Private John R. Miller, 123rd Indiana Infantry, Civil War Archive incl. Letters Describing Devastation Brought by Union Soldiers

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Nov 18, 2016 - Nov 19, 2016

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• Lot Description
  Lot of 56, including 28 war-date letters from the front written by John R. Miller; 7 letters from Hiram Miller, mostly to his son John; 8 letters from other family members writing to either Hiram or John Miller, including Colonel Richard N. Hudson and John’s younger brother Preston; approx. 13 envelopes.
  
  May a kind heaven preserve my native state from ever being a battleground of armies, wrote Private John R. Miller (Camp near Senior Institute, NC, March 30, 1865). Miller, an Indiana native, loved life in the army but hated the ruin troops brought. He continued in his letter:
  
  I have been out and come across houses where a few hours before everything was plenty, utterly stripped of everything, scarcely a mouthful left in the house and it is that way all over the country for miles around… The people of the North can imagine, but this imagination can form no idea of the terrible desolation that follows in the path of an army in enemy country (Camp near Senior Institute, NC, March 30, 1865).
  
  Even though he hated the end result of the looting, he did enjoy its spoils. He described to his family:
  
  We are living finely, as we have all the forage we want, fine ham and shoulder meat, chickens, sweet potatoes, molasses, in fact every thing that the country affords…The boys go our foraging and come back with wagons, carts, buggies and horses and mules loaded with forage of all kinds, nothing is left untouched… I love the profession of army and the excitement of battle is not without charms for me, but I never want to see my own loved state to be the scene of a devastating marches of hostile armies (Camp near Senior Institute, NC, March 30, 1865).
  
  Miller came from a highly decorated military family. His father, Hiram Miller was a colonel in the Indiana State Militia and served in that position from 1835 to 1850. (Information obtained from Ancestry.com, October 1, 2017.) His brother, George was accepted into West Point in 1857. His uncle, Robert N. Miller, was a colonel in the Union Army and served as aide-de-camp twice for the 2^nd IN Cavalry, and as colonel of the 133^rd IN Infantry. As a result, John revered military life and enlisted as soon as he was of age. On December 11, 1863, he mustered into the 123^rd IN, Co. F, but his early enlistment meant he had to wait until his regiment organized. He wrote his father from Camp Linsey, Well I am well and hearty and enjoying myself…but I am getting tired of Terrehaute. I wish our regiment was full, and we had orders to leave for Georgia tomorrow morning, but our regiment will hardly be organized until after the draft, it will then be filled up with drafted men (Camp Linsey, December 27, 1863). The regiment was not complete until March 9, 1864. Less than ten days after organizing, Miller and his regiment departed for Nashville. Camp life and combat did not change Miller’s opinion of military life. He continued to relish it. He wrote to his father:
  
  For my part, I am glad I am where discipline can be enforced, it must come sooner or later and the sooner the better. I am in a military business, I like to see things conducted in a military manner. I don’t like halfway measures. If I were an officer, I should enforce the strictest discipline and while I am under officers I wish them to do the same. The non-commissioned officers were appointed with morning. I am a Corporal. High office that, but it will do to begin with (Camp Carrington, March 10, 1864).
  
  Like any good soldier, he worshiped his superiors, especially General Sherman. He wrote to his father:
  
  I notice that fanatical journals of the North such as the Tribune Gazette Commercial, and others are down on Sherman like a “thousand of brick”, a month ago they were lauding him to the skies. I wish such papers were burnt, but nothing can ever shake the hold that Sherman has it upon the hearts of his army. We who have followed him and known him for so long, know what he is and we believe his error was of the head and not of the heart, an honester man never lived, bribe Sherman! There is not enough gold in the world to buy one iota of his principles and Sherman’s name, spite of efforts of fanatics, will go down in posterity as a great and good and honest man (Greensboro, NC, May 15, 1865).
  
  Although Miller had ambitions of earning a higher position, he never rose further in the ranks. He did not let his unfulfilled aspirations effect his quality of service. After meeting his captain, Miller’s uncle, Colonel Robert N. Hudson, wrote an encouraging letter to his nephew. I have just seen Cap. Cowgil….I was much pleased to hear [him] speak so favorably of you as a brave soldier. Indeed he speaks in the highest terms of you, wrote Hudson (Headquarters 133rd IN Infantry, Bridgeport, AL, July 13, 1864). In addition to praise, his uncle offered sound advice. Don’t be rash as your duty as a soldier, but don’t necessarily expose yourself. Many a brave man has lost his life by an unnecessary exposure of his person. Be brave but not recklessly, dashing but prudent, heroic but always exercising sound judgement and discretion (Headquarters 133rd IN Infantry, Bridgeport, AL, July 13, 1864). His sage words came from his experiences at the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth. Three months earlier, however, Miller’s father offered him similar advice. Hiram wrote to his son, If you should be in battle, do not expose yourself to much, but give the rebs thunder. Do not turn your back to them without positive orders, a brave man is less apt to be killed than a coward. In a word, my dear boy, be a man in everything that it takes to make a man (Greencastle, IN, April 10, 1864).
  
