Vermonters in the Civil War
Collection Overview
Vermont soldiers in the Civil War wrote an enormous quantity of letters and diaries, of which many thousands have survived in libraries, historical societies, and in private hands. This collection represents a selection of letters and diaries from...
Show moreVermont soldiers in the Civil War wrote an enormous quantity of letters and diaries, of which many thousands have survived in libraries, historical societies, and in private hands. This collection represents a selection of letters and diaries from the University of Vermont and the Vermont Historical Society.
The collection includes materials dating from 1861-1865. Materials were selected for digitization to provide a variety of perspectives on events and issues. The voices represented in the collection include private soldiers and officers, as well as a few civilians. All of the extant Civil War-era letters or diaries of each of the selected individuals (at least, all that are to be found in the participating institutions’ collections) are included; each adds a certain experience and point of view to the whole.
Officers in the photo above are (from left to right): Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Stoughton, Colonel Edwin H. Stoughton, Major Harry N. Worthen. All are from the Fourth Vermont Infantry Regiment.
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Sub-collections
- Daniel S. White Correspondence
- Edward P. Stone Correspondence
- George W. Quimby Correspondence
- Henry A. Smith Correspondence
- Henry Harrison Wilder Correspondence
- Horace Barlow Diary
- John Lester Barstow Correspondence
- John W. Campbell Correspondence
- John Wolcott Phelps Correspondence
- Joseph Chase Rutherford Correspondence
- Joseph L. Perkins Correspondence
- Joseph Spafford Correspondence
- Justus F. Gale Correspondence
- Lyman S. Williams Correspondence
- Orlando S. Turner Correspondence
- Ransom W. Towle Correspondence
- Roswell Farnham Correspondence
- Solomon G. Heaton Correspondence
- Valentine G. Barney Correspondence
- Wheelock Graves Veazey Correspondence
- William C. Holbrook Correspondence
- William Wirt Henry Correspondence
Lesson Plans
(41 - 60 of 157)
Pages
- Title
- John Lester Barstow to Laura
- Description
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Topics include an overview of the daily schedule in camp, firing on Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philips by General Butler, General Phelps, and about 10,000 men that lasted for three days, and orders for the rest of the regiment to head for New Orleans.
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- John Lester Barstow to Laura
- Description
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Being aboard the ship “Jamis Hovey” on the Mississippi River on the way to New Orleans, the difficulty of the journey from Ship Island to New Orleans, and the initial observations upon the arrival in New Orleans.
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- John Lester Barstow to Laura
- Description
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Written in the field he writes of idleness of the Regiment since its arrival on the banks of the Bayon and the help the Negroes are receiving from the government, the lack of coffee, poor quality flour, no salt, spoiled meat causing disease, exorbitant prices for food.
- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Rutherford writes of the illness of the his assistant surgeon, Dr. Clarke, of his own excellent health, and all he is enjoying at camp including a hive of bees. He writes of fresh meat, fowl and fruit available to eat, of a companion dog and of his horse he admires so much. He speaks of the...
Show moreRutherford writes of the illness of the his assistant surgeon, Dr. Clarke, of his own excellent health, and all he is enjoying at camp including a hive of bees. He writes of fresh meat, fowl and fruit available to eat, of a companion dog and of his horse he admires so much. He speaks of the difference in military medical care of the soldiers and notes how the care results in more or fewer sick soldiers and of deaths.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Topics include references to folks at home and their improved health, of not minding having his letters read to others, brief reference to a battle at Briston Station (Manassas plains), Dr. Childe's sister has a book for Rutherford's daughter Helen, a brief description of a battle and how the...
Show moreTopics include references to folks at home and their improved health, of not minding having his letters read to others, brief reference to a battle at Briston Station (Manassas plains), Dr. Childe's sister has a book for Rutherford's daughter Helen, a brief description of a battle and how the wounded men were treated including Rutherford's decisions to not amputate limbs and the recovered heath of those soldiers who were spared the surgery.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Topics include the illness of their child Joseph, management of ill health, caring for many patients alone, cold weather, and attention to his daughter's Helen’s studies.
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- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Topics include reflections, his 45th birthday today, a reference to their first born son & if he was living how he would have liked to have the son with him, looking at photographs of his wife & of opening a letter with a lock of hair in it, Col. Jewett having talked with Gov. Holbrook about...
Show moreTopics include reflections, his 45th birthday today, a reference to their first born son & if he was living how he would have liked to have the son with him, looking at photographs of his wife & of opening a letter with a lock of hair in it, Col. Jewett having talked with Gov. Holbrook about Rutherford & him being worthy of a promotion, and his marked opinion of not wanting a woman as a camp follower as a laundress or as a seamstress as Mrs. Fields is wishing to go with the army.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Visit from lady friends, Misses Baker Cutting and Rand, reference to a temperance meeting, a story about an officer being apprehended while transporting secret correspondence that he swallowed saving himself but losing the paper (hid the paper in his mouth), suspecting to march soon, and sending...
Show moreVisit from lady friends, Misses Baker Cutting and Rand, reference to a temperance meeting, a story about an officer being apprehended while transporting secret correspondence that he swallowed saving himself but losing the paper (hid the paper in his mouth), suspecting to march soon, and sending a song to Helen and papers to Jacob, his children.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Dr. Almon Clark returns to camp & will lighten Rutherford's work load & help improve his health, dining with Vermont Governor J. Gregory Smith, telling of troop movements & destinations, improving weather, sending money home with instructions to spend it on necessities as military pay is...
