The Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard

“Give Yourself No Trouble About Me”: The Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard

Edited by Paul Hubbard and Christine Lewis”

Hoosiers were stout defenders of the Union in the Civil War, and one who came forward willingly to serve and die was George W. Lennard. When the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry regiment was organized in September, 1861, Lennard joined its ranks as a private soldier but was immediately elected lieutenant and named as adjutant. His duty with the Thirty-sixth was short-lived, however, because within weeks he was made a captain and assigned as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood, who in the Shiloh campaign commanded the Sixth Division of Major General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Shortly before the battle of Murfreesboro, or Stone’s River, December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863, Lennard was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Fifty-seventh Indi- ana Volunteer Infantry, and at that battle he was wounded while fighting with his regiment. After convalescing in the spring of 1863, he rejoined his unit for the campaign against Chattanooga under Major General William S. Rosecrans. When the Federal forces occupied that city in September, 1863, Len- nard was detailed as provost marshal, and he had no part in the Battle of Chickamauga. The Fifty-seventh Indiana, however, did participate in the storming of Missionary Ridge in November, and Lennard escaped unscathed in that dramatic assault. In the spring of 1864 fortune deserted him, and as the Army of the Cumberland marched toward Atlanta, he was wounded at Resaca, Georgia, on the afternoon of May 14 and died that evening.’

* Paul Hubbard is professor of history, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Christine Lewis, a resident of Tempe, holds an M.A. from Arizona State University. George W. Lennard’s army career can be traced in his letters; in U.S., War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols., Washington, 1880-1901),Ser. I, Vol. X, part 1, pp. 377, 378. 709, Vol. XVI, part 1, pp. 148, 242, 786, Vol. XX, 22 Indiana Magazine of History

During his army career Lennard was conscientious in writing to his wife, Clarinda, and there are extant approximately 160 of these letters. They are in the manuscript collection of the Arizona State University Library, having been donated by Mr. and Mrs. Otto Schmieder who acquired them upon the death of Mrs. Asahel W. Lennard, a Phoenix resident and widow of Lennard's younger son. The following article includes twenty-two letters written between March 28, 1862, when Wood's division left Nashville for Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River to join Major General Ulysses S. Grant, and May 30, when the Union forces under Major General Henry W. Halleck occupied Corinth, Mississippi. Lennard arrived on the Shiloh battlefield on April 7, the afternoon of the second day, observed the grisly aftermath, and participated in the events leading to the capture of Corinth. A resident of New Castle, Indiana, when the war started, Lennard was born on a farm near Newark, Licking County, Ohio, on March 25, 1825. He had little formal schooling as a child, but he did learn to read and write by his middle teens. In an age of lax professional standards Lennard studied for three years at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Medicine in Cincin- nati and acquired a degree of doctor of medicine. He took up residence in New Castle and practiced for two years until he bought the New Castle Courier which he edited and published for eighteen months. Not yet thirty years old, he next took up study of the law at the Law School of Cincinnati and graduated in 1855. According to one biographer, Lennard was a successful attorney, and the 1860 census lists his occupation as attorney- at-law.* The letters indicate, however, that his principal occupation was dealing in real estate and other financial transac- tions. Lennard was described as a handsome man five feet ten inches tall, well proportioned, and appropriately dressed, with dark hair and dark gray eyes.3 Lennard's letters to his wife reveal him as a loving husband and father who is constantly concerned about the family's part 1, pp. 461, 493, 495, Vol. XXXVIII, part 1, pp. 332, 345, 346, 350; and in George Hazzard, Hazzards History of Henry County, Indiana, 1822-1906 (2 vols., New Castle, Ind., 1906), 11, 636-38. His name, rank, and regiment appear in Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903 (2 vols., Washington, 1903), 11, 121. Hazzard, History of Henry County, 11, 636; US.,Eighth Census, 1860, population schedules for Henry County, Indiana, June 6, 1860 (Henry County Historical Society, New Castle, Indiana). W. F. Boor, History of Henry County, Indiana (Chicago, 1884), 369. Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard 23

GEORGEW. LENNARD

Courtesy Henry County Historical Society. New Castle, Indiana 24 Indiana Magazine of History welfare and always ready to advise his wife on managing the home in his absence. In a letter written from near Iuka, Mississippi, on June 10, 1862, Lennard remembers: “Ten years ago today we were united in the holy bonds of matrimony, and our destinies became one. From that day to the present hour my love for you has quietly flowed on widening and deepening in its course.” Indeed, the subject of love appears frequently in the correspondence. Lennard‘s letter of May 28, 1863, written from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, comments on “the deep, constant and ardent love” he has for his wife. He confesses: “There was a kind of sacred holyness about it which never warmed my heart before.” The product of a society perhaps less openly articulate about such a topic, Lennard ponders somewhat the propriety of his statements. He concludes: “But why should I feel ashamed of my feelings for YOU?"^ His letters are thus in part love letters. A strong patriotism also shows through Lennard’s writings. Dedicated thoroughly to the Union cause, he was in the service until victory or death. In February, 1864, he elected to stay with his regiment as it reenlisted, saying, “I wont back out when the work is half done.” He knew his wife would scold him for signing up for three more years, but he wrote: “To tell you the candid, honest truth I dont think I would be contented at home while the war is going on. I am solomly impressed that it is my duty to help put this rebelion down.”5 Lennard was an ambitious man who very much wanted to get ahead in the army and be well regarded by his superiors. Re- peatedly he discusses his hope to become a full colonel, but although he did command his regiment, he never rose above lieutenant colonel. Ruefully he wrote Clarinda from Chattanooga on October 18, 1863: “I guess I am about as high up in the military world as I will ever get. I have only got about 440 men present and absent, and a regiment to be entitled to a Colonel under the late order from the war-department must have over 800 of an agre- gate.”6 Lennard must have been a good officer, however, because his compassion for the suffering men in the ranks, the bewildered blacks, and the civilian victims of the war is frequently evident. As the Army of the Ohio marched toward Louisville, Kentucky, in the autumn of 1862, Lennard wrote: “We arrived here at mid-night

4George W. Lennard to Clarinda Lennard, June 10, 1862, May 28, 1863, Lennard Papers (Arizona State University Library, Tempe). Slbid., February 8, 1864. 6Zbid., October 18, 1863. Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard 25 last night after a terable march through heat and dust. I never was so tired and woren out in my life. But, Oh! my God, the poor soldiers trudging through the dust over a rough turn pike on half rations, without tents, and many of them without blankets these cold nights. . . . Is not there lot a hard one?” The officer corps of the army often came under Lennard’s criticism. He told his wife that he believed every officer from highest to lowest should be exam- ined for competence and those found wanting, whether or not they had “political influence or wealthy and influential friends,” should be dismissed from the service. “To many of our officers are inferior men, inferior to the private soldier they command.”8 Campaigning as he did in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, Lennard encountered many black people. His comments show sympathy for their confusion and fear, but he also registers the common white belief in black inferiority. His black servant, Dick, and his horse, John, are placed in the same category when in one sentence both are said to be well.9 Referring to Dick on another occasion, Lennard said: “He is like most negros-to get much out of him you have to watch him.” In the same letter Lennard wished he could send a Negro home, “but I think you would find one more trouble than value.”1° As the conflict ground on, Lennard’s letters frequently re- vealed his concern for the evil and futility of war. “What creatures we are. If the enemy runs we are mad, if he stands and whips us we are mad, and if we whip him and dont kill every rebel and take every thing they have the people at home are mad, and so it goes.”” While in a poor, backwoods area of Tennessee, Lennard lamented the effects that army foraging, “which means to go out and take every thing the citizens have to eat,” had on the local population. “I do wish this horid war was over. I am willing to meet the armed rebels, but when it comes to the old men, women and children crying and whining around me it is more than I can stand.”l* Except for Lennard’s urging his wife to be sure to give the children a good Christian upbringing, the subject of religion does not come up very often in the letters. On the evening of December 31, 1863, however, as the army lay at Nashville, Lennard ex- pressed a concern that must trouble thoughtful men in any war. He fervently wished he had that “ewe1 of great price-a clear and well defined hope that all would be well with me in the world to come.”

