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Jewett, Levi (b.1835)
Windsor Locks
Fourteenth Connecticut Infantry, Assistant Surgeon
1862 September 16-28
5 Items
Letters predominantly from Fort Ethan Allen,
VA, to his wife, Mary J. Taylor Jewett, of Cobalt, CT.
Jewett's letters are on beautifully illustrated
stationery depicting the Smithsonian, the Patent Office,
the Post Office, U. S. Treasury, and a view of the city
of Washington. Jewett was at this time detached from his
unit (which was in the field under General Sumner) as
Acting Surgeon for General Abercrombie's Brigade at Fort
Ethan Allen. The letters contain good descriptions of
military activity in and around Washington and of General
Milroy's Brigade. See previous entry for Jewett's record
of service.
Location: MS
Letters
Transcription
Graphical items from the Jewett papers
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Letters
[Edited and transcribed by K. Nolin, M.L.I.S., Assistant Library Director, The Connecticut Historical Society]
Jewett's letters are dated: 16 September 1862, Ft. Ethan Allen; 18 September 1862, Ft. Ethan Allen; 21 September 1862, Ft. Ethan Allen; 23 September 1862, National Hotel, Washington, DC; 28 September 1862, Harper's Ferry.
16 September 1862, Ft. Ethan Allen: "...The 15th Conn. Reg't is doing guard duty in & around the city - guarding bridges, etc. Our reg't is with McClellan's army in Maryland. It is in Sumner's Corps, which was kept in reserve during the recent battles.... We are encamped in a pleasant spot within easy distance of Washington and have a large army about us so that we see plenty of military parades and have none of the hard part of it ourselves. We are in the lines of Gen. Abercrombie's brigade but are not subject to his orders and have nothing to do with him except to draw rations from his quartermaster. The brigade consists of the 40th Mass. 127th N.Y. 127th Penn. and part of the 4th N. Y. Artillery. Gen. Milroy's Brigade from Kanawha is encamped on a hillside about half a mile south of us. There are many other Reg'ts around us in sight but I have not found out what they are. It is rather difficult for officers and soldiers to secure passes to cross the river but Medical officers are considered rather favored characters and Gen. A. has accommodated me with a pass whenever I have applied for one. I have thus had an opportunity to visit Washington and examine the curiosities pretty thoroughly. I have not been able to get into the Capitol as it is being filled with beds and cots for wounded soldiers. These are very numerous and every available place is filled with them. I saw one large church used for a hospital and all the open room[s] in the Patent Office are filled with beds ready to be occupied as soon as more wounded soldiers are brought in. The recent battles in Maryland will furnish plenty of occupants. I daresay you will read the accounts of those battles before this letter reaches you. I could distinctly hear the heavy firing during the day Sunday and again Monday morning, commencing before I was up. I was in Washington yesterday while Gen. McClellan's dispatches were received. The excitement was tremendous and the crowd around the bulletin boards was full of enthusiasm as the dispatches were read. The Secessionists, if there were any, wisely kept silent. The report was that the rebels were retreating towards the Potomac in a perfect panic, leaving Artillery, baggage and prisoners in the possession of our army. But I am getting near the close of my sheet and must stop. Mollan the steward wonders what I can find to write about so often - thinks you and I must be great talkers when we are together. I have not heard from you yet, except the first letter. There must be letters waiting for me at the office in Washington or with the Reg't. I heard yesterday that there were some two bushels of letters at the office for the 14th which had been accumulating for several days, no one having called for them. They will deliver them to no one except the messenger authorized by the Col. so that we cannot get them till the messenger calls for them. I am getting anxious to hear from you, but will still continue to write presuming you to be alive and well. I will write again in a day or two. You must write often and I shall get a large mail when they reach me. Give my love to Louie, Martha and all the rest. You and Martha must both write. Yours truly
As ever Levi Jewett.
(As I find it rather difficult to get Postage stamp[s] I have sent some letters to the P.M. but you have probably rec'd them)
21 September 1862, Ft. Ethan Allen: "The dome of the Capitol is plainly in sight from our camp but most of the city is obscured by trees. We are directly opposite Tenellytown in the District of Columbia.... Aqueduct Bridge is two miles up the river and Chain bridge two more. I suppose you have rec'd my last letter telling you how to direct to me at the Fort, and I shall expect a letter from you in two or three days. As soon as I find out where my next address is to be I will inform you. I regret exceedingly that I have not been able to get any letters from you, but as you are at Middlefield where you see plenty of young people, I am not afraid of you getting low-spirited. You and Martha ought to be able to enjoy yourselves. If you have cured the cough which you had when I left."
