THE OTHER COLLECTION: Pat Medert published a fantastic spiral bound booklet on Jacob and the 89th in 2001 (available directly from the Ross County Historical Society in Chillicothe, Ohio). Here’s a link to their website – though they don’t have an online store: https://rosscountyhistorical.org.
I’ll summarize the content of Jake’s letters published in her book as they pop up to give you an idea of what you’re missing from my much larger collection. The Ross County Historical Society has 60 of his letters. So far as I know, my family has the rest (depending how I count them, over 170 letters plus journal notes. I wrote, “depends on how I count them” because some of the letters are multi-dated. There would be quite a few more than 170 if I were to split letters by dates).
I have no idea how the collection of letters was divided. We suspect the letters in our collection passed into our line while Mary was still living to Andrew “Jack” Robertson, a Civil War veteran and a relative of Mary. We think he passed them on to Franklin Pierce Robertson who lived in the home of his daughter, Maude (Robertson) Boroughs, my great grandmother, in his later years. When F.P. Robertson died, Maude worked with the letters and passed them on to my grandmother, Marcia Boroughs, who did a fantastic job cataloguing and preserving the letters. What’s clear is that all of my ancestors appreciated what they had – including those who transferred a portion of the collection to the Ross County Historical society.
SUMMARY OF JAKE’S LETTER OF 21 Sept 1862
Jake wrote this letter from Licking Point Battery in Covington, KY on a Sunday in response to a letter he received from Mary. He again expresses the significance of any communication from home: “You can’t imagine what a source of pleasure it is for me here to receive a letter from home.” He follows that statement with another veiled rebuke to Mary for not writing more (he would grow out of his frustration with her failure to respond at pace with his regular correspondence home – but not yet).
He then reassures her of his health and expresses his intent to grow a beard – on evidence in the photo he would send home the following year from Lookout Mountain. I wish I could grow a beard like he did!
He references Samuel Fernandis and Mitchel and William Robertson – relatives of his that are in my direct line (Jake is my 5th Great Grandfather’s Nephew [William Robertson – but a different one than is mentioned here]). Jake’s chance meeting with these relatives allowed him to provide information to his family of how these relative’s families were faring in Wisconsin and Evansville, Indiana.
By the 21st, most of the regiments defending Cincinnati had been reassigned to more active theaters. The full fledged attack on Cincinnati had never materialized – there was little more than soft probing of the defenses. He’s aware that the reassigned regiments were being split between Louisville and the Kanawah Valley (in West Virginia). He believes their regiment will be left in the defense of Cincinnati (but he was wrong).
He then describes some instances of military justice. Back at Camp Denison, as they were going through the limited training they received, a man had his head shaved for falling asleep on guard. On the 20th, 5 men of the 89th were found sleeping on watch and were placed under arrest. He expressed his fear for what their punishment might be – if a fellow got his head shaved as a public shame for sleeping in a secure environment, he was sure the punishment would be much more severe for sleeping on duty when in the face of a real military operation (I can find no mention of what punishment the men received).
Sickness was a real issue. He wrote, “I am sorry to inform you of the contagion that threatens our Regiment…small pox.” They received mandatory vaccination and small pox ceased to threaten the health of the regiment – but there would be many more brushes with death from invisible enemies. Jacob would spend quite a bit of time convalescing from sicknesses through he years.
He wrote of the availability of most necessities from the sutlers (traveling merchants who followed the camps hawking wares to the soldiers) but regretted that sutlers didn’t stock paper and envelopes because they couldn’t make enough money on those items.
He then noted the lack of piety in the regiment and expressed surprise at the behavior of those who were involved in activity during the chaplain’s service: “Last Sabbath whilst our chaplain was preaching our cooks were chopping all around. Hands were at work fortifying, sutlers selling, guns firing, blacklegs gambling, all in the sight of our chaplain. And besides this we could see hundreds of wagons hauling in every direction.” Jake certainly wasn’t used to this sort of behavior on “The Sabbath” though he was, at this point in the war, was lukewarm (at best) about matters of faith. That also would change.
The next letter was written on 28 Sept, 1862. I’ll try to publish the letters on the date of their original posting – so, look for my next post on the 28th of Sept, 2021. It will be another summary as it’s in Pat Medert’s book and I don’t have publishing rights.
A Thousand Thunders 