Emerging Leader: The Letters of Carter Van Vleck to His Wife, Patty, 1862–1864

By Carter Van Vleck

On October 19, 1862, Lieutenant Colonel Carter Van Vleck wrote to his wife and daughter:

It takes an immense amt. of study to learn well the art of killing people, without getting killed yourself And that is the great secret of war, to kill & cripple the enemy to the greatest degree with the least possible damage to those under your command It is a fearful yet a very pleasent study I like it much better than I expected to & much better than any thing else I ever studied or practiced.

How I should like the sad realities of war, or how I should demean myself in an actual fight, of course I have as little idea as anyone else that knows me I might disgrace myself & family forever or might win honors worthy to be won.

During the next two years, the young officer would detail his Civil War experiences in intimate letters to his whole hearts love, Patty, and their daughter Nellie. The letters reveal both the external challenges Van Vleck faced and his personal conflicts: the urge to eliminate slavery by serving his country well and the longing to return to his loved ones.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469739670

Carter Van Vleck

Carter Van Vleck had practiced as a teacher, a merchant, a homeopathic physician, and a lawyer in the years before he enlisted in the 78th Illinois Volunteer Regiment. Acclaimed as a skilled orator, his persuasive ability had led him into local politics two years before hostilities began. As an officer, his ability to clearly recognize conflicts involving both his superiors and the men under his command and to articulate fair resolutions gained the respect of everyone with whom he came in contact.

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Copyright © 2012 by Carter Van Vleck.

Cover images:

Van Vleck Monument, Oakwood Cemetery, Macomb, IL courtesy of Kathy Nichols

Cameo of Carter Van Vleck from The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum (ALPLM), Springfield, IL

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ISBN: 978-1-4697-3969-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4697-3968-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4697-3967-0 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012900861

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 01/28/2012

Contents

Introduction

Van Vleck Timeline

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Introduction 

They pledged to write to each other twice a week, if not more often. In fact, Patty Van Vleck received three letters from her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Carter Van Vleck, even before he and the 78th Illinois Volunteer Regiment left Camp Quincy, about seventy miles southwest of their home in Macomb, Illinois. In the intervening month, he traveled home by train to finalize arrangements with the Isaac Monfort family who would move into the first floor of their house while Patty and Nellie relocated to the upstairs rooms. During the next two years, Carter and Patty were true to their promise, although irregular mail service during the war caused periodic floods of letters separated by long droughts.

Through this exchange the couple continued the intimate conversations they had enjoyed during the 12 years of their marriage, thereby keeping their enduring devotion to each other and their absolute reliance on Divine Providence vibrant. Their union on June 25, 1851, began like those of many other couples who transplanted themselves from the east to the Midwest hoping to find opportunity. A versatile young man, Carter courted Patty while he was teaching in a rural school in Chatham, Ohio. For a while the ambitious young husband traveled to new settlements in Illinois and Iowa, selling patent roofing to new settlers. Later he practiced as a homeopathic physician, purchased and ran an apothecary shop, eventually becoming a real estate lawyer. Patty, his young wife, bore four children, mourning three of them as each died before reaching his or her first birthday. The couple were active in the Macomb Presbyterian Church Sunday School, and Carter joined the Masons and ran in a local election on the Democratic ticket.

The War of Rebellion afforded the Van Vlecks additional opportunities to serve their community and their country. In 1860 Carter became disenchanted with the Democrats’ stand on the slavery issue and helped other Macomb leaders organize a non-partisan political group which advocated Unconditional Union. When the war broke out, Patty was elected president of the Macomb Ladies Relief Society which solicited donations for the comfort and relief of our sick and wounded soldiers (Macomb Eagle, 12/21/1861). His party having been defeated in the November 1861 election, Carter began to recruit young men for two local companies of the 78th Regiment and eventually volunteered himself for military service. The regiment’s choice of Van Vleck as their lieutenant colonel demonstrated their early confidence in the man.

The level of detail in her husband’s letters invited Patty to walk, to march, and to slog along, even to shoo away swarms of flies, along with her husband and his men. Carter’s references to individuals in Companies A and I, the Macomb Companies, allowed his wife to share his news about them with their families at home. Less satisfying for Van Vleck was his vicarious experience of watching Nellie, the only surviving child of their four babies, grow up, as is reflected in his terror of the epidemics that plagued Macomb in 1862 and 1863. The letters’ revelations of his unique experiences—regimental politics, conditions of battle, technical details of his military responsibilities—help us, the readers, recognize Patty as her husband’s intellectual equal as well as his soul mate.

