Love and Valor: Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner

By Charles Larimer

"Love and Valor" is a tremendously moving American story told through actual Civil War letters between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner. Their letters tell the story of a Union captain from Iowa and his wife, who maintained a family and farm during the war. The devotion they shared to each other, patriotism, loneliness, and anguish shines through with each word in this heart wrenching correspondence.

Originally published in 2000, this update after 20 years includes additional stories and many pictures that Jacob and Emeline's great great grandson, Charles Larimer, has collected since the initial publication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098339609

Book preview

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The most moving Civil War love story ever told …

Bill Hoffmann, Journalist - Newsmax

"As a participant in D-Day, a student of the Civil War, and a resident of rural America, I found Jacob and Emeline’s letters to be a tremendously moving and literate story of the Civil War that will touch all those who read it. Jacob’s stunning emotions while walking through battlefields were similar to all front line men. His dramatic writing of the war, coupled with Emeline’s trial of keeping the farm, raising four small children, and dealing with family suffering, provide an emotional view of life back home that sets this book apart from other Civil War books. A must-read for both Civil War fans and general readers.

Ken Russell, Paratrooper, 82nd Airborne (D-Day)

Featured in D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II; Eisenhower and His Boys; Americans at War; and Citizen Soldiers, all by Stephen Ambrose,

and Voices of D-Day by Ronald Drez.

For history buffs, Civil War devotees, Americana enthusiast, or even for those interested in a good old-fashioned love story, this is a dream come true. THE LETTERS ARE SUPERB, EXTRAORDINARY … among the best of their kind that I have ever seen …

Philip R. Hinderberger, Major, USMCR (ret.), Historian

Love and Valor is a great read. For us in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, it’s local history, but the story transcends local history as we view the Civil War through the letters of a husband and wife separated by the War. The story of how Charles Larimer found the letters is an amazing one, and he gives us a rare and rich opportunity to experience the War at a very personal level.

Lynn Ellsworth

Former Director of the Harlan-Lincoln House,

Iowa Wesleyan University, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

In the introduction to Vol. I of my trilogy on Iowa and the Civil War I wrote this of Iowans, These were a literate people who knew exactly why they went to war ... Iowa voices are some of the most eloquent and pertinent of the war, speaking to contemporary audiences and echoing down through the ages. No primary source exemplifies this more that Charles F. Larimer’s Love and Valor, a collection of letters between Jacob and Emeline Ritner of Mount Pleasant, an actual two way correspondence between a man and his wife that begins at the start of the war and continues through its finish. This is a front line battle history, and it’s a home front story at the same time. Jacob and Emeline are fine examples of literate Iowans, and Larimer’s masterful research clearly places the letters in their historical context.

Kenneth Lyftogt

Lecturer, Department of History (Retired)

University of Northern Iowa

Author, Iowa’s Forgotten General: Matthew Mark Trumbull (University of Iowa Press, 2005), From Blue Mills to Columbia: Cedar Falls and the Civil War (Iowa State University Press, 1993), Left for Dixie: The Civil War Diary of John Rath (Mid Prairie Books, 2004) and The Sullivan Family of Waterloo (Sunseri with the Waterloo Public Library, 1998). Volumes I & II of his comprehensive trilogy of Iowa during the Civil War have recently been published.

Captain Jacob Ritner’s letters provide a fresh look at General W. T. Sherman’s campaigns through Georgia and the Carolinas, including the occupation of Savannah. His vivid descriptions include the Pulaski Monument, ‘the finest thing I ever saw,’ church edifices ‘said to be the finest in the United States,’ and palmettos, ‘the greatest curiosity I ever saw.’ He hated fresh oysters ‘Ugh! The nasty things!’ but enjoyed a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery, ‘one of the most picturesque places I was ever in … the final resting place of fallen greatness.’ The replies of Jacob’s wife Emeline give a rare feminine view of the war and home front, making this both a valuable Civil War reference, and a compelling love story.

Margaret Wayt DeBolt

Author, Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales, (The Donning Company, 1984)

This is a wonderful collection of Civil War letters. Jacob and Emeline were delightful correspondents, and their letters are full of fascinating information about the experiences of a Civil War officer and the wife who waited for him back home. I especially enjoyed the upbeat attitude that led Jacob to say in the summer of 1863 that he and his fellow soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee expected nothing but victory.

Steven E. Woodworth, Ph.D.

Professor

Texas Christian University

Author, Nothing But Victory – The Army of the Tennessee (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2005)

RICHLY TOLD, AN IMPRESSIVE WORK of research that all Americans can cherish as part of their national family inheritance. This tale of letters provides an intimate glimpse into our past.

John M. Pelicano

Author, Conquer or Die

These illuminating letters provide new insights into the world of the Civil War North.

Nina Silber

Professor and Chair, History Department

Boston University

Co-President, Society of Civil War Historians

Author, Daughters of the Union - Northern Women Fight the Civil War (Harvard University Press, 2005); This War Ain’t Over: Fighting the Civil War in New Deal America (Chapel Hill, 2018)

Love and Valor is a treasure of a book on so many levels. It’s for history buffs, genealogists, Civil War researchers, and anyone interested in reading the letters between a mid-western married couple and their everyday life in the 1860s. Charlie is an exhaustive researcher and he provides extensive footnotes, references and side stories in Love and Valor. On a personal note, as a resident of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, it’s fun to read the letters of Love and Valor and recognize so many Henry County family names.

