Civil War Manuscripts Project

Alphabetical Name list O - P

 
     
 

A-B || C || D || E-F || G-H || I-J || K-L || M-N || O-P || Q-R || S-T || U-V || W-X || Y-Z
Index of Names || Index of Regiments || Index by Residence
 
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O
 
 

O’Brien, John (1839-1931)
Brevet Captain
New Haven
First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Companies A, F, I and M
1861-1934
60 Items

Photocopies of letters written to his cousin, Mary Walker, 1861 May 20-1865 June 7; enlistment and pension papers and death certificate. O’Brien enlisted and was mustered-in a Private, Company F, on 23 May 1861. He was promoted Corporal on 14 April 1862 and Sergeant on 10 June 1863. He was promoted to First Sergeant on 24 August 1863 and to Second Lieutenant, Company A, on 29 December 1863. O’Brien was promoted to First Lieutenant, Company M, on 8 November 1864. He was transferred to Company I on 19 December 1864 and was breveted Captain on 9 April 1865. He was mustered-out on 25 September 1865. The First Connecticut Heavy Artillery was originally designated the Fourth Connecticut Infantry. The collection also contains detailed information taken from his compiled military service record in the National Archives. O’Brien was born in Ireland.
Location: MS 86323
*Restricted Collection. In-library use only*

 
     
 

O’Sullivan, Timothy
Private
Derby
First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Company K
1865 January 11-May 3
3 Items

Three letters from near Petersburg and Fort Darling, VA, to his mother and sister. O’Sullivan enlisted and was mustered-in on 16 December 1863. He was mustered-out on 25 September 1865. On 14 March 1865 he writes, "There were a great many deserters came in in fact they are coming in every night it is impossible for them to hold out much longer."
Location: MS Civil War Box II, Folder 2

 
     
 
P
 
 

Paddock, George Byron (1843-1913)
Private
Meriden
Seventh Connecticut Infantry, Company C
1863
1 Volume

Diary. The front pocket of Paddock’s diary holds an envelope, made from letterhead from the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind in Raleigh, NC, and which bears two five-cent Confederate stamps. Inside the envelope is a manuscript Confederate poem. In the back pocket of the diary is a newsprint copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and two small pieces of cloth, one a deep orange and the other a dark blue. Paddock, an unmarried clerk, enlisted on 4 September 1861 and was mustered-in on 6 September 1861. He was wounded in action at the battle of Olustee on 20 February 1864 and was captured at Bermuda Hundred, VA, on 2 June 1864. Paddock was discharged on 12 September 1864. He was in the meat market business with his father and was reportedly the first to introduce "refridgerator" beef to Meriden. Later, Paddock removed to Jackson, MN, where he acquired large real estate holdings.
Location: MS

 
   
 

Palmer, Frederic Courtland (1845-1914)
Hospital Steward
Montville
Thirteenth Connecticut Infantry, Companies B and D
1860-1868; 1899-1915
1 Box

Correspondence and papers including letters to his friends and family from Thibodeaux, LA; Winchester, VA; and Augusta, GA. Some correspondents include Fannie A. Rollins, Nellie Blood, John Gideon Palmer, Estelle Darrow (1868-1897, his future wife), cousin "Libby," sister Arabella Palmer (b.1849), brother Frank Loomis Palmer (b. 1851), brother Edward A. Palmer (b. 1843, Edward served as a private soldier, Company K, 11th Rhode Island Infantry, from October 1862 - July 1863), father Elisha H. Palmer (1814-1895) and mother Ellis Chapel Palmer (1822-1893). Palmer, a farmer, enlisted at age sixteen on 3 January 1862 and was mustered-in a Private, Company D, on 7 January 1862. He was promoted Corporal on 1 November 1864 and was transferred to Company B on 29 December 1864. He was appointed Hospital Steward on 13 February 1865 and was mustered-out on 25 April 1866. The collection also contains obituary notices and pension and service records of his brother, Elisha Loomis Palmer (1840-1912), who served with the 57th (Company I) and 61st (Company G) New York Infantry regiments. Collection also includes a Book of Psalms (New York: American Bible Society, 1860) and a file containing genealogical information. This is a very large, complex and interwoven family collection.
Location: MS 81420, Palmer Family Papers

 
   
 

Parker, Timothy (1836-1905)
Commissary Sergeant
Norwich (Greeneville)
Eighteenth Connecticut Infantry, Company A
1862-1865
Three Boxes