‘Zbid., September 26, 1862. elbid., September 12, 1862. sZbid., May 8, 1862. ‘OIbid., August 4, 1862. “Ibid., August 28, 1862. ‘*Ibid., July 9, 1863. 26 Indiana Magazine of History

He did not fear death, he said, but dreaded something after death. “You will say, why dont you be a Christian? I say, how can a soldier be a Christian?” He continued: “Read all Christs teaching, and then tell me whether one engaged in maiming and butchering men-men made in the express image of God himself-an be saved under the Gospel. Clear my mind on this subject and you will do me a world of good.” On the whole, however, Lennard was confident and optimistic. He worried little about death and cheer- fully accepted the hardships of the field. Here, then, are letters from an intelligent, articulate, middle-class citizen of the mid-nineteenth century. They are letters which reflect an extraordinary devotion to duty by a husband and father whose love of wife, children, and hearth would have to be secondary as long as the Union was en- dangered by what he considered to be treason. Too, they bring out in intimate detail the problems faced by an ordinary family disrupted by the Civil War. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 27

Nashville, Tenn. March 28th 1862l

Dear Wife2 On tomorrow morning we agane take up the line of march for Columbia about forty miles south of this place. I dont think we go any further for a few days. The main body of Gen’l Buell’s Army3 is there now, and has been for several days building a bridge over Duck RiveF which I think is about completed. I received a paper from you to day, and was very much refreshed in reading it, as I had not seen a “Courier” since I was at home. It is shocking the way Smith was murderded in cold blood, by those who profess so much chivelry. Tell Henry6 I thank him for sending me his program. That he must be a good boy work for you all the time except when at

With the exceptions here indicated the George W. Lennard letters have been followed as closely as possible in this transcription. Spacing of headings, salutations, and closings has been standardized, but the punctuation originally used in these portions of the letters has been retained. It was frequently impossible to determine whether Lennard meant to use capitals or lower case letters, to begin new paragraphs, or to write certain words as two words or one; e.g., today or to day. In such instances the editors have attempted to conform to Lennards intent or, when a decision could not be reached, have followed modern practice. Run-on sentences have been broken up by spacing so that the letters may be more easily read and understood; unintentional repetitions have been omitted, and incorred spellings have been retained and have not been indicated by a [sic]or a correction except for a few missing letters which have been bracketed in to clarify meaning. A bracketed question mark appears after a few words that the editors were unable to decipher satisfactorily. Lennard consist- ently used periods rather than commas in dates and in four digit numbers; e.g., 4.560 or April 7. 1862. This practice has been maintained. Warinda Lennard was born on March 9, 1833, the daughter of Asahel and Catherine Woodward. She was married to Lennard on June 10, 1852, and died June 1, 1879. Gravestone, South Mound Cemetery, New Castle, Indiana; US., Eighth Census, population schedules for Henry County, Indiana, Henry County Historical Society, New Castle; Marriage Records, County Clerks Ofice, Henry County Courthouse, New Castle. Major General Don Carlos Buell commanded the Army of the Ohio from November 15, 1861, to October 30, 1862. That army was renamed the Army of the Cumberland on October 24, 1862. Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (3 vols., New York, 1959), I, 425. 4Duck River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, flows northwestward through Columbia, Tennessee. Lennards letters contain several references to a “Courier.” This was the paper which in 1841 began publication as the New Castle Courier-Times. Lennard himself purchased that organ in 1853 when it had become the New Castle Courier and owned it for about eighteen months. N. W. Ayer & Sons, Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals (Philadelphia, 1932), 283; New Castle Courier, June 2, 1864. Henry Rudisel Lennard, George W. Lennards elder son, was born in New Castle, August 14, 1853. George Hazzard, Hazards History of Henry County, Indiana, 1822-1906 (2 vols., New Castle, 1906), 11, 638. 28 Indiana Magazine of History school. Tell Gertie7 Pa expects to be home at the next Exhib- ition and wants her to have a nice peace to speak, the same to Henry. Tell Sailiea he must be a good boy this summer and not pull up Ma's flowers, nor run off out in the road where the horses, or wagons will run over him. I have most excelent health, but I dont know how it will be with me when the extreme hot weather comes on here, for from present indications it is prety warm here in the summer. Write as soon as you get this. You speak of it giving you great pleasure to receive a letter; how do you supose it goes with me away off here with hardly any one I ever knew before and You and the little ones and all the sweet recollections that cluster around home dont you think if a"fel1er had any feelens" he would like to hear from you often. So, dear wife, good night, and believe me your husband Geo. W. Lennard

In Camp Mar. 30. 1862

Dear Wife After a very hard days march of fiften miles over a very dry dusty road, I sit in my open tent with a light on a camp stool and a book on my knees to pen a few lines for my dear wife, but when it will reach you, or when I will have a chance to mail it is more than I know at this time. We are now twenty six miles from Nashville and I believe about fiften or sixteen from Columbia. The Country on every side is most beautiful The farms are large and in a high state of cultiva- tion. The farms are generally from 500 to 1.000 acres, with from ten to 50 slaves. The negros look very clever at us and want to go along. I could get 50 every day to go with me, but we have nothing to do with them. The General forbids them coming into the camp and if they do get in they must be given up to their masters, or turned over to the civel authorities wich means puting them in jail.s I do pity the poor creatures. After

'Gertie (Gertrude), born in New Castle, July 22, 1855, was Lennards second child and only daughter. Ibid., 642. Sailie (Asahel Woodward) was Lennards third child and younger son. He was born in New Castle, October 15, 1859. Ibid., 639. Lennard is referring to Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood, commander of the Sixth Division, Army of the Ohio, to whom Lennard was aide-de-camp. Major General Henry W. Halleck, commander of the Department of Missouri Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 29 the “white folks” have told them all kinds of stories about us taking them to Cuba and selling them and taking them out and shooting at them for fun, they still flock to us, and I do assure you it is pretty hard to put the poor cretures off, but we have it to do. I think if a John Brown was to get among them now it would not be such a falure as it was at Harpers Ferry.lo All they want is a leader, when I have no doubt they would rise and destroy every thing before them. I have not had a letter from you for several days It is growing late and we have to be on the stur at 4 o’clock in the morning, so give my love to the childern and beleave me as ever your loving and affectionate husband