Pat White

Member of the Board, Henry County Heritage Trust,

Mount Pleasant, Iowa

For nonfiction readers, the Civil War can be the gift that just keeps on giving and writer Charles Larimer shows how with his updated version of Love & Valor. The additional material for his book based on letters exchanged during the conflict between Capt. Jacob and Emeline Ritner will provide new insights guaranteed to keep readers entertained whether or not they are history buffs.

Mike Conklin

Chicago Tribune (Retired)

Lake Forest College, Adjunct Professor

Author, Transfer U, 2019

Selected Honors

The Smithsonian Civil War section featured Love and Valor in the month after 9/11 as a testament to the strength of the American family.

Georgia Public TV used Jacob Ritner’s letters as a main voice of the North during the Atlanta Campaign in their four-part series Georgia’s Civil War, first broadcast in 2005.

Chicago Tribune Tempo Section – Feature Article on Love and Valor on August 31, 2000. (Numerous other newspaper articles also had articles on Love and Valor, including the Savannah Morning News, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette, Sioux City Journal, Burlington Hawkeye, Mt. Pleasant News, Ames Tribune and others.)

Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel chose sections from two of Jacob’s letters from Love and Valor in his 2001 Memorial Day nationally broadcast radio show called War Letters.

The First Brigade Band, a premier Civil War Brass Band, independently created a full music program around Jacob and Emeline’s letters.

Daughters of the Union – Northern Women Fight the Civil War, by Professor Nina Silber and published by Harvard University Press, contains references to Emeline and the women in her family on 16 pages.

Nothing But Victory – The Army of the Tennessee by Professor Steven E. Woodworth of Texas Christian University and published by Knopf Publishing Group includes quotes from Jacob Ritner on 10 pages. The title phrase Nothing But Victory comes from Jacob Ritner quote, which the author acknowledges in the book preface.

Savannah – A Historical Portrait by Margaret Wayt DeBolt, published March 2002, includes Jacob’s description of Bonaventure Cemetery which he wrote in January 1865.

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War by Kelby Ouchley and published by LSU Press includes ten quotes from Jacob Ritner. Kelby Ouchley is a naturalist and managed the National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 30 years.

Copyright © 2000, 2020 by Charles F. Larimer

All Rights Reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

No part of this book may be reproduced (except for inclusion in reviews), disseminated or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, or the Internet/World Wide Web without written permission from the author or publisher.

Web site: www.loveandvalor.com

Ritner, Jacob B.

Love and Valor: Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner/ Jacob B. Ritner and Emeline Ritner; edited by Charles F. Larimer. – 2nd Edition

p. cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1st Iowa Infantry, 25th Iowa Infantry, 15th Army Corps – Army of the Tennessee. Wilson’s Creek, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post …

LCCN: 99-72882

ISBN (Print): 978-1-09833-959-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-09833-960-9

Ritner, Jacob B. - Correspondence.

Ritner, Emeline – Correspondence

History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Personal narratives.

United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Personal narratives.

United States – Army – Iowa Infantry Regiment, 1st (1861)

United States – Civil War, 1861-1868 – Women

I. Ritner, Jacob, II. Ritner, Emeline, III. Larimer, Charles F, IV. Title

E507.5 1st.R58 2000 973.7477 199-1433

Dedicated To

Captain Jacob B. Ritner and

Emeline Ramsey Bereman Ritner

Thank God for the token! One lip is still free,

One spirit untrammeled, unbending one knee!

Like the oak of the mountain deep rooted and firm,

Erect when the multitude bends to the storm.

Lines Written on Reading Governor Ritner’s

Message of 1836

John Greenleaf Whittier

Whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery.

Frederick Douglass

Contents

Introduction

Family Trees

Photos

Maps

Chapter One

Before the War

Chapter Two

Wilson’s Creek, Missouri

Chapter Three

The Vicksburg Campaign

Chapter Four

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chapter Five

The Atlanta Campaign

Chapter Six

Sherman’s March to the Sea, Occupation of Savannah, and the Carolina Campaign

Chapter Seven

After the War

Appendix

Bibliography

About the Author

Introduction

Jacob B. Ritner was born December 16, 1828 on Birch Farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Seven years later, his grandfather, Joseph Ritner, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. When Governor Joe Ritner lost his reelection bid in 1838, amidst charges of vote fraud perpetrated by his opponents, Federal troops were called to quell the rioting in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Jacob’s father Henry, deciding that farming was a more honorable and stable profession than politics, gathered his growing family and moved to Iowa.

Jacob’s wife, Emeline Bereman, was born in Kentucky in 1831, but her father moved the family to Indiana because of their opposition to slavery. In 1845 the Beremans moved again, this time to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa where Jacob and Emeline met at Howe’s Academy, a school run by a former high school teacher of William Tecumseh Sherman. Jacob and Emeline married in 1851 and Jacob supported his wife and new family by working as a teacher in southeast Iowa.

Immediately after the Civil War erupted, Jacob responded to Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers and enlisted for 100 days in the Union cause. Many people thought the war would be over by the end of this term. The war soon engulfed Jacob’s and Emeline’s families: two of Jacob’s brothers, all six of Emeline’s brothers, and Emeline’s father joined the Union Army; Emeline’s mother worked as a nurse in St. Louis.

During his 100-day term with the 1st Iowa Infantry, Jacob saw action with General Nathaniel Lyon in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri, where General Lyon suffered fatal wounds. After his initial enlistment expired, Jacob became a recruiting officer, and then reenlisted in the 25th Iowa Infantry, where he was mustered as First Lieutenant of Company B. During the Vicksburg campaign, his superior officer resigned, and Jacob was promoted to Captain of Company B.

