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Vermonters in the Civil War: Manuscripts in Silver Special Collections, University of Vermont

This guide provides descriptions of the Civil War manuscript collections held by UVM Special Collections, including letters, diaries and reports.

U-Z

Each entry includes the town from which the soldier enlisted, or to which his name was credited--not necessarily his hometown. The summaries also include, in most cases, the highest rank achieved by the soldier during the war, excluding brevet ranks. Both the rank and town of enlistment are derived from Theodore S. Peck’s Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers. The names of all soldiers who authored materials in each collection appear in boldface, as do the names of civilian authors who played official or quasi-official roles. All boldfaced names appear in the indexes; the names of those who are mentioned in the descriptions but who did not write anything in the collection are not indexed.

United States Army Sharpshooter Regiment, 2nd
1861-1865
14 items

Allotment roll and muster rolls of company H, Second U.S. Sharpshooters.  Composed of companies from several different states, the Second Sharpshooters had two companies from Vermont, E and H.  The allotment roll (dated December 31, 1861) lists monthly pay for each soldier, the amount to be reserved, and persons assigned to receive the pay.  The muster rolls cover the periods from May through August 1862 and July 1863 to February 1865, with an additional roll of ten recruits mustered in late in 1863.  Also included is a letter from Vermont Adjutant-General Peter T. Washburn to Captain Walter W. Smith, requesting information on the regiment's engagements.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Civil War Documents
1861-1865
1 folder

A collection of miscellaneous documents relating to the service of Vermonters in the Civil War.  Includes several vouchers for payment of the monthly $7.00 soldier’s state pay, several hospital treatment record cards, a disability exemption certificate, a certificate of non-liability for the draft, and discharge certificates for Howard O. Tanner (private, Co. D, Second Vermont Infantry) and William S. Hines (private, Co. B, Second Vermont Infantry).
Location: Manuscript files, Civil War Miscellaneous 

Vermont Infantry Regiment, First
1864 June-August
1 volume

Autograph book of the officers and men of the First Vermont Regiment, mostly collected in Camp Butler at Newport News, Virginia.  Includes autographs of several brigade officers as well, including General Benjamin F. Butler.
Location: Small bound manuscripts

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Second
1861 Aug. 4
1 item

Letter from a man identified only as “Curt” to Fanny W. Thompson, describing his flight from the battlefield at Bull Run, July 21, 1861.  Although he camped with the Second Vermont Infantry, it is unclear whether the author was a soldier or a civilian.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Fourth
1863-1866
6 items

Muster rolls and clothing receipt rolls of company H, Fourth Vermont Infantry.  The muster rolls cover the periods from September through October 1863 and March through June 1865.  The receipt rolls are dated March and June 1865.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Sixth 
1861 Oct.-1863 Oct.
1 volume (38 leaves)

Morning reports for company I, Sixth Vermont Infantry.  Daily entries list the number of men available for duty by rank, and those sick, in confinement, on daily or special duty, and absent with or without leave.  Line-a-day remarks document the major activities of the company, and the loss of men from battle and sickness.  Not all of the entries are complete.
Location: Large bound manuscripts

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Seventh
1862 September 3
1 item

Letter of an unidentified soldier in the Seventh Vermont describing the poor camp conditions at Camp Williams, and complaining about General Benjamin F. Butler’s censure of the regiment for its role in the battle of Baton Rouge.
Location:  Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Eighth
1863 June 30
1 document

Documents of Company K, Eighth Vermont, with some accompanying correspondence, while it was commanded by captains John L. Barstow and George O. Ford.  Included are Camp and Garrison Equipage reports, Receipt Rolls of Clothing, Monthly Returns of Clothing, and Monthly Returns of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores; circulars from the Ordnance Office of the War Department; and various printed and handwritten orders from the headquarters of the Gulf Department.  A report by Captain Ford in October, 1864, states that most of his company’s equipment was taken by the enemy at Cedar Creek.  Also, a muster roll of Co. F, Eighth Vermont Infantry for June, 1863.  Includes a statement by Captain Daniel S. Foster on the company’s service and casualties for June, covering the assault on Port Hudson.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Ninth
1863
6 items

Muster rolls for companies F and H of the Ninth Vermont Infantry for the months of November and December 1863, and invoices of ordnance and ordnance stores of the regiment in January and March 1865.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Ninth
1862-1864
1 volume