Geo. W. Lennard

April 2d 1862

Dear Wife We are in camp twelve miles south of Columbia on the road to Corinth.” There is no chance to send or receive letters here and I dont know whether this will ever reach you or not. But a messenger is going back to Columbia and I will risk sending it, hoping it may reach you and find you all well. We have had four very hard days marching and expect to have several more. The weather here is intensely warm for the time of year. Peach trees are out in bloom and most of the early trees are begining to leaf out. We have passed through one of succeeding John C. Fremont, issued General Orders No. 3 on November 20, 1861. This order stated that since important information concerning Union forces was being sent to the enemy by fugitive slaves who were admitted or had escaped to within Union lines, “it is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp or of any forces on the march, and that any now within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom.” US., War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols., Washington, 1880-1900), Ser. I, Vol. VIII, 370. This work will hereafter be cited as Official Records with all references to Series I. lo John Brown, notorious as a violent antislavery activist in Kansas in 1856, led seventeen white men and five blacks on a raid on the United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, on the upper Potomac River, on October 16-18, 1859, with the apparent purpose of capturing arms to be distributed among the slaves. United States Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee defeated the raiders, and on December 2, 1859, Brown was hanged for treason against the state of Virginia. Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 19521, 111, 131-34. II Corinth, Mississippi, is about sixty-five miles southwest of Columbia, Tennessee. 30 Indiana Magazine of History the finest countries I ever saw, but we have come to the end of it, for we are now encamped just at the foot of a high hill, over which we have to pass, and I learn it is very rough for several miles I feel confident we will have a fight in less than two weeks. Every thing indicates it, and it will be a big one. I hope it may come soon for we are well prepared now.12 But give your self no trouble about me for I feel confident we will whip the rebals and that I will come out safe Your letter of the 22d ult is the last one I have received. We have herd no news since we left Nashvill The 3613 is a head some fifteen or twenty miles, but we will all be togather when the fight comes on. I think this will be the bigest fight of the war, and if we whip them and get possession of the net work of railroads at Corrinth14 they day will be about over with them in this region of country The messenger is about ready to leave so I must close by hoping that this may find you all well My love to the childern and believe me as ever loving and affectionate husband

Geo. W. Lennard

Battle Fielf, near PittsburghI5 April 10, 1862

Dear Wife As you will see from this I am still on the land of the living. We arived here about two hours before the Enemy re-

12The round figures for the total number of Union forces in the Battle of Shiloh, which began about four days after Lennard wrote this letter, were: 33,000 in the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant on the morning of April 6 5,000 under Major General Lewis “Lew” Wallace by nightfall, April 6 and 20,000 in Buell’s Army of the Ohio which began arriving the evening of April 6 and until noon on April 7, for a total of 58,000. The Confederate total was 40,335 men under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard on the battlefield by the morning of April 6, 1862. Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, eds., Battles and Lead- ers of the Civil War... (4 vols., New York, c. 1884-1887), I, 538, 539. l3 During the Shiloh campaign the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry was in the Tenth Brigade of Brigadier General William Nelson’s Fourth Divi- sion of Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Ibid., 538. 14The Memphis and Charleston Railroad running east and west crossed the north-south Mobile and Ohio at Corinth. Ibid., I, 489. l5 Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River was about twelve miles north of the Tennessee-Mississippi line and about seventeen miles northeast of Corinth. Ibtd., 466. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 31 treated, and assisted in driving them back.16 Oh my God what a battle it was, in every direction for miles are the dead and dieing, and now three days since the battle ended hundreds of the secesh are not buried yet. The slaughter here is the most terable of any battle since the war.” On Sunday we could hear the roar of the cannon thirty miles, and we marched all day Sunday and Sunday night and until1 Monday noon to get here. I have often herd of the battle field, but I had no conception of what a terable sight it was. The 36 took an active part in the fight, and I am informed behaved finely.18 The 57 was with us and did well-they had four men wounded, non killedlS For three nights I have slept in the rain and mud without any covering, but a light blanket, as we had to leave every thing behind and make a forced march of thirty miles, I did not

Wood, commander of the Sixth Division of Buell’s army, in his report of April 10 on the Battle of Shiloh, stated he had “ordered one of my aides-de- camp, Captain Lennard, to accompany the Twenty-first Brigade to the battlefield . . . .” Official Records, Vol. X, part 1, p. 377. Colonel George D. Wagner of the Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, who commanded the Twenty-first Brigade under Wood, in his report of April 9 said that they marched to the field on April 7, the second day of the battle, “in time to participate in the winding up of the great battle of that date.” Lennards future regiment, the Fifty- seventh Indiana, was in the Twenty-first Brigade and “were first engaged, being thrown out to the right of the brigade and on the left of General [Alexander McDowell] McCook, where they did good service, advancing upon the enemy under a heavy fire with the coolness of veterans until the enemy were driven from the field. . . . My [Wagner’s] casualties during the engagement were 4 wounded, all of which were in the Fifty-seventh Indiana Regiment.” Zbid., 380-81. 17 Lennard’s evaluation of Shiloh as the bloodiest Civil War battle to that date was correct. Official reports of Union casualties were 1,754 killed; 8,408 wounded; and 2,885 missing, for a total of 13,047. Confederate figures were 1,728 dead; 8,012 wounded; and 959 missing, totaling 10,699. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 538, 539. Both William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 2861-1865 (Albany, N.Y., 1889), 543, 549; and Thomas L. Livermore, Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-65 (Boston, 1901), 79, 80, give the same figures except for Confederate dead which they list as 1,723. As Buell’s Army of the Ohio came to Pittsburg Landing on April 6, the Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, part of the Tenth Brigade of Nelson’s Fourth Division, was the first unit ferried to the west bank of the Tennessee. The colonel of the regiment, William Grose, in his report dated April 8 stated that they were “ordered to advance, to support Captain Stone’s battery, about 150 yards distant from my place of forming . , . ; and as soon as the regiment was in place the firing commenced and continued until near dusk.” The regiment lost two men killed and one wounded on April 6. The next day the Thirty-sixth moved forward at dawn and fought on the Federal left until about 1:00 p.m. when the Confederates on their front disengaged. At Shiloh the Thirty-sixth suffered forty-five casualties, nine killed and thirty-six wounded. Official Re- cords, Vol. x, part 1, pp. 337, 338, 106. ‘$See note 16. 32 Indiana Magazine of History have my boots off for four days & nights, and have not washed or coamed my head in the same time I saw John Livezey*O to day and got this sheet of paper from him as we have nether pen, ink or paper here All our baggage is twenty miles from here Well, just imagin your humbel servant geting up in the morning out of the mud and water and shivering around a smokey fire, eating hard crackers and a little fat bacon for breakfast, and the same for dinner and supper. And it tasted good. But such is a soldiers life. I have not received a word from you since we left Nashville. I hope you are all well. My health is good. Exposure dont seem to hurt me, but I look hard. So does all the boys The boys in Pites Co21 we[re] glad to see me & I to see them My love to our dear little ones, and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

Battle Field, April 11. 1862

My Dear As I have had no chance to send the inclosed to you and have secured pen, ink and paper, I will write you an additional line hoping they may reach you soon. We are still in the rain and mud just in front of the enemy. We had a report yesterday that the enemy were approaching us agane in force which caused a tremendious stur. But it turned out to be a falts alarm I have been over the Battle Field a good deal

20 John Livezey (1842-1927) was a friend of Lennards and a fellow resident of New Castle. Entering the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry as a commissary sergeant in October, 1861, he became an officer in July, 1862, and served almost to the end of the war, being mustered out as a brevet major in March, 1865. Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903 (2 vols., Washington, 1903), I, 636; Gravestone, South Mound Cemetery. 21 “Pite” was Clarinda Lennards brother, Pyrrhus, who was born August 1, 1822, and died December 27, 1898. He was captain of Company C, Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry. Disabled by a wound at Chickamauga, he resigned from the army October 18, 1863. Hazzard, History of Henry County, I, 387; Gravestone, South Mound Cemetery. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 33

