From Jerome to Allie, May 20, 1863

From Jerome to Allie, May 20, 1863

Peirce, Jerome

Allie

Lexington, KY.

From Jerome to Allie

Jerome Peirce

Jerome Peirce Collection, National Park Service

HIST 428 (Spring 2020), University of Mary Washington

1863-05-20

NPS, Civil War Study Group, Ben Raterman (Transcriber)

For educational purposes with no commercial use. Courtesy of National Park Service, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, FRSP 16095-16102 (FRSP-00904).

5.84 X 7.17
11.16 X 7.17
5.84 X 7.17
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English

Text

Letter #113

Lexington, KY.

LETTER TRANSCRIPTION

Lexington Ky Wednes[day] 20th May 1863
My dearest Wife,
A long pause you will think in my letters. I wrote Abbie last Sunday eve. and expected to write you before, but Monday P.M. the Color Sergeant peeked into my tent [and] says quite mysteriously “fix yourself nice and be ready to leave in an hour.” Accordingly, I fixed and about 5 P.M. six of the color guard in all were all ‘aboard’ an army wagon with all their effects.
Camped in the wagon at Hustonville first night. Tues[day] took an ambulance and came on to here, stopping near our old ‘Camp Dick’ for dinner and arrived here about midnight (took supper at the hotel in Nicholasville). Reported to the ‘Provost Marshal’ and were soon quartered for the night in Main St. It has been a wonder, all this for everybody, for no one could imagine what all the ‘Colors’ were being taken away from the Brigade, for two, yes, three other regts came the same [day] a[nd] the 45th Penn[sylvania] is expected today. All the officers, provost marshals and every official seemed utterly in the dark and even the Maj. Genl. Wilcox, to whom we reported this morn, seemed at first as deep as we were but finally he seemed to know and forthwith the colors ‘were taken in’ to his ‘house’, were provided quarters here in the fairgrounds where A tents are pitched and cooks, rations and all provided in style.
Well, there is to be a grand ball tomorrow eve and the Colors from the whole corps are expected, to decorate and adorn the occasion, and what part we will take remains to be seen. Invitations were sent as far as N.Y. and we came 72 miles. This is one of the great movements I expect.
We left too early for the mail so I have had no letters nor shall expect till we return which will be Sat. or Sunday perhaps.
We are having fine times, liberty to go and come. Am going downtown soon and thought I would just send you a line.
The country is lovely, the grounds where we are fine and fragrant with the locust tree[s]. A kind of a ‘Pic Nick’ for us.
The boys who “generally kept themselves fixed up” were selected by order of the Col. so you see I am not quite careless yet. This for your private ear.
How and where are you and are you still well? No doubt of it and you will be contented with this small affair for this time. Must fix up a little so a kiss and “good day” for today.

Your loving Jerome

P.S. Had a laughable affair with a drunken officer on the road who attempted to arrest us, etc. etc., but sergeant was game and we came out all right.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES (Josef Rokus)

NOTE 1: In reference to “Camp Dick,” Camp “Dick Robinson” was a large Union Army organizational and training center located near Lancaster in rural Garrard County, Kentucky. The camp was established on August 6, 1861, despite the protests of Governor Beriah Magoffin, a strong secessionist and Southern sympathizer. It was located about halfway between Cincinnati and the Cumberland Gap, and was about 30 miles from Lexington, Kentucky. It was constructed on the farm of Captain Dick Robinson, a strong pro-Union supporter. The post served as a rallying point for local loyalists, as well as for Unionists who had left their homes in eastern Tennessee in order to enlist in the Union army. In 1862, the Confederate Army seized the camp and renamed it "Camp Breckinridge," in honor of Confederate general and former U.S. Vice President John C. Breckinridge, a native Kentuckian. The advance of the Union army into the region forced the Rebels to abandon the camp, and Federal troops regained its possession for the remainder of the war. After hostilities ceased in 1865, the camp was phased out of existence.

NOTE 2: At the time Jerome wrote this letter he was part of the Color Guard for the 36th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which had the responsibility of guarding the “Colors’, i.e., the battle flag, of the Regiment.

NOTE 3: The “A Tent” or “Wedge Tent” was a canvas tent stretched across a six-foot long horizontal bar with two vertical supporting bars in the front and back. These Civil War tents could sleep up to six men, but could only accommodate four men comfortably. If five or six soldiers were sharing the tent, they would have to turn over at the same time. It was a rather large tent and was not easy to transport when an army was on the march.

NOTE 4: The “Col.” he refers to was Henry Bowman, from Clinton, Massachusetts, who enlisted as a Captain in the 15th Massachusetts Volunteers on August 1, 1861. He was captured at Ball’s Bluff, Loudon County, Virginia, on October 21, 1861. He was a prisoner of war at Richmond and was a hostage for Confederates held in New York for trial as pirates. Bowman was exchanged in August 1862. On August 22, 1862, he was promoted to colonel, commanding the 36th Massachusetts. He resigned on July 27, 1863, but was recommissioned in October of 1863. He subsequently served in different units, including at Baltimore and Philadelphia until the close of the war.

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