Copies of Union Soldier's Letters Home to His Family
"Mother I wish I was out of this place . . . " Letters from a dying Civil War Soldier
For every soldier who died in battle during the Civil State of war, another two died of affliction. Improper sanitation and hygiene practices amplified the spread of sickness, especially within crowded armed forces camps. One of the virtually prevailing ailments to befall blue and grey-clad troops was typhoid fever, an intestinal infection caused from the consumption of contaminated food or h2o or through close contact with someone already infected.[1] The Union Army diagnosed 79,462 cases of typhoid fever during the war, 29,336 of which proved fatal.[two] Among those claimed was Joseph Beall Welsh – my ancestor.
Unmarried and without children, Welsh's enduring legacy is found within twenty-two wartime messages penned to his family, subsequently preserved for seven generations.
Born in 1847 in Knox Canton, Ohio, Welsh led an adventurous and rebellious life. In September 1862, ii months after his fifteenth birthday, he joined over 15,000 Ohio militiamen (nicknamed "the Squirrel Hunters") to defend the Buckeye State from a feared Confederate invasion near Cincinnati. On March 29, 1864, three months shy of his seventeenth birthday, Welsh mustered into Company A of the Xc Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) at the rank of Private.[three] Surviving wartime records cite his age equally eighteen, a fib on Welsh's part in hopes of not being turned away from military service for existence underage.
Traveling by riverboat from Cincinnati, Welsh joined the other soldiers in the Ninety Sixth OVI in northwestern Louisiana well-nigh the confluence of the Carmine and Atchafalaya Rivers. Formed in Delaware, Ohio in Baronial 1862, this regiment had already fought throughout many battles along the Mississippi River, most notably in the Vicksburg Campaign. By the fourth dimension of Welsh's inflow, his regiment was engaged with Confederate forces in Louisiana's sweltering and desolate backcountry.
"It is warm enough here to cook an egg in the sand and boil water sitting out in the dominicus," Welsh noted to his begetter.[4] "We were and so far on the frontier of Southern civilization," recalled a fellow Ninety Sixth OVI soldier, "that scarcely a trace of fifty-fifty the rudest efforts at agriculture or enterprise, in any form, were to exist seen for many miles."[5] Known as the Cerise River Entrada, this ill-fated Federal offensive ultimately redirected Welsh and his Buckeyes back to the banks of the Mississippi River.
Initially encamped near Morganza Bend, the Xc Sixth OVI side by side moved to the outskirts of Billy Rouge. "Here we were for a little fourth dimension, 'freed from war's alarms,' the duties being very light," recalled one of the soldiers..[half-dozen] "We have a trip the light fantastic hither near every night," Welsh described to his father.[7] Despite the respite from heavy combat, these Ohioans were still engaged in picket duty and the occasional skirmish. "I am willing to fight the Rebs as long as they desire to fight," Welsh boasted to his brother while arguing "we put this war downward past voting."[8]
Welsh repeatedly chronicled unsanitary scenes in his messages habitation. "You lot ought to encounter the Mississippi River," he penned to his sister. "How would you like to drinkable that water where you could see iii men floating downwardly at once…"[9] Welsh recounted to his mother the grisly discovery of homo remains in their camp, once the site of an 1862 battle. "When we was fixing up our shade one of the boys of Co[mpany] D was diging [sic] a pigsty…He dug downward about one foot and dug on to a human being. They thought he was a amalgamated soldier…A homo'due south life is not thought much of downwardly here."[10] In another letter home, Welsh described dead Matrimony soldiers brought to the bank of the Mississippi River. "I seen 8 or 9 men laying out with these blankets over them. I wish this war was to an end for I practise non similar it to see and so many sick lying their [sic] and so many losing their wellness."[11]
The mixing of regional and socioeconomic backgrounds within these military camps aided the spread of sickness, every bit each human being had a differing degree of immunity and exposure to certain illnesses.[12] In an effort to constitute some primitive cleanliness measures, the Union Army instructed soldiers to boil water before use, establish their camps on high ground to allow for proper drainage, and care for their latrines a minimum of three times a day.[13] The degree to which such orders were followed is another thing.
Moreover, the option, training, and consumption of untainted foods were undoubtedly compromised among hungry soldiers with meager rations. "You would not believe till you was hither how information technology is when a person is hungry," Welsh wrote to his mother. "I am very cautious of what I eat…I am glad I am hearty if I would happen to go down sick."[fourteen]
On July 20, 1864, after weeks of noncombat duty in Baton Rouge, the Ninety Sixth OVI boarded the steamer Starlight and traveled south.[15] Bound for Algiers in New Orleans, the Ohioans prepared for the upcoming maritime and amphibious assaults in nearby Mobile Bay. Upon arrival to Algiers, nevertheless, Welsh was admitted into Ward Eastward of the Clemency Hospital, affiliated with the Medical College of the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). "I am sorry to tell you that I am sick," he wrote to his parents.[sixteen] Welsh had contracted typhoid fever.
