Private Henry Fulton, 20th Ohio Volunteers, Shot by Rebel Guerrillas Near Pine Level, NC, April 10, 1865, DOW, Civil War Arch

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• Lot Description

  Lot of 13 war-date letters written by Private Henry Fulton, 20th Ohio Volunteers, Co. G, who was shot by Rebel guerrillas near Pine Level, NC, on April 10, 1865. He died of his wounds two days later at Raleigh, NC.

  Twenty-three-year-old Henry Fulton enlisted in the army on August 30, 1862. That same day he mustered into the 20^th Ohio Volunteers. He saw some action, but at no major battles in his first year. He did have experience with a gun, but he accidentally shot his bunkmate with a pistol. He explained:

  About ten days ago while we were on the march up the Yazoo one of our boys found a pistol…a Dutchman in the company loaded it and left it laying on my bed. I was at a run washing and come up picked up the pistol and was looking at it when it went off and shot Ed Knox. The ball struck him in the hip and passed through near the bone and…through the bowels. The ball was taken out. He was hauled in an ambulance 70 miles. It is very severe and painful wound. He has been sent up the river. I am very anxious to hear from him…Know was sent off four days after he was shot…I have bunked with him ever since I come to the army. It was a sad affair…I don't think his wound is mortal, but it may be. He is shot in a dangerous place (In the rear of Vicksburg, [MS], June 7, 1863).

  He recovered, but the wound nearly took his life and ultimately ended his term of service.

  Fulton continued with his company and saw some action at the Battle of Vicksburg as well as other fights in the Mississippi region. He described to his brother:  

  Surrendered on the 4th of July with all the artillery, men, munitions of war etc so this Southern Gibraltar, this Western Sevastopol is our at last. It cost a struggle but it is the greatest victory since the war began. We captured 31,000 prisoners, 17 generals, nearly 100 pieces of artillery, 40,000 stand of small arms, three trains of cars and several locomotives. Sherman & McClelland's corps have crossed Black river and are now after Johnson. I saw 11 prisoners this morning from Johnson's army. They were taken near Champion Hill battle ground and report Johnson retreating towards Jackson where he will make a stand. They say he has 40,000 men (Bovina, MS, July 8, 1863).

  While he and many of the men fought bravely, one of his superiors did not show the same valor. He explained:

  When we were at the Battle of Raymond [Captain William H.] Jacobs got sick and went to an ambulance and Lieut. Stevenson got wounded in the first of the fight so we went through [the battle] without any officers…at Champion Hill Jacobs did not have time to leave the company. We got into the fight before we knew it and then he acted the coward and at Vicksburgh he was sick until he thought the hard fighting was over and we had breastworks built to protect him (Bovina, MS, July 8, 1863).

  James Newtown came to take the place of the cowardly captain, but Fulton did not like his new leader. He wrote:

  The Lieut. Colonel of this regt came here about a month ago to take command. He has been on Gen. Cox's staff for the last year. He left the Regt while at Lagrange. Since he came back he has been drunk nearly all the time he would come out on dress parade so drunk he could not sheath his sword and adjutant had to lead him off the parade ground. He was a tyrant as well as drunkard. He went to town got drunk and drew his revolver on the guard and would have been court martialed but he sent in his resignation. He was a fine looking man and a West Point student. He was expelled from there six months before his time to graduate for getting drunk. Maj. Fry will command the regt. He is a fine man and liked by all (Vicksburg, [MS], December 29, [1863]).

  More of his and his brother’s friends were wounded including Walter L. Case, 31^st Ohio Volunteers. He wrote to Fulton’s brother, William: I was wounded through the right breast and was taken prisoner and kept ten days and paroled and sent to Chattanooga and from there to Nashville and got a furlough for 20 days…most of the men have reenlisted and are now at home…I am not fit for service again. I am rather unlucky (Private Walter L. Case, Co. H, 31st Ohio Volunteers to Henry's brother William Newton Fulton, Gen. Hospital, No. 19, Ward 2nd, Nashville, TN, March 7, 1864). While Case considered his status unlucky, he was not as unlucky as Fulton would be.