Accounts of clothing for soldiers in Company H, Ninth Vermont Infantry.  These accounts include the name, date and place of enlistment, and value of clothing issued to each soldier.  An account of company funds is also included.
Location: Large bound manuscripts

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Tenth
1865, March 15
1 letter

Letter from an unidentified soldier to a friend from the fortifications outside Petersburg, Virginia.  The soldier advises his friend not to enlist and writes of the high anticipation of an end to the conflict.
Location: Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Eleventh, Co. F
1865 Feb. 24
1 letter

Letter from an unidentified soldier, mostly likely of Company F, Eleventh Vermont Infantry, to E. P. Colton.  The soldier writes of his attempt to return to duty after a furlough, and the ambitions of some of his acquaintances in the regiment.
Location:  Manuscript files

Vermont Infantry Regiment, Fourteenth
1862 Aug. 23-1863 Apr. 19
1 volume (21 leaves)

Diary and orderly book kept by an orderly sergeant in Company B, Fourteenth Infantry.  Entries in the diary concern the regiment's movements and daily activities.  The orderly book has a roster with duty assignments and an account of company funds.
Location: Small bound manuscripts

Wallace, Lewis (1827-1905)
Middle Division, Eighth Corps, Major General
1864 August
1 volume (127 pages)

An official copy of General Lew Wallace’s report to the War Department, and reports of his field officers, on the Battle of the Monocacy.
Location: Small bound manuscripts

Washburn, Peter T.
Adjutant & Inspector General
Woodstock
1869 Mar. 17
1 item

A statement written by former Vermont Adjutant and Inspector General Peter T. Washburn concerning Adjutant John C. Stearns’s career and character in the First and Ninth Vermont Infantry regiments.
Location: Manuscript files

Watts, Isaac Newton (1842-1881)
Peacham
Eleventh Vermont Infantry, Co. M, Sergeant
1864-1865
8 letters, 2 volumes

Among the papers of Isaac Watts of Peacham, Vermont, are pocket diaries for the years 1864 and 1865, and eight letters to family members written during his service in the Eleventh Infantry.  The diaries record the daily activities, wearying marches, and occasional fighting in which Watts participated.  The letters provide greater detail, including comments on the presidential election of 1864 and accounts of the battles of Winchester (September 19, 1864) and Cedar Creek.
Location: Isaac N. Watts Papers

Webster, Ellery H.
Irasburg
Eleventh Vermont Infantry, Co. F, Corporal
1864
1 diary

Ellery Webster gives an account of the Eleventh Vermont’s participation in Grant’s Spring, 1864, campaign, starting with the regiment’s joining the Old Vermont Brigade at Spotsylvania.  Webster described being captured at Weldon Railroad on June 23 and the harsh conditions on his journey to Andersonville Prison.  He recorded the deaths of comrades at Andersonville, rations received, and other details of his imprisonment, but never commented on his own health.  He was transferred out of Andersonville in September and paroled on December 5.
Location: Manuscript files

Webster, W. F.
United States Navy
1863 Feb.-Aug.
2 letters

Two letters of W. F. Webster to Nahum Brigham of Bakersfield, Vermont, written on board the U.S. Sloop of War Housatonia.  Webster wrote about the bombardment of Forts Sumter and Wagner and his reasons for enlisting in the Navy.
Location: Brigham/McFarland Papers

Welch, John
Barnet
Fourth Vermont Infantry, Co. H, Private
1861 Sept. 17-1862 Jan. 29
3 letters

Private Welch wrote briefly about conditions at Camp Holbrook, where his regiment was mustered in, and Camp Griffin, where it spent the winter of 1861-1862.
Location: Manuscript files

Wells, Edward B.
Rutland
Ninth Vermont Infantry, Cos. B, K, Private
1865 Feb. [April] 11
1 letter

Private Wells (misdating his letter) wrote about conditions in Richmond, Virginia, shortly after it was captured.
Location: Manuscript files

Wells, William (1837-1892)
Waterbury
Third Division, Cavalry Corps; First Vermont Cavalry, Brigadier General
1861-1865
1 carton, 1 box