The 25th Iowa Infantry participated in many of the major campaigns of the western theater as part of the 15th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee. They were with Generals Grant and Sherman for the siege of Vicksburg. After Vicksburg came Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain; Jacob was wounded at Ringgold, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga. The 25th Iowa participated in the siege and capture of Atlanta, and then were part of Sherman’s famous March to the Sea. After capturing Savannah, they marched north through the Carolinas. At the war’s conclusion, Jacob marched in the Union Army’s Grand Review in Washington, D.C.

The 15th Army Corps, which included Jacob and the 25th Iowa Infantry, was originally led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. It remained under Sherman’s authority as he next became commander of the Army of the Tennessee, and then the head of all the western armies.

Throughout the war Jacob and Emeline corresponded with each other, and their letters demonstrate that they both drew much of their emotional strength from each other. Both would encourage the other to write long, detailed correspondence of their daily trials. This not only provides us with life in the field of a soldier during the Civil War, but also portraits of the Iowa women who stayed behind and cared for their families.

Finding the Letters

The creation of this book was a family project that spanned over eighty years—over 165 years if we date back to Jacob’s letter to Emeline just before they were married in 1851. In piecing this story together, I found the actual body of letters in three different places.

My grandmother’s sister, Nellie Chase Price, first transcribed and typed Jacob’s wartime letters in the late 1930s; these serve as the main body of this book. In 1961, the 100-year anniversary of the start of the Civil War, my grandmother introduced me to the typed copies of Jacob’s letters. Who would guess that what so fascinated to an eight-year-old would seem even more engaging some thirty-two years later? My initial work was based on Nellie’s typed copies of Jacob’s letters.

But my father advised me to find the original letters, frequently saying If you do not find the original letters, people may think that you just made up this story.

Finding the Letters:

The Turkey Farm Letters and the First Photo Album

In my search to find Jacob’s original letters, my father urged me to contact his long-lost cousin, Martha Lou Price Bugbee. Where is Martha Lou? I would ask, and my father would say, Well, she lives on a turkey farm in North Dakota somewhere, at least she did 25 or 30 years ago, and you really do need to find her.

After scratching my head for several months, I attempted to find Martha Lou. I did not expect to really find her, but I wanted to tell my father that I had made a good-faith effort.

I purchased a CD rom phone book, which purported to list all active phone numbers in the United States. I was able to sort the data and get a list of all Bugbees in North Dakota and Minnesota. I planned to spend the entire weekend calling every Bugbee on this list, explaining who I was, up the ancestral line up to Jacob and Emeline, and then down to Martha Lou, asking the person on the other end if they had ever hear of Marth Lou.

On my very first phone call, a woman answered the phone. I introduced myself, and went through the ancestral path described above. I then asked the woman if she had ever heard of Martha Lou. Her response – she was Martha Lou. I had found her on my first phone call.

Martha Lou and her husband had recently moved off the turkey farm into a senior citizens home. Underneath her bed, Marth Lou had boxes containing some of her most important possession, which included Civil War family correspondence and photos of Jacob, Emeline, and a Civil War era photo album that included pictures of many of their family members. This set of letters included Jacob’s letters to Emeline before and after the war, and other family writing throughout the war.

But it did not include Jacob’s war time letters, nor Emeline’s letters.

I refer to this second set of letters as the Turkey Farm letters. I was very fortunate to have found the second set of letters before I found the first set (Jacob’s war time letters.) If I had found the first set first, I would have stopped looking and never would have found this second set of letters and all the photographs.

In my great fortune, I eventually found two more Civil War era Ritner and Bereman family photo albums.

Finding the Letters:

Jacob’s Letters

As thrilled as I was finding the Turkey Farm letters, I still had not located Jacob’s war time letters.

Nellie Chase Price, who had typed Jacob’s letters in the 1930s and 1940s, had hoped to have his letters published then. She submitted the letters to one publisher, who rejected the submission. The rejection letter suggested that she donate the letters to some local historical society.

Based on that rejection letter, I contacted several historical societies that may have received Jacob’s letters, if Nellie had followed that advise.

One of those contacts was directed to a branch location of the Iowa Historical Society in Iowa City. I made a phone call presenting what I was trying to find. The person on the other end was familiar with the Civil War letters that they had. His initial reaction was that they did not have Jacob’s letters, but he would check and get back to me the next day.

He call the next day and gave me the great news that they had Jacob’s letters!

Part of what made this strange for me was that I had graduated from the University of Iowa, and my college apartment was just two blocks away from the Historical Society. For two years I had walked by Jacob’s letters every day on my way to class.

But at this point, and for several years later, I did not have any letters written by Emeline, which I thought no longer existed.

Ghost Story:

How Emeline’s Letters Found Me –

The Most Important Ghost Story

Many strange things happened while researching the story. I refer to the strangest of the strange as ghost stories. The most important of the ghost stories is how Emeline’s letters found me. That’s the way I like to tell this story – her letters found me and not the other way around.

I have made a great effort to find the graves of the people mentioned in the book – I even published a book The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa. One of the graves I really wanted to find was the grave of Henry Ritner, Jacob’s father and my 3x great grandfather. I knew that Jacob’s parents had lived on a farm near Danville, Iowa, which is a small town, about half way between Burlington, Iowa and Mt. Pleasant.

On one of my trips from Chicago to Mt. Pleasant to see the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, which is like a county fair, I stopped by Danville to see if I could find Henry Ritner’s grave. I stopped at a gas station on the edge of town and asked the young woman working the cash register if she could direct me to the local cemetery. She gave me directions to Jaggar Cemetery, which was located about two miles out of town. After some wrong turns I eventually found the small country cemetery. I walked up and down the rows looking for Henry’s grave, which I eventually found.