April 12. 1862 Just here I was interrupted yesterday with an other alarm and have forgoten what I was going to write Our killed in this battle is about 1.000-wounded about 3.000-we lost about 3.500 prisners, so you see our loss is terable. The secesh left about 2.500 killed on the field-they caried off their wounded with the exception of about 500 who we have to take care oP2 I am well. We have no paper but this little scrap. We are in the rain and mud. It is the worst weather I ever saw. I fear the men will all be sick by laying out in such terable weather. This has undoubtedly been the most terable battle ever fought on this continant. Our folks have been buring the dead for three days, and yet there are hundreds unburied. They [are] begining [to] putrify and the whole woods stinks with dead men & horses. It makes my heart ach to see the horid sight But I suppose this is war in good earnest I hope you will excuse this bad writing as I have nothing to write on. I write when ever I can get chance and hope to be able to send it to you soon, but every thing here seems to be in inextrible confusion-No Post Office-No nothing but men and guns Our troops are in the advance on the road to Corinth, and it keeps us on the look out all the time. I have not been out of camp since we came here I do hope we will make an advance soon as I am tiard of laying here in the mud. Take good care of the childern and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard Direct your letters to Louisville care of Gen’l Wood 6th Division

“Battle Field of Chiloh,” near Pittsburg Landing, Tenn April 14. 1862

Dear Clara I am geting very anxious to hear from you, as I have not herd one thing from you since we left Nashville

22See note 17. 34 Indiana Magazine of History

We are begining to get into some kind of shape, altho our baggage has not come up yet. All we have to eat is Hard crackers and pork with a little weak coffee. We use the crackers for plates and our fingers for forks. We have one tin plate in the mess which we put the meet on. Lewis, our cook, found an old Dutch oven which he uses to fry the meet in, and a camp kettle to make the coffee in. We have plenty such as it is, and a good appetite makes us relish it, or at least I do for I am kept very buissy and have but little time to think about what we have to eat. S~hlater~~and some of the other boys have been sick and the General has complained some I got on the battle field about twelve o’clock on Monday24 and remained in until1 four in the evening when the rebals gave way. I have herd much of battle fields and read much of them, but I had no conception of what it was. The hotest time here was about one or two oclock on Monday. The roar of both cannon and musketry was terable and unseasing. The fight was mostly in the woods, and the twigs and limbs and splinters were flying in every directions. Every way you looked were dead men. The most horid sight I saw was where five poor [?I secesh were laying hudeled up to gether, their bodies mangled by a cannon ball. On one spot where the fight had been desper- ate I am confident there were fifty dead and wounded men on a spot of ground not larger than our door [?I yard. At a hospital about a mile from our cam@] there were 114 dead secesh laid out that they could not take away or bury. But it is useless to particularise, for look in what way you would for miles and dead men greeted your eyes. How could it have been otherwise after two days hard fighting where not less than 50.000 men were engaged on a side in such a deadly conflict.25 Our loss in killed will not be far from 1.000 and in wounded about 3. to 4.000.I think we lost about 3.000 prisners. The rebals had not less than 2.500 and God only knows how many wounded. I dont know how many prisners we took, but probally about 5002s I will write you every chance I get and you must write to me at least two or three times a week, for you have no idea how much pleasure it gives me to hear from you.

23Captain William H. Schlater served with Lennard on Wood’s staff as assistant adjutant general and wrote Wood’s General Orders No. 32 con- gratulating his troops on their small part in the Shiloh battle. Official Records, Vol. X, part 1, p. 379. 24See note 16. 25See note 12. 2sSee note 17. Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard 35

The boys in the 36th did nobally. Every one speaks well of their conduct. They were on our left about a mile and half from where I was. The indignation here aganest Gen’l Grant is terable for allowing himself to be surprised. If Buell’s Army had not come to his rescue just when it did, this would have been a “Bull run” on a magnifacent scale.27 Tell me in your next whether you received the $100 I sent you by Col Bridgland2s It is growing late and I must close, by hoping that this may soon reach you and that it may find you and our dear little ones well and happy. Give your self no trouble about me for I dont think the bullet is made yet that is to kill me. For they were whizing around me freely on Monday last without touch- ing me, altho I was up clost, for I wanted to see the fight. So dear wife good night and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

Battle Field of Chiloh April 17. 1862

Dear Wife Your very kind and loving letters of Mar 30th and April

*’ Involved controversy and criticism of Grant followed Shiloh, and Buell’s men did believe that they had rescued the Army of the Tennessee. Buell’s account of the battle in Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 487, states that Grant was carelessly unprepared for the Confederate attack on April 6. Grant’s account in the same work, 465, 466, indicates that he felt the battle was “more persistently misunderstood, than any other engagement between National and Confederate troops during the entire rebellion.” Grant claimed that he was shunned by Halleck after the battle and was not allowed to see Buell’s report until it was published long after. The First Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, was fought in Virginia on July 21, 1861, about thirty miles southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union force commanded by Major General Irvin McDowell was routed from the battlefield by the Confederate Army commanded by Brigadier General Beauregard, and the term “Bull Run” came to connote the Union humiliation in that first large battle of the Civil War. For a description of the battle and its consequences see Bruce Catton, This Hallowed Ground: The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War (New York, 1956), 44-48. 28 A Colonel Bridgland appears in several of the Lennard letters although never with a given name. He is probably John A. Bridgland of the Second Indiana Cavalry who on January 12, 1862, was assigned to the Fourth Division of the Army of the Ohio. Oficial Records, Vol. LII, part 1, p. 203. At the Battle of Shiloh Bridglands regiment was attached to the Fourth Division. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 538. Since both the Fourth and Sixth divisions were in the Army of the Ohio and Lennard was aide-de-camp to Wood of the Sixth, it is likely that Lennard knew John A. Bridgland and that he is the Colonel Bridgland referred to in the letters. 36 Zndiana Magazine of History

6th have come to hand, and after the terable ordial through which I have passed in the last two weeks without hearing from you, you can scarce imagin the great pleasure it gave me to hear from you. I was very glad to hear the childern were having the measels while they are young and at home where I know the[y] will have the care and attention of kind Mother. Many a poor [?I soldier now sleeps his last sleep from that simple, but fatle disease It gave me great pleasure to see John Grubbs, Powell, Shirk29 and many others of my acquaintence here looking after our wellfare on this terable battle field. It makes us feel that we are not forgotten by those at home. I took Powell around a good deal that he might be able to tell you something of what we see every day & hour. Every one is praying to be moved from this terable scene of death and distruction. I think if we are not soon moved many will be sick I suppose certainly by this time you have received the $100-1 sent you by Col Bridgland I am glad you are fixing up our home and making things look neat and sweet. I feel that every thing will be nice and in good style when I come home We had a little brush with the enemy on the next day after the battle here when I captured two negros who had been cooking for the 9th Arkansas RegL30 One of them, I