Perhaps the best-known of Vermont’s Civil War heroes, William Wells enlisted in the Vermont cavalry regiment as a private in the fall of 1861, quickly received a commission as lieutenant, and rose in rank to brevet major general by the end of the war.  With the First Vermont Cavalry, and as brigade commander, he fought in some seventy-five engagements, was wounded twice, and was captured, spending several weeks in Libby Prison.  He received the Medal of Honor for gallantry at Gettysburg.  Statues of General Wells stand at Gettysburg and in Battery Park, Burlington. The collection includes seventeen folders of correspondence between Wells and his fiancée, Anna Richardson, and twenty-three folders of correspondence with family, friends, and acquaintances.  He wrote about military developments and related events, such as the April 1862 suicide of Col. Jonas P. Holliday, and about the routines of training and camp duty, his attempts to win promotions, and disputes among regimental officers. One ongoing dispute involved Wells and Colonel Edward B. Sawyer.  Wells described many of the cavalry's military engagements, including those of General Banks’s Shenandoah campaign in 1862, Gettysburg, Brandy Station, Wilson’s and Kilpatrick’s raids in 1864, and Cedar Creek.  Taken prisoner in March 1863, he wrote several carefully worded letters to his family from Libby Prison.  As Colonel of the Vermont Cavalry, Wells served under General George A. Custer, and wrote occasionally about Custer and General Philip Sheridan.  The collection also includes three carte-de-visite portraits of Wells in uniform, a pocket diary he kept for parts of 1864 and 1865, twenty-three folders of military documents (mostly quarterly equipment reports), and miscellaneous items.
Location: William Wells Papers

White, Pliny F. (1838-1863)
Whiting
Fourteenth Vermont Infantry, Co. E, Private
1862-1863
50 letters

Pliny White enlisted in the Second Vermont Brigade with several other Whiting men and served in the outer defenses of Washington until the Gettysburg campaign.  He was wounded and had an arm amputated on the third day of the battle, and died in August.  His letters and a diary contain interesting descriptions of New York Harbor, the building of barracks and breastworks, and comments on the routines of camp life.  He wrote two or three letters after being wounded.  Three letters from Francis N. Bell, a soldier in Co. C, 104th New York Infantry serving as a nurse at a Gettysburg hospital, concern White’s care and death.  A letter from nurse Mary H. Evingham also informs family members of his death. Two letters of Rufus C. Jones, a sergeant in Co. C, Twelfth Vermont and one from Corporal Daniel N. Kilbourn of Co. E, Fourteenth Vermont contain information similar to White’s letters.  Also included are five letters to Pliny White from his sister Julia, and several other family letters with comments on the war.
Location: Julia White Morrill Papers

Whitehill, William Henry H.  
Ryegate
Tenth Vermont Infantry, Co. A, Private
1862 Sept. 28-1865 Jan. 3
11 items

Eleven letters from Private Whitehill to his cousins and uncle in Peacham, Vermont.  Whitehill wrote about camp food and his arrangements to buy maple sugar from his uncle to sell to other soldiers.  He also mentioned the slight wound he received at the battle of Cedar Creek.
Location: Manuscript files

Whitford, Russell
Addison
Fourteenth Vermont Infantry, Co. F, Private
1862 Oct. 26-1863 July 1
28 letters

Letters of a private who served as a waiter to his company officers.  Includes remarks on the march to Gettysburg, and a reference (Feb. 24, 1863) to Vermont soldiers making barnyard noises in line of battle.
Location: Manuscript files

Whitney, Himan T. (d. 1908)
Middlesex
Thirteenth Vermont Infantry, Co. I, Musician
1890, 1909

3 items
Service certificate and widow’s pension papers for fifer Himan T. Whitney.
Location: Manuscript files

Wilder, Henry Harrison (d. 1862)
Weybridge
Fifth Vermont Infantry, Co. F. Corporal
1861 Sept. 19-1862 Aug. 16
4 folders

Henry Harrison Wilder enlisted in the Fifth Vermont in August 1861 and served as a corporal until killed at Savage's Station on June 29, 1862.  He wrote home about conditions at Camp Holbrook in St. Albans, Vermont, and Camp Griffin in Virginia, where the Vermonters were hit hard by disease.  Wilder described the progress of the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, including the battles of Lee’s Mill and Williamsburg. Also included are a letter from Sergeant Merrill Samson of Weybridge, Wilder’s best friend in the army, giving an account of his death and several letters of condolence to Wilder’s family.
Location: Henry H. Wilder Papers; online