Much to my surprise, next to Henry’s grave, was the grave of Evangeline Ritner, Jacob and Emeline’s first child who died in 1853, two weeks before her first birthday. Those of you with children know that the first birthday of a first child is a big event. And two weeks before this big event, Jacob and Emeline’s first child had died.

Before that time, I had a picture of Emeline and I knew that she was the love of Jacob’s life, but I had not really made an emotional connection with her.

I knew that Jacob and Emeline had stood at this very spot at a time of great grief, and I could feel Emeline’s sadness and sorrow, and I made an emotional connection with her.

Her letters found me three days later.

At that time there was a website (curator unknown to me) about Iowa and the Civil War. As part of this web site, people could post their name and the name and regiment of their Iowa Civil War ancestor. I had previously posted the names and regiments of my Iowa Civil War ancestors (about 14 when I count, brothers, uncles, brothers-in-law, etc.)

Three days after I found the grave of Evangeline Ritner, a Civil War collector, Ken Smith of Sandy, Utah, found that web site and contacted me.

It turned out that he had copies of Emeline’s Civil War letters. I was stunned. After a brief conversation, he sent me his copies of the letters.

Ken Smith’s story of how he received copies of Emeline’s letters: Ken’s mother, who was very outgoing, lived in New Mexico. Some time around 1980, she held a garage sale. A particular woman, Mrs. Chase, also outgoing, attended that garage sale. The two women started talking to each other, eventually talking about their children and their children’s hobby, which was the Civil War for both of them.

Mrs. Chase’s son, who turned out to be a third cousin of mine, was a direct descendant of Jacob and Emeline, and he had Emeline’s Civil War letters. Her letters had travelled from Iowa, to North Dakota, to Montana, and then New Mexico.

The next time Ken Smith travelled to New Mexico to see his mother, he was able to make copies of Emeline’s letters. He had transcribed nine of the letters before he and I connected.

Without Ken Smith and his mother, this book would be absent of all Emeline’s letters.

Ghost Story:

How Eulalie (Lulie) Received Her Name –

The Poem Evangeline

Jacob and Emeline’s first two children were Evangeline (1852-1853) and Eulalie (1854-1947). Eulalie was my great grandmother.

I had always thought that Evangeline was named after the famous poem Evangeline – A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1847. It remains one of Longfellow’s most famous and popular stories. Although I had assumed their daughter had been named after the poem, I thought there was no way I could confirm it.

The poem, based on the expelling of the Acadians of Nova Scotia, Canada, tells the story of a fictional Acadian girl Evangeline Bellefontaine and her betrothal to Gabriel Lajeunesse. The British removed the Acadian community from Nova Scotia when they refused to declare their allegiance to the British and to disavow their allegiance to France. Eventually the Acadians settled in Louisiana and became known as Cajuns.

The poem is very popular in Louisiana.

As far as I could tell from my family genealogy files, no one prior to my great grandmother had been named Eulalie, and I had no idea where her name came from.

In May 2017 I went to Louisiana to attend a wedding near Baton Rouge. Later that week I went to New Orleans and met my brother Rob, and we then traveled to Eunice, Louisiana to participate in a Cajun music jam and some other local events. Rather than take the main highway, we decided to travel the smaller roads to see parts of rural Louisiana. My brother was aware that there was a statue honoring Evangeline and the Acadians in the town of St. Martinville, Louisiana which was on the way to Eunice, so we decided to stop and see if we could find the statue.

As we walked along the beautiful Bayou Teche in St. Martinville, we found the Evangeline Oak made famous in the poem. There were several plaques telling the history behind the story of Evangeline. We kept walking along Bayou Teche and found the statue of Evangeline by the St. Martin de Tours Cathedral and more plaques.

The main surprise that day was that, although the story of Evangeline was based on a true story, the real Evangeline was a woman named Emmeline LaBiche. Did my Emeline know that the real Evangeline was a woman named Emmeline, and did their sharing of their first names have anything to do with Jacob and Emeline naming their first child Evangeline?

The poem was published in 1847 and their child Evangeline was born in 1852. Jacob and Emeline were well read, and even though they lived in a small town in Iowa, I assume that they had read the poem. Did they know of Emmeline LaBiche?

I had read parts of the poem Evangeline when I was in the eighth grade in Sioux City, Iowa, but that was a long time ago. When I returned from this Louisiana trip, I re-read the Evangeline. I discovered that the poem also contains a reference to Jacob and the Angels, and Jacob’s Ladder.

Did my Jacob and Emeline view the poem as a sign, with references to both Emmeline and Jacob, and therefore name their first child Evangeline? I was feeling that there was solid evidence at this point.

Early in the poem Henry Wadsworth Longfellow refers to the young Evangeline, in reference to the town where she lived before the expulsion, as

"Sunshine of St. Eulalie, was she called, for that was the sunshine

Which, as the farmers believed, would load their orchards with apples."

Not only had Jacob and Emeline named their first child Evangeline, but they had named their second child, Eulalie, based on a shortened version of a nickname for Evangeline.

Meeting Other Descendants of

People Mentioned in the Letters

Meeting Bill and Carol Klopfenstein

In my journeys of Love and Valor, I met many people who had ancestors mentioned in the letters.

