From Jerome to Allie, December 20, 1863
Dublin Core
Title
From Jerome to Allie, December 20, 1863
Subject
Pierce, Jerome
Allie
Tazewell, TN
Description
From Jerome to Allie
Creator
Jerome Pierce
Source
Jerome Peirce Collection, National Park Service
Publisher
HIST 428 (Spring 2020), University of Mary Washington
Date
1863-12-20
Contributor
NPS, Civil War Study Group, Tom Neubig (transcriber)
Rights
For educational purposes with no commercial use. Courtesy of National Park Service, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, FRSP 16095-16102 (FRSP-00904).
Format
"5.57 X 3.05" - 1st Scan
"4.93 X 8.05" - 2nd Scan
"9.96 X 8.05 - 3rd Scan
"4.93 X 5.29" - 4th Scan
(JPG)
"4.93 X 8.05" - 2nd Scan
"9.96 X 8.05 - 3rd Scan
"4.93 X 5.29" - 4th Scan
(JPG)
Language
English
Type
Text
Identifier
Letter #184
Coverage
Tazewell, TN
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Tazewell Tenn. Dec. 20 1863
My ever dear wife,
A beautiful clear cold Sunday morning. Busy most of last week fixing up new quarters (near the officer’s tents) and last eve. sat down by a nice comfortable fire and thinking what a good time I would have reading and writing to you and others. When lo in the night an order came to move! So here we are just finished breakfast and I have only time to send my love and remembrance in a few lines.
No letters from you or friends since the one of the 16 Nov. at the Gap. But now we are heading for Knoxville and we hope once more to reach it. Expect there will be a collision somewhere as it is supposed the enemy have been reinforced by Ewell’s Corps from Virginia. We shall not be in the front probably as the Commissary is kept at a safe distance.
Have been kept in uncertainty as to my future. Am still with Lieut. Cross and a little show for a detail but not certain. No favorable opportunity has offered that I could safely join the Regt. A squad the other day started when the train some 20 wagons and most of the men were captured the same night near or at Clinch Mountain a few miles from here. I came near being with them. You no doubt know more of the situation here than us. Lieut. Hodgkins went to the Regt. the other day when at Rutledge. They lost 30 killed and wounded in getting from Loudon to Knoxville. Among the killed was Lieut. Holmes of Co. B (of C[harlestown]) and Corp. Houghton, the one who took the colors from me when I went home.
I am in excellent health and spirits, but I want my letters from you. I feel strange and lost without the good words from home. But still I write away once a week to you knowing you will hear from me if I can’t from you.
I am acting upon the advice of the officers here in all I do. Hope by and by all will come out well. The Regt. have not yet been paid off so as far as that goes I am as well off as I can be.
But I must close to pack up. Don’t know where I shall write from next, but my thoughts are always with you.
Adieu with love to all. A kiss for Lulu.
As ever,
Jerome
My ever dear wife,
A beautiful clear cold Sunday morning. Busy most of last week fixing up new quarters (near the officer’s tents) and last eve. sat down by a nice comfortable fire and thinking what a good time I would have reading and writing to you and others. When lo in the night an order came to move! So here we are just finished breakfast and I have only time to send my love and remembrance in a few lines.
No letters from you or friends since the one of the 16 Nov. at the Gap. But now we are heading for Knoxville and we hope once more to reach it. Expect there will be a collision somewhere as it is supposed the enemy have been reinforced by Ewell’s Corps from Virginia. We shall not be in the front probably as the Commissary is kept at a safe distance.
Have been kept in uncertainty as to my future. Am still with Lieut. Cross and a little show for a detail but not certain. No favorable opportunity has offered that I could safely join the Regt. A squad the other day started when the train some 20 wagons and most of the men were captured the same night near or at Clinch Mountain a few miles from here. I came near being with them. You no doubt know more of the situation here than us. Lieut. Hodgkins went to the Regt. the other day when at Rutledge. They lost 30 killed and wounded in getting from Loudon to Knoxville. Among the killed was Lieut. Holmes of Co. B (of C[harlestown]) and Corp. Houghton, the one who took the colors from me when I went home.
I am in excellent health and spirits, but I want my letters from you. I feel strange and lost without the good words from home. But still I write away once a week to you knowing you will hear from me if I can’t from you.
I am acting upon the advice of the officers here in all I do. Hope by and by all will come out well. The Regt. have not yet been paid off so as far as that goes I am as well off as I can be.
But I must close to pack up. Don’t know where I shall write from next, but my thoughts are always with you.
Adieu with love to all. A kiss for Lulu.
As ever,
Jerome
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
NOTE 1: The Regimental History notes that Lieutenant Hodgkins rejoined the regiment from home leave and detached service at Cumberland Gap on December 11th. He provided news that mail and supplies were at Tazewell. The supply-train arrived on the 13th and mail arrived the following day. (p. 123) Since Jerome wasn’t with the Regiment, his last mail was from Nov. 16th, and he wrote this letter on Dec. 20, 1863.
NOTE 2: The Regimental History also references the night of Dec. 13th when during the night there were orders to march at early dawn, but they remained at Rutledge. The History notes that Longstreet attacked the Union cavalry at Bean’s Station, and captured a wagon train. (p. 124)
NOTE 3: Lieutenant P. Marion Holmes of Company B from Charleston was killed in action at Campbell’s Station on Nov. 16, 1863. Jerome’s letter of Dec 20th refers to fighting in mid-November as “the other day.”
NOTE 4: There is no reference in the Regimental History to a Corporal Houghton killed in East Tennessee. A Private Joshua Houghton was killed in May 1864 at the Wilderness, and an Alfred Houghton who transferred from the Regiment to the Second U.S. Cavalry in December 1862.
NOTE 5: First Lieutenant Robert M. Cross was from Palmer, Massachusetts, and he enlisted in Company E on August 22, 1862. He became acting aide-de-camp to Colonel Leasure at Cumberland Gap in 1863 -1864, and was honorably discharged on July 24, 1864.
NOTE 1: The Regimental History notes that Lieutenant Hodgkins rejoined the regiment from home leave and detached service at Cumberland Gap on December 11th. He provided news that mail and supplies were at Tazewell. The supply-train arrived on the 13th and mail arrived the following day. (p. 123) Since Jerome wasn’t with the Regiment, his last mail was from Nov. 16th, and he wrote this letter on Dec. 20, 1863.
NOTE 2: The Regimental History also references the night of Dec. 13th when during the night there were orders to march at early dawn, but they remained at Rutledge. The History notes that Longstreet attacked the Union cavalry at Bean’s Station, and captured a wagon train. (p. 124)
NOTE 3: Lieutenant P. Marion Holmes of Company B from Charleston was killed in action at Campbell’s Station on Nov. 16, 1863. Jerome’s letter of Dec 20th refers to fighting in mid-November as “the other day.”
NOTE 4: There is no reference in the Regimental History to a Corporal Houghton killed in East Tennessee. A Private Joshua Houghton was killed in May 1864 at the Wilderness, and an Alfred Houghton who transferred from the Regiment to the Second U.S. Cavalry in December 1862.
NOTE 5: First Lieutenant Robert M. Cross was from Palmer, Massachusetts, and he enlisted in Company E on August 22, 1862. He became acting aide-de-camp to Colonel Leasure at Cumberland Gap in 1863 -1864, and was honorably discharged on July 24, 1864.
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Letter/Paper
Files
Collection
Reference
Jerome Pierce 1863, From Jerome to Allie, December 20, 1863, HIST 428 (Spring 2020), University of Mary Washington
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