Letter #35 - City Point, VA - June 28, 1864

July of 1864 turns out to be the most prolific of letter writing months for private John W. Derr.  Since the last letter written during the battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May of 1864, the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Co. D has been engaged in a number of significant Civil War battles...

• Battles of the Wilderness        May 5-7
• Spotsylvania                         May 8-12;
• Spotsylvania Court House       May 12-21.
• Assault on the Salient             May 12.
• Stannard's Mills                     May 21.
• North Anna River                   May 23-26.
• Line of the Pamunkey             May 26-28.
• Totopotomoy                        May 28-31.
• Cold Harbor                          June 1-12.
• Bethesda Church                   June 1-3.
• Before Petersburg                  June 16-18.
• Siege of Petersburg (starting June 16)
• Jerusalem Plank Road             June 22-23

July of 1864 also marks the 1 year mark until the end of John's service in the U.S. Army.  I can imagine that during the summer of 1864, after years of fighting, the thought of only a year left in the war was far from his mind.

Letter #35  describes battlefield conditions as well as the status of friends in his unit...an important bit of information sent home to be shared amongst friends and family in the local community.  John's cousin Jacob Derr and his good friend Solomon Eyster were wounded during this part of the campaign.  He describes them as wounded but "neither of them very bad"  Interestingly he mentions receipt of butter and sausage from his parents that was carried by his cousin John D. Weikle (Wiekel).  Weikel is mentioned in Letter #34 as having been missing in action, but we know that he is later found and survives the war.  He describes...essentially...how much he loved the food, but that he had already eaten all of it...and wished he had more!   John also describes that he gets a ration of whiskey every morning...something that a soldier of the day received as part of his daily rations...when available.  This letter is a good example of a soldier and his life in the army.  He does not go into details about the battles...just that he gets shot at...friends get wounded...and he appreciates packages from home.

City Point, Va.

                                               

                                                                                    

Camp near City Point, Va.

                                                                                    June 28^th, 1864

My Dear Father,

            I take the opportunity to write this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope that this few lines will find you in the same state of good health.  I haven’t had no letter from you this few weeks but I am away from the regiment driving team and then don’t get my regular for I know they have two or three for me.  I let you know that our regiment is fighting every day but they are getting along pretty lucky and especially our company.  We ain’t got many wounded but there is two wounded that you know,  that is my cousin Jacob Derr and Solomon Eyster.  But there is neither of them very bad.  I always forget to write you that I got that butter and sausage which you did send to me with J.D. Weikle and I was very glad for it but I would be more so if I had it now.  Although we get plenty to eat here and them soldiers that are in the field a fighting every day they will get a good drink of whiskey every morning.  You must excuse me for not writing more and oftener for I have no time and I can’t write any more that anybody can read it.  I am getting quite out of stroke.  Let my sisters and brothers know that I am well and tell them that they must excuse me for not writing to them and tell them they should write often to me for they can always get the direction from you.  Write soon and don’t forget me for all that I forget you pretty often.  I will bring my letter to a close for this time.  This few lines from your son.

                                                                                                J.W. Derr

Give my best respects to all inquiring friends.  Answer soon and direct your letter to John W. Derr Co. D, 48 Regt. Pa, 1^st Brigade, 2^nd Division, 9^th Army Corps, Washington , D.C.

Jim D.

Letter #7--Hatteras Inlet, Camp Winfield, North Carolina -- February 2, 1862

The letter of February 2, 1862 was written after JWD had recuperated from a long illness.  For seven weeks he suffered from bronchitis and possibly a variant of rheumatic fever.  Though he does not indicate the latter in his prior letters home...subsequent depositions during the pension hearing by his widow Magdalena, indicate that this was the case.   The depositions by fellow members of the 48th PVI describe the conditions that the 48th endured during the initial landings on Hatteras Island in November of 1861.  Fellow soldiers complained about how soldiers waded to shore and remained wet and cold for days after the initial landings.  Not long after the landings, JWD was bedridden with a severe illness that progressed to bronchitis or even possible pneumonia.  As he states, he was off duty for seven weeks.

This letter is a bit more normal, with JWD conveying news to his parents and asking questions about home.  Interestingly he writes to his parents about a letter he received from his Uncle Solomon Weikel...his mother's brother...and how his uncle's family had been sick with the measles.  In the 19th century, measles was a deadly disease and so this information was truly family news!    His reference to "Esther" is interesting to me.  I have not been able to determine who she was and what her relationship was with JWD.  I am only guessing, but I assume she was a girlfriend or a close lady friend.  Clearly, Esther was illiterate, owing to the comments made by him regarding her need to have the letter read. It is also clear that he did not want any personal and intimate words he might write to her to be made public by the reading of a letter.


And now...letter #7...                     


                                                                                    Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina,

                                                                                    Camp Winfield

                                                                                    February the 2^nd, A.D. 1862

My Dear Father,

            I take my pen in hand to inform these few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope that these few lines will find you in the same state of good health and further I let you know that I received that letter from you on the 2^nd day of this month and one from Uncle Solomon Weikel.  He wrote to me that he didn’t hear anything from you the whole last summer and I wrote a letter to him and I told him you were all well when I got that letter from you.   Further I will let you know that they were all laying sick with the measles but they are all well again.  When he wrote that letter to me, further I let you know that John Brown and George Batzel are in the war too.  And if Esther wonders why I wouldn’t write to her anymore, tell her that she would have to get her letter read by somebody else and so I have no pleasure to write to her what I would like to write to her.  And she could always hear from me when I write home.  I send my best respects to Slotterbachs family and to the Fetterolfs and to Peter Fetterolf too and to all the rest of the neighbors and tell Mary E. Slotterbach that I was glad to hear from George and Harvey Snyder and William Derr and tell her if she would write to George again she should let him know that I am well and would like it very good so far.  Now I must quit writing because my fingers are too cold and I can’t write no more.  These few lines to you.

                                                                                    John W. Derr 

Jim D.