Confederate Hospital Steward and Assistant Surgeon W.D. Ewing, 52nd Virginia Infantry, Civil War Correspondence

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American History: Premier Auction

By Cowan's Auctions

Nov 16, 2018

Set Reminder 2018-11-16 10:00:00 2018-11-16 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American History: Premier Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-history-premier-auction-3577
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• Lot Description
  Lot of 22, consisting of 19 war-date letters totaling approximately 46 pages written by Ewing to his wife, Margaret, at their home in Augusta County, VA. Features battle content and descriptions of wartime disease and injuries. Lot also includes original covers, an indenture document, a deed, and a tintype of an unidentified man. Entire collection spans the years 1862-1880.
  
  William Davis Ewing (1828-1902) was born in Rockbridge County, VA, where he later attended Washington College. He studied medicine at both the University of Virginia and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA. He married Margaret A. Sellers, and the couple lived in Augusta County, where Ewing was working as a doctor at the time of his enlistment. On August 2, 1861, he mustered into Company G, 52nd Virginia Infantry, as a private in Staunton, VA. From 1861 until January 1864, Ewing's service alternated between regular service and various details as both a hospital steward and assistant surgeon. On January 19, 1864, he was officially promoted to hospital steward, and became a full-time assistant surgeon that June.
  
  In a letter from May 12, 1862, "8 miles from Franklin," Ewing describes a recent success on the battlefield: "We have had a hard battle and gained a dear victory. Our losses are about 450 killed & wounded as near as I have been able to ascertain. The number killed on the field did not exceed 54 on our side, the great majority of the balance slightly wounded, I think about 10 of the wounded will die. . . Our brave Col. S. Gibbons of the 10th fell shot through the head. . . I worked all night after the fight & while it was going on helping to carry the wounded and dress their wounds. I was very much exhausted & although thousands of balls whistled by me & a shell exploded & the pieces flew over my head, yet God in his infinite goodness and mercy has seen fit to spare my unprofitable life."
  
  By January of 1863, Ewing is stationed at Wayside Hospital in Lynchburg, VA, which was "appropriated entirely to furloughed and discharged men, but we will soon be filled up with sick." Indeed, in February, he relates the news of a patient's death: "We lost one of our patients last night. He had smallpox in a mild form but that together with diarrhea reduced him very rapidly. . . he left a wife and children to mourn his loss. . . how many thousands of poor wives and mothers hearts are made to bleed by this bloody and distinctive war."
  
  In the spring, supplies begin to dwindle, particularly food. Concerned for the health of his comrades, Ewing writes to his wife in March that there has been "great talk here of evacuating Virginia on account of scarcity of provisions. . . the last prisoners that passed through here said they would starve us out if they did not whip us & I am afraid there will be some fears of it if the war continues another year." The rations they do receive are not nutritionally sound, according to Ewing: "I am getting tired of fat, salty bacon & bread. . . some pickles would be very acceptable. We have new cases of scurvy every night. I think it is far more to be dreaded than smallpox unless we could produce [?] some diet that would suit. . . the government had some fools employed to make bacon and used a great deal too much salt." In a letter from May, he grimly describes the effects of scurvy on the men he treats: "Some [men] come in every night so bad they cant walk with sores all over their body and their teeth ready to drop out." Perhaps unsurprisingly, nearly all of Ewing's subsequent letters contain numerous requests for foods rich in vitamin C, such as dried fruit, sweet potatoes, and pickles.
  
  In a letter from the following year, dated May 20, 1864, Ewing writes from Somerville, VA that he "had a hard fight yesterday. 23 of our Regt killed, wounded, and missing. . . I have been working night & day with the wounded." He provides Margaret with list of wounded men organized by company and details the extent of their injuries. He continues ominously: "General Ewell tried to capture a wagon train but did not succeed. . . the enemy were drawn back 3/4 of a mile but our men fell back about 2 o'clock at night to the breastworks. Nothing was gained yesterday but we sustained a severe loss. We are surrounded by blood & carnage & groans of the wounded & dying. Oh, the heart-sickening scenes that surround us on all sides. If this war continues much longer as it has for the last 14 days, we will not have many men left."
  
  Though Ewing's letters stop in May of 1864, research suggests that he was captured at Winchester, VA on September 19, 1864 and hospitalized in Baltimore, MD the next day. Ewing was later exchanged on February 25, 1865 and returned to a life of medicine and farming in Weyer's Cave, VA after the war.
  

  Condition

  Creasing and brittleness as expected, given age. One letter torn horizontally across the middle, while a second is also torn in half, with the bottom portion absent.
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