Ohio Civil War Era Newspaper Correspondence Database

[Dan Masters]

Just wanted to let my fellow Civil War researchers know that I have constructed a database that lists all of the letters written by soldiers back to their hometown newspapers during the war. This project is an outgrowth of work that I did for the Center for Archival Collections at BGSU about 8-10 years ago; it expands on the northwest Ohio focus to now include newspapers from throughout the state.

The database is always growing- the most recent index I completed was of the Western Reserve Chronicle from Warren, Ohio- this pushed the total of indexed letters to 4,263. Correspondence from many Ohio units of all types (infantry, cavalry, and artillery), in all theaters of the war (eastern, western, far western), and even a few from the Navy. The database also has hundreds of letters written by soldiers serving in non-Ohio units, especially Iowa, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Descriptions of battles famous, infamous, and obscure provide the bulk of the correspondence, along with the odd Army controversy, the seedier side of the war (courts-martial, etc.), and of course the massive outpouring of correspondence in March-May 1863 when it seemed like every soldier in Blue wrote home to press the home folks to continue the vigorous prosecution of the war.

The breadth, depth, and overall quality of many of these letters are superb; they provide an insight and staggering amount of detail regarding the lives and experiences of our Civil War veterans. Some soldiers had letters published on an almost weekly basis; others only had one letter published; many of these accounts have not seen the light of day since their publication 150+ years ago.

I would be happy to perform lookups in this database upon request. The database can be sorted, sliced, and diced in a multitude of ways: by state, regiment, company, county, newspaper, soldier, timeframe, campaign, battle, etc. Just let me know what you're looking for and I'll send you the results.

One of the great things that has changed over the past few years is that so many of these newspapers are now available online through either the Library On Congress' Chronicling America site or through Google Newspapers. Once you know where to look, you will be able to read these lost gems of Civil War history for yourself without having to spend countless hours trolling through endless reels of microfilm trying to find them.

I am currently in process of indexing the Delaware Gazette and should have this complete within the next 10 days- this should add another 250 letters to the database. I have identified 32 more Ohio newspapers that I will be indexing next- all of these available online.

Long term, I would like to index the remaining 139 Ohio state newspapers that have not yet been placed online-all of them are available on microfilm from the Ohio Historical Society. Then there is another 195 online newspapers from out of state...but I'll stick with Ohio for now.

I have limited my indexing to those newspapers published between April 15, 1861-May 31, 1865, embracing the primary timeline of combat operations. The database, while not yet complete, includes the completed indexes of the following 38 newspapers:

Allen County Democrat

Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph

Bryan Democrat

Bryan Press and Leader

Bryan Union Press

Bucyrus Journal

Church Advocate (Lancaster, PA)

Crawford County Forum

Daily Toledo Herald and Times

Darke County Democrat

Defiance Democrat

Elyria Independent Democrat

Fostoria News

Fremont Journal

Fremont Sentinel

Hancock Courier

Hancock Jeffersonian

Highland Weekly News

Kalida Sentinel

Lima Weekly Gazette

Napoleon North-West

Norwalk Experiment

Norwalk Reflector

Ottawa Democrat

Ottawa Telegram

Paulding Independent

Perrysburg Journal

Sandusky Democrat

Seneca Advertiser

Tiffin Weekly Tribune

Toledo Blade

Toledo Daily Commercial

Union Press (Bryan, OH)

Western Reserve Chronicle

Williams County Leader

Wood County Independent

Wyandot Democratic Union

Wyandot Pioneer

[Greg Biggs]

Dan,

What a fantastic project and thanks for doing this.  Will this data base be publicly accessible at some point?  That would certainly save you a lot of work from answering queries.

Two things if I may.  When I lived in Celina, OH my wife and I called the Wapokoneta newspaper and asked if they had old copies of the Civil War era Auglaize Democrat.  They told us they had bound copies.  As my wife had ancestors in the 71st Ohio and some of the companies came from that county we drove over to the paper and when we got there were told that the bound volumes were too fragile and we could not see them.  Pure rubbish actually as OHS still has numerous bound volumes of Ohio Civil War newspapers that I have been through without any problems.  So we have a good sized Ohio Civil War newspaper that is not on microfilm nor has it been scanned to my knowledge.  If their building burns down so goes these valuable papers.