Along these lines, the most important couple I met were Bill and Carol Klopfenstein of Winfield, Iowa. Winfield is about 15 miles northeast of Mt. Pleasant. Carol had several ancestors mentioned in the letters, all very favorably. I became close friends to both Bill and Carol.

We first met when the three of us were all at the Henry County Courthouse doing research on land records one afternoon. Carol left to go to the Mt. Pleasant Library, which was a few blocks away, leaving Bill and me alone in the land records room. Bill finally broke the silence and asked me the names I was researching. I mentioned Ritner and Bereman, and it turned out that both Carol and Bill had read Love and Valor and found all the references to Carol’s family.

Eventually we discovered that Emeline’s parents’ farm was adjacent to Carol’s ancestral farm from the Civil War era, north of Mt. Pleasant about ten miles, which is why the families knew each other so well, and why Jacob and Emeline’s letters contain so many references to Carol’s relatives.

The person in Jacob’s Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry that he most appreciated was Charles Wilson (Wils) Payne, a great great uncle of Carol. Other relatives include Wils’ sisters Rebecca Payne Gardner, and Martha Payne Roads.

Napoleon, Arkansas

January 15, 1863

Dear Emeline,

Wils Payne volunteered to carry the National colors in the fight, and is praised by everyone for his bravery. He is one of the best men we have, and does more for me than any other man I have. When we march he always carries our coffee pot and frying pan and cooks for us. I don’t see how we could do without him.

Your own, Jake

I had many adventures with Carol and Bill, including searching many of the rural cemeteries to find the graves of Civil War soldiers mentioned in Love and Valor. Eventually we compiled this cemetery information in the book The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa.

Ghost Story:

William Browning and His Best Friend Wils Payne

Bill Klopfenstein was involved in a Love and Valor ghost story. Bill and Carol were superb researchers – it was one of their hobbies that they practiced together. During their research, they had found an obituary of a man from Winfield, William Browning, who had been a soldier in Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry. In the obituary it said that near the end of his life, he had written a book titled My Eighty-Three Years of Reminiscence.

Bill and Carol set off to find a copy of the book, asking many of the long-time residents of Winfield if they had a copy. But no luck.

They lived only a few blocks from the Winfield Library, and they would frequently visit the library. As libraries are forced to do, in order to make space for new books, the library culled older books and offered them for sale. During one of these culling sessions, Bill looked through a box of books from the 1930s, and picked one to purchase. His criteria for choosing this particular book – it had the best binding.

When he got home he opened the book and flipped through the pages. And when he did that, a sheet of newsprint fell out. It took a few moments to figure out what it was, but it was startling. When William Browning died in the late 1920’s, the Winfield Beacon newspaper had reprinted My Eighty-Three Years. With very tiny print, the book fit on the front and back of a single sheet of newsprint.

The tiny print was almost too difficult to read, so Bill went back to the library and found that edition of the Winfield Beacon on micro-fiche, and was able to print a readable copy of My Eighty-Three Years.

My Eighty-Three Years contained four references to Jacob Ritner: when he worked as a recruiting officer; when he was promoted from first lieutenant to captain; when he was wounded at the Battle of Ringgold, Georgia; and when at the end of the war, he marched what was left of Company B from the Mt. Pleasant railroad station to the town square, and with a tear in his eye, dismissed Company B for the last time.

But for Bill, Carol, and me, the most amazing find in My Eighty-Three Years was that William Browning’s tent mate during the Civil War and life-long best friend was Wils Payne, Carol’s great great uncle.

==

I have included with these letters the official Historical Sketch of the 1st Iowa and 25th Iowa regiments, published in the first decade of the 1900s in the Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion. I used these to provide necessary and interesting background to understand Jacob’s letters. I have also included articles from the Mt. Pleasant Home Journal and the Burlington Hawkeye newspapers, other historical perspectives and anecdotal information to help explain Jacob and Emeline’s tale.

I hope you will enjoy reading Jacob’s and Emeline’s letters and the historical reports as much as I have. They open to you the thoughts and heart of an Iowa soldier, farmer, and teacher and a loving and strong pioneer woman.

Charles F. Larimer

Great Great Grandson of Jacob and Emeline

1999, Updated 2020

Acknowledgements

This work would never have been done without the help and direction of my father, Robert Chase Larimer, who guided me through much of his genealogical works that included reference books he had collected regarding Iowa and Henry County during the Civil War. During the last year of his life we shared Jacob’s journey together.

Through my work with Love and Valor I made many new and endearing friends, the most important being Bill and Carol Klopfenstein of Winfield, Iowa, which is located just 15 miles northeast of Mt. Pleasant. Carol has several ancestors mentioned in the letters, including Wils Payne of Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry, who was Jacob Ritner’s favorite soldier. Over the years, I spent many weekends with Bill and Carol exploring the cemeteries in and around Henry Country where we found the graves of many of the soldiers and citizens from Love and Valor. Bill himself is involved in a major league Love and Valor ghost story which I describe in the Introduction.

A special thanks to Margaret Wayt DeBolt and her husband Frank of Savannah, Georgia, and Roger Durham of Midway, Georgia who showed me around the Savannah area, and provided reviews of that section of the book. Margaret was the author of Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales, which serves as the basis for many of the ghost tours in Savannah. As described in a ghost story section later in the book, through Margaret I met Savannah sculptor Haywood Nichols, great grandson of Alfred Haywood, the ice merchant of Savannah. Thanks to Haywood Nichols and his wife Judy for providing stories and pictures of Alfred.

