Smith brothers' collection is a slender, but significant one, documenting the combined Civil War service of two brothers from Marion, Mich. Seven letters are written by Gus, five by June, and one letter was written jointly. Gus' letters tend to be more descriptive, perhaps because he was an officer or because he was more enthusiastic about soldiering, or perhaps because June was so often plagued with ill health.

Their letters from the fall of 1862 through the summer of 1863, all written home to their family, depict their first year of service and provide useful descriptions of camp conditions, health, and morale in the regiment, and contain the expected inquiries about affairs at home. Because they are sporadic correspondents, a detailed sense of their family relations or military experiences does not clearly emerge, but individual letters rise well above the mundane. Perhaps the two most interesting are an undated letter from Gus, probably written in the fall, 1862, describing his tent and living conditions in Kentucky, and his letter from May, 1863, crowing over his promotion to captain. The collection also contains four receipt rolls, returns, and other documents signed by Gus for material issued to his company.