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.9 The 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.15 I 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.