Vermont Civil War letters to be transcribed for public use ~ BLANCHARD, DODGE, ELDRIDGE, WHEELOCK
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Vermont Civil War letters to be transcribed for public use ~ BLANCHARD, DODGE, ELDRIDGE, WHEELOCK
| JanEJordan65 (View posts) | Posted: 21 Jul 2005 12:31AM GMT |
Classification: Military
Surnames: Blanchard, Dodge, Eldridge, Wheelock
Sun, Jul 17, 2005, 10:14am From: Â Â "Porter's Sugarhouse" <sugarhouse@fastmail.fm> To: Â Â VT-HISTORY-L@rootsweb.com
            From Times Argus, Barre, Vermont July 2005
           Â
Vermont Civil War letters to be transcribed for public use
            July 17, 2005
            By Peter Hirschfeld Staff Writer
            A 21-year-old undergraduate student from North Dakota State University will introduce Vermont to some of its forgotten soldiers.
            The warriors - four Vermont men - shed perspective on the American Civil War through their letters home, delivered from battlefields to Barre between 1862 and 1864. Their words and observations inform a discussion that continues to evolve 145 years after it began.
            Until this summer, the 143-year-old letters laid in climate-controlled dormancy at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Studies in New York City. Sara Egge, a visiting scholar at the school, has transcribed the Civil War letters of Nelson Dodge, John Blanchard, Nelson Wheelock and James Eldridge. They were all from Central Vermont (Dodge, Blanchard and Wheelock from Barre; Eldridge from Warren) and their letters, still in good condition, provide firsthand accounts of the war that shaped the course of U.S. history. Egge plans to make the material available to the public.
            "It's an event that resonates in society even today. It's in many ways the reason why things are the way they are," Egge says. "It's probably the most studied topic in American history. And I think the reason is because it was so powerful and made such a huge difference."
            The Gilder Lehrman Institute boasts one of the largest private collections of Civil War documents in the world.
            Each year, undergraduate students from all over the country live at Columbia University in June and July to explore the institute's historical archives.
            The collection, stored in boxes in acid-free folders in a climate-controlled vault, includes other Vermont documents dating from the French and Indian War to the 20th century.
            When Egge completes her term, Vermonters will be able to read about the exploits of four Union soldiers.
            Dodge, the Barre farmhand who joined the Union army, has the most bylines in the 15-letter collection. His letters were addressed to Esther Ann Kinney, a family friend, as far as Egge can ascertain.
            "Dodge is a private who enlisted in April 1862. His first letter was written in spring of 1862 spring," Egge says. "He was under the command of George MacLellan . MacLellan was notorious for getting troops into battle and then not really ever fighting."
            In one letter, Dodge talks about combat in the so-called Seven Days Battle, which began on June 25, 1862.
            "He writes specifically about the last day of battle, the Battle of Malvern. The Union army was on top of a hill, and the Confederate soldiers were sent up to take the hill," Egge explains. "The Union positioned their artillery down the hill and basically it's a slaughter. Confederate soldiers, wave after wave, are killed in massive amounts. He writes about how for the whole night, they can't go down there even though they can hear Confederates crying and yelling for help."
            The following is an excerpt from Dodge's Sept. 23 1862 letter describing the carnage.
            The field was all covered with dead and wounded all that night the wounded cried for help, but we could not help them. the next (day) we advanced. to see the dead field up it was enough to make any one sick. some with out and legs some arms gone some with there brains all shot out there was one with ten ball holes in him.
            Not all the letters are morbid. Dodge writes about day-to-day life as a soldier on the march and even relates the fortunes of "the Barre Boys," who he says "are all enjoying the same blessing I have."
            "It's like they're writing to me and telling me all these things," Egge says. "I start to get their personality, the way they write and talk ... Dodge is a really upbeat guy, actually toward the end of the war in 1864 he gets promoted to sergeant. ... You could see he was a good soldier."
            The pride in Egge's voice becomes tinged with sadness when she talks about Dodge's death at Andersonville.