And because Patty treasured her husband’s letters, as did Nellie and subsequent Van Vleck descendants, we readers are invited to experience what it was like to be an officer and, by reading between the lines, the wife of an officer during two years of America’s most important military conflict.

On our initial reading, it was difficult for Dr. Gerber and me, two professors of English, to resist reaching for our red pens to make the letters conform to our current conventions of standard written English. But gradually the Van Vleck story commanded our full attention, and we began to realize that, for the edition to be an authentic representation of the man, we needed to allow Carter to speak for himself. The Colonel was more concerned with getting his ideas on paper than in being mechanically correct; his mistakes were really part of the historical record. In addition, the writing environment—often in cold and dampness, with no solid surface to write on, and with frequent interruptions—was far from ideal. Furthermore, before universal education became required late in the nineteenth century, experiences of American school children were often uneven; the rules taught varied from teacher to teacher. Indeed, as we grew familiar with the conditions he describes, we were amazed that the quality of Carter’s writing is as good as it is since the writer had neither time nor opportunity to compose more than a single draft.

Unfortunately, the publication of the word-for-word transcription of the letters resulted in a 625-page tome, too hefty for the modern reader. The entire collection, most of the letters in their original envelopes, includes 202 letters written during his service. The length of the letters, each 4 to 8 pages long, filled front and back and sometimes along the margins with small, usually neat script, demonstrates the writer’s hope that his wife’s replies will be equally long and detailed. So, when Dr. Gerber died, the project became dormant.

The Cunningham family’s recent decision to allow me to abridge the collection has resulted in several unexpected discoveries. By eliminating tangents that may distract—news about Patty’s and Carter’s extended family, speculation about future military movements, compulsive sermonizing, fleeting references to individuals and other regiments—the abridgement focuses tightly on the letters’ consistent themes: Carter’s devotion to his family, his conviction that God’s plan is being accomplished, his abhorrence of the slave system, and his dedication to the men in the 78th Illinois Regiment. Furthermore, the reader can focus more closely on the writer’s changing attitude toward his military role, from a reluctance to lead men into peril and anxiety about his own ability to withstand military conflict to his embracing of new responsibilities and his welcoming of challenges. An expanding vacuum of higher military authority eventually convinces the young lieutenant colonel that he has been ordained to lead the men in his command with fairness and wisdom. Moreover, the abridgement more clearly reflects Van Vleck’s language choices, revealing a gradual shift in outlook from brightness to darkness, and it highlights his subtle sense of humor.

As a lieutenant colonel and a colonel, Carter was too close to the men in his regiment and his day-to-day duties to add new light to the historical record that has accumulated over the past 150 years. The abridgement allows readers to focus tightly on the effects of military conflict on those directly involved in it. The resulting compilation has transformed a historical account into the epistolary autobiography of its writer. Important remnants of historical interest remain in details like dates and places, names of a few well-known commanding officers, and references to contemporary attitudes toward newly-freed slaves and about the ideal American woman. For example, while Patty and Nellie have much more freedom of movement than we might expect for a nineteenth-century mother and child, Colonel Van Vleck’s criticism of Dr. Mary Walker (4/10/1864, 4/24/1864) indicates his more complex attitude about women and propriety.

The abridgement does include references to a few individuals whose stories season the account with interesting subplots. These fleshed-out personalities had been the Van Vlecks’ friends and acquaintances in civilian life, so it is not surprising that Carter weaves their stories throughout his letters, especially during 1863 when the regiment is divided into separate companies and ordered to guard bridges from saboteurs. His cast of characters includes:

• Major William L. Broaddus—the Major—is Van Vleck’s closest friend. Before enlisting in the 78th, Broaddus had dabbled in local politics, serving on Macomb’s board of trustees and representing his constituents as alderman, town marshal, and town supervisor. On the very day the Rebel troops fired on Fort Sumter, Broaddus was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant in the 16th Illinois Volunteer Regiment, eventually being promoted to Captain. He resigned that commission in July 1862, explaining in a letter to his wife, I am tired of having druncan officers to lead me in to battle. (William L. Broaddus Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, 3 April 1862). Broaddus’ wife Martha plays a poignant role in Van Vleck’s story as well.

