Letter #42 -- Camp Near Petersburg, VA -- November 1, 1864

Yes...this one is being posted after November 1st...however...there is a logic to it.  This part of the letters is pretty much spread out with only three letters between November and February and nearly a two month gap from late November to mid-February.  So...I'm stretching them out a bit.  There are only eight more letters left, including this one.  My mission is almost done and I am a bit saddened by that fact.  That said...there are a few projects I am beginning to develop related to the letters, including a book with the unvarnished letters printed in both original and typed format.  There will be a forward and an explanation of the events of the 48th PVI, but little or nothing of commentary on the letters themselves.  I'll let the reader do their own analysis and conclusion on them.  The second project...long overdue...is a full up novel based on these letters as well as the archival documents regarding the life of John W. Derr.  As I have written in previous posts, his story does not die when he did in 1876 at the early age of 37 years old.  It continued on with his widow, sons and a scandalous family secret that I was able to uncover after being hidden for 75 years.  More on that later...

The letter of November 1, 1864 is a follow-up to a previous thread of correspondence regarding money being loaned to John Kramer.  A few letters back, John directs his father to loan money to Kramer providing that he get from him a promissory note...or bail.  Later John begins to have second thoughts about loaning the money, and tells his father that unless Kramer comes to ask for the money...don't offer it up to him.  Well...it appears that Kramer has indeed come for the money...and John references it here in this letter.



In the previous letter, John had given a fellow comrade, George Artz, $150 to bring home for safe keeping.  This letter confirms that John's father had  indeed received that money.

John is also interested in home life.  He asks what his brothers and father are doing around the farm.  He inquires about his good friend Josiah Fetterolf and whether the butchering season has begun.

John also teases his little brother for not writing and calls him "a little scochmen"...or...Scotsman.  A common term at the time for a person who was thrifty...or cheap!

Lastly, an interesting statement is written by another hand on the letter...it reads:

 “Bidding Dealer, Men & Boys Clothing, Hats, Caps and Fancy Notions opposite H. Adams Hotel, Mr. Samuel Wampole, Battery L, 3^rd Heavy Artillery, Fortress Monroe, Center Street,” and “Elizabeth Weaver but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses.”

The Samuel Wampole, might be the Samuel he inquires about in this letter.  I am unsure of Elizabeth Weaver or the meaning of the phrase after...

                                                                                                Camp near Petersburg, Va.

                                                                                                November the 1^st, 1864

My Dear Father and Mother,

            I take my pen in hand to inform 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 received your letter and I was glad to hear that you got my money.  You didn’t write whether Artz brought it there or not.  But I suppose he did else you wouldn’t got it.  It is all right that you gave Kramer the money.  I also got nine postage stamps and the darning needle safe in the letter.  I got no particular to write today so let me know what all the boys and Father are working.  I forgot the direction to Samuel.*  If you got it send it to me and I will write to him.  Let me know how all the folks are getting along around home.  Tell old Fetterolf to write a letter to me for it is near butchering time now again.  Then that is the time for him to write.  So I will bring my letter to a close for this time.  This few lines from your son.

John W. Derr to his Father and Mother

Answer soon and direct your letter as before.  I will put a fine picture in this letter for my brother William, the little Scochmen (Scotsman).  I don’t never hear from him.

                                                                                                John W. Derr

* two notes in someone elses handwriting were included in the letter.  “Bidding Dealer, Men & Boys Clothing, Hats, Caps and Fancy Notions opposite H. Adams Hotel, Mr. Samuel Wampole, Battery L, 3^rd Heavy Artillery, Fortress Monroe, Center Street,” and “Elizabeth Weaver but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses.”

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.