A Union Soldier in Savannah and the Carolinas: A Love and Valor Chapter

By Charles Larimer

"A Union Soldier in Savannah and the Carolinas: A Love and Valor Chapter" offers a captivating look into life during the American Civil War. Both personal and meticulously researched, this one-of-a-kind book offers profound insight into daily life during one of the most difficult moments of American history. This is a must-read for historians and all who are looking to get a rare glimpse into some of the most iconic moments of the Civil War.

"Love and Valor" was the featured Civil War book by the Smithsonian in the month after 9/11 as a testament to the strength of the American family.

Throughout the Civil War, Captain Jacob Ritner and his wife Emeline exchanged an extraordinary series of letters vividly depicting both life on the battlefield and the home front.

Jacob recounts in compelling detail the miliary events of the Western Theater. In this Chapter Book he shares: Sherman's March to the Sea, the Occupation of Savannah, and the Carolina's Campaign. Emeline movingly records the lives of those left behind.

This is also the story of a family of abolitionists whose patriarch wrote on the day of the Emancipation Proclamation: "… if we as a nation refuse to acknowledge the rights of the black man then it may cost us our national existence."

Here is an unforgettable saga, part of our national heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 1, 1900
• ISBN: 9781667836553

Book preview

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In 2000, when the Bonaventure Historical Society and the Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources submitted their formal application to the National Park Service to have Bonaventure Cemetery listed in the National Register of Historic Places, they included Jacob Ritner’s description of Bonaventure Cemetery, which he had visited at the end of Sherman’s March to the Sea, in their application.

I went yesterday to see Bonaventure, which is an old cemetery used by the aristocracy of Savannah. It is one of the most picturesque, as well as gloomy places I was ever in! I wish I could describe it to you. It is planted with live oak and cedar, so thick that they make very dense shade. The trees are large and tall, and have very long branching boughs, which are hung thick with moss. I never saw it grow so long, or the trees so loaded with it before. This gives a gloomy spectral appearance to the place that seems very appropriate to the last resting place of fallen greatness. The vaults and monuments are of marble and very costly.

Captain Jacob B. Ritner

25th Iowa Infantry

Thunderbolt Landing, Georgia

January 12, 1865

Jacob also visited several other places later featured in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, including the Pulaski Monument, which is located on the square where Jim Williams and Lee Adler lived.

Savannah is the finest city I ever saw. The population, white and black, was about 30,000. A great many of the citizens are here yet and are almost in a starving condition. They look like they were well pleased that we have come here, but I don’t go much on the Union sentiment here. There are a great many fine residences here, and the streets are lined with live oak and other shade trees. The monument to Pulaski is the finest thing I ever saw. They have a park with a fountain in the center that is a splendid affair. And they have some church edifices that are said to be the finest in the United States.

Captain Jacob B. Ritner

25th Iowa Infantry

Savannah, Georgia

December 25, 1864

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

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

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)

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)

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.

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, 2022 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): 978-1-66783-654-6

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-66783-655-3

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

Chapter Book Introduction

Introduction

Family Trees

Photos

Chapter One

Before the War

Chapter Two

A Union Soldier in Savannah and the Carolinas

Chapter Three

After the War

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Chapter Book Introduction

This book contains a chapter from the full book, Love and Valor – Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner. We provide this abbreviated version in order to reach a wider audience of readers more interested in the Civil War from regional perspectives.

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,