  An enemy bullet struck Fulton in Pine Level, NC on April 10, 1865. Two days later, he died of his wounds at a hospital in Raleigh. Perhaps the unluckiest aspect of all is that the war came to an end less than a month after his death. Additional transcribed letters are available at cowans.com. 

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  Transcribed letters include:

  Abbeville, Miss., Dec. 3, 1862, in part: I wrote you from Holly Springs and told you that we were on our way to attack Price [corps commander under Earl Van Doren]. We left Holly Springs the next day and went about six miles farther south…we camped on the ground where there had been a skirmish the day before. e could see shell[s] all along the road…we could hear cannon all night…we were called up ay four…and told to prepare to march…before the stars had quit shining we were on the way. We left our knapsacks…and left Bill Bell [Pvt. William A. J. Bell, Co. E]and another fellow to guard them. We went on until we came in sight of Price's fortifications [Camp Vernon]…we found he had left in the night and burnt the bridge across the river…it rained all this day and was very disagreeable…the next morning…went down to the river…had to wait until the bridge was finished which was about four hours. We then crossed the river and went through the fort. We stopped in it and eat our dinner. This fort is said to [be] far stronger than Fort Donelson…it is built on the Tallahatchie river. We here met a lot of prisoners that had been taken by our cavalry. They said the reason Price evacuated was Sherman was coming in from the west and Gen. Steel was south while Grant was coming on to attack him in front. Price is only ten or fifteen miles ahead of us. We are following him up as fast as we can. Gen. Steel is forty miles south of this at Grenada. Sherman is west and we think we have him in a pretty close corner. We don't think he will make a stand this side of Jackson, the capital of the state…the citizens have all left. I never saw such a deserted place. We get all the chickens and sweet potatoes we want…I would rather march than stay in camp…Bill Bell came into camp tonight…Henry Fulton.

  Eagle Bend, Miss., Mar. 24, 1863, in part: We are on the march again…we left Providence on sunday the 22d and landed here the next morning…Gen. Logan went down to Vicksburg for further orders and came back today. We are going to march across to the Yazoo and down it to Haynes Bluffs where we expect to fight. We start in the morning. We had a storm here this morning. It blowed the smoke stacks off our boat and set it on fire, but the fire was soon put out…there were two men hurt with the smoke stack but not badly…Henry.

  Accidentally shoots his friend with a pistol!

  In the rear of Vicksburg, [Miss.], June 7, 1863, to his father, in part: …I was to see the 76th today…their rifle pits run to the river. This is the first time I have seen the 76 since I came to the army. There is but a small squad of Homer boys in it now to what there was…we are just laying around the hills keeping the Rebs in their fortifications. They do us no harm now…when they will surrender is not known. I hope it will be soon. We are laying in the corn fields in the dirt without tents …we left our knapsacks on the other side of the river…I have not much paper to write on. I have plenty on the other side of the river. Cant get it until Vicksburg surrenders. About ten days ago while we were on the march up the Yazoo one of our boys found a pistol…a Dutchman in the company loaded it and left it laying on my bed. I was at a run washing and come up picked up the pistol and was looking at it when it went off and shot Ed Knox. The ball struck him in the hip and passed through near the bone and…though the bowels. The ball was taken out. He was hauled in an ambulance 70 miles. It is very severe and painful wound. He has been sent up the river. I am very anxious to hear from him…Know was sent off four days after he was shot. His father lives in Brandon. He is a good fellow. I have bunked with him ever since I come to the army. It was a sad affair. I don't think his wound is mortal. I don't think his wound is mortal, but it may be. He is shot in a dangerous place…Henry.

  Fall of Vicksburg-Cowardice of His Captain in Battle.