29These three men were not in the army, but since they appeared on the battlefield to aid the suffering soldiers, it is possible that they were members of the Indiana Sanitary Commission. The United States Sanitary Commission was a private charitable organization recognized by an executive order of President Lincoln in 1861. It served as a Livilian medical relief corps and was a forerun- ner of the Red Cross. Indiana was one of the states that had had its own state sanitary commission to bring additional succor to the regiments. William Q. Maxwell, Lincoln’s Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the United States Sanitary Commission (New York, 1956), viii-9, 101. A John W. Grubbs was the printer for the New Castle Courier in 1853 when Lennard was editor. “Powell” probably is Simon T. Powell (1821-1901), a New Castle resident who is men- tioned in several of Lennard’s letters. “Shirk probably is Benjamin Shirk who lived a few doors from Lennard and who in 1860 was Henry County clerk. US., Eighth Census, 1860, population schedules for Henry County, Indiana. “No report has been found of a brush with the enemy or of Lennards capturing two Negroes from an Arkansas regiment. Woods Sixth Division was ordered on April 8 to make a reconnaissance several miles in advance of the Federal forces on the enemy’s line of retreat. This is possibly when the two Negroes were captured. Official Records, Vol. X, part 1, p. 378. 31 At the time of Lennard’s death the New Castle Courier carried a letter, dated New Castle, May 29, 1864, from a Richard Lamb who stated: “I have the honor to say to the Union friends of this vicinity, that Colonel Geo. W. Lennard who was killed near Dalton, Ga. that I accompanied him through the siege of Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 37 have appropriated to my own use. He is rather a smart good negro, and says he will stick to me while he lives. The other one, “Monroe,” the General3* clames If some one dont steal Dick from me I will fetch him home with me and set him free. And if posible I will do the same by Monroe Just imagin how Gertie & Sailie would look if Pa was to bring a negro home with him from the war. Pite and Simon both wanted Monroe, but the General refused to let him go. My “John” horse is very much out of fix just now He got a terable scare among a lot of dead men and horses one dark night when I was out Posting Pickets. If mother should want that Interest you must try and pay it to her, as I dont know when I will get any more money. But as soon as I do get any I will send you some. Our Head Quarters baggage has come up and we are be- ginning to have things a little better, but not atal comfortable. Most every one is complaining more or less, mostly diar- rhoea I feel sometimes if I had you to make me a little boiled milk and bread with Pepper in it, it would do me good, but we cant have these little dainties at all times in the army I dont recollect whether the $2.90 act. is right or not, but I suppose you had better pay it as soon as you can. I dont want to roug [?] any man out of one cent in this world I suppose you have read many discriptions of this battle. But the real thing its self beggers all description. Every once in a while I can hear the mighty roar of cannon and musketry, and the schrill whistle of shells and bullets, the mighty rush of men to the deadly conflict, the dead on every side, the wounded born off of the field by their comrades, ammunition wagons and officers on horseback dashing and whorling in every direction, all combining to make a scene of terable grandure such as I never expect to see agane in this world Every one says the 36th did well and fought bravely. I was very glad to hear it. I see them nearly every day. Pite wants to go home, but I dont think he will get to go very soon and I begin to fear this war will not be over very soon, but I hope for the best.

Corinth, Miss., Perrysville, Ky., Stone river, Tenn., as a body servant. . . . I shall ever regret the loss of my best friend who brought me to the land of liberty.” An editor’s note added that Lamb was a young black man who had attended school the previous winter in New Castle. He had asked the editor to put the letter in proper style. New Castle Courier, June 16, 23, 1864. 3*Probably Thomas J. Wood for whom Lennard was aide-de-camp. 38 Zndiana Magazine of History

The 57th did well in fight and would have taken a Battery only they were ordered to halt.33 I suppose you would like to know how I felt in the battle. Well, the battle only lasted four hours after I came up and for the first hour I felt like as tho I was going to a funeral where a dozen of my best friends were to be buried, but about that time I came across General M~Cook~~ who shook my hand so cordially and appeared to be so jolly that it took all of the gloom off of me, and from that time on untill the rebals retreated a [I] felt nothing more than a healthy excitement such as felt at an exciting Steam Boat race or something of the kind But when the rebals commenced retreat- ing I felt particularly good and happy, for I would prefer having them run from me than to be shooting at me To give you an idea how much exausted I was afeter the battle was over and night had come on I droped down by a log with a blanket over me about fifty yards in the rear of where the men were resting on their arms in line of battle and fell a sleep where I slept untill morning, altho about 9 oclock Gen’ls Buell and Wood moved the men back about 250 yards to a safer position thereby leaving me 200 in advance of our forces. The boys say they called me twice and that I answered them both times, but I have no recollection of it whatever. However, no secesh got a hold of me and so it turns out well, but the boys endevor to bone me about sleeping on Picket duty. Tell the Major General35 that Pa will see that Gertie lets him knit when he comes home I suppose by this time Henry and Gertie are well and going to school Nothing more but remain as ever your loving and affectionate husband

Geo. W. Lennard

33 The Fifty-seventh Indiana Infantry’s role at Shiloh is not clear. See note 16 for Wagner’s report. One account states that the whole Sixth Division was excluded in counting the Federal effectives because none of “it got within reach of the Confederates. . . .” Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 79n. Colonel Cyrus Hall of the Fourteenth Illinois Infantry of the Second Brigade of Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut’s Fourth Division of the Army of the Tennessee reported that on April 7 he was ordered forward in the afternoon to relieve a portion of Buell’s army, among which was the Fifty-seventh Indiana which was ordered to fall back. This may be what Lennard refers to. Official Records, Vol. X, part 1, p. 224. 34 Alexander McDowell McCook commanded the Second Division of the Army of the Ohio at Shiloh, and Lennard would be known to him. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 538. 35 In his letter of June 10, 1862, Lennard in referring to his children says: “Sailie who like topsy just naturally growed, and is now a Major Gen’l without anyone paying much attention to him.” George W. Lennard to Clarinda Len- nard, June 10, 1862, Lennard Papers. Shiloh Letters of George W. Lennard 39

Battle Field of Shiloh April 18. 1862

Dear Clara As you will see from this we are still on the bloody field Shiloh. I have been in the saddle nearly all day with Gen’l’s Buell and Wood examining the country around here and looking up suitable ground to camp on. The country is very rough, and as we have to preserve an unbroken front to the enemy, it is difficult to place so large an army as we have here now. We had a very hard rain here this evening, most of which I was out in, but I care nothing for myself if the poor soldiers could be comfortable, for I have a change of clothing and somebody to wate on me and do my cooking, which many of them have not. On yesterday when I wrote you I was quite unwell, but am very well this evening. I think the water and filth of this camp has caused much sickness which I hope will be remadied by the time this reaches you by a forward movement, when I think you will hear some startling news from these parts. Gen’l Hal- lack36 is here himself which is a suficent guarantee that there is something to be done big with importance to the nation and the sooner the better is my belief The enemy is still in heavy force about six miles in our front, but there is no skirmishing as nether party seem dis- posed to wast their powder in a small way. I have received nothing from you since yours of the 6th inst. but am anxiously looking and hoping. You must not fail to write at least twice a week whether you receive anything from me or not, as at is frequently so that I cant write to you for a week or two. It is growing very late and so I must close with an earnest prare for the health and hapiness of you and our dear little ones Your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

36At the time of the Battle of Shiloh, Major General Henry W. Halleck commanded the Department of the Mississippi with headquarters in St. Louis. A few days after the battle he went to Pittsburg Landing and assumed field command of the Federal forces facing Beauregard at Corinth. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 465, 466. 40 Indiana Magazine of History