Throughout the letters, Jacob mentions the Crane family of Mt. Pleasant, particularly Second Lieutenant Baron Crane who was under Jacob’s command. Jacob did not care for Baron at all, and frequently expressed that in his letters. Emeline would plead with Jacob to be nice to Baron, since Emeline had to deal with other members of the Crane family.

I ended up meeting cousins Fred Crane and Kay Young of Mt. Pleasant, both of whom were direct descendants of Baron Crane. Fred and Kay were both gracious and accepted my apologies for what Jacob had written about Baron. Kay even directed a dramatic reading of Love and Valor as a fund raiser for the Harlan-Lincoln House in Mt. Pleasant.

I went to high school in Sioux City, Iowa with Jim Corkhill, a descendent of Reverend Thomas E. Corkhill of the 25th Iowa Infantry, although Jim and I did not meet until after publication of the original edition of this book. I have become friends with several other members of the Corkhill family including Lettie Corkhill Cunetto and Patty Corkhill.

I included a letter describing the Battle of Lookout Mountain from another soldier in Jacob’s brigade, First Lieutenant Andrew G. Henderson of Maquoketa, Iowa, 31st Iowa Infantry. Andrew’s great great grandson, from whom I received Andrew’s letter, is Jack Hatfield. Although Jack and I met by coincidence in the Chicago area, we both had attended Sioux City Central High School, where we both had the same favorite teacher – Mona Redmond, our math teacher. Jack and his wife Sandy had graduated 10 years before me. As we pieced together our Sioux City connections we discovered that Jack’s mother and my grandmother had been good friends.

I have met several descendants of Emeline’s brother Jont Bereman, including Jan Maltby, Don Hirt, Pat Hjelmeland, and Michelle Johnson; and a descendant of Emeline’s brother Samuel Oliver Ol Bereman, Garth Hagerman. And several descendants of Kittie Ritner, including Bill Elson and his mother Kate (who was named after Kittie Ritner). Bill is involved in the ghost story of the Second Photo Album.

In my many travels to Mt. Pleasant, I have met several people who had ancestors mentioned in the letters including Doris Onarato and Judy Septor.

Special thanks to Ann Crane Farrier, Bruce Allardice, Ken Smith, Jeff Dukes, Becky Peterson, Kevin Wolf, Jerry Zizook, Edmund Zizook, Mike Moreland, Don Young, Don Elder, Neal Nelson, Jeffry Burden, Matthew Schaefer, Peter Binkley, and Philip Hinderberger who helped review my draft manuscripts.

Special thanks to many people who became friends after the publication of the book, and who helped me with additional research, including Bill and Carol Klopfenstein, Pat Ryan White, Fred Crane, Kay Young, Lettie Corkhill Cunetto, Jim Corkhill, Lynn Ellsworth, Becky Wright, Joy Lynn Conwell, Barbara Bird, Mike Conklin, Cynthia Pickard, Ann Hull, Garth Hagerman, Roger Davis, Wayne and Gwen Moore, Mary Bjorenson Dreier, Dennis Black, Jeanine Donnelly Owens, and Barbara Whalen.

And thanks to the cast and crew of the Love & Valor movie including Brian Pittman, Ann Cejka, Chuck Zehner, Juan Lopez, Jenny Stolte Drewes, Harry Walker, Jeremy Colin Campbell, Mary Leifert, Theresa Pendleton, and Sue and Jim Klopfenstein.

Family Trees

Photos

Committee from Aid Society to clean the house for Rev. F. E. Weston and Family in 1905. Seated – Madam Piper, in tree Miss Harriet Talbot, leaning Miss Emma Ritner, hired helper, Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Shirley, Mrs. Sweet & Miss Nellie Ritner rest of members.

Committee from Aid Society 1905. Nellie Ritner, Madams Piper, Shirley, extra hired, Mitchell, Sweet. Standing Harriet Talbott, Emma Louise Ritner. Getting the house ready for Pastor F. E. Weston & Family on S Main St.

Circa 1899, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

Seated in left section: Nellie Althea Chase, Olive Merrill Chase, Emma Ritner, Dorothy Bemis(?), Tommie (TJ) Ritner;

Middle section standing: Damaris Ross Bereman (wife of Ol), Annie Murphy Ritner (wife of TJ), son of Annie & TJ, Eulalie Ritner Chase, Charles Chase (husband of Eulalie);

Seated: Emeline, Samuel Oliver Ol Bereman, Billy Bereman(?)

Miriam Eulalie Chase (Larimer) (daughter of Eulalie),

Front: ? Bemis (daughter of Kittie Ritner Bemis), Carlton Ritner Chase (son of Eulalie), Sumner Bereman Chase (son of Eulalie)

Right section standing: Nellie Ritner, wives of Thomas Bereman (Anna Emily Paxon Bereman) / Billy Bereman (Kittie Conklin Bereman)

Circa 1899, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

Left section: Nellie Althea Chase (typed original letters, daughter of Eulalie & Charles Chase), Olive Merrill Chase (daughter of Eulalie & Charles);

Middle section standing: Emma Ritner, Tommie (TJ) Ritner, Dorothy(?) Bemis (daughter of Kate and Fred Bemis), Damaris Ross Bereman (wife of Ol), Annie Murphy (wife of TJ Ritner), Eulalie Ritner Chase, Charles Sumner Chase (husband of Eulalie), wife of Thomas Bereman (Anna Emily Paxon Bereman) or Billy Bereman (Kittie Conklin Bereman);

Seated: Emeline, Samuel Oliver Ol Bereman; William Bereman;

Front: ? Bemis (daughter of Kate Kittie and Fred Bemis), Carlton Ritner Chase, Sumner Bereman Chase, Miriam Eulalie Chase (Larimer) (children of Eulalie and Charles)

Circa 1908, Iowa City, Iowa.