  Bovina, Miss., July 8, 1863, to his father, in part: …Ed [Knox the man he accidentally shot] is now gone up the river and will perhaps get home soon. He is getting along well. His wound is not well…and he cant walk any but said he could sit up in his cot and write…I don't think it will injure him any. I was glad to hear from Ed for I was very uneasy about him. He was in a bad condition when he left here. It was but a flesh wound but the ball passed through the lower part of the bowels and when he left his bowels were very much swollen and I was afraid inflammation would set in. He said Henry Fulton and his wife had been to see him…he did not say anything about Henry coming here as a reporter…Vicksburg…surrendered on the 4th of July with all the artillery, men, munitions of war etc so this Southern Gibraltar, this Western Sevastopol is our at last. It cost a struggle but it is the greatest victory since the war began. We captured 31,000 prisoners, 17 generals, nearly 100 pieces of artillery, 40,000 stand of small arms, three trains of cars and several locomotives. Sherman & McClerand's corps have crossed Black river and are now after Johnson. I saw 11 prisoners this morning from Johnson's army. They were taken near Champion Hill battle ground and report Johnson retreating towards Jackson where he will make a stand. They say he has 40,000 men. We moved out camp to Bovina a station on the rail-road ten miles from Vicksburg…it is a hilly country…Gen. Logan has command of the post of Vicksburg and his troops are all in there except this brigade…we will go in as soon as the prisoners are paroled and leave. I saw the 76 regt…they marched past our camp…what do the people think of the surrender of Vicksburg. What affect do you think it will have on the war. I think Port Hudson will surrender soon and we will then have the Miss. river clear…we were all glad to hear from Morg[an] Beaver. We thought he was dead. We had not heard from him since we left him at Berry's Landing…Lieut. [John G.] Stevenson…is our 2nd Lieut. and [is] first rate fellow. [William H.] Jacobs is now our captain. We had a Capt. Wilson…but Jacobs was not satisfied so he went to the Col and got Wilson transferred to another company and he come in as captain of Company E. [Harrison] Wilson [Lt. Col. 1/27/65] was a universal favorite and there wasn't anyone satisfied when he left. He would have staid with us if it had not been for Jacobs. We like Jacobs well enough only when there is a fight on hand…then he is somewhere else. When we were at the Battle of Raymond Jacobs got sick and went to an ambulance and Lieut. Stevenson got wounded in the first of the fight so we went through [the battle] without any officers…at Champion Hill [Capt. William H.] Jacobs did not have time to leave the company. We got into the fight before we knew it and then he acted the coward and at Vicksburgh he was sick until he thought the hard fighting was over and we had breastworks built to protect him, but he uses the company well and me in particular. He is very friendly with me. Tell Newton to let Pennsylvania fight their own battle and him to stay at home. War is not what it is cracked up to be…[if] he would lay out in the rain a few nights he would find out so…Henry.

  Vicksburg, Miss., Nov. 18, [1863], in part: …work on forts has played out. They have set the nigers at it and we have nothing to do but picket…our commanders have been again change[d]. Gen. Force now commands the 1st Brigade and the 32nd Ohio has exchanged places with the 30th Ill. Col. Potts of the 32nd commands the brigade. We have now an Ohio brigade. The 32d Ohio is the Regt brought into the field by Col. Ford of Mansfield and which was taken prisoner at Harpers Ferry…[they] gained some notoriety for a charge made at Champion Hill in which they took a battery of 9 guns. There is a very pretty cemetery near our camp…there us a vault and in it five persons one is a Mr. G. H. Lake killed at Memphis in a duel in 1861 I have seen him several times and he looks as well as before he was killed…Vicksburg has been a great place before the war. Every other house is a saloon or gambling house…Harvey is feeling very well now and has been doing some big bragging…telling how many men he came whip and if an officer asks him to volunteer after he is discharged he will knock him right plumb down and tramp his heart right out…Henry.