Field of Shiloh, Tenn April 20th 1862

Dear Clara We have had two days of gloomy wet weather, and to night it is still raining with little prospect of clearing up. I have been around among the troops of our Division to day and find them in rather a sory condition. We moved our camp on Friday evening and before the tents were pitched the rain came on and wet the ground. It appears to me I never saw so much wet weather as we have had this spring. Gen’l Wood and Capt Schlater have been unwell for some days, The Gen’l is geting better, however. My health is good altho I have been exposed a good deal of late. I think temperate habits have kept me up. I was over at the 36th to day a little while. Col Grose3’ is complaining some. I did not see Pite, as he was out with the regiment on “Picket Duty”. He was complaining some when I saw him last, but he is better now. The regiment will be paid now in a day or two. I am glad of it for they have wated a long time. I wrote to Mother yesterday and told her if she needed the interest now due before I got the money to send her to call on you. If she calls on you try and pay her, as I suppose she will not call on you unless she needs it badly. I have not received my clothing yet, but in all probability will soon The account of the battle here published in the Cincinnati Gazett of the 14th writen by “Agate” is a very fair one and will give you the best idea of any thing I have seen, altho it Dont give Gen’l Woods Division as much credit as it should. Where he speaks of Col Wagoners 15 Ind it should be the 57th Ind.38 Meny of the officers are very sick of soldering and talk of resigning. As for my part I enlisted for the war, and expect to stick it out let come what will. I think if the poor soldiers can stand it I can, and I will not desert them in this hour of trial. I dont think after this terable rain storm we can move from here as soon as I told you in my last.

37 William Grose was a prominant New Castle lawyer and judge who accepted the colonelcy of the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry in 1861 and eventually rose to major general of volunteers in 1865. Dictionary of American Biography, VIII, 16; Heitman, Historical Register, I, 481. 38The Colonel Wagoner referred to here must be George D. Wagner who was colonel of the Fifteenth Indiana Infantry but who, at Shiloh, commanded the Twenty-first Brigade of Wood’s Sixth Division. The Fifty-seventh Indiana was also in that brigade. For Wagner’s report, in which he commended the Fifty-seventh, see note 16. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 41

I have been wating very anxiously to receive a letter from you, but to date I have received nothing late than the 6th inst Hoping to hear from you soon and that this may find you and the little ones well and happy, I am, as ever, your loving and affectionate husband

Geo. W. Lennard Have you recd the $100. I sent by Bridgland?

Battle Field of Shiloh April 22d 1862

Dear Clara A clear and beautiful sun rose this morning after three days of cloud and rain and mud and gloom. The birds in the green trees welcomed the bright morning with song and mel- ody. Once more the poor soldiers begin to move about with life and animation. Such is the influence of pleasent weather on every thing around us. An occasional gun is herd to crack and reverberate through the woods, keeping the camp nervous and anxious, as the enemy is but a few miles to our front and we dont know what break he may take, or what hour he may come, but come when he will he will have a warmer reception than he did on that lovely Sabbath morning he came here before. The terrable rains we have had here will delay our move- ments for some days as the roads are at this time impassable for Artillery, and without that arm of the service I dont think we would be safe in attacking the rebs We are looking for Gen’l Pope39 here on tomorrow with his command, by the way I have just this moment learned that his army is here now, so you see we are strong enough for the rebs now, and when we get at them they will ether be whiped, or have to run. Sam is at Sa~anah.~OI have not seen him for several days.

39 Major General John Pope commanded the Army of the Mississippi which was ordered to join Grant’s and Buell’s armies under the personal command of Halleck in the siege of Corinth. Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 76. 40Although his surname never appears in Lennards letters, “Sam” is clearly Samuel Hazzard (1815-1867) who was married to Clarinda Woodward Lennards sister, Vienna, and who lived next door to the Lennards. He was the father of George Hazzard who wrote Hazzard’s History of Henry County. US., Eighth Census, 1860, population schedules of Henry County, Indiana; Hazzard, History of Henry County, 11, 992, 993. Savannah, Tennessee, Grant’s headquarters, was about eight miles north of Pittsburg Landing on the east bank of the Tennessee River. 42 Indiana Magazine of History

I have not received a letter from you since yours of the 6th inst. What can be the matter? Nether have the cloths come to hand, but I expect to go to Savanah tomorrow to look after them. Tell Henry and Gertie they have not answered my letters yet and I begin to think they are neglecting me to a greater extent than I did them. I wish you would make every effort posible to collect up the small debts, but dont sue any one if you can posibly help it. I think after we shall have taken Corinth and Memphis41 we can give some idea when this war will close. I will give you my opinion then which no doubt will be a setler. But I can see no daylight now-all is darkness for a speedy termination of the war Dick is still with me and says he is going to stick to me until1 after the war sure Write often-my love to all and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard I think you had better direct to me in this way Capt Geo. W. Lennard Care of Gen’l Wood 6 Division Army of the Ohio Tennessee Via Cairo Field of Shiloh, Tenn. April 27th 1862

Dear Clara: Sabbath as it is I have been busy all day posting and visiting the Pickets in front of our Division. We hardly know when Sunday comes in the army. We have to keep our lamps well trimed and filled with oil for we know not what hour the bridegroom may come. Every thing has been quiet in front for several days, but the storm may burst upon us at any hour. Our most advanced camps are about five miles from the Land- ing. I was down at Savanah a few days ago to see if my clothing had come, but could hear nothing of them. I suppose they will

41 On June 6, 1862, the Union ram fleet attacked the Confederate fleet on the Mississippi and took Memphis. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 456-58. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 43

not be sent from Nashville unless I send a special order which I think I will not send until1 the little dispute is settled about Corinth and Memphis. If it should be settled in our faivor, which I dont doubt for a moment, I will order them to the most convenient place Sam is at Savanah in the employ of Capt Cannon,42 Post Quarter Master at that place. He is still drinking some. I think I will be able to send you some money in a few days, but it is poor encouragement to send when I cannot hear whether the last I sent you ever reached you or not. I have not herd from you since yours of the 6th inst. The mails are very iregular here. I herd to day that Pite was not well. Rheumatism is said to be his complaint, with, probally, a little homesickness. Quite a number of our officers & soldiers are complaining or sick. I think however, as soon as we get on the move agane the health of the entire army will improve. My health is very good, and my most constant regret is that all my fellow soldiers cannot enjoy the same heavenly blessing. Give my love to all, especially our dear little ones, and beleave me, dear wife, as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard.