• Lieutenant Elisha Morse possesses a Christian sensibility very close to, if not equaling, Carter’s own. In civilian life Morse had been elected to a couple of minor political offices, reflecting the confidence that his neighbors had in his integrity. The Colonel reflects the empathy he shares with Morse through his constant concern about his friend’s health and the loneliness he feels while the lieutenant is held captive in Libby prison. On his release from captivity, too late for a reunion with his mentor, Morse returned to the 78th, and he remained in the regiment until the end of the war.

• Dr. Thomas M. Jordan, the 78th’s surgeon, had served on Macomb’s board of health and had acted as alderman prior to volunteering for military service. Even though his fellow citizens recognized him as a fully qualified physician, he needed to pass the Army Medical Board’s oral and written examinations before joining the regiment. Following his resignation from the Army, Jordan returned to Macomb where he opened a bank and successfully ran for mayor from 1864 through 1867. Similar to the Broaddus experience, the doctor’s wife Annie contributes an amusing, if frustrating, vignette to Van Vleck’s first year accounts.

• Mr. Robert F. Taylor, was chosen by Carter as the regimental chaplain in an attempt to replicate the Christian atmosphere that many of the men had experienced in their hometowns. The Van Vlecks first met Taylor when the latter served as stated supply of the Presbyterian Church of Macomb. His less-than-effective contributions to religious life in the military provide a contrast to Carter’s considerable charisma, motivational talents, and ability to solve problems.

• Col. William Benneson had been a law partner of Steven A. Douglas in Quincy, IL during the 1840s. The Colonel’s role in the regimental politics that plagued the 78th in 1863 and early 1864 and in the vacuum of authority that followed was a key element in Van Vleck’s evolving self perception.

• Private Velasco Chandler, a young recruit, was the son of Charles Chandler, a prosperous and highly regarded Macomb personality. Van Vleck’s solicitous regard for Velasco after Chickamauga, as well as other anecdotes he records, give evidence of the Colonel’s fatherly concern about the young men entrusted to his care by their families.

• Major General Charles C. Gilbert. Historical accounts of Gilbert’s ineptitude as a leader, particularly at the Battle of Perryville, can be easily found in other sources by readers who may be interested in him.

• In addition, the weather and the health of individuals act as twin characters, the one affecting the other and both playing major roles in how the regiment and its leader fare.

This abridgement includes subjects that may need explanation, the first of which is homeopathy, a medical theory that prevailed in the 19th century. Van Vleck obviously feels confident in his ability to prescribe treatments for illnesses, both Nellie’s and the soldiers’ under his command, and his prescriptions are apparently successful. Like his father, Volkert, Carter subscribed to a medical theory which held that giving an ill person minute doses of a natural substance known to produce similar symptoms (snake root, a toxic plant, would increase the heart rate and induce sweating) or to counteract them (febrifuge reduces fever) prompts the body to cure itself. Modern readers will recognize this as an early attempt to engage the immune system. When Carter doses himself with seedy fruits and later with oysters and pickles (24 June 1864) to stimulate his body to fight diarrhea, however, the consequences are disastrous. Another example of 19th century medical practice that we might find strange today is the hydrotherapeutic treatment applied to Van Vleck’s arm wound. Yet it apparently worked.

In addition, the reader might also wonder about Van Vleck’s intermingling the N-word with the more respected term Negro. Converted to the abolitionist cause on a trip east in 1860, Van Vleck is convinced that slavery is an abomination. But, like his complex attitude toward women, the writer’s position on racial equality is complicated. While he is sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved people whom he meets, Carter is not necessarily an egalitarian; like many of his northern contemporaries he is conflicted about how the newly freed men and women will fit into American society. A close reading of the questioned passages, however, shows that when he uses the defamatory term, the writer is paraphrasing Chaplain Taylor’s words or the attitude of some other individual toward slaves. When he’s speaking his own mind, Carter uses the less disdainful term.