Jewett has this to say regarding the battle of Antietam: "The rebels drink whisky and gun-powder before going into battle to make them desperate and crazy. By doing so they become insensible to danger. The consequence is that in an hour after they are killed they turn black... They are terribly dirty, their hair long, and most of them are ragged and destitute of everything except spunk and energy..."
When a regiment leaves camp, Jewett describes some of the debris strewn over the ground, which he finds an "astonishing" waste: "tin cups, plates, knives & forks, cooking utensils, books, bottles, cartridges, boots, blankets, furniture, shoe-brushes, cigar boxes, candle sticks, musical instruments, straps, equipments, provisions, tent-poles, belt-plates, broken weapons, bullet molds, packs of cards, bibles, corkscrews, boot-jacks &c &c"
Jewett practices target shooting: "I was out yesterday shooting at a mark with a Sharp's rifle and a Springfield rifle. I have become quite a good shot. We have the conical balls and I can hit the target nearly every time at fifteen rods. The new troops practice every day and consider accurate shooting the most essential part of a soldiers education."
23 September 1862, Jewett writes of a crowd formed to serenade President Lincoln in celebration of his Emancipation Proclamation, describing the procession, the music, etc. Jewett also gives a good description of the National Hotel.
Transcription
[Edited and transcribed by K. Nolin, M.L.I.S., Assistant Library Director, The Connecticut Historical Society]
Harper's Ferry Va. Sunday P.M. Sept. 28th 1862.
My dear wife, After a ride of more than sixty miles on horseback I have at last reached this village, which has become one of the celebrated localities of the world. I will not stop now to give you a description of my journey, but will reserve that for a time when I have leisure. I shall write a full account for my diary, which I hope to send you when it is filled. I suppose you will want a description of the place - well you shall have it. It is a village about the size of Middle Haddam only not spread over so much ground. The houses are crowded together and the enormous ledges of rock frown down upon it and almost hang over it. It is in a kind of triangular place with rocky heights on the three sides, viz. Maryland heights across the Potomac, Loudon heights across the Shenandoah and Bolivar heights in the rear. The village is between the two rivers where they unite. The principal object of interest is the immense ruin of the Army buildings. It must have been a grand affair before it was burnt and is still grand in its ruins. The massive walls of brick and stone are nearly entire, though in some places they have tumbled to the ground and in others they are cracked and ready to fall if any thing should give them a slight jar. I walked through the whole establishment and was astonished at [the] magnitude of the works and the vast amount of property destroyed. The most ingenious and complicated machinery all destroyed and blackened by fire - bent and twisted by heat, everything combustible being consumed. Most of the roofs were of iron and the plates are lying, warped and rolled up by heat, mixed up with confused piles of iron work, shafting, pully wheels, iron beams, rods, machinist's tools, steampipes, cog-wheels, gun-barrels, bayonets, sabres and in some places half burned timbers, deep beds of ashes mixed with broken and melted glass and the whole was a scene of ruin which I have never before witnessed. I should think the buildings numbered nearly twenty and were of a most costly description. The sashes are of iron and very heavy most of them still remaining in there places though badly bent and utterly ruined. In one place I saw a pile of gunbarrels and bayonets I suppose many thousands in number, which had been picked out from the wreck. All were burnt black, flattened, twisted bent double and interlocked together so that by picking up one a dozen more might hang to it. The ruin is complete - not a weapon or a machine is left fit for anything. The building where the celebrated John Brown was captured is a small brick one which was used for keeping a fire engine in. It is the only building not burnt. I went into it and saw the marks left by Brown himself. The musket holes which he made through the walls have been filled up by brick and mortar, but are plainly seen. The wooden door which was battered through by the marines still remains and has been repaired by plating the outside with iron boilerplates. The cracked and slivered boards still remain though part of them has been whittled away by the knives of the curiosity seekers who carry away slivers of it as relics. I will enclose you a couple in this letter. [No longer enclosed]
Poor old John Brown! I pitied him as I stood there and looked at the place where he made his last fight. If he had been in his right mind he would never have undertaken it. He was sincere in his motives but lacked judgment. I crossed the Potomac from the post of Maryland heights on a pontoon bridge. The boats are anchored in the stream some ten feet apart and timbers and planks laid one to... the other. Each boat is secured to a heavy anchor, placed about forty feet up stream and the bridge is very strong, so that it scarcely moves an inch when the heaviest teams and artillery cross on it. When our Reg't crossed they forded the river and the bridge has been built since. The water is not deep - just up to the axles of the wagons but it is easily raised by rains and then is not fordable. The Shenandoah is about the size of the Salmon River at Westchester, and the Potomac about twice as large - that is has twice as much water but more than twice as wide. Much of the surface is occupied by rocks above the water and in some places I could nearly cross it by jumping from rock to