Back row: Emma Ritner, Olive M. Chase, Emeline Bereman Ritner

3rd row standing, from left: Charles Sumner Chase (husband of Eulalie), Tommie (TJ) Ritner, Kate Kittie Ritner Bemis, Nellie Ritner, Nellie Althea Chase, Carlton R. Chase (son of Eulalie & Charles

2nd row, from left: Eulalie Ritner Chase, Annie Murphy Ritner (wife of TJ), Fred Bemis (husband of Kittie)

Front row, from left: Miriam Eulalie Chase (Larimer), daughter of Eulalie & Charles, Freda Bemis, Robert J. Ritner, Sumner B. Chase (son of Eulalie & Charles)

Maps

Chapter One

Before the War

1836

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), the famous poet, newspaper editor, and abolitionist, would frequently write poems honoring other abolitionists. In 1836 he wrote the poem Ritner honoring Jacob Ritner’s grandfather, Joseph Ritner, who was then the governor of Pennsylvania.

Ritner

Written on reading the Message of Governor Ritner, of Pennsylvania, 1836. The fact redounds to the credit and serves to perpetuate the memory of the independent farmer and high-souled statesman, that he alone of all the Governors of the Union in 1836 met the insulting demands and menaces of the South in a manner becoming a freeman and hater of Slavery, in his message to the Legislature of Pennsylvania.

THANK God for the token! one lip is still free,

One spirit untrammelled, unbending one knee!

Like the oak of the mountain, deep-rooted and firm,

Erect, when the multitude bends to the storm;

When traitors to Freedom, and Honor, and God,

Are bowed at an Idol polluted with blood;

When the recreant North has forgotten her trust,

And the lip of her honor is low in the dust,—

Thank God, that one arm from the shackle has broken!

Thank God, that one man as a freeman has spoken!

…

1838

The Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1838 was highly contentious and the results were confusing and contested, with both sides charging the other with vote fraud. The mob action in the aftermath of the election is referred to as the Buckshot War, although no one was seriously injured.

Supporting Governor Joseph Ritner was his Secretary of Canals, Thaddeus Stevens, who during the Civil War, had become a US Congressman and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a powerful position.

Issues that tied Ritner and Stevens together were the abolition of slavery and the support of public education.

Ritner conceded the election, but only after unsuccessfully trying to first call federal troops and then state militia to quell the mobs.

1848

In 1848, officials in charge of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. sealed a time capsule sealed into the structure. The time capsule contained documents of national interest, including a book written by Joseph Ritner, Vindication of General Washington from the Stigma of Adherence to Secret Societies, along with correspondence between Joseph Ritner and the famous politician, Senator Daniel Webster. In this book, Joseph Ritner presented the case that, although George Washington had formally been a Mason, he was not really a Mason. Ritner attempted to clear the reputation of George Washington from any dishonor from having been a Mason.

Although the premise of Vindication of George Washington is disputed, scholars still consider the book to be culturally important.

1849

STUDENT’S INSTITUTE.

The students of the Mount Pleasant High School and Female Seminary, having formed themselves into a Society bearing the above name, with ‘Mutual Improvement’ for its Motto, respectfully announce to the citizens of this place that they will hold public meetings every Friday evening in the Students’ Hall.

The exercises will consist chiefly in the reading of a paper styled the Institute Review, Essays, Orations, and the discussion of questions having for their object Practical Utility.

The citizens are cordially invited to attend.

JACOB RITNER, Pres’t.

O.P. HOWE, Sec’y.

(The Iowa Freeman, Kelsey and Howe Editors, July 10, 1849, Volume II, No. 12, page 3)

1851

Danville [Iowa]

March 14, 1851

Dearest Emeline,

According to promise, I take my pen to write you a few lines to let you know where I am and what I am doing. If you are as anxious to hear from me as I am to hear from you, I am sure you will receive them with pleasure. And it has been just one week today since we parted. Would you believe it? Doesn’t it seem like an awful long time to you. It does to me. I assure you I had appointed today to write to you, but I could hardly wait till it came. It had seemed to me sometimes, Emeline, that it was too hard to be reparted from you so long. Was it not cruelly? Did we not do an unjustifiable violence to our own feelings when we parted for so long a time. How ardently have I desired to see you once more. If it was only [for] a few minutes. I have sometimes almost come to the conclusion that I would get up there at all hazard and see you once more before we meet to part no more. But, I suppose I had better not. One week is gone. Every day the time to draws more near. Oh how I long for the time to come when I shall clasp you once more in my arms. But, there is one thing gives me unspeakable happiness and satisfaction to me, that is a firm belief that you love me. I doubt not but that even now while I am writing, you are thinking of me. The longer I am separated from you, the more I feel my heart drawn out towards you and the better I love you. I thank God that by his providence he even brought us together. The thought that you love and have consented to be mine causes a thrill of pleasure to pass through my soul that would repay me for months of separation. But, my heart is full ...

I left town in the stage about two o’clock and got to Messengers about sundown. I there learned that the Baptists were holding a protracted meeting at the Center and that our folks would all be there. So, I went to a meeting in place of going home and I have not done anything but go to meetings since ... The church is thoroughly received and is coming up to the help of the Lord again. The mighty hardened sinners are rowing at the boat of the cross. Satan trembles before the advancing cause of Christ and the Kingdom of Darkness is fast giving way.

