OHJ Archive

Three Civil War Letters

of James A. Garfield

edited by JAMES D. NORRIS and JAMES K. MARTIN

"I know of no man in the army whose death would crush me so terribly

as his," Brigadier General James A. Garfield wrote to his wife on May

12, 1862, concerning Major Frederick Augustus Williams, "He is a true

man and one of my dearest friends."¹ The young major had contracted

typhoid fever during the later stages of the Sandy Valley campaign in

the eastern Kentucky mountains. On March 19 Garfield, who commanded

the Union troops in the campaign, received orders to move his brigade

to central Kentucky. Utilizing this opportunity, Garfield took Williams

to Cincinnati and placed him in a private home, where he would receive

better care.

After obtaining shelter for Williams in the home of Joseph Owen,

Garfield sent word for one of Williams' sisters to come to Cincinnati.

"I don't know [that] I could endure his loss, should he die," Garfield wrote.

"He is one of my very best officers. I am in an agony of anxiety about

him."² Unfortunately, Garfield was ordered to give up his command

NOTES ARE ON PAGES 279-280

248 OHIO HISTORY

and report to Major General Don Carlos Buell, commander of the Army

of the Ohio, in Nashville. On April 2, 1862, Garfield left Cincinnati for

his new assignment and he was never again to see his devoted student,

friend, and comrade-in-arms.³ Williams' condition slowly improved after

two months' care in the Owen home and he went with his sister Mary

in early June to Ravenna to convalesce at home. He soon regained sufficient

strength to visit his fiancee, Adelaide Robbins of Solon, and take her to

commencement exercises at Hiram College. Shortly afterward, however,

Williams suffered a relapse, and on July 25, 1862, the twenty-six year

old hero of the battle of Middle Creek died.⁴

Frederick Augustus Williams was born on April 15, 1836, in Portage

County, Ohio, the son of Frederick and Martha Underwood Williams,

both of whom had moved to Ohio following the War of 1812. The elder

Williams, a prosperous farmer, had joined the Disciples of Christ Church

and was a member of the original board of trustees which organized the

Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (Hiram College) in 1850. He served

continuously on the board until 1862. Young Williams attended school

near Shalersville, Ohio, and in 1858 entered the eclectic institute, the

same year James A. Garfield became its principal.5

Williams was a brilliant student, graduating at the head of his class

in 1860 and serving as an assistant teacher the following year. In August

1861 Garfield accepted a commission as a lieutenant colonel from Governor

William Dennison and was soon put in command of the Forty-Second

Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which he was to raise and organize. Formation

of Company A began on September 16, 1861, at Hiram, Ohio. Four days

later, in the election of officers, Frederick Augustus Williams was chosen

captain of the company, which was composed mostly of students and

former students of the eclectic institute. On September 21, 1861, Williams

and his company arrived at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, for training

with the rest of the Forty-Second.6 Three months later Garfield assumed

command of the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, composed of

the Fortieth and Forty-Second Ohio, two regiments of Kentucky volunteer

infantry, a squadron of Ohio cavalry, and three squadrons of Kentucky

cavalry. Their mission was to drive a Confederate force under Brigadier

General Humphrey Marshall out of eastern Kentucky.7

During this campaign, which consisted mostly of minor engagements,

Captain Williams led the principal fighting effort at Middle Creek, the

main encounter. As a result of fortunate circumstances Garfield forced

Marshall to retire from the Sandy Valley through Pound Gap, leaving

eastern Kentucky in Union hands. While still in the Sandy Valley, young

Williams, along with many others, was taken seriously ill.

Of the three letters to Williams that follow, the first was written

shortly before the war began, the other two after Garfield had left him

at Cincinnati. Besides revealing the depth of his feelings and concern

for his young friend, the letters present Garfield's own reactions to the

stirring events in which he had a part. The letters are reproduced as

GARFIELD LETTERS 249

they were written, except that other punctuation has been substituted

for most of his dashes.

Columbus, [Ohio] March 23, 1861

My Dear Friend.