  Vicksburg, Miss., Dec. 5, [1863], in part: …we have news from Chattanooga that Grant has whipped Bragg and taken a great many prisoners and 60 pieces of artillery and routed the whole army. I hope it is so. I am tired of this war and wish it was over…I was very much surprised this morning when out on inspection to see Mr. Oldacre and Dave Weaver walk up the hill. Oldacre is after his son [Henry Oldaker DOD 7/9/62]. He is buried three miles from here at Grand Junction where this regt was apart of last summer. Oldacre may stay three or four days and he may go back tomorrow…let me know something about that tavern in town. I have heard a good deal about it. Where is the Homer League Society now. Doctor Inskeep, Dr. Newton, Isaac Mathews and all the rest I thought they were going to tare out and burn down any body that would sell liquor in Homer…Henry H. Fulton.

  Accusations of Lt. Col. James Newton McElroy being a drunkard letter.

  Vicksburg, [Miss.], Dec. 29, [1863], in part: …the Lieut. Colonel of this regt came here about a month ago to take command. He has been on Gen. Cox's staff for the last year. He left the Regt while at Lagrange. Since he came back he has been drunk nearly all the time he would come out on dress parade so drunk he could not sheath his sword and adjutant had to lead him off the parade ground. He was a tyrant as well as drunkard. He went to town got drunk and drew his revolver on the guard and would have been court martialed but he sent in his resignation. He was a fine looking man and a West Point student. He was expelled from there six months before his time to graduate for getting drunk. Maj. Fry will command the regt. He is a fine man and liked by all…I saw Robert Larimore…he was going to the river to help unload boats…Henry.

  Vicksburg, [Miss.], Jan. 27, [1864], in part: …I am surprised that such men as Wm. Fulton and the rest you spoke of would get on a drunken spree. The people think the offscouring were all int he army, but it is not so we have as gentlemanly a set of fellows in this company as can be found and any one of them would blush to be seen on a spree. I think the best men of the country are in the army. The most eloquent speakers are here…Gen. Joe Geiger of Ohio spoke to this brigade a few days ago and his language was so profane and vulgar that the men were ashamed of him. I suppose he thought he was speaking to the set of black guards and ignoramuses but he was mistaken…I have often heard Gen. McPherson and Force speak and never heard either speak an indecent word. We have been drilling for a flag. It was to be presented to the best drilled regt in the division. We were called out without any preparatory at all. There are fifteen Regts in the division and all drilled. We were fourth best. We have not drilled for more than a year on battalion drill. The 124th Ill. regt got the flag…it will be left at division head quarters but will be carried by [the] regt holding it at reviews, parades, etc and will be their battle flag…Henry.

  Vicksburg, [Miss.], Jan. 19, [1864], in part: …Newton would…had staid at home as gone to Missouri but I think the trip will do him good…if he keeps out of the army I will be satisfied. I am willing to stay until the war is over but I don't want to see him come. I have heard several rumors about the draft, that there was going to be eight hundred thousand drafted. I don't believe it…it would be good policy to draft a large army and end the war next spring. I think anyway it will end in less than a year. I will send you a piece of the tree under which the surrender of Vicksburg was made. The tree was a live oak about 2 1/2 feet through the butt with a bushy top and grew on fort hill between the rebel's works and ours. Gen. Pemberton come out here and met Gen. Grant and under this tree the terms of surrender were agreed upon…the tree has been all cut up and carried off. Some of it was sent to Washington City…Henry.

  Vicksburg, Miss., Feb. 3, [1864], in part: We are under marching orders…we are going out in the interior of Mississippi by way of Jackson and Meridian. There is a large force going from here. Troops have been landing here for several days and a part of the Army of the Cumberland is coming down across the country and they expect to bag a force under Johnson stationed at different points on the Central rail-road…there is a flat piece of country laying between the bluffs here and the Yazoo river which is full of lakes and bayous and the men have been in the habit of going there to fish. A few days ago ten men went…with a team and came back with 2,500 lbs of fish weighing from 10 to 100 lbs each. They were mostly cat fish…these lakes are full of alligators and gars and it would be dangerous fishing in warm weather…Henry.

