GILES WALDO SHURTLEFF: A BIOGRAPHY OF OBERLIN’S FAVORITE SON A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by John L. Mercer December, 2016 Dissertation written by John L. Mercer B.A., Bethany College, 1981 M.A., Kent State University, 2001 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2016 Approved by Leonne M. Hudson, Ph.D. , Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Bradley Keefer, Ph.D. , Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Clarence Wunderlin, Ph.D. x Babacar M’Baye, Ph.D. x Landon Hancock, Ph.D. x Accepted by Brian Hayashi, Ph.D. , Chair, Department of History James L. Blank, Ph.D. , Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter One – The Making of the Man: An Oberlin Education 18 Chapter Two – Enlistment and Early Fighting 55 Chapter Three – Imprisonment 78 Chapter Four – War and Romance 105 Chapter Five – The 5th USCT 134 Chapter Six – The Petersburg Campaign 171 Chapter Seven – Recovery and Returning Home 210 Chapter Eight – The Ideal Oberlinite 241 Conclusion 281 Bibliography 288 iii Acknowledgements Many students have traveled the road I am just now completing, and though at times it has felt as if my journey was improbably unique, the truth is that it was not. There were also moments when I seemed to be alone at the base of a mountain that I could not climb. Again, the reality was that I was never alone. I have, in fact, been surrounded by supportive friends, generous scholars, and family who never stopped believing in me. This brief acknowledgment section gives me the important opportunity to express my deep gratitude to those who helped me complete this dissertation. I doubt these words will convey the depth of my gratitude, but I will certainly try. Many Oberlinians nelped to make this Oberlin biography possible. Chief among them was Oberlin College Archivist, Ken Grossi. Ken and his staff proved endlessly helpful in both making the Shurtleff Papers available and in assisting me to find other pertinent Oberlin records. Ken’s staff not only helped me find Oberlin information, from alumni records to treasurer reports, they also helped hone my research skills. The cheerful way they went about their work was always welcome. Archivist Emeritus Roland Baumann who was in charge when I began this project, also provided encouragement and support, and the benefit of his deep understanding of Oberlin history. Oberlin History Professors Dr. Carol Lasser and Dr. Gary Kornblith have also been wonderfully supportive. They have encouraged my work by reading drafts and suggesting research possibilities. I would also like to thank them and the other contributors to the Electronic Oberlin Group (EOG). The EOG not only published my early work on Shurtleff, but provided much needed Oberlin historical information. Several other scholars have offered invaluable assistance to me. Chief among these is Dr. Kelly D. Mezurek. Before she began her work as a historian at Walsh College, she was a fellow iv graduate student at Kent State. For quite some time she has been offering her support and always ready to share with me what to expect as I followed her through the program. Her very helpful comments on the lives of African-American soldiers can be seen in several parts of this dissertation. Dr. George Richards of Edinboro University kindly read and commented on several drafts. His support and encouragement were as important as his excellent commentary. Thanks also to Catherine Durant Voorhees who is both a descendant of, and the editor of a military memoir of Giles Shurtleff. I owe a debt also to Ken Sommer graciously guided me to and around the battlefield in West Virginia where Shurtleff was captured. I have been very fortunate to have been a part of the History Department of Kent State University for both my Masters and my doctoral studies. The professors and staff have been ceaselessly supportive of and patient with me. My gratitude to KSU begins with Kay Dennis who always knew what part of the educational bureaucracy I next needed to confront. Dr. Kim Gruenwald who helped me both in the classroom and as an advisor. I cannot say enough about my graduate committee. Dr. Landon Hancock’s leadership at the defense, and Dr. Babacar M’Baye’s very helpful comments added greatly to this project. Dr. Bradley Keefer provided both insight and passion. His enthusiasm for 19th century American history is contagious – and I caught it. Dr. Clarence Wunderlin has been a teacher and mentor for more years than I want to count. He never stopped encouraging me, nor did he ever lower his high standards in regards to my work. I especially must thank my advisor Dr. Leonne Hudson. I have had the great pleasure of