rock. At the ford and bridge however the water is smooth and free from rocks. The Rail-road bridge was burnt by the Rebels when they were here two weeks since and the stone piers alone remain. Some locomotives and many cars were destroyed by being run off the abutments into the river and canal, and are now lying, smash[ed] to splinters on the rocky bed below, while others remain standing on their heads or piled top of each other as high as the track. The destruction of property was enormous and the sight is somewhat melancholy, though there is a kind of fascination about such things, which makes me take pleasure in looking at them. The town still shows the marks of the battle of the other day - occasionally a house shows the mark of the cannonade. I saw one stone house with a hole some three feet in diameter, where a shot or shell went through, Most of the houses were uninjured and think the firing was not at all destructive. By taking Harper's Ferry the rebels got nearly a hundred cannon, large quantities of ammunition, seventy tons of powder, great supplies of provisions, loaded cars, weapons of all description, clothing, and fourteen thousand of our men! The surrender was the most disgraceful thing I ever heard of, and I hope nothing of the kind will happen again. The place is now occupied by Gen. Sumner's Corps of about twenty thousand. Maryland heights are occupied by part of Gen. Banks' army and Loudon by a good force of artillery. The 14th is in Sumner's Corps. French's Division, & Morris' Brigade - the late Col. Morris of the 14th. Lt. Col. Perkins is acting as Col. Our Brigade consists of the 14th Conn. one Reg't from N.Y. and one from Penn. I am thus in an army of twenty thousand men, who are encamped on Bolivar heights, stretching along the hillside for a mile. We have plenty of artillery & cavalry - the 4th R.I. Battery is close by us, and the side toward the enemy is defended by a long line of riflepits. Gen. Meagher's Irish Brigade is under the hill about half a mile from us. They are several thousand strong and thus you see this locality is defended by a large Army. Our pickets extend out some two or three miles where they meet those of the Rebels. I saw a rebel officer to-day, by looking through a spy glass. He appeared to be reconnoitering our position. Our officers were watching his movements and gave me a look through the glass. He was on horse-back and some three miles distant. The rebel pickets are in sight nearly every day and often converse good-naturedly with ours.
Our Reg't has had a hard time since the battle. They have not had tents enough and have had no medical stores as they were all left at Fort Ethan Allen. They were all glad when I came, as I was accompanied by the Hospital Steward and several loads of Hospital stores. These were much needed and we have now got our supplies into working order and are doing the best we can by our sick men. The chief difficulty is diarrhea and dysentery and Dr. Dudley & I prescribed this morning for about two hundred men. One hundred and twenty six of these were excused from drill as unfit for duty. We will try to reduce our sick list before the week is out. The men have suffered much for the want of medical treatment. Dr. Dudley has been alone in charge of the Reg't and has had no medicine. Dr. Rockwell has not been with the Reg't since the battle but is at some hospital - Sharpsburg I suppose. He is acting Brigade Surgeon and I am consequently Senior Medical officer in the 14th - Regimental Surgeon. Our loss in the great battle at Antietam or Sharpsburg was about 30 killed and one hundred wounded.
The Capt of the New Britain Co. (Capt. Blynn) was killed and Capt. Willard of the Madison Co. Lt. Crosby was struck by a bullet in the side nearly under his arm and the ball went under the skin across his back, lodging the other side of his body. It was easily removed by Dr. Dudley and he was doing well when I last heard from him. I have not heard where he is staying - I have not seen him since the battle. Only 23 were killed outright but several have since died. I regret very much that I could not have been present at the battle. It was said to be a magnificent sight and the most terrible fight this country has ever seen. Our Reg't was opposed to South Carolinians and fought most gallantly piling up the dead rebels in splendid style. Crosby's Company lost several - one Fuller from East Hampton was killed - no others from our town. John Beahan was struck by a piece of shell and slightly injured. Our Reg't camped on the battlefield for two or three days after the battle and it was the stench of the bodies which has given so many of our men the dysentery. I stopped over night at Frederic City, and while there met Cyrus Hurd who was looking for Charlie who was wounded in the great battle. He was in a hospital at Keedy'sville. I did not learn the extent of his injuries, or whether his father took him home. I left Fort Ethan Allen before hearing from you, but will send there for your letter. We are expecting to get our mail from Washington soon now - probably tomorrow. The ground where we are encamped bears marks of the recent fight, - scattering bullets and pieces of shell. As I have not given you a complete description yet I will add something more before mailing this letter and will also give you my address at this place. My health is good and I am in good spirits and have plenty to eat and comfortable quarters to sleep. You will not need to worry about me therefore on this account. I hope you are still remaining at Middlefield and that you and Louie are in good health. Our Chaplain held service this morning at headquarters, and will probably do so on Sunday hereafter whenever it is convenient. I must close for want of space but will resume again to-morrow morning. My love to Louie and friends. Yours truly
Levi Jewett