I should have answered your letter sometime ago had I not, shortly

after receiving it, seen you and had a long and pleasant visit. So I waited

until events should show us new pictures. I am glad to hear of so

large and fine a school [at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute] as all

seem to report, and I am very desirous of being with you again. But

everything conspires to keep this legislature in session.⁸ The election of

Senator has added more than a week, and now the disposition of the

Public Works and the redistricting of the State besides the regular ap-

propriation bill will consume at least two or three weeks longer. The

Senatorial Contest was very earnest though not bitter, and though my

choice was not elected, I presume the state will be full as well pleased

with [John] Sherman as with any man we could have elected.⁹The news

from Washington is very gloomy and humiliating. I don't know but the

management there is the best it could be, but it does seem to me very

mortifying to our national pride to hear Gen Scott talking of "military

necessity" in regard to Fort Sumpter [sic].10 I don't know what military

science may teach in reference to it, but I do know that almost all great

generals have accomplished their great achievements in opposition to all

military rules. When Napoleon ordered a regiment of cavalry to charge

up a hill whose top bristled with cannon, it was contrary to all military

rules and necessities but it gave him the battle of Wagram. I have no

doubt that plenty of young men in the American navy would be glad

to undertake the reinforcement of Anderson.11 If Scott were thirty years

younger we would not hear of this military necessity. But perhaps it

is all right.

I hope the administration will take some course before long that will

give the people a chance of admiring pluck once more.

Augustus, how do you think the people of Portage and Summit would

like it to be attached to Cuyahoga and let those three counties make up

a Congressional district? Everybody is making a plan for the new dis-

tricts. It is a very difficult thing to do satisfactorily. There are probably

25 plans afloat here -- I send you one among the many.

Let me hear from you again. Please remember me to Hiram and Burke

and all our good folks.12

Truly Yours,

J. A. Garfield

Head Quarters 20th Brig.

Army of the Ohio. Battlefield

of Shiloh. near Pittsburgh Tenn

April 16, 1862

My Dear Augustus.

It was very hard for me to leave you at Cin. as sick as you were, but

necessity compelled me to do so. When I reached Louisville on Tuesday

250 OHIO HISTORY

evening, I found a dispatch from Gen [Don Carlos] Buell ordering me

to join him immediately at Nashville, and take command of a fighting

column that was hastening forward to the great battle near Corinth Miss.¹³

To be separated thus suddenly, and finally from our dear boys, was the

severest trial I have suffered since the war began. I would much prefer

to have remained Col of the 42nd, than to have been promoted to any

position away from them. I, of course, appreciated the compliment which

Gen Buell designed to bestow on me in thus choosing me to go with him

but, it seemed like leaving all in the army that I loved or that loved me.

The thought also of taking command of nearly 4000 men who had

never been tried in battle, who were strangers to me and I did not know

what officers I could rely on in an emergency made the future a gloomy

one, especially as we were in immediate expectation of a great battle.

I received the order about nine o'clock in the evening of my arrival at

Louisville. I could not bear to meet our boys, and so I sat up all night

at the Gait House preparing to leave. Early next morning I took the

cars, and reached Nashville that night. Gen Buell had gone on. Next

morning I took train toward Columbia [Tennessee], and by cars, wagon

and on foot I reached that place late in the afternoon. Gen Buell had

gone on, and I obtained a horse and a Cavalry escort, and rode all that

night. At 2 o'clock in the morning I reached the Gen's Head Quarters.

In an hour the army was on the march, and a West Point Col [James W.

Forsyth] who had been commanding the 20th Brigade, had introduced

me to the Brigade, and delivered up the Command.14 It was a dreary

morning, the rain pouring down in torrents, and the mud very deep.

Thus we marched on till Sunday afternoon, when we came in hearing

of the guns on the Tennessee. About sunset, we received orders to take

three days rations in haversacks, leave our trains, Knapsacks and all our

baggage, and hurry forward to the fight. We marched all night, and at

10 o'clock reached the river at Savannah [Tennessee]. Thousands of

wounded men were being brought down from the field. The boats were

waiting to take us forward. (I met Henry Johnson at the landing -- 380

of the 41st went into the fight, and 147 were killed or wounded.) We

embarked and steamed up to the Pittsburgh landing, landed and im-

mediately set the Column in march to the front. We marched five miles

over the most horrid carnage that any American battlefield ever presented.