Williams, Roderic R.
Windsor
Twelfth Vermont Infantry, Co. A, Private
1862 Oct. 10, 1863 Mar. 14
2 items

Private Williams’s letter of October 10, 1862, describes the journey of his regiment to Washington. A telegram from his captain, Charles L. Savage, declares that Williams was “just alive.”  He died of disease the same day.
Location: Manuscript files

Wilson, James E. (ca. 1845-1870)
Fifth U.S. Artillery, First Lieutenant
1861 Feb. 19-1865 June 21 
6 letters

Letters of Lieutenant James E. Wilson, a West Point graduate, to his cousin Mary Ann.  Included are discussions of slavery and the future of blacks in America, and descriptions of the Fifth Artillery’s activities on Morris Island, South Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, and outside Richmond, Virginia, in 1865.
Location: James Wilson Papers

Woodstock Light Infantry
1857-1862
1 bound volume

Record book of the Woodstock Light Infantry, a Vermont volunteer militia company that was mustered as Company B of the Twelfth Vermont Infantry regiment in 1862.   The records include the company’s constitution, muster rolls, business records, and orders from the Adjutant General and, later, regimental orders.
Location: Large bound manuscripts

Woodward, Alvin M.
Berkshire
Third Vermont Infantry, Co. H. Sergeant
1862 Sept. 14-1865 May 23
ca. 100 items

Letters of Alvin M. Woodward, mostly to his wife Lucy, concerning family matters, military campaigns, and war issues. Woodward’s devotion to the Union cause never wavered during his service, but his opinion of African-Americans improved dramatically.  He offered opinions on conscription and copperheads, and strongly advised Lucy not to seek employment away from home.  He expressed gratitude for surviving the regiment’s battles in the spring of 1864 while most of his companions were wounded or killed.  His descriptions of battles contain few details.  Includes an undated letter from Cassius B. Fisher of Woodward’s company.
Location: Alvin M. Woodward Papers

Worthen, Arthur E.
St. Johnsbury
Third Vermont Infantry, Band, Private
1861 May-1862 August
1 volume

Arthur Worthen served in the Third Vermont band from May 1861, until regimental bands were disbanded in August 1862.  His manuscript memoirs, written in 1889, detail the regiment's activities during that time, and were constructed largely from Worthen's fragmentary diary and a series of letters he had written to a friend from the field.  He also consulted George Benedict’s Vermont in the Civil War.  Although not armed, members of the band were often in harm’s way, and Worthen gives eyewitness accounts of the battles of Lee’s Mill and the Peninsula campaign.  Also included is a twenty-page loose-leaf manuscript of a speech, on the same theme, apparently delivered to an organization (unidentified) in 1909.
Location: Small bound manuscripts

Worthen, Erastus
Rutland
Second Vermont Infantry, Co. B, Private
1862 Feb. 5-1864 Nov. 25
9 letters

Eight letters of Erastus Worthen to his friends Wilson R. and Mary Winter.  Worthen wrote briefly about the battle of Lee’s Mills and the disabling wound he received at the Wilderness.  Included is one letter from Wilson R. Winter, who served as a private in the Fourteenth Vermont, to his wife Mary.
Location: Winter Family Papers

Yale, John L. (1841-1927)
Williston
Thirteenth Vermont Infantry, Co. F. Captain, 
Seventeenth Vermont Infantry, Co. K
1862 Sept.-1865 July
18 folders

Captain Yale served in the Thirteenth Infantry for six months, resigning in February 1863, and in the Seventeenth Infantry from September 1864 to the end of the war.  His papers include his two commissions, pension claim documents, a folder of correspondence, and eight folders of muster rolls and other military documents.  A typescript reminiscence, as retold by Yale’s wife, includes the story of his father, Deacon William Yale, visiting the captain during his severe illness in the spring of 1865.  Yale wrote to family members about winter camp life, the sale of condemned horses, and the role of the Thirteenth Vermont in the repulse of Stuart’s raid on December 28, 1862.  The correspondence includes one letter from Sergeant-Major George P. Welch of the Tenth Vermont.
Location: John L. Yale Papers