Unfortunately, in 1864, at that place existed no treatment for typhoid fever. As historian Shauna Devine detailed, "Though physicians had made some strides in their investigations into typhoid fever earlier the war…a preventative vaccine and diagnostic exam for typhoid fever would not be developed until the plow of the century."[17] Patients experienced diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, respiratory distress, fever, and the evolution of pare lesions (frequently dubbed "rose spots").
Plagued by this affliction, hospitalized, and faced with the very existent possibility of death, Welsh's writings turned despondent. "I am sorry that I acted and then bad when I was at home," he wrote to his parents. "A boy to take the dwelling house that I had and get away and leave it the way that I did should be ashamed of himself…if I am blessed with the luck to go back to my love habitation I shal [sic] stay their [sic] the balance of my days. I would give all I have if I could go out of the army…"[18]
Throughout his stay at Charity Hospital, Welsh scribed several messages to his parents, each offering glimpses of his state of health:
- August 1, 1864: "…I am nigh the same…Mother I do not like to be where there is then many sick. I can walk downward stairs to my ward merely I am weak. I wish I was out of this."[19]
- August 8, 1864: "…I take been improving slowly. This is an awful bad place that I accept got myself into, but then I ought to have no reflections to brand for I brought myself hither…"[twenty]
- August 18, 1864: "I have not got stout even so. I volition not be able for duty for some time yet…"[21]
- August 22, 1864: "I had got almost well and took down with the fever…I am afraid that I volition not go able for the service if I stay here."[22]
Former after August 22, 1864, Welsh departed New Orleans. Presumably, he obtained furlough leave which afforded him the opportunity to return to Ohio past means of steamship travel up the Mississippi River. Boarding the sidewheel paddle steamer John H. Groesbeck in New Orleans, Welsh began his journey home; sadly, he did not survive. On September 22, 1864, Welsh died from typhoid fever near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers outside Cairo, Illinois.[23]
Gone just six months into his soldiering life and a little over two months after his seventeenth birthday, Welsh is but one case of the tragic and costly nature of the war of the rebellion.
About the Author
Kyle Nappi is the great-peachy-slap-up-grandnephew of Joseph Beall Welsh. An alumnus of The Ohio State University, Kyle serves as a national security policy specialist in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. He is as well an independent researcher and author of armed forces history (chiefly the Globe Wars), having interviewed 4,500 elder military combatants beyond well-nigh 2-dozen countries.
Endnotes
[ane] "Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals – Typhoid", Globe Health Organization, https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/diseases/typhoid, accessed June 29, 2021.
[2] "Typhoid and the Paratyphoid Fevers", Office of Medical History, U.S. Army Medical Department, https://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/communicablediseases/chapter1.html, accessed July one, 2021.
[three] Roster Committee, Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the State of war of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Volume vii, (Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Press, 1888), 287.
[4] Joseph Welsh, Letter to father, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June six, 1864.
[v] J. T. Woods, Services of the Ninety-Sixth Ohio Volunteers, (Toledo: Blade Press and Paper Co., 1874), 53.
[6] Ibid, eighty.
[7] Welsh, Alphabetic character from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June 16, 1864.
[8] Ibid, July viii, 1864.
[9] Ibid, June xviii, 1864.
[10] Ibid, June 23, 1864.
[11] Ibid, June 16, 1864.
[12] Michael Mahr, "Typhoid Fever – Ane of the Civil War'due south Deadliest Diseases", National Museum of Civil War Medicine, July 1, 2021, https://www.civilwarmed.org/typhoid-fever/.
[xiii] Richard Adler, Elise Mara, Typhoid Fever: A History, (Jefferson, McFarland & Visitor, 2016), 180.
[14] Welsh, Letter from Billy Rouge, Louisiana, June 21, 1864.
[15] Services of the 90-6th Ohio, 81.
[xvi] Welsh, Alphabetic character from University Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, July 29, 1864.
[17] Shauna Devine, "Typhoid Fever and the American Civil State of war", Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), January 30, 2017, http://world wide web.pbs.org/mercy-street/blogs/mercy-street-revealed/typhoid-fever-and-the-american-ceremonious-war/.
[xviii] Welsh, Letter from Algiers, Louisiana, July 28, 1864.
[19] Welsh, Letter from University Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, August one, 1864.
[20] Ibid, August viii, 1864.
[21] Ibid, Baronial eighteen, 1864.
[22] Ibid, August 22, 1864.
[23] Official Roster, 287.
Tags: Ceremonious War Medicine, Ceremonious State of war soldiers, disease, Soldier letters, Typhoid Fever Posted in: DiseaseSource: https://www.civilwarmed.org/mother-i-wish-i-was-out-of-this-place-letters-from-a-dying-civil-war-soldier/
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