Acknowledgments: There are far more people, some who helped Professor Gerber and me as we worked on the transcribed edition and researched the letters’ contexts from 1994 to 2004 and others who assisted me as I worked on this abridgement during the past two years, than I can possibly name. Dozens of librarians and town historians in Connecticut, New York, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia retrieved documents from their collections and gave leads to other repositories. We had outstanding cooperation from the staff at Western Illinois University in Macomb and from National Park Rangers at Chickamauga and Kennesaw Mountain. In addition, an exceptionally hospitable couple, long-time friend Mary Dexter and her housemate Beth, welcomed me into their home for an entire week, which enabled me to examine the Broaddus collection at Duke University, and Mary sent me photocopies of many of the Major’s letters. Shannon Tebo was our faithful student assistant during the transcription period. Gene Gerber, Phil’s wife, was often our research partner in the early years. Finally, my husband John has walked the battlefields with me, encouraged me, and listened patiently to my triumphs and my frustrations for the past eighteen years.

More recently Steve Raymond, who asked me to share with him the transcription of the letters for his forthcoming regimental history of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Regiment, deserves my sincerest gratitude. It was he who prompted me to resume working on the project, which had lain dormant since Professor Gerber’s death. It was he who encouraged the family to seek publication. And he joined with me in convincing the Cunninghams to find a repository where the collection and my research notes may be safeguarded, preserved, and made accessible for future researchers. In fact, Steve’s history of the 78th, In the Very Thickest of the Fight, will be a perfect companion to Emerging Leader, detailing the historic context and recounting the regiment’s actions to the end of the war.

Finally, the Cunningham family and their ancestors deserve every reader’s gratitude for sharing this story with us.

Van Vleck Timeline 

Gleaned from Patty Van Vleck’s notes and newspapers:

Macomb Eagle and Journal, Beardstown Gazette

Part I 

From Quincy, Illinois

to Kentucky

Camp Quincy, [Illinois,] Sunday, Aug. 24, 1862

My dear Patty,

I was unexpectedly compelled to remain here longer than I expected when I left home, and shall not be able to get home before the last of the week, but shall then come home to stay until after [McDonough County] court.

I have lived & slept on the Camp ground ever since I came down, & like it pretty well. I have got over the effects of my [smallpox] vaccination, & feel first rate now, & think camp life will agree with me. I have also got rid of my cough & the irritation of my throat.

Mr. [Robert F.] Taylor preached for us to day and did first rate. I shall feel quite at home to have him & Mr. [Elisha] Morse & Dr. [Thomas M.] Jordan & Major [William L.] Broaddus all around my Head Quarters. Mr. Morse told me that Dr. Jordan had repented & concluded to come but I greatly fear Mrs. Dr. [Annie Jordan] hasn’t repented. I hope I shall be able to secure Morse a good place for he is the best man to have along I know of. If I should get sick I know he would do more for me than any body else.

We got word this morning from Springfield that we would remain here two months and perhaps all winter. I hope we may remain until we learn something, for we are very raw, now. There are a good many Macomb folks here now, & will be a good many more when the Macomb Company [Co. I] get here.

Everything is working pretty well to my satisfaction so far. I think there will be no doubt but I can secure Mr. Taylor his place [as regimental chaplain].

I have a good tent now but will have to give it up when the men all get here, and will have to build a board shanty. I am very sorry I sold my cot, for none can be had here, & I must have one to sleep on. Nearly all the officers do.

I expect greatly to miss the comforts of our happy home, but I do it cheerfully because there is no other way of securing happy homes for the future, but to fight for the security we have hitherto enjoyed under God, without an effort on our part.

I know how much you love me & how often & how earnestly you will pray for me, but above all pray that I fall not by temptation from my trust in God. I just begin to feel how weak I am, amidst so many wicked & thoughtless men. I have so little courage to stand up, & battle for Jesus. I am really afraid to trust myself, but your prayers I know will avail much.

You must take good care of Nellie & learn her to pray for me & to love me, although away. I think now I shall be home Thursday night [28 August]. You must write to me. Your affectionate husband,

Carter Van Vleck

Patty%20Good.jpg

Photograph courtesy of Pamela Socia

Patty Van Vleck’s image on a carte de visite, like their daughter Nellie’s, had been sewn into the binding of her husband’s pocket Bible.

Camp Quincy, Sept. 9, 1862

My dear Patty,

Your excellent letter is just recd. directed all right except that the name of the camp is Camp Quincy instead of Camp Wood. I have no tent [of my own] yet & the consequence is that I have no very good place to write to you & am continually interrupted.