Correspondence, ca. 550 items. The entire collection documents the Parker family from 1776-1880 and includes the letters of sea captain Timothy Parker (ca. 1736-1797), 1776-1796; however, only those materials pertaining to Timothy Parker's Civil War service were analyzed. Sergeant Parker enlisted on 23 July 1862 and was mustered-in a private on 18 August 1862. He was promoted to Corporal on 6 November 1862 and was appointed Commissary Sergeant on 9 November 1862. Parker was captured at Winchester, VA, on 15 June 1863 (parole not recorded) and was mustered-out on 27 June 1865. The collection also includes some Parker genealogy, military songsters, a photograph of Parker, age 28 (ca. 1864), in military uniform and several photographs of young women friends (Mollie F. Kerney, Fannie Doll and Rose Billmire) he met while stationed in Martinsburg, WV. Also included is ephemera pertaining to the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and Hospital in Philadelphia (small folded card, 4 pp., ca.May 1864) and to a lecture by Rev. V. A. Cooper, Chaplain of Parker's regiment, delivered 28 January 1863, probably in Martinsburg. The collection also includes obituaries and letters written to Parker's second wife, Clementine E. Moseley, upon Timothy's death in May 1905, one of which is from the Norwich GAR, Post Number One.
Location: MS, Boxes Two and Three

 
   
 

Peck, H. E.
Oberlin, OH
Civilian, Male
1864 March 31
1 Item

Letter, 1 p., to Major Foster, Chief of the Bureau of Colored Soldiers, Washington, DC, recommending John S. Might, then of Company F, 103rd Ohio Infantry, for an appointment. Peck was a professor at Oberlin College.
Location: MS Tracy Collection

 
   
 

Peck, Tracy (1838-1921)
Bristol
Civilian, Male
1856-1863
3 Items

Letters to Tracy Peck: 1856 September 9, from "Beckwith"; 1860 March 24, from sister Kezia Peck, which speaks of the organization of the Wide Awakes; and 1863 July 5, from brother Josiah Peck to Tracy, then in Paris, which tells of Vicksburg and the Confederate army in Pennsylvania. A cousin, Richard, was serving with the 25th Connecticut Infantry, then at Port Hudson, LA. Josiah mentions the death of Charles Cook (25th Connecticut Volunteers), Henry Wright and John Francis, all Bristol boys. Letter also mentions brother Lt. Henry A. Peck (later Captain), 10th Connecticut Volunteers, at Seabrook Island. Relays opinion on Lincoln and his Cabinet's management of the war. Josiah writes that Copperheads discourage enlistments and encourage desertion and disloyalty. He notes that General Meade, recently appointed to the command of the Army of the Potomac, was pushing his army forward. Finally, Josiah tells his brother that Kennie Bronson, a Lieutenant in the 23rd Connecticut Infantry at New Orleans, is ill. Tracy was a Yale graduate (valedictorian of the Class of 1861) and Yale's published Obituary Record contains more information on the family, the life and the career of Tracy Peck.
Location: MS 80944

 
   
 

Pelton, Johnathan Peters (b.1843)
Corporal
Middletown
Twenty-Fourth Connecticut Infantry, Company F
1760-1901
22 Items

Papers and correspondence. Pelton, an unmarried printer, enlisted on 4 September 1862 and was mustered-in on 18 November 1862. He was mustered-out of his nine-months unit on 30 September 1863. He served six months detached service as a printer at General Auger’s headquarters at Baton Rouge and Port Hudson, LA. Collection includes Pelton’s Corporal’s commission; military pass dated 7 June 1863; descriptive list dated 29 January 1863 wherein Pelton is described as 19 years old and 5 feet 9 inches tall; letters from his father, C. H. Pelton, dated 8 February, which tells of brother John’s First Lieutenant’s commission in the 14th Connecticut Infantry, and 27 April 1863; Letter from Kate, his future wife, dated 22 February 1863, "wonder if it’s wicked to write letters on Sunday, don’t believe it is to soldiers. . ."; and broadside "Roll of Honor" containing the names of soldiers from Middletown who died in service during the war.
Location: MS 79651, Hubbard-Pelton Family Paper

 
   
 

Phelps, Ellsworth N. (1826?-)
Lieutenant Colonel
Windsor
Twenty-Second Connecticut Infantry
1862 October 30
1 Item