As for myself, I feel rather cold and indifferent. I do not enjoy myself in the subject of religion as well it is my privilege to do. I have sometimes almost doubted whether I was not deceived and had never been adopted into the family of the saints. Perhaps it is because I [have] so much else upon my mind that I cannot think of religion.

But, I suppose you are anxious to hear what our folks say to the match—well, I will tell you all about it. I had not been home long before I divulged the mighty secret. It came rather unexpectedly, of course. But, neither of them had any objection at all. They said they were glad I had concluded to settle myself, then appeared to be every bit as well pleased as your folks are. Father said if we would come down here and live, he would build a house for us and let me have as much land to work as I wanted for nothing. But, I told him that I did not think you would like to live down here and that your mother wanted us to stay in that neighborhood and that I would rather live there myself than here. They now have no objections to our living up there and will help us all they can ...

Now Emeline, my dearest Emeline, we must part again. —Remember that my life is bound up in your love. I feel myself under infinite obligation to love, honor and protect you as long as life shall last. I have much to say, but cannot say it now. Only this, doubt not my constancy and be ready to go with me to the altar when I come. I almost think I feel the grasp of your hand, but farewell, my Emeline. May God be with you and protect you.

Your humble unworthy lover, Jake

Emeline and Jacob married three weeks later, on April 3, 1851. After their marriage, Jacob became a teacher and moved his family to Ft. Madison, Iowa, close to the Missouri border.

1854-1860

As the slavery issue boiled in the United States, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed the citizens of new territories themselves to vote on whether the territory, when admitted as a state, would allow slavery or not. Soon both pro-slavery supporters, primarily from Missouri and referred to as Border Ruffians, and anti-slavery supporters from northern states, including Iowa and referred to as Free-Staters, rushed into Kansas, leading to extreme hostilities between those two groups.

One of the most violent Free-Staters was the abolitionist John Brown, who later led the attack on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859.

Several men from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa went to Kansas as Free-Staters, including two of Emeline’s brothers, Alvah and Thomas Bereman.

Excerpt from a news article written by Olive Cole Smith - daughter of Rev. W. R. Cole and his wife Cordelia Throop. (Mt. Pleasant News, Friday, February 10, 1933, page 3):

From family letters I learn that men went from Mt. Pleasant to Kansas in groups of ten. Mr. Throop wrote to his sister, Cordelia, that W. R. Cole might not be able to visit her, as he was responsible for financing ten men to go to Kansas to help swell the votes for Free Kansas. I find one letter from Tom Bereman, after he got to Kansas, stating he liked it and would be glad to stay if the girl to whom he was engaged would agree. His brother, Alvah, also went at that time to Kansas. Neither of them remained, however. The Bereman family was one of the best of the early families in the county and we come across their names in everything that helped make this a better community.

Excerpt from THE BYSTANDER’S NOTES, (Mt. Pleasant News, December 1, 1944, page 2)

But Henry County was one of the outstanding northern communities where opposition to slavery was courageously militant. It might be interesting to note that when John Brown was out in Kansas, fighting the extension of slavery in that area, men from Iowa, and even from Mt. Pleasant hurried to Kansas to join the ranks of Brown’s defenders. In 1856, a group of young men left Mt. Pleasant for Lawrence, Kans., where a large force of pro-slavery men were gathered to annihilate Brown’s forces. Among those, who left here were Major T.A. [Thomas] Bereman and his brother, A.H. [Alvah] Bereman, O.P. Howe, T.S. [Thaddeus] Stanton, Alpheus Palmer, J.S. Everingham and others. The night before the battle, John Brown of immortal fame, shared the blanket of Major Bereman and Stanton.

A Rattlesnake—From Jacob to Emeline’s Father

Fort Madison, Iowa

December 27, 1857

Mr. S.E. Bereman,–:

Dear Sir–:

... Well, my school continues to flourish like a pumpkin vine in a garden ... I have only had between 50 and 60 scholars so far on this quarter (the real number that came last quarter was 98). But, a great many are coming in after the New Years and I have no doubt that this quarter will average better than the last ...

These people are afraid of the Slavery Question as if it were a rattlesnake. It is the most pro-slavery hole I ever saw. Some have intimated to me that it would not be a prudent to speak out very freely on that subject.

The next question—Resolved that the Constitution of Iowa should be amended. The principle discussion will be on the subject of banks, but I intend to move to strike out the word white. There are scarcely enough free soilers here to save the city from being made an example like Sodom, but for five righteous it is spared ...

Some of you write soon. Give my love to ma and all the rest left (except Aunt).

Yours intensively, J.B. Ritner

1859

Ghost Story: Abolitionists, John Brown, and the Underground Railroad (Editor’s Note)

When I directed the Love and Valor movie, as part of the giving background to the story, I wanted to show that the family were abolitionists before the war. One of the mantras of movie making is Show, don’t tell. This means, within the medium of movie making, if you can show something rather than tell something, the director should always try to do that.

I decided I would provide the abolitionist background by creating an underground railroad scene. We filmed it, and I liked what we had. The problem was that, even though I knew the family were abolitionists (see the John Greenleaf Whittier poem), I did not know if any relative had actually worked on the underground railroad.

I agonized over this and considered removing the underground railroad piece we had filmed. On a whim, I Googled Ritner, underground railroad. A story popped up. It turned out that Jacob’s uncle Abrahm Ritner had been active in the underground railroad in Pennsylvania, so I felt comfortable including the underground railroad scene in the movie.

But that was the tip of this story. Uncle Abrahm died in 1851 in a (real) railroad accident. His widow supported the family by running a boarding house in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

For six months in 1859 a particular man lived at the