Field of Shiloh, Tenn April 28th 1862

Dear Clara Your loving letter of the 20th inst came to hand to day and you can scarce imagin the pleasure it gave me to learn that you and our dear little ones were well. You must try and be more cheerful and not look on the dark side of the picture I have but one time to die, and if it is my lot to fall in this great contest to save my country why, I am not going to die in apprehension or in antisipation of death. “Sufficent unto the day is the eve1 thereof.” Such is my feelings this evening. You speak of Sailie sleeping by your side. Not a day or a night passes over but what I visit you and see the little chubby

42This could be Captain John R. Cannon of the Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry which in April, 1862, was part of the Seventh Independent Brigade, Army of the Ohio. Heitman, Historical Register, I, 280; Dyer, Com- pendium, I, 136. The Seventh Independent Brigade did not go to Shiloh with the Army of the Ohio. Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, I, 538. 44 Indiana Magazine of History fellow enjoying his sweet innocent slumber-I see Henry run- ing down the pavement, out of the gate and up or down the road to play with the little boys-I see Gertie frisking about and provoking you to go home with Bell Wood~ard~~&c &c-I see you going about your daily routine duties, ever watchful1 and careful1 of every thing. Arabe1144 is there to, lending her industrious hand to make all comfortable and happy, Bell Haz- ~ard~~is moving quietly and misteriously about-then I see Grand Pa, poor old man, anxious and tiard, coming in and Sailie clamering over him-then Grand Ma, cane in hand, quietly peeps in &c &c, so if you dont get to see me, I get to see you often On tomorrow morning we agan take up the line of march for Corrinth or some place else in search of the enemy. And if we have to fight, I say the sooner the better. If the enemy stands at Corrinth, before this reaches you, you will have herd the result. I wrote to you last night. To day I received my pay to the 1st of May, and the first chance I have I will send you $250.00 Write often whether you hear from me or not, as your letters will reach me some time Hoping this may reach you soon and find you all well and happy, I am, as ever, your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

In Camp near Shiloh May 1st 1862

Dear Wife I herewith send you $250.00 which you may apply on the Comstock debt or as you may think best. I will send this by a Mr McDanal of Dayton who will Express it to you

Bell Woodward was probably one of the three children of Pyrrhus and Mary Woodward and thus a niece of Clarinda Woodward Lennard. 44The 1860 census shows an “Arabel Gohene,” aged thirty-three as a member of the Lennard household. She was probably a hired woman. In his letter of December 2, 1861, Lennard wrote: “if Arabell is gone away to stay any time you should get some other good girl to stay with you.” Years later an Arabella Goheen carried on correspondence with Asahel Lennard and seemed to be somewhat dependent on him. Some of these letters written in the 1890s are in the possession of the editors. U.S., Eighth Census, 1860, population schedules of Henry County, Indiana. 45 Belle Hazzard was the eleven-year-old daughter of Sam Hazzard and thus a niece of Clarinda Lennard. Ibid. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 45

We only moved about six miles from our former Camp. We will probally move tomorrow, or next day. I think we will be in Corrinth before this reaches you. I will write in a day or two agane when I hope to have more time as I am very busy at this time I have not herd whether you ever received the money I sent you by Col Bridgland. Inform me as soon as you receive this My love to all and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

In Camp May 3d 1862

Dear Clara We are encamped nine miles from Corrinth in a beautiful grove close by a primitive church called Oli~i.~~We are ordered to have three days of cooked rations prepared for the men to night, with the intimation, Sunday as it is to-morrow, that we will move on Corrinth Gen’l Pope had a sharp little encounter with the enemy this evening which lasted about one I have not herd the result I dont think our folks want to bring on the battle tomorrow as it is Sunday, for there appears to be some dread of Sunday attacks In case any thing should happen [to] me, that I dont get back to see you any more, my wish is that you educate the childern well-Let each of them be a graduate of some Litter- ary Institution for what little I have would not do them much good only in the way of educating them. Be very careful and strict with Gertie for she is inclined to be wild and headstrong. I dont think you will have much trouble with the boys. Collect up what is due me as fast as you can without distressing any one and pay off all the debts, and keep the balance on interest. I think after paying all indebtedness there will be about $2.500= left, which at 10 pr cent interest with the rent of the two farms will keep you nicely and educate the childern. I sent you $250= which I hope will reach you in safety. I gave it to a Mr Chas A McDaniel of Dayton Ohio. Pleas write

46 In his letter of May 5, 1862, Lennard refers to this as Olivet. 47Major General Pope reported that on May 3 his forces encountered a Confederate force of 4,500 men at Farmington, attacked them, and “after a sharp skirmish carried the position in handsome style.” Official Records, Vol. X, part 1, pp. 801, 802. Lennard probably refers to this battle. 46 Indiana Magazine of History to me as soon as you receive it. My health is good. Pite is a little out of fix with the Rheumatism. The 36th & 57th will be with us in the battle Now, give yourself no trouble about me for I will come out safe, but we dont know what may happen Every little once in a while we can hear fireing over in Popes Command. So now dear wife good by. I will give you the earliest intelligince of what is my fate in this contest, that I can. My love to our dear little ones. Your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

In Camp near Olivet Church May 5th 1862

Dear Clara When I last wrote you two evenings ago I expected by this time to be in the full blaze of battle before the enemys works at Corrinth, but owing to the very heavy rains that have fallen rendering the roads impassable for Artillery, we have had to defer our advance. We had every thing packed up and some of the troops commenced moving, but they had to be called back, and we are now encamped on the same spot we were when I wrote you on the 3d inst. I received your very welcom and very interesting letters of the 24th & 27th, April, this evening You can scarcse imagin the pleasure it gave me to read the childerns expressions about Dick. I called “Dick” up and read it to him. It pleased the “nigger” hugely. He says he will sing Dixie for Henry and make all kinds of little “triggers” for Sailie, and then do what ever Gertie wishes him to. So if “Dick” and I get home safe you may expect some fun. Sam is down at Savanah I learn he is drinking some all the time. He is in the employ of Capt Cannon at what wages I am unable to say. The enclosed letter fell into my hands acci- dentally and I send it to you, but you must keep it a profound secret. Col Grose and I are on the best of terms and I hope we may ever remain so. I only showed Simon that portion of your letter where you said Col Grose had spoken lightly of Gen’l Wood, and wondered what he could mean by it, as the Gen’l Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 47 has always spoken well of him. Grose is now in command of a brigade48 and Gen’l Nelson speaks highly of him. I hope he may succeed well. I sent you $250-which I hope has reached you in safety ere this. We are going to have a big fight at Corrinth when it does come off.Both sides are staking every thing on it. But if we get fairly at them they must come down. Give my love to our dear little ones and all others, and believe me, Dear wife, when I say I am as ever your loving

Husband

In Camp, near Corinth, Miss May 8th 1862

Dear Clara: Here we are within six miles of Corinth and no blood shed yet, and the worst of it is we don’t know whether the enemy is there or not. Our folks are closing up on them with great care. I hardly think there will be another surprise in our army. But if they have left Corinth we will know it tomorrow. And if they have not we will be fighting in good earnest by the 10th inst., and you will probally know the result before this reaches you, and anyhow, this will be the last you will hear from me until1 the thing is settled on[e] way or the other. I received the Courier you sent me this evening, and read it through advertisements and all. I noticed particularly the marrage of Joshua Williams which was news to me. I hope Joshua had a good time of it. I saw Pite yesterday. His health is improving. The whole regiment is in a better condition than it was. The Col is a brigade commander and he feels the better of it We are in just such a state of suspense at this time as to whether Corinth is evacuated or not that I scarsely know what, or how to write. Dick and the John horse are well, and I never enjoyed better health in my life; so hoping you and the children are enjoying the same blessing, I am as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

May 2, 1862, Grose assumed temporary command of the Tenth Brigade of Nelson’s Fourth Division, Army of the Ohio. Ibid., 684. 48 Zndiana Magazine of History