We reached the front about 3 o'clock and were greeted by a shower of

shot and shell. For an hour and a half, the shells were bursting all

around me, but no [t] one struck me. One went whizzing past my head and

struck a mounted officer a little way beyond me. Both horse and rider

fell a quivery mass of bleeding flesh. But the enemy was making his

last stand. We stood under arms all that night on the extreme front,

and next day made a reconnoissance of six miles, and had a fight with

the enemy's cavalry, (Texan Rangers among them,) and lost 20 killed

and 41 wounded. Our cavalry here are a disgrace to the service. We

have slept without tents now for 8 days on the Battlefield which covers

36 square miles. A letter from Mr. Owen tells me you are better. I

hope this will find you at home. I have not heard from Col Sheldon or

Major Pardee.1⁵I suppose you [are a] Maj. now, but not knowing it

GARFIELD LETTERS 251

surely I address you as usual. Do write to me. Give my love to your

Father and the family. Address me as Comd. 20th Brigade 6th Div.

Army of the Ohio up Tenn. River.

Ever your Friend and Brother

J. A. Garfield

Head Quarters 20th Brigade

Near Decatur Ala. July 2nd 1862

My Dear Major.

I have for a long time been hoping to hear from you. In a late letter

from home I learned you were so far recovered as to be able to be at

Commencement. I need not tell you how greatly I am rejoiced to know

that you are now on the road to complete recovery. I have hardly ever

heard of so terrible and protracted a fever as yours. I shall hope soon

to hear that you have rejoined the regiment, where you are so much

missed and so much needed.

I wrote you a letter sometime before the Evacuation of Corinth which

I have not heard from but which I presume was received when you were

too sick to read. Since the Evacuation we have been moving eastward

steadily, rebuilding the Memphis and Charleston R.R. as we came along.

We have passed through a splendid country for the last 80 miles, and

have now crossed the Tennessee, and are encamped within about five

miles of Decatur, being east of that place. I am nearly disheartened at

the way in which the war is being conducted here as well as in the east.

There seems to be neither Generalship nor patriotism at the heads of

the armies. In this army there appeared to be more anxiety to keep the

"Peculiar Institution" from harm than anything else, and not content with

disgracing the army by letting the rebels escape at Corinth, they seem

determined to complete the disgrace by forcing our troops to protect the

worst rebels in the country. Were it not that I hope for a change, I

would resign my commission. Indeed 1 would do so at once were it not

that my motives might be misconstrued.16

My health has not been very good for the last six weeks, and I am

still suffering from repeated attacks of Camp Diarrhea. I fear it is to

become chronic with me. I have lost 35 pounds weight since I left the

Sandy Valley. We have had a great deal of very hard work since the

battle of Shiloh, building roads, making fortifications, marching, etc.

What our future will be no one seems to know. It seems rather probable

that we will move on to East Tennessee and if so I shall hope to meet

you and our dear old 42nd again. I do not hear from them very often.

I believe they have been having a laborious march with not many results.

I did not suppose from the first they would have any fighting there. From

what Gen. Buell said, Gov. [Andrew] Johnson of Tenn. asked Gen Buell

to send me to Cumberland Gap, and thence into E. Tenn. but Gen B.

answered him that he did not expect to fight at the Gap, only to hold

the enemy from coming through and he wanted me with him on the

Corinth route. But one route has amounted to about as much as the

other since Shiloh.

252 OHIO HISTORY

I hope you will write to me soon. Please send me the Portage Democrat.

The "Akron Beacon" comes to me regularly but the "Democrat" I do

not get. Give my love to your good father and mother and the girls and

don't fail to write me soon.

As Ever Your Friend

J. A. Garfield

THE EDITORS: James D. Norris is a

member of the history staff at Hiram

College and at present is a visiting associ-

ate professor of history at the University

of Wisconsin. James K. Martin, a former

student at Hiram, is now a graduate stu-

dent at the University of Wisconsin.

Ohio History Journal