Is there anything that can be done with this paper in terms of getting it scanned?  The Wapok paper needs to understand how important to local history and genealogy this old newspaper is.  Now this was 17 or so years ago any maybe thing shave changed by now.  have you contacted them?  I know they have these - we could see the bound volumes on the shelves in the back - they pointed them out to us.

Secondly, I do a good bit of research at the Abraham Lincoln Library in Springfield, IL for various Civil War projects and someone who works there has gone through all of the Illinois Civil War era newspapers and indexed the soldier letters.  These are organized by regiment, then by date within the regiment as well as the newspaper involved.  These are not online - they are in three card cabinet drawers like an old library card system.  Now I can state that whoever did this missed some of the letters.  I am working on those of the 83rd Illinois, for example, and have found at least a dozen more letters from its soldiers that he did not have in his card file.  So while this will be very helpful it is not 100 per cent.  Also not indexed are officer reports - some of them ended up in the Official Records but some may not have.

I have found some great first person battle accounts for numerous Civil War battles in which Illinois troops fought proving what you know with your project - that period newspapers remain a huge and largely untapped source for information.

Thanks again for doing your Ohio project - hope it can be uploaded somehow lest we all drive you crazy doing searches!

Greg Biggs
Clarksville, TN

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[Martin Stewart]

Dan:

 

Excellent work – would like to throw my two cents in.  While working on my 71^st OVI book, I searched four counties for newspapers – Miami, Mercer, Auglaize, Shelby.   Only the Troy Times and the Western Standard (Celina in Mercer County) had issues from January 1862 through the end of the war.  Nothing in Auglaize County (at least nothing available to the public)   There were a few issues of a Piqua Paper late in the war but nothing of substance.

 

 

Martin Stewart 

Troy, Ohio  

 

Author "Redemption The History of the 71st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War"

[Martin Stewart]

Dan:

 

Since you offered – anything pop up in your database on an early Regiment known as “Benton’s Cadets?”

 

Mustered in early October 1861 and sent to Missouri to join Fremont.   Two companies from Shelby County (including GG Grandfather William Wesley Stewart) and two companies from Cincinnati. 

 

Dismissed by Halleck first week of January in Missouri as a result of the fallout between Mr. Lincoln and Fremont. 

 

Again, no Shelby County newspapers from that era existg.

 

Thank you.

 

Martin Stewart 

Troy, Ohio  

 

Author "Redemption The History of the 71st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War"

 

 

 

 

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[Greg Biggs]

Martin,

As I mentioned, the current Wapokoneta newspaper holds the Civil War era Auglaize Democrat in bound books at their building.  I saw them years ago but they refused to let us look through them.  Something needs to be done here as that is a wealth of information that needs to be digitized or microfilmed for posterity in case that place burns down or is destroyed in a tornado.  A lot of local history is being kept from the people.

BTW - the Dayton paper also had 71st Ohio stuff in it.

Greg Biggs

[Dan Masters]

Martin:

Thanks for your kind words. Thus far, I have no come across anything for Benton's Cadets or the 71st OVI, but most of my work thus far has not been in that region of the state.

I have run into instances where neighboring counties will publish/re-publish a particularly good letter from a nearby county. I have seen this in the Delaware Gazette where there are several instances of them re-publishing letters from the Marion newspaper (nothing existing anymore from the war years) or the Marysville Tribune from nearby Union County. This also occurred with the Ashtabula Telegraph including accounts from the Cleveland Herald or Western Reserve Chronicle- I always include these in the indexes as there's never a guarantee that the paper that it was originally cited in is still around to peruse.

As regards the Auglaize Democrat, I'm not sure what can be done to persuade the "keeper of the keys" to allow someone to either come in and microfilm those issues or film them and convert into PDF files for publication online. I'm a little surprised that the Ohio Historical Society hasn't been able to secure copies; perhaps they are unaware that this opportunity exists? Until Greg mentioned it, I'd never heard anything about it. 