Letter to his wife from Miner’s Hill, VA. Phelps, a merchant, enlisted on 2 September 1862 and was mustered-in on 20 September 1862. He was mustered-out of his nine-months unit on 7 July 1863. A nice letter which enclosed money for the Soldiers’ Wives of Windsor fund. He writes of how difficult it was to leave his family and mentions Private Norris Griswold’s [Company A] broken arm, insinuating the break may not have been accidental.
Location: MS Civil War Box II, Folder 2

 
   
 

Phillips, George D. (1842?-)
Corporal
Bridgeport
Seventeenth Connecticut Infantry, Company D
1863-1865
13 Items

Diary (1863), letters, photograph and military papers. Phillips, an unmarried machinist, enlisted on 28 July 1862 and was mustered-in a Private on 28 August 1862. He was promoted Corporal on 1 October 1862 and was wounded and captured at Chancellorsville on 2 May 1863. He was paroled on 15 May 1863 and was taken very ill to Washington, DC’s, Armory Square Hospital on 14 June 1863. He was transferred to Portsmouth Grove Hospital (Lovell General Hospital), RI, on 7 July 1863, but ran away from this hospital on 13 August 1863. He returned to the hospital on 28 August 1863 and was placed under arrest in his ward. He writes of using opium to ease his pain. He received a disability discharge on 29 June 1865. Collection includes six passes given to Phillips as "Coxswain" of the mail barge and as clerk in the Quartermaster’s Department, Fort Wood, New York Harbor, December 1864-June 1865; two letters, 24 November and 20 December 1863, to Emma A. Krinks, written while convalescing at Portsmouth Grove Hospital from a wound received at Chancellorsville; his 1863 diary was only sporadically kept and seems to contain entries of a later date. On 30 April 1863 he wrote, "marched at 10 on the Fredricksburg Plank Road marched 14 miles to Chancellorsville & halted for the night. Many of the boys suffered severely from blistered feet."
Location: MS 90813

 
   
 

Pierce, George E.
Hudson, OH
Civilian, Male
1861-1864
2 Folders

Letters, 1861-1864, to Henry Burke Stiles (1804-1871) of Southbury. Early in the correspondence, Pierce reveals that he had three sons in Colorado and notes many of his Ohio acquaintances were enlisting in the army. Also, discussed are soldiers' benefits and the difficulty of finding hired help as so many were in the army. His son, Charles Pierce, was in the battle of Vicksburg and later died (see letter of 8 March 1863). His son John Pierce was confirmed on 13 March 1863 by the Senate as Surveyor General of the Colorado and Utah Territories and son Henry Pierce served as a First Lieutenant in the 3rd Colorado Volunteers. Collection also contains a letter (14 January 1863) to Henry B. Stiles from William Pettingill, Treasurer of Western Reserve College, which notes that College President Henry L. Hitchcock's son had been killed in battle [Folder D]. A folder index is filed with the collection.
Location: MS 91122, Stiles Family Papers, 1823-1871 (172 Items)

 
   
 

Pierce, William Boyden (d.1892)
Private
Berlin/Kensington
Tenth Rhode Island Infantry, Company H
1886-1893
5 Items

Documents; predominantly pension materials. Includes letter from Pierce, Berlin, CT, to the Adjutant General of Rhode Island, dated 20 February 1886, asking for a copy of his discharge papers. Also contains a GAR application to Stanley Post, No. 11, dated 188?. Application stated he was born in Guilford, VT, that his occupation was a mechanic, that he enlisted on 26 May 1862 and was discharged a Private at Providence, RI, on 1 September 1862. Pierce died in Kensington on 25 April 1892. Collection also includes a certificate from the U. S. Bureau of Pensions dated 31 March 1893, granting Pierce's widow, Emma J. Pierce, a pension of $8.00 per month. Pierce himself received a pension of $10.00 per month from September 1890 to April 1892.
Location: MS Civil War Box II, Folder 22

 
   
 

Plumly, Benjamin Rush (1816-1887)
Philadelphia, PA
1863 January 29
1 Item

Letter, 3 pp., to President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Washington, DC, recommending Louis Henry Carpenter (1839-1916), "the noted leader of the Scouting force in Missouri and of the 'Jessie Scouts' in Virginia," for a colonelcy in an African American regiment. Plumly claimed Carpenter would effectually and wisely reach the slave with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and enlist him in the Union army. An endorsement in Lincoln's hand, dated 3 February 1863, indicates that the recommendation was submitted to the Secretary of War. A brief biographical sketch of Plumly, in the hand of the donor Gilbert A. Tracy, is included on a separate sheet with the letter. Plumly was an author and abolitionist who also served on the staffs of General Fremont and General Banks during the Civil War.
Location: MS Tracy Collection