Your letter made me very homesick; it brought back to me all the pleasures of our very pleasant home, & it made me remember how fleeting are the joys of this world & made me promise to strive harder to enter in at that straight and narrow gate that leads to our heavenly mansion where, as you say, we can spend an endless age in the enjoyment of an unbroken family.

There is no immediate prospect of our Regt. being moved soon. We have no tents except for the privates & no knap sacks, haversacks, guns or canteens & government will surely not send us away so, & it will take some time to get a supply. Major Broaddus has not yet got matters fixed to his satisfaction but I think he will & hope he will. I should be very lonely indeed to have him leave, & should be very sorry that I had ever gone in to the service.

My health is first rate. [The army] seems to [a]gree with me very well indeed. I feel better than I have for a long time & have a powerful appetite, & hope that it may continue thus to agree with me. I like it first rate so far.

I shall probably be able to spend the Sabbath with you if we are not ordered off, which I do not anticipate. I will write you again towards the last of the week. I will worship with you at 9 P.M. or if any other hour suits you better you name it.

Kiss Nellie a great many times for me, & tell her that I pray for her, to be a good girl & to love & obey Mama—O may God spare her as a comfort to us both. Most Affectionately Yours,

Carter Van Vleck

Camp Quincy, Sept. 18, 1862

My dear Wife,

I have only a few minutes to write before mail closes. I am indeed sorry that I could not have been present to help about the moving [to upstairs rooms of the Van Vleck house] but I fear that I have got to assist very soon in a much greater moving. We got imperative orders this morning to go immediately to Louisville, Ky. but the Col. [William H. Benneson] has telegraphed back that we cannot move until we get guns, our Bounty money & canteens. I don’t know what the result will be but expect we will be compelled to go, as soon as tomorrow or the first of next week at most.

Since writing the above we have another dispatch saying that we must go with what we have got, & that the [railroad] cars will be here to day. This I don’t believe for we also recd. a letter from the proper officer for an accurate acct. of the number of men, horses, tents, & to ascertain how many cars are needed.

But still we may be off at once, & I shall not be permitted to see you again for many months & perhaps never this side the Grave. May our Heavenly father bless & keep you. Your Affectionate Husband,

Carter

Bible%20Good.jpg

Photograph courtesy of Pamela Socia

Lieutenant Colonel Carter Van Vleck left home with a constant companion, his pocket book of Psalms from the Old Testament. Its well-worn condition demonstrates the frequency with which the former Sunday School teacher consulted it.

Jeffersonville, Ind., Sept. 23, 1962

My dear Patty,

We arrived here, (on the opposite bank [of the Ohio River] from Louisville, Ky.) yesterday morning about daylight, after a very rough ride, & have pitched our tents here, but how long we will remain no body knows. We have here and in Louisville 75,000 troops & Kirby Smith & Bragg are threatening the town of Louisville so that the people there are nearly scared to death. Women & children are leaving by the hundreds & Government have moved all their stores to this side the river, but there is in my opinion, no more danger of an attack here than in Macomb, for troops are coming in all the time.

We have got to give up all our tents except one for the three field officers & one for the head quarters. The men & officers of Companies have to do without & we are only allowed 40 pounds of baggage so that I will have to give up my fine new trunk & take a carpet sack.

Lincoln has hit the nail on the head now in his Emancipation proclamation [formally enacted 1 January 1863]. God grant us strength to put in to force & blot out the bloody stain from our national escutcheon. I think God will bless us now since we have struck at the root of the evil.

Goodbye. Kiss Nellie for me, & I wish I might kiss you for my self. Pray for me often. Your husband,

Carter Van Vleck

Louisville, Sept 28, 1862

My dear Patty,

The night after I wrote you Col. Benneson was given command of the Brigade to which we are attached & I had to take command of the regt. & was ordered to march in the night, & accordingly about 9 o’clk. P.M. I started with the regt. & we were marched until near daylight, when we were permitted to lie down for an hour or so on the ground. The next day we moved again & had nothing to eat until night when we were permitted to eat & sleep out doors again. The next morning at 3 o’clk. We had to be in line of battle & remain so until daylight. The next morning the same only we remained so until night when we took up our line of march & came 3 miles to our present quarters through the thickest cloud of dust ever you heard of & then all laid down out of doors on the ground till this morning, & to day it has rained all day long & we have not had so much as a rail for shelter but my India rubber blanket has saved me & to night we have got our tents for officers, & I hope we shall be able to keep them for a while.