Here's the list of the next 32 Ohio newspapers that I'm aiming to tackle in no particular order:

Ashland Union

Belmont Chronicle

Urbana Union

Cleveland Morning Leader

Delaware Gazette

Lancaster Gazette

Fayette County Herald

Daily Ohio Statesman

Gallipolis Journal

Jeffersonian Democrat

Xenia Sentinel

Cincinnati Press

Cadiz Democratic Sentinel

Holmes County Republican

Holmes County Farmer

Jackson Standard

Pomeroy Telegraph

Woodsfield Spirit of Democracy

Dayton Daily Empire

Portage Sentinel

Portage County Democrat

Democratic Press

Stark County Democrat

Ohio Democrat

McArthur Democrat

Springfield Daily News

Coshocton Age

Guernsey Times

Painesville Telegraph

Richland Shield and Banner

Sidney Weekly Journal

Wayne County Democrat

Bryan Times

[Dan Masters]

Greg:

Thanks for your note and encouragement. At this time, I do not have plans to make the entire database publicly available as I am still contemplating options in that regard. However, as I said, I will be more than happy to perform lookups upon request so that the Civil War community can gain some value from this work while I make up my mind ultimately what I'm going to do with it.

I was also excited to see your note about this work already being complete for the Illinois newspapers. I have been building a huge archive of material (I'm at 10-11,000 paqes of letters, diaries, and accounts at last check) related to the Battle of Stones River over the past 15 years and as many Illinois regiments took part in that battle, I have always wanted to go through those newspapers and extract out the accounts. That someone else has already done the indexing work will save me boatloads of time in that enterprise. Thanks for the tip. 

[Greg Biggs]

Hi Dan,

I did mention it at the time to John Haas at OHS (again this was at least 17 years ago) but not sure if they ever chased that rabbit down.

This would be a worthwhile project and perhaps the folks at the Wapok newspaper can be made to "see the light" and protect the historical legacy of the press in Auglaize County.  Since you have the experience in the BGSU project hopefully you are the one that can make this happen.  There will be some key 71st Ohio stuff in there (LTC Barton Kyle was from that county and actually raised the regiment) amongst other OVI units.

Greg Biggs

[Greg Biggs]

Dan,

Happy to help save the time.

I look for several things for research:

1) Ohio units capturing Confederate flags accounts

2) Ohio soldier accounts for these battles/campaigns:

Fort Donelson; Nashville (1864); Franklin (1864); Atlanta Campaign (1864); Tullahoma Campaign (mid-1863); Chattanooga and Chickamauga Campaigns; Stones River Campaign.  Also various stuff for Tennessee and Georgia.

Greg Biggs

Greg:

Thanks for your note and encouragement. At this time, I do not have plans to make the entire database publicly available as I am still contemplating options in that regard. However, as I said, I will be more than happy to perform lookups upon request so that the Civil War community can gain some value from this work while I make up my mind ultimately what I'm going to do with it.

I was also excited to see your note about this work already being complete for the Illinois newspapers. I have been building a huge archive of material (I'm at 10-11,000 paqes of letters, diaries, and accounts at last check) related to the Battle of Stones River over the past 15 years and as many Illinois regiments took part in that battle, I have always wanted to go through those newspapers and extract out the accounts. That someone else has already done the indexing work will save me boatloads of time in that enterprise. Thanks for the tip. 

[J. Reinhart]

I would be interested in any letters from the 9th Ohio Infantry

Thanks

Joe Reinhart

jre...@yahoo.com

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[Lael Marlow]

Hello from Alaska,

If you don't have any particular preference, choose the Pomeroy Telegraph!  I am interested in the 116th OVI.  My gg grandfather, James M. Hartley died in the charge on Fort Gregg just a few days before the end of the war. and have not found much information online.  What a wonderful thing you are doing!

Best wishes,

Lael Hartley Marlow

[Dan Masters]

Joe:

Thanks for the note. I have not yet come across anything from the 9th Ohio Infantry, but have been focusing my efforts on indexing English language newspapers so I wouldn't expect to find much from "Der Neuner." Will keep you posted as to progress.

On Friday, February 12, 2016 at 2:59:52 PM UTC-5, J. Reinhart wrote:

[Dan Masters]

Lael:

Thanks for the note. I am currently working on the Lancaster Gazette, but will gladly take on the Pomeroy Telegraph next. I have come across two letters from members of the 116th OVI thus far in my work. Both newspapers are available online at the Chronicling America website:

Newspaper                       County      State  Issue              Pg   Correspondent               Rank    Letter

Belmont Chronicle	Belmont	OH	October 8, 1863	4	Bassett, William H.	PVT	Martinsburg, Virginia, September 24, 1863    Co. C, 116th OVI
Tiffin Weekly Tribune	Seneca	OH	February 11, 1864	2	Brown, Josiah L.	ASUG	North Mountain, Virginia, January 24, 1864,  116th OVI

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/?state=Ohio&ethnicity=&language=

On Friday, February 12, 2016 at 11:09:57 PM UTC-5, Lael wrote:

[J. Reinhart]

Thanks

Joe

[Lael Marlow]

Dan,

Thank you for generously taking time to email me this link and information.  I really appreciate it!

