1864 – Small Collection of Civil War Correspondence related to a Michigan family including a scarce Vinegar Valentine

Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, 1864. Unbound. Very good. This grouping is related to five siblings of the Knowles family who lived in and around the towns of Wayland and Bradley in Allegan County, Michigan: David, Jonathan, Mary, Anna, and John. David and Jonathan both enlisted in the 19th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. The sisters and John remained at home.

1 Apr 1861, Camp Utley, Wisconsin. In this four-page letter, Jonathan, writes his family soon after he and David arrived in camp. Enclosed in a patriotic 13th Michigan Volunteer Infantry mailing envelope; stamp removed and indistinct 22 April postmark. The letter is (truncated) on patriotic stationery with an illustration of a squad of men distracted by a nearby young woman lifting her skirt as she crosses uneven ground.

“We are on the Shore of lake mich . . . and the waves rolls as high as a meeting house. . .. we got to Kalamazoo about 10 oclock that night and stayed there till 3 and then took the cars and come to Chicoja about ten in the morning. . .. We have jot a barraks 150 feet long and about 30 foot wide and there is over 100 hundred in our barricks of milwaki men. . .. I must tell how many in Camp there is over 70050 and some in the guard house us boys had some fun last night an irishman got out of the guard house and we run him about a mile and a half before . . . we found him at his Uncles and as soon as we went in he says dam you keep your fingers of from me or else I will shoot you deader then the Devil so we let him alone about five minutes and he asked the old woman for a pitcher of milk and he got it and drinked and treeted us and jot up and come back with us. John we drill about 2 hours a day and then we can do what we please the rest of the day I have saw more since I left mich than ever I seen there . . . we see the cars everyday and I have see three ships on lake mich this is a awful big place there is more stone houses then you could count in a week . . ..”

2 Jun 1864, Hampton Hospital, Virginia, Ward 16. No mailing envelope. In this four-page letter, David, who had just been transferred to the Veterans Reserve or Invalid Corps writes his brother, John, informing him that

“I am well at presant – all excepting I have a very hard head ache. . .. there was not one out of my company that got hurt they was Some out of the Regiment that got wounded but not very bad there was two com from my company here two or three days ago and they said that the boys was all in good health they said that Jonathan was as tough as a pine naught . . . he said that Lint. John Wright took fifteen men and went to guard the 18th Army Corps hospital and Jonathan went with him. . ..” The letter is enclosed in its mailing envelope, franked with a ubiquitous 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #65), and postmarked at Old Point Comfort, Virginia.

"David had become ill during the 19th Wisconsin’s participation in the Petersburg Campaign and been transferred into the “Veterans Reserve or Invalid Corps,” a unit specifically created for soldiers who had become unfit for combat but could still serve in a garrison capacity as cooks, orderlies, nurses, or guards."

While Jonathan may have been tough as a pine knot, he was captured the following October during the union army’s last catastrophic attempt to capture Richmond at the Battle of Fair Oaks and died in a Confederate prison.

3. 18 Sep 1864, Hampton Hospital, Virginia. David writes,

“I will be at home next spring and then we will have a good time together. Once more I hope you folks will keep well and have good times this winter after the boys goes away for the wars and I hope the boys will have a good time of Soldiering I know just how soldiering is so I will give John a good advise he must let drinking alone and all so gambling and try hard to keep on the right side of the officers and he will get-along all right - that is the way to do things right. . ..” No mailing envelope.

There is no record of John ever enlisting.

4. 3 Feb [undated, but likely 1865], no location identified. A letter to the sisters from their Aunt Mary, apparently living back east, grilling them about their faith, chastising them for not writing, and demanding to know about David and Jonathan. No mailing envelope.

“We have had a protracted meeting here for nearly three weeks. There was a good many joined. . .. I want to know who of your folks belong to Christ. . .. I want to know Where the Boys are and how they are getting along. I want them to write to me. I would like to know if any of you ever intend to come in to see us. I don’t think there is anything to hinder John from coming. I want to know what kind of times you have out there. . .."

5. 8 Feb [undated, but likely 1865. An anonymous Vinegar Valentine sent to Mary, perhaps by David. Enclosed in its mailing envelope, franked with a 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #65), and postmarked at New Brighton, [probably Minnesota]. Although David’s war records are sparce, elements of the Veteran Reserve Corps did deploy to Minnesota where they were stationed at Fort Snelling which was just over 10 miles from New Brighton.

The valentine, published by N.Y the New York Union Valentine Company, features a colorful illustration of a wobbly old spinster attempting to ice skate. The poem reads

“When ancient damsels take to ice, / The fire of youth no longer shines, / And they should quit this poor device / For catching cold and Valentines.” . A nice grouping of Civil War family correspondence. Online philatelic records indicate that part of this grouping was previously included in a large auction lot where it was poorly researched and erroneously attributed to a Connecticut hospital orderly who was mistakenly identified as a doctor. . (Inventory #: 010334)