My health is pretty good, but I think it doubtful whether it [will] remain so if we keep up the exposure & fatigue that we have thus far been subject to.

I think we shall go south as soon as the Rebels get out of our way & as soon as the roads get bad enough to prevent our catching any body. But I am compelled to stop; give much love to all & kiss Nellie,

Carter

Camp Gilbert, Louisville, Ky., Oct. 1, 1862

My dear Patty,

I have not heard a word from you since I left Quincy but I know it is not because you have not written, but because there is such an amt. of mail matter here that the P[ost]. M[aster]. Does not distribute it. The health of the Regt. has not been first rate; fatigue & exposure have had a telling effect on the men.

Mr. Morse & Mr. Taylor have been quite poorly but are well & attending to their duties again. We hear nothing as yet from Dr. Jordan, & the news from that direction is so conflicting that it is hard to know what to believe, but two things seem pretty certain, that the Dr. [Jordan will] pass as 2nd grade, principal Surgeon, & that he is to be here soon.

Every thing is in a perfect jumble in military matters here. We were yesterday transferred from Genl. Nelson’s Army (of Ky.) to Buell’s Army (of the Ohio). Buell’s secession sympathies & the general misunderstanding that seems to exist among the officers, has bred the most incomprehensible confusion in the entire army here.

When will this war end with such men in command? I know God wills it for some good purpose, but it is hard to bide His time, & to see ourselves constantly defeated when we have the physical power to conquer two such rebellions, if we only had loyal men to direct affairs.

I have never been through the city until yesterday; it is really a very fine city. I like it better than St. Louis or Cincinnati. But oh such stupendous preparations for war as are seen here. All the streets of the city for miles in every direction were completely blocked with Army wagons & troops.

The Rebels last night came within 5 miles of this city inside our picket lines & stole & carried away one of our cannon. The troops of the city seem all to be on the move this morning in the direction of Secessia. Except our Brigade, which I think will not move until we get arms & some money, but no telling. Our Brigade commander is working for this.

We get along first rate in our Regt. & as we get better acquainted, like each other better. But we are not very well treated by our superiors. We are compelled to stand in line of battle every morning from 3 A.M. till daylight, rain or shine, wet or dry, & of course it makes many sick. There are now 106 in the Hospital here. Dr. Jordan is much needed here, hope he will be here to day. We have got our tents once more, but are told that we cannot long keep them. We also have 13[,] 6-mule teams but are told we can keep but 7. If we can keep what we have got, we shall be very comfortable and very thankful.

Kiss Nellie for me, & pray for me. I hope we may all be spared to live together once again in our I home or on a little farm, which begins to be the highth of my ambition.

If you have not already gone to Waverly [IL] you had better go soon before it gets so cold as to make it unpleasant for you. With much love, I am most affectionately Your husband,

Carter

Camp Gilbert, Oct. 2, 1862

My dear Patty,

I recd. Your excellent letter yesterday by the hands of Dr. Jordan just a few minutes after sending off my last letter. So I write you again to day to let you know I have recd. It. We were all very glad to see the Doctor. He arrived at Jeffersonville at 3 A.M. yesterday, but did not succeed in finding us until about noon. You can imagine how hard it would be to find us, when you remember that there are at least 150 regts. here, & [we] are being changed to different Brigades & Divisions every day. The Doctor had become nearly discouraged hunting for some body that could direct him to us, when he saw Col. Benneson coming on horseback, and he says he never was gladder to see his Daddy!

I think he has very wisely concluded to leave Annie [Mrs. Jordan] at home, for I cannot conceive what could be done with a woman who is not willing to live & bunk with the Regt. at large, for there is no chance for any privacy here.

As to my health, I have been quite as well & I think better here than at home; it is true that coming down from Indianapolis, I like a very great many others, had something like a chill, but I know it was not ague, for I have had no signs of it since. If I had written about it it would have made you worry about me when there was no occasion.

I think there will be no trouble about Dr. Jordan’s commission, it is generally understood that the Medical Board have friends enough for all the field-surgeons places, & that they give way only to men that come recommended by influential politicians. His case is not half so bilious as Maj. Broaddus’ & he came out all right & was mustered in before