Lael

[Sandra Commager]

Dan, Thank you for this collection.

I was wondering if there was any correspondence from any of the following:  Henry Steele Commager, David Hedges Commager, or Frank Young Commager.  Sometimes the name is frequently mispelled Comager or Commanger.  All three served in the Civil War.  Henry was eventually promoted to General.  The served several different units from Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania but were from Toledo.  Thanks for all this work!

Sandra Commager

[Dan Masters]

Sandra:

Thanks for the message and good to hear from you. I have collected quite a pile of correspondence from the 67th Ohio Infantry, my favorite local eastern theater unit of which Lt. Col. Commager was connected for a good portion of his service. Thus far, I have found two letters penned by Henry Steele Commager, both published in the Toledo Blade which is unfortunately not available online for perusal. However, I do have copies in my collection. The letters date as follows:

Toledo Blade, March 15, 1864, pg. 2, dated Headquarters 85th Pennsylvania Vols., Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, February 15, 1864 (letters covers the expedition to Whitmarsh Island, Georgia)

Toledo Blade, June 3, 1864, pg. 2, dated Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, May 12, 1864 (I believe that Commager was the author of this letter but am not 100% certain as the letter writer is not cited directly; this letter discusses the battle of Chester Station, Va. on May 10, 1864)

A check of the index does not show any further letters from any of the Commagers. I do know that the Delaware Gazette had a brief notice of Commager returning to Delaware, Ohio to recuperate after he was wounded at Fort Wagner in July 1863, but don't recall seeing anything else locally.

Best Regards,

Dan Masters

[Judy Miller]

Dan and all,

My Great Granduncle Levi McConkey was in the 67th. He kept a diary which was sold at auction December 2011. I did not know of its existence until I started doing genealogy.

He and his brother, Isaiah, were present at Appomattox.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=299711&GRid=8860401&

This is a  link to Levi's FAG site.

Judy Miller

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[Royal Magnell]

Dan, 

Do you have anything for the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, the 87th Indiana Infantry, the 4th U.S. Artillery Battery I, or the 1st East Tennessee Cavalry (Brownlow's)? 

[Joe Reinhart]

No


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Friday, March 22, 2019, 3:12 AM, Royal Magnell <royale...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dan, 

Do you have anything for the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, the 87th Indiana Infantry, the 4th U.S. Artillery Battery I, or the 1st East Tennessee Cavalry (Brownlow's)? 

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[Dan Masters]

Royal,

Thanks for the note. I haven't come across any letters from those units in my research this far.

Best regards,

Dan Masters

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID

On Mar 22, 2019 3:12 AM, Royal Magnell <royale...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dan, 

Do you have anything for the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, the 87th Indiana Infantry, the 4th U.S. Artillery Battery I, or the 1st East Tennessee Cavalry (Brownlow's)? 

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[Stuart Salling]

Mr. Dan, this is amazing. I'm writing a manuscript on the Battle of Bayou Bourbeaux fought on November 3, 1863. Yes, a small and obscure battle in the war but in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, this was our biggest battle of the war. I've been hard at researching and writing for 10-11 years. I've been able to access several Ohio newspapers and find a lot of great letters from men at the battle but I KNOW there has to be more out there. The 83rd Ohio Infantry, 96th Ohio Infantry, and the 17th Ohio Independent Battery fought at this battle. Of the three, information on the 96th Ohio Infantry would be ranked #1 importance, then the 17th Ohio Battery, and then the 83rd Ohio. Could I make a request a search on through your database on these units during the months of September-December 1863? Those months cover the Texas Overland Campaign. 

[Stuart Salling]

Also, here are some good leads I found worked. Union soldiers commonly referred to this battle as "Carrion Crow", "Grand Coteau" and sometimes they threw in the word prairie--Carrion Crow Prairie, Grand Coteau Prairie. 

[L Clay]

Dan,

That looks like it took a lot of time and patients. I would like to thank you for all your hard work ! 

 I had an ancestor in the OVI 67th Co F from Nov. 1862 thru Jul 1863. He wrote several letters home to his wife. These letters (and some envelopes) were saved by my family through the generations and I have managed to transcribe them to Word documents. My mom started this work and it was archived at BGSU, however she was unable to scan the originals and some of the last letters were written in pencil and faded so bad they were hard for her to read. With the scanning I was able to "enhance" the letters and pick up what she wasn't able to.