In Camp, near Corinth, Miss. May 12th 1862

Dear Wife Little did I expect when I wrote you one week a go that the great contest at Corinth would be undecided at this time, but here we are within a mile or two of the enemy and not as much prospect of an imediate atack now as there was then. The great snake is gradually coiling its self around Corinth. It is better to make a sure thing of whiping them bad and taking them here if it takes us a month longer than to be following them all over the South. unless the enemy atack us, this will reach you before the great battle. Yours of the 4th inst. has just been received. I dont think there is any dainger of trouble between Col Grose and myself, or any one else about what I showed Powell. But be very careful what you write to me, for it is probable I will be showing it to Powell and the human family generally. I will send Mother the money due her from here, as I have frequent oppertunities to send to Cincinnati. I received a letter from home a few days ago. Father is gradually wasting a way. They have information at home that brother Jeramiah is Capt of a Company from New Orleans.49 It is likely he is at Corinth. The weather is very warm here now, and we have had no rain for a week. The roads are geting very good again. I [saw] George Hazzard to day. He looks well so does List Powell.50 We are about one mile apart I hope the money I sent you [by] McDannel has reached you But I have some fear about it as he staid about Camp several days after I gave it to him What do Henry and Gertie have to say for themselves? What are they doing, and what do they do? You speak of Sailie but say nothing about them. The Gen’l says his wife writes to him that she is just dieing by inches to see him, and [he] wants to see her They write

Lennard mentions having two brothers in the Confederate service, Jeremiah and Lerman, who was “acting as Quarter Master in a Louisiana Regiment.” George W. Lennard to Clarinda Lennard, June 11, 1862, Lennard Papers. 50 List Powell was Orlistus W., son of Simon T. Powell. List was a sergeant in the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry and was killed at Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, when not yet nineteen years of age. Gravestone, South Mound Cemetery. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 49 50 Indiana Magazine of History every day.51 I think your letters all reach me sooner or later so dont despare in writing they will come some time, and be good when I get them. I have not recd my clothing yet. I begin to need them very much. My love to the childern and believe me as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard

May 13. As I did not get to send this this morning, I will add that I am well and busy. I saw Pite to day he is some better, but I think he will get a Furlough in a few days to come home. The boys in the 36 are generally well. I recd a letter from Mr Bell to day. Tell him I will answer it soon. There is some fighting here nearly every day. The army is so large here that part of it may be engaged without the other knowing any thing of it My love to all. write soon and believe me as even your loving husband Geo W. Lennard

In Camp near Corinth Miss May 18th 1862

Dear Clara Another holy Sabath day has come and gone with its many trials and troubles. All day there has been more or less fireing among the Pickets and several skirmishes. We are liable to attack or be attacked at any moment. I am shure we cannot remain [in] this condition many days without hard fighting for we are only three miles from Corinth and about one mile from their entrenchments So, you see the ball must open in good earnest soon But what ever is to be our fate let it come. We are as well prepared now as we will ever be. I saw Pite this morning and he informs me that he has a Furlough for thirty days but will not go home until1 the battle is over. So he will probally be able to give you the first account of who is saved and who is lost I have been anxiously looking for a letter from you, as I have herd nothing since yours of the 4th inst. My health is

51 General Wood was a recent bridegroom, having married Caroline E. Greer of Dayton, Ohio, on November 29, 1861, in Indianapolis. Dictionary of American Biography, XX, 475. Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 51 good, but the work is hard, as I have to be out to the front with the troops when ever there is any excitement or fireing in or about the Camp The weather is very warm and dry here now and I am without Summer clothing. But I dont want any thing or care for any thing until1 this grand contest is over I hardly know what to write on the eve of so important a crisis as this. All that I can say is that I am hopeful and confident. I feel that I will come out safe, but let what will be my fate I intend to meat it like a soldier should and leave no disgrace on you or our dear little ones. Give Pas love to Henry Gertie and Sailie. Remember me to the rest of our household and believe me, dear wife, to be as ever your loving and affectionate husband

Geo. W. Lennard

In Camp near Corinth, Miss May 29. 1862

Dear Wife Your very welcom letter of the 18th inst came duly to hand and my only wish is that you would write oftener, even if you have nothing to write about [but] household affairs, birds, flowers &c &c. When you can’t think of any thing else to write about give me the conversation and antics of the childern. I am sory you have not recd. the $250=. If you have not received it when this comes to hand write to Charles A. McDaniel of Dayton, Ohio, for an explanation I think he is a very nice young man, but probally has missent the package. Money sent in his care by Gen’l Wood and others arived safely about the 13th inst. The boy is wating for this letter. I am well & hope this may find you enjoying the same blessing. We were fighting nearly all day yesterday There will be hot work here in a day or two I am as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard 52 Indiana Magazine of History

In Camp near Corinth May 30th 1862

Dear Clara: The agony and tension is over-Corinth is evacuated and we are all safe. The papers will doubtless have told you all about it before this reaches you, so I need say but little about it I think it was better for us for them to evacuate, and worse for them than tho we had had a hard battle and whiped them. It demoralises their army and causes the people of the South to loose confidence in their leaders.52 Pite will go home in a day or two and I will send by him. I want a good many things which I will send by him for. I wish you would make a visit to Fathers and take all the childern along to see their Grand Pa before he dies, as I am confident he cannot live long. If you will write to Mother or Eliza they will meet you at the Lockland Depot, and then they will take you over to Uncle Johns and from their you can go to the City and stay as long as you wish. But do as you wish about going to the City but be sure and go with the little folks to see the old people, and pay mother the interest due her, $35=. I will try and send you some money by Pite. I recd $52.50 of Sams money the other day. He borrowed $54f you and the same of me, which would leave 42.50 in my hands to be placed to his credit Our Division is to march into Corinth and formally occupy it tomorrow morning. I will give you a description of what I see &c &c53

52 Halleck shared Lennards view. He wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on May 30, 1861, that the works at Corinth were “exceedingly strong” and described the enormous loss of materiel. “General Beauregard evidently distrusts his army, or he would have defended so strong a position. His troops are generally much discouraged and demoralized.” OffEial Records, Vol. X, part 1, p. 773. Beauregard, on the other hand, in a report of June 13, considered the evacuation a triumph. With his vastly inferior army he could not expect to hold the city, and his masterful evacuation completely surprised the Union army. “I feel authorized to say by the evacuation the plan of campaign of the enemy was utterly foiled-his delay of seven weeks and vast expenditures were of little value, and he has reached Corinth to find it a barren locality, which he must abandon as wholly worthless for his purposes.” Zbid., 762, 763, 765. Beauregard also claimed that he was drawing the enemy deep into south- ern territory where a decisive blow could be struck. Beauregard to Brigadier General John B. Villepigue, May 28, 1862, ibid., 902. 53 Union troops moved into the abandoned defenses of Corinth on the morning of May 30, 1862. Nelson, commanding the Fourth Division of the Army of the Ohio, reported on May 30 that his Tenth Brigade was first into town, and Buell confirmed it on June 2. On June 7 Nelson was protesting Shiloh Letters of George W.Lennard 53

Give my love to Henry, Gertie, Sailie and all the members of our little household, and believe me dear wife when I tell you I would like very much to be with you all once more, never to part agane, but it cannot be so now as I begin to fear the war will be long and tedious. But I will write you more fully on this point in a few days Nothing more but remain as ever your loving husband

Geo. W. Lennard erroneous newspaper accounts giving Pope and Brigadier General William T. Sherman credit. Ibid., 680, 681. Wood in his report of the Sixth Division’s role in the siege commended Lennard for his “valuable services” along with others in the general’s personal staff. Ibid., 709.