  Decatur, Ala., May 27, [1864], in part: …we left Cairo the 10th of May and went from them to Cliffton on boats. Cliffton is on the Tenn. river about 30 miles below Pittsburg Landing. We marched…from there…140 miles. We come by Pulaski and Huntsville. The country…is very rough and rocky and full of iron ore…[there are] furnaces every few miles…Pulaski…is a splendid country the best I have yet seen in the south…they are farming the country all through Tenn. and north of the Tenn. river in Alabama…we forded the Elk river. It was waist deep and it would have made you laugh to have seen officers and men strip off and get all their things on their shoulders, hold up their shirt tails and wade through and climb the bank on the opposite side. Harper ought to have had an artist there. The next day we passed Elkmont springs, a Southern watering place. There is hotel, billiard saloons, ten pin alliyes card tables, ball rooms etc there, but the place is going down since the war. I drank of the water. It is mineral of some kind. Huntsville is the nicest town I ever saw. It is larger than Newark [and is] on the Memphis & Charleston Rail-Road. There is a spring there that runs more water than Owl Creek…three is machinery run by the spring that forces the water all over town. The water is cold and very pure. I saw Harve Keckly at Huntsville. He is working in a wagon shop. He has a nice place to work and likes it very well…[much on friends and family members in other regiments]…Decatur is on the south side of the Tenn. river 30 miles west of Huntsville. It had been a good town but is destroyed a good deal and forts all through the town. There was a skirmish there yesterday and two of the 17th N. Y. killed. I have got along nice on this march. I was detailed to go with the division train at Cliffton and [I] have got every thing hauled even gun and accouterments. We stand 3 hours guard every other night and get to ride all the way…we will go to Rome, Georgia…Henry.

  Soldier friend on being wounded at the battle of Chickamauga.

  Pvt. Walter L. Case, Co. H, 31st Ohio Vols. to Henry's brother William Newton Fulton, Gen. Hospital, No. 19, Ward 2nd, Nashville, Tenn., Mar. 7, 1864, to , in part: …I haven't been with the regt since the battle of Chickamauga. I was wounded through the right breast and was taken prisoner and kept ten days and paroled and sent to Chattanooga and from there to Nashville and got a furlough for 20 days…most of the men have reenlisted and are now at home…I am not fit for service again. I am rather unlucky…oh we had a big time at at home with the Butternuts. We cleaned them out wherever we found them…please write me and let me know what has happened and who has been married…and the way the old maids are walking into the dry goods is a sign there is something afloat…Walter Case. Hospital No. 19, Ward 2nd, Nashville, Tenn…

  Brother William Newton Fulton, [n. p., but somewhere along the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad in Indiana], Dec. 9, 1863, in part: As the cars are stopping a few moments in this place for dinner…we left Newark Monday evening and got to Cincinnati the next day. We went to the river immediately and tried to engage a passage but failed to get one as there was no boat going to leave this week…the fare by the river was nearly the same as by the cars so we concluded the cars would be the best way so we took the Indianapolis and St. Louis road…it is a going to cost us a great deal more than we expected. The railroad fare is so very high and we cant get a meal…for less than a half dollar and if you take a bed to sleep…you have to pay twenty five cts…these roads are so rough you cant write, sleep, nor think. I have run a good part of Ohio and Indiana…we are well and in good spirits. General says to tell his wife he will write to her as soon as as we get out there. He takes everything as cool as a cucumber…I think of you all twenty times a day and also of that pretty little girl I left behind me…Newton…we got our steel traps and everything we wanted in Cincinnati.

  Condition

  Letters are in very good condition with typical folds and some oxidation of the ink. 
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