            "He was captured after the Battle of Spotsylvania," Egge says. "He gets captured and taken to a prison called Andersonville, a very notorious prison. He actually died there."
            Don Wickman, a Civil War historian who just published a book on the 9th Vermont Regiment, says the Vermonters suffered disproportionately during the conflict.
            "Vermont is in the top two states for losses per capita during the Civil War," Wickman says. "Ten percent of the state's population served, and 15 percent of the men who served did not return. They died of disease, in battle, in prison. Now if that doesn't say something about this state's role in that war, I don't know what does."
            Wickman says letters like the ones Egge is transcribing are crucial for historians.
            "The more personal correspondence out there, the better feel you get for the Civil War military experience," Wickman says. "It wasn't all blood and guts, even though that attracts a lot of readers. But most of the time it was not constant fighting. Very often these letters show what camp life what like, how the food was, how you spent your time. It's these types of letters that I think bring it more to life."
            As more letters are unearthed, understanding of the war broadens. Egge will, as part of her project, turn the letters into brochures and pamphlets for display at a museum in Gettysburg. The material will also be distributed to libraries and high schools.
            "When these volumes become public, it allows researchers to access the letters," Wickman says. "With new parts of the Gilder Lehrman collection being publicly available, you'll find researchers and historians go ecstatic for that new material, new perspectives."
            Marjorie Strong, a librarian at the Vermont History Center in Barre, says Civil War letters are among the most popular documents in the organization's collection.
            "We get a lot of use from people looking for their own ancestors. They look at letters and diaries from people in the same unit," Strong says. "There are powerful things when you have a document in your hand that you don't get from a textbook. That's what people are hunting for. Firsthand accounts are much more emotional. You can get a sense of the pain these people were going through."
            Strong says she looks forward to including Egge's letters in Vermont History Center collection.
            "Oooh! He's a Dodge? There are a bunch of Dodge brothers from Barre," Strong says. "What we really want is the words. It's nice to have the original letter, but the words are the important thing."
            Egge, who may focus her work on the community of Barre soldiers fighting in the war, enjoys thinking about the place she'd only recently stopped pronouncing "Bar."
            "Who knows? Maybe there's a descendant of Esther Ann Kinney or John Blanchard living in Barre, Vt., today," Egge says. "Maybe they're somebody's great-grandfather, and that person can read these letters now. Having that tie is so great."
--
posted with permission, Jan Jordan
            From Times Argus, Barre, Vermont July 2005
           Â
Vermont Civil War letters to be transcribed for public use
            July 17, 2005
            By Peter Hirschfeld Staff Writer
            A 21-year-old undergraduate student from North Dakota State University will introduce Vermont to some of its forgotten soldiers.
            The warriors - four Vermont men - shed perspective on the American Civil War through their letters home, delivered from battlefields to Barre between 1862 and 1864. Their words and observations inform a discussion that continues to evolve 145 years after it began.
            Until this summer, the 143-year-old letters laid in climate-controlled dormancy at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Studies in New York City. Sara Egge, a visiting scholar at the school, has transcribed the Civil War letters of Nelson Dodge, John Blanchard, Nelson Wheelock and James Eldridge. They were all from Central Vermont (Dodge, Blanchard and Wheelock from Barre; Eldridge from Warren) and their letters, still in good condition, provide firsthand accounts of the war that shaped the course of U.S. history. Egge plans to make the material available to the public.
            "It's an event that resonates in society even today. It's in many ways the reason why things are the way they are," Egge says. "It's probably the most studied topic in American history. And I think the reason is because it was so powerful and made such a huge difference."
            The Gilder Lehrman Institute boasts one of the largest private collections of Civil War documents in the world.
            Each year, undergraduate students from all over the country live at Columbia University in June and July to explore the institute's historical archives.
            The collection, stored in boxes in acid-free folders in a climate-controlled vault, includes other Vermont documents dating from the French and Indian War to the 20th century.
            When Egge completes her term, Vermonters will be able to read about the exploits of four Union soldiers.