He only saw action toward the end of his service in Virginia, where he contracted diphtheria and was sent to a military hospital where he eventually passed.

If these letters would be of interest to your collection please let me know. If you have any other info on the OVI 67th Co F please let me know.

Loren Clay 

[dam...@aol.com]

Stuart,

I have performed a check of the database and come up with the following:

83rd Ohio- no letters within this timeframe

96th Ohio- I found five letters in the Delaware Gazette that cover this timeframe or discuss this battle in particular. (File attached) The Delaware Gazette can be accessed online through Chronicling America at: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035595/

17th Ohio Battery- no letters yet found

I'm currently working on a battle accounts project covering the state of Ohio and transcribed the Lyman Huntley letter- it's short but a good account:

First Lieutenant Lyman S. Huntley, Co. G, 96th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Delaware Gazette, December 4, 1863

Action at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, November 3, 1863

Vermillion Bayou, Louisiana

November 6, 1863

I will now improve the first opportunity to write you to let you know that I am still alive and well. On the third of this month we had a very hard fight with the Rebels and our regiment was badly cut up. We went into the fight with nearly 200 men and lost 117 in killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. I went into the fight with 23 men in my company (G) and lost one killed, one wounded, and nine taken prisoners. The captain was sick at the time and not able to be with us but was taken prisoner. The one that was killed in Co. G was Isaac K. White from near Eden. Patrick M. Elliott was wounded in four places: in the knee, arm, thumb, and third finger, but the doctor tells me he is doing very well. Erwin B. Arnold. Wallace W. Townley, Pet Courter, Henry M. Fuller, William C. Flagg, James W. Jackson, Joseph Hoover, and Alfred H. Bardswell were taken prisoners. Bardswell was wounded in the side and taken and the next day exchanged. He says the Rebels treated him very well while with them and when he left the captain and the boys were well and in fine spirits.

We had to fight against a superior force, at least four to one. We, in the beginning, had to support the 17th Ohio Battery, but in a short time the 60th Indiana and 23rd Wisconsin were overpowered and driven back and we went in on the double quick. We came right in front of the main Rebel infantry force and such a fight as we had for a few minutes I never wish to see again. The Rebels were on two sides of us and of course had a raking crossfire on us. Their cavalry charged on the left and we were compelled to fall back for about a mile. Then one brigade of the Third Division came to our assistance and we rallied again and then came the Rebels’ time to retreat. We drove them for about three miles when our men became too tired to pursue them any farther. The next day was spent in burying the dead and caring for the wounded. We learned that the Rebels had received heavy reinforcements and yesterday we fell back to this place where we will remain a day or two and where part of the 19th Corps are encamped.

I have only 18 men left in the company and I am very lonely.

Hope this helps you on your journey...

Best Regards,

Dan Masters

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Salling <ssal...@cox.net>
To: Ohio in the Civil War <ohio-in-the...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, May 14, 2019 11:25 pm
Subject: Re: Ohio Civil War Era Newspaper Correspondence Database

Mr. Don, this is amazing. I'm writing a manuscript on the Battle of Bayou Bourbeaux fought on November 3, 1863. Yes, a small and obscure battle in the war but in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, this was our biggest battle of the war. I've been hard at researching and writing for 10-11 years. I've been able to access several Ohio newspapers and find a lot of great letters from men at the battle but I KNOW there has to be more out there. The 83rd Ohio Infantry, 96th Ohio Infantry, and the 17th Ohio Independent Battery fought at this battle. Of the three, information on the 96th Ohio Infantry would be ranked #1 importance, then the 17th Ohio Battery, and then the 83rd Ohio. Could I make a request a search on through your database on these units during the months of September-December 1863? Those months cover the Texas Overland Campaign. 

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[Carl Denbow]

If you are still working on this project, you might want to include the Athens Messenger, which has good coverage throughout the war, and published a number of letters from soldiers, including several from Milton Holland, who raised Company C., of what became the 5th United States Colored Infantry on the Athens County Fairgrounds in 1863.  Holland is one of four Athens County men to have received the MOH for Civil War service.  In his case it was for heroic action in the Battle of New Market Heights (Chaffin's Farm) outside Richmond.  Just a thought . . . Carl 

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