Show moreDr. Almon Clark returns to camp & will lighten Rutherford's work load & help improve his health, dining with Vermont Governor J. Gregory Smith, telling of troop movements & destinations, improving weather, sending money home with instructions to spend it on necessities as military pay is unpredictable, and an enclosing picture of the camp.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Topics include receiving postage stamp requested, criticism of a doctor named Patch for his incompetence, the expectation of a big battle but not having it yet, a social visit with Captain Bartlett, his concern for the large number of sick men in the other regiments stationed next to his while...
Show moreTopics include receiving postage stamp requested, criticism of a doctor named Patch for his incompetence, the expectation of a big battle but not having it yet, a social visit with Captain Bartlett, his concern for the large number of sick men in the other regiments stationed next to his while his regiment is healthier and of writing a report regarding this concern to the Surgeon in Chief of the Army.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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From mud soaked camp near Warrenton Junction topics include repairing a railroad, dismay at the laying waste such beautiful countryside, his strong views on slavery, on the white men who partake in slavery, on the Southern values of trying to keep property in the family resulting in intermarriage...
Show moreFrom mud soaked camp near Warrenton Junction topics include repairing a railroad, dismay at the laying waste such beautiful countryside, his strong views on slavery, on the white men who partake in slavery, on the Southern values of trying to keep property in the family resulting in intermarriage, the results of that and his philosophy of why the war is so hard to put down due to the Southerners' mind set and the basis of what the Union is fighting for.
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- Title
- Joseph Rutherford to [Hannah Rutherford]
- Description
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Topics include explanation of his judgments of an unnamed individual, seeing the enemy while on picket, stopping at a house where a husband fathered several mulatto children with a slave mistress while sharing the same domicile as his wife, requests his daughter Helen to write and reflects on the...
Show moreTopics include explanation of his judgments of an unnamed individual, seeing the enemy while on picket, stopping at a house where a husband fathered several mulatto children with a slave mistress while sharing the same domicile as his wife, requests his daughter Helen to write and reflects on the loss of life in future battles.
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- Title
- Joseph Spafford to Homer White
- Description
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Topics include receiving marching orders for possible move out on Feb 27th but not knowing in what direction or where the soldiers are headed, whether the Army of the Potomac will move during heavy rain, a sick soldier's brother is providing medical care, and a visitor from Cavendish, Vt.
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- Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
- Description
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Topics include preparations to take the field for up to seven days, reflections on what living conditions might be light, what items are being taken, sending music home (Sitting on the Style & Dear Mother, I’ll come home again)
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- Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
- Description
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Topics include Joseph Spafford not going to Washington as planned because he did not have a pass, mentions women's sewing circle at home, of being a member of a reading circle and of "being deprived of female society".
- Title
- Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
- Description
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Writing from Camp Seward near Alexandria, Virginia, topics include a copy of Joseph Spafford’s accounts of camp life from October 24th until November 9th, 1862 with a note that he burns the letters he receives. Writes about tents, gunfire heard from a battle a distance away, on leave to visit...
Show moreWriting from Camp Seward near Alexandria, Virginia, topics include a copy of Joseph Spafford’s accounts of camp life from October 24th until November 9th, 1862 with a note that he burns the letters he receives. Writes about tents, gunfire heard from a battle a distance away, on leave to visit Washington, D.C., liking his boy Daniel McAuliffe age 13 and wanting to take him with him to Vermont when the 9 months are up.
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- Title
- Justus E. Gale to Sister
- Description
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Topics include the movement of the regiment to Brashear City, of city purchases by Justus Gale of barrels of apples which he resold by the piece, of buying tobacco, postage stamps, writing supplies, local terms for cash money, of commanding officers of 3rd Louisiana colored regiment and the dry...
Show moreTopics include the movement of the regiment to Brashear City, of city purchases by Justus Gale of barrels of apples which he resold by the piece, of buying tobacco, postage stamps, writing supplies, local terms for cash money, of commanding officers of 3rd Louisiana colored regiment and the dry weather.
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- Title
- Justus F. Gale to Father
- Description
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Topics include the good health of Justus Gale, a description of the land in Algiers including deep mud, swamp and tall grasses, and the sickness in the regiment.
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- Justus F. Gale to Mother
- Description
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Topics include a few deaths in the regiment, a description of the Battle at Baton Rouge (August 5, 1862) , and the resignation and promotions within the regiment.
- Title
- Lyman Barton to Hiram Barton
- Description
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Lyman Barton writes a detailed description of the capture of the Confederate battery at Hill’s Point on May 19, 1863, when his company and six others from the 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment and eight companies of the 89th New York Infantry Regiment boarded the U.S.S. Stepping Stones and...
Show moreLyman Barton writes a detailed description of the capture of the Confederate battery at Hill’s Point on May 19, 1863, when his company and six others from the 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment and eight companies of the 89th New York Infantry Regiment boarded the U.S.S. Stepping Stones and traveled up the Nansemond River to assault the rifle pits and fort.
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