 
   
 

Pollard, Charles E.
Franklin
Fourteenth Connecticut Infantry, Company B , Private
Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Company E , Private
1863 November 1-1865 May 17
15 Items

Letters from Warrenton, "Stoney Mt.," Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Deep Bottom, Hatcher’s Run, and Burkeville, VA, and Washington, DC, to his mother, Emily F. Pollard, and his brother. Pollard was a substitute. He enlisted on 23 July 1863 and was mustered into the 14th Connecticut Infantry on 25 July 1863. He was captured at Reams’ Station, VA, on 25 August 1864 and was paroled on 8 October 1864. He transferred to the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery on 30 May 1865 and was mustered-out on 18 August 1865. His letters reveal a strong reliance on his religious faith to see him through the war. On 1 November 1863, Pollard wrote, "I carried the painkiller till partly used up & sold the rest.... I was tied up to the tree by arm hands behind me 5 minutes at that time for going to the sutlers & missed being on dress parade.... Had scouse for breakfast hard tac soaked in water & fried in pork fat." He notes, on 19-20 January 1864, that the 14th "is a hard regiment pretty rough men in it." According to his letter of 1 February 1864, he wanted to learn to play the fife. In writing about an engagement at Deep Bottom, VA (15-16 August 1864), on 18 August, Private Pollard noted that he "came near getting hurted in the head by a small piece of lead." In a philosophical frame of mind on 1 February 1865, he wrote, "Grown persons cannot do as they would like always," and on 22 February 1865, "I want to see the end of this war with a whole hide..." His chances of accomplishing this must have been reduced by officers described thus: "Our Div. commander Alek Meags never goes into battle unless he is nearly dead drunk..." Finally, his letter of 29 April 1865 contains a tribute to Brigadier General Thomas A. Smyth (3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps).
Location: MS 68836

 
   
 

Pomeroy, Willis Asa (1841-1867)
First Lieutenant
Suffield
First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Company C
1860-1865
13 Items

Correspondence with his family in Suffield and his friend Horatio Eaton regarding the activities of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery and the 6th Connecticut Infantry. Pomeroy enlisted and was mustered-in on 23 May 1861. He resigned on 7 November 1861. Horatio Eaton of Hartford enlisted on 16 April 1861 and was mustered-in a Private, Company A, 1st Connecticut Infantry, on 22 April 1861. He was mustered-out on 31 July 1861. He reenlisted in the 6th Connecticut Infantry on 23 August 1861 and was mustered-in a First Lieutenant, Company B, on 12 September 1861. He was promoted to Captain, Company E, on 8 April 1864 and was killed on 16 May 1864 at Drewry’s Bluff, VA. Pomeroy’s war letters run from 11 June to 16 October 1861. On 12 October 1861, he wrote his sisters from Camp Ingalls, "...we devote Saturday afternoon to a general cleansing and preparation for inspection which always takes place Sunday morning.... Col. Tyler is liked pretty well but creates some dissatisfaction by his appointments." The two letters from Eaton are dated 22 June 1862, in which he writes of skirmishes on James Island and at Secessionville, SC, and 11 November 1862 wherein he details the 6th’s losses in the battle of Pocotaligo, SC, and notes, "...but the Sixth Rgmt is not a Newspaper regiment ... the 7 Rgt is a 2d Conn Rgmt in regard to Newspapers &c &c" Willis Pomeroy wrote home from Chicago on 11 June 1865 about the "Fair" and noted Generals Grant, Sherman, McCook, Pritchard, Stiles "and a dozen more are in town." The collection also includes a letter to Willis from his brother Chauncey S. Pomeroy (b.1837) in Alabama dated 30 December 1860. Chauncey asks his brother for a pistol, "get a 4 or 5 inch Barrel without cartriges please get it immediately as I do not know how soon we shall have to go to Fighting, as Alabama will secede on the 8th or 9th of next month -- if the North attempts to coercive [sic] us we shall be obliged to fight.... While you are sending that Revolver you might as well send some other goodies along with it Do you understand?" Also included is a letter, 2 pp., from Eliphalet S. Morron (d.1886), from Kaneville, IL, to Chauncey Pomeroy, Sr. (1801-1861), dated 11 March 1861, in which Morron writes of his fear that there might be foul play during President-elect Lincoln’s inauguration and discusses the problems of the grain farmer in Illinois and his Irish hired help. Morron writes, "the Cotton States are acting a foolish part in my opinion..."
Location: MS 90812, Folders A and B