working with Dr. Hudson for over fifteen years. In that time I have witnessed the heights of both scholarship and friendship. He has questioned, goaded, inspired, guided, and helped me to be the scholar that I have become. I can never thank him enough. v Finally, I express undying gratitude to my family. My brothers Buck and Bill always encouraged me to never give up. My brilliant sons, Jacob and Sam, supported me, and allowed me to be absent from part of their lives while I finished this dissertation. Most of all I express admiration as well as gratitude to my wife Ruth. She has been my editor, sounding board, and rock during this process. Without her love and encouragement this biography could not have been completed. It is to her that dedicate this work. vi Introduction There is no doubt that the quality of the farmland lured men like David Shurtleff to northern Vermont. Born in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1790, as a young man he moved to northern Vermont. There he met Ruth Knapp from Fairfield, a small town north of Burlington, east of Lake Champlain, and near the border with English Canada. In 1816 the two married and set to farming in Stanstead, north and east of Fairfield. He believed that the property was payment for service to his country in the War of 1812. He worked his land, and the following year Ruth gave birth to their first child; over the next fourteen years she bore seven more children. The youngest of these was Giles Waldo, who was born on September 8, 1831. He was just a toddler when the family picked up and moved near to David Shurtleff’s birthplace in Massachusetts. Shurtleff’s move was not voluntary. Local officials questioned his title to the land because the Shurtleff farm was in English Canada. A claim that Canadian land would be payment for service to the United States was highly unlikely and Shurtleff could not produce any proof of title. After fifteen years in Stanstead, Ontario, the Shurtleffs moved to Lowell, Massachusetts.1 Their time in Lowell was brief. The patriarch of the family decided to take his family west, but not before Ruth gave birth to her last child, a boy they named Ephraim. David Shurtleff preceded his family to the wilderness of Illinois. He staked out a large claim of virgin prairie land some fifty miles west of Chicago. He then returned to Lowell in order to bring his family to the American frontier. By wagon the eleven Shurtleffs, David and Ruth and their children aged one to twenty-one, rambled to Albany, New York. Here they boarded a canal boat and floated westward on the very successful and relatively new Erie Canal. At Buffalo, they 1 Catherine Durant Voorhees. Interview by the author, 27 August, 2016. Durant is a direct descendent of David Shurtleff, and cites the diaries of Emma Durant Lane, David Shurtleff’s granddaughter. 1 booked passage on a steamship bound for Toledo, Ohio. There they took the short train ride to Adrian, Michigan. Once again the Shurtleffs piled into a wagon and traveled the final 300 miles to the family’s new homestead near Genoa, Illinois.2 Here David and Ruth Shurtleff ended their wandering. On the western frontier the Shurtleffs cleared land, built a home, and broke ground for planting. The hard work and rugged life on the flat lands of northern Illinois trained the children in the ways of self-sufficiency. No schools existed beyond a one-room log schoolhouse. As he approached his twentieth birthday Giles took the opportunity for a more formal education when he moved to the home of one of his older sisters and her husband in St. Charles, near Chicago. When another chance for schooling arose a few years later with a different married sister, across the state line in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Giles headed north. Here Shurtleff met John G. McMynn, superintendent of schools in Kenosha, and later chief of all schools in Wisconsin. McMynn encouraged the young man to look into a college education. At about the same time, an elderly Baptist minister suggested a fairly new school in Oberlin, Ohio. The clergyman had preached with Charles G. Finney in earlier days, and for two years Finney had held the presidency of the Ohio school. Shurtleff wrote to Finney and requested information and received a college catalogue describing an Oberlin education. Pleased with the prospect of obtaining an education, Shurtleff journeyed to Ohio in 1853.3 From 1853 until his death in 1904, Giles Waldo Shurtleff’s life revolved around Oberlin and the values he learned there. Although he left the northern Ohio hamlet for an extended time 2 A.A. Wright, eulogy reprinted in “Gen. Giles W. Shurtleff,” Oberlin Review, 10 May, 1904, 664-665.