Albert Ketcham, 19th Ohio Light Artillery, Civil War Archive incl. Emotional Family Letters

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Nov 18, 2016 - Nov 19, 2016

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• Lot Description
  Lot of 214, featuring 108 letters written primarily by matriarch Anna Ketcham to her son Heber Ketcham; 58 war-date letters including a single letter from Albert Ketcham while serving in the 19^th Ohio Light Artillery; and 48 additional letters and documents related to the Ketcham family, ca 1880-1903. 
  
  Today, few mothers understand the worry Anna Ketcham endured during the Civil War. Her 19-year-old son, Albert J. Ketcham, enlisted as a private in the 19^th OH Light Artillery on August 11, 1862. Despite having nine children, most had left home, leaving only her husband, Isaac, to help ease her anxieties. Yet, even he fretted over his children. He wrote to his son, Heber, a seminary student at Western Reserve College in Hudson, OH, We talk over about situation and the situation of all our children their hopes their prospects their dangers etc, besides all this we talk on the subject of religion and this dark and gloomy war and so out time passes away not much to cheer up, but we wish to be thankful that circumstances are not worse (I.S. Ketcham, Plymouth, March 13, 1863).  Heber’s mother also sought comfort in writing letters to him. Your poor brother Al, wrote Anna. Oh Heber, how that word, a soldier, and for three long years, does thrill though my very heart seems to me none but a mother can tell! We are waiting with great anxiety to hear from Him (Plymouth, February 26, 1863). Heber struggled with the idea of enlisting or completing his education. His mother begged for him not to join and argued that he never could endure the hardships and exposures of camp life (Plymouth, March 20, 1863). He enlisted as part of the conscription act, but never served on the front.
  
  Albert wrote often to his parents and occasionally to Heber. In a letter to Heber he wrote:
  
  Since I wrote to you last we have marched from Lexington to Sommerset…We are about 10 miles from the Cumberland river I mean there is pleanty of rebels a crost the river some of our troops had a fite yesterday we drove them for some distance (Camp Near Somerset, KY, June 10, 1863).
  
  Albert was less educated than Heber and was an atheist, which added to his mother’s anxieties. In a particularly explosive emotional episode, Anna wrote to Heber, In spite of all my efforts, I had to cry myself sick, I knew it was killing me, but I could not help it (Salem, June 5, 1863). Albert endured some fierce fighting, but dysentery almost took his life. His mother and father rushed to his side when they received a letter meant for Heber about his poor health.
  
  Albert is sick and ma and I are both here taking care of him, wrote Isaac to Heber, this is the ninth day since we arrived we recvd. a letter from a soldier stating he was very sick with dysentery and wished his brother to come and take care of him we thought it would be next to impossibility for you to come and if we wrote to you it might delay a number of days time…we found Al he was very much overcome could hardly speak for a minuit but finally said you have taken me by surprise his disease was somewhat checked when we got here (Cumberland, KY, September 8, 1863).
  
  While recovering Albert complained of missing his regiment, but their mother had a premonition of a bad bloody battle involving Rosecrans. Like any mother, she preferred he stay at the convalescent camp rather than be in harm’s way (October 14, 1863). While at Cumberland, Anna not only cared for their son but some strangers. I felt it my duty to look after them, wrote Anna. One of them is the young wife of a Tennessee Soldier, who fled to our Army to save his life and his wife followed on horseback carrying her infant child, I found them there all sick with measles, the woman and child very sick, the other be young delicate woman her husband in the army and she has been trying to assist in the cooling department I query whether she lives long (Shiloh, September 1863). After gaining some of his strength, but still weak, Albert returned to his regiment and to poor living conditions. He said they fared like dogs at Nelson Camp and he could not stand it, wrote Anna (Shiloh, October 31, 1863).
  
  Anna’s visit did little to ease her anxieties. She later wrote to Heber, O Heber, what dreadful slaughter is being made in our armies, it is enough to chill the blood, and make the heart sick, and must our dear boy be called to bear part in the bloody work, God grant that he may be spared (Bronson, May 25, 1864). After years of worrying and praying, God heard her pleas and safely delivered Albert home. While Albert traveled from the front she wrote to Heber, why it seems almost as though I just awoke from a dream, [ilegilble] that He is no longer a soldier exposed to Rebels barbarities and bullets (July 6, 1865).
  
  After the war, Heber completed his education at the Western Reserve Seminary school and married Anslie Blackman. A Presbyterian church in New Richmond OH, was his first call. He remained there from June 29, 1869 until August 1872 when he became co-pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth (HISTORY OF LOWER SCIOTO VALLEY, OHIO, Together With Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. 1884, p. 208). Later, he moved to Oregon with his family and remained there until his death in 1913.

  Condition

  Typical folds and toning of paper 
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