            Dodge, the Barre farmhand who joined the Union army, has the most bylines in the 15-letter collection. His letters were addressed to Esther Ann Kinney, a family friend, as far as Egge can ascertain.
            "Dodge is a private who enlisted in April 1862. His first letter was written in spring of 1862 spring," Egge says. "He was under the command of George MacLellan . MacLellan was notorious for getting troops into battle and then not really ever fighting."
            In one letter, Dodge talks about combat in the so-called Seven Days Battle, which began on June 25, 1862.
            "He writes specifically about the last day of battle, the Battle of Malvern. The Union army was on top of a hill, and the Confederate soldiers were sent up to take the hill," Egge explains. "The Union positioned their artillery down the hill and basically it's a slaughter. Confederate soldiers, wave after wave, are killed in massive amounts. He writes about how for the whole night, they can't go down there even though they can hear Confederates crying and yelling for help."
            The following is an excerpt from Dodge's Sept. 23 1862 letter describing the carnage.
            The field was all covered with dead and wounded all that night the wounded cried for help, but we could not help them. the next (day) we advanced. to see the dead field up it was enough to make any one sick. some with out and legs some arms gone some with there brains all shot out there was one with ten ball holes in him.
            Not all the letters are morbid. Dodge writes about day-to-day life as a soldier on the march and even relates the fortunes of "the Barre Boys," who he says "are all enjoying the same blessing I have."
            "It's like they're writing to me and telling me all these things," Egge says. "I start to get their personality, the way they write and talk ... Dodge is a really upbeat guy, actually toward the end of the war in 1864 he gets promoted to sergeant. ... You could see he was a good soldier."
            The pride in Egge's voice becomes tinged with sadness when she talks about Dodge's death at Andersonville.
            "He was captured after the Battle of Spotsylvania," Egge says. "He gets captured and taken to a prison called Andersonville, a very notorious prison. He actually died there."
            Don Wickman, a Civil War historian who just published a book on the 9th Vermont Regiment, says the Vermonters suffered disproportionately during the conflict.
            "Vermont is in the top two states for losses per capita during the Civil War," Wickman says. "Ten percent of the state's population served, and 15 percent of the men who served did not return. They died of disease, in battle, in prison. Now if that doesn't say something about this state's role in that war, I don't know what does."
            Wickman says letters like the ones Egge is transcribing are crucial for historians.
            "The more personal correspondence out there, the better feel you get for the Civil War military experience," Wickman says. "It wasn't all blood and guts, even though that attracts a lot of readers. But most of the time it was not constant fighting. Very often these letters show what camp life what like, how the food was, how you spent your time. It's these types of letters that I think bring it more to life."
            As more letters are unearthed, understanding of the war broadens. Egge will, as part of her project, turn the letters into brochures and pamphlets for display at a museum in Gettysburg. The material will also be distributed to libraries and high schools.
            "When these volumes become public, it allows researchers to access the letters," Wickman says. "With new parts of the Gilder Lehrman collection being publicly available, you'll find researchers and historians go ecstatic for that new material, new perspectives."
            Marjorie Strong, a librarian at the Vermont History Center in Barre, says Civil War letters are among the most popular documents in the organization's collection.
            "We get a lot of use from people looking for their own ancestors. They look at letters and diaries from people in the same unit," Strong says. "There are powerful things when you have a document in your hand that you don't get from a textbook. That's what people are hunting for. Firsthand accounts are much more emotional. You can get a sense of the pain these people were going through."
            Strong says she looks forward to including Egge's letters in Vermont History Center collection.
            "Oooh! He's a Dodge? There are a bunch of Dodge brothers from Barre," Strong says. "What we really want is the words. It's nice to have the original letter, but the words are the important thing."
            Egge, who may focus her work on the community of Barre soldiers fighting in the war, enjoys thinking about the place she'd only recently stopped pronouncing "Bar."
            "Who knows? Maybe there's a descendant of Esther Ann Kinney or John Blanchard living in Barre, Vt., today," Egge says. "Maybe they're somebody's great-grandfather, and that person can read these letters now. Having that tie is so great."
--
posted with permission, Jan Jordan