  Before entering into combat Miller learned his regiment might squash another rebellion near the Indiana border in Charleston, IL. I would like to have a chance with the butternuts, but I am afraid that if we should go there we would have to stay there a good while, wrote Miller (Nashville, TN, April 2, 1864). Days later Hiram reported, All quiet at Charleston, IL. 8 dead more lingering. The butternuts commenced the fight, my neighbor, John Jenkins, lost a son in the fight, his youngest son, a good union boy (Greencastle, IN, April 10, 1864). Butternuts were an extreme anti-war political group in Indiana associated with the national group, the Copperheads. On March 28, 1864, a riot ensued in Charleston over inflammatory comments said by Judge Charles H. Constable. By April 1st, 250 men from the 54th IL went to fight against a group of rioting Copperheads (The New York Times, April 1, 1864). The violence resulted in the death of eight men, including one of Miller’s neighbors. Generally, Butternuts in Indiana did not engage in treasonous activities, but the governor of Indiana insisted that they and the “Sons of Liberty” plotted to depose him. His statements only increased tensions between pro-war families and anti-war families in Indiana. Hiram vented to his son:
  
  [The Butternuts] have been cursing the government and cursing the soldiers and doing all they could to [illegible] the government and favour the rebels and a good number of them guilty of treason, and would have overthrown the government if they could have mustered strength enough. But when they found out that Uncle Sam was a little too strong for them and was compelled and to submit to the authority of the government and take their chances at the draft wheel…miserable scoundrels (Greencastle, IN, February 29, 1865).
  
  Governor Morton did arrest several suspected traitors and sentenced them to hang, but they did not swing from the gallows. (Information obtained from Indiana Historical Bureau website, October 1, 2016.) After the war, the state pardoned the men and reduced their sentences.
  
  Miller’s superiors denied his captain’s request to go to Illinois and ordered the regiment move into Georgia. Near Atlanta Miller wrote:
  
  We are now within about 35 miles of Atlanta. Our division is on the extreme left. It is reported that our right is between the rebels and Atlanta thus cutting them off from their communications. We are driving them eastward. Our division has done a great marching part of the time on the right then on the left. We were first under fire at Buzzard Roost and have been along the whole line through Snake Creek Gap and Resaca…I think the destruction of the rebel army inevitable. There has been very heavy cannonading and musketry firing about two or three to the right of our position all morning but ceased about an hour ago. I suppose the rebs retreated as usual (Camp in the field, May 28, 1864).
  
  In pursuit of the rebels, his regiment moved past Atlanta towards Marietta. He described the action to his father:
  
  We had some fighting to do lately. Last Friday week the 17th we attacked the rebel lines and drive them about 3 mile. Since then the army has advanced several miles. On the evening of the twenty 2nd the rebels charged our lines but they went back faster than they came up. The next day eight hundred rebels were buried just in front of our lines. In two charges the rebs have made lately, on the 20th and 22nd, the rebs lost about 5 or 6 thousand men. It is reported that Ewell has joined Johnston. If he has, he is just the man that will fight this rebel army in front of us to death, for he would mass his forces and try to break our line. This is what we want, we could kill that faster that way than any other (Near Marietta, GA, June 26, 1864).
  
  Miller continued to be in the thick of action through the winter. After being on the run from the enemy for several weeks, Miller wrote his family:
  
  We had a pretty hard time for a few days.  We were at Columbia about 8 or 10 days. At the time the rebels advanced that place. Our regiment was laying in Duck River guarding the fords. Six companies under Col. McQuiston were at Williamsport and 4 companies “B” ‘C” and G and our company under Col. Walter were at Gordon’s ferry 4 miles farther down the regt…. When our armies fell back to Franklin, we were cut off from it. The army evacuated Columbia in the morning and we did not receive notice of it until 12 o’clock that night, we immediately started. We marched till day light when we halted for breakfast…we marched all day and in the evening found we were cut off from our army and in the rear of Hood’s army.
  
  We marched around the rear of the rebels, passing within two miles of their camp fires and stopped past his flank. All this time they were fighting hard at Franklin, had they not have been we could not possibly have escaped…it was reported and believed that we were captured. I suppose you read at home that we were. That day I had more expectations of being in some southern prison by this time (Nashville, TN, December 4, 1864).
  
  Relieved after learning of his son’s safety at the Battle of Franklin, Hiram wrote to Miller:
  
  [I] was very glad to hear that you was well and that you was neither wounded, killed, or captured.... Son, you can form no idea how anxious I am to learn who was wounded, killed or captured after a battle fought by the army of which you are a member. I look over the list of casualties with fear and troubling, not but what I have an abiding faith that you will never be killed or wounded by a rebel. I believe that God looks with peculiar favour upon the brave soldiers that are fighting to defend and perpetuate the institution of this God favoured country, and that the brave devotion that our soldiers exhibit in defense of our country will cover a multitude of sins, but will not save the soul (Greencastle, IN, December 12, 1864).
  
  The relief was short lived because the danger for Miller was not over. In the same letter to his father Miller wrote:
  
  We are laying in the trenches here expecting an attack any moment. We have got to fight here and fight hard… We have got to fight them sometime and I would just as big to it now as any other time, and rather do it here than any where else…You need not look for me home this winter, as I have not the least idea of being able to get a furlough, as long as the fight continues (Nashville, TN, December 4, 1864).
  
  As Miller continued to fight, he became more confident in his abilities. He wrote to his father:
  
  I have been in 8 or 10 fights and expect to be in some more. I have had many fair shots at the rebels but never hit one that I know of. The first time I ever shot at a man I was so excited at the thought that I trembled like a leaf, but I got used to that kind of business, and I can draw a “bead” on a rebel now as cooly as would on a squirrel and be glad to see him fall. It is curious how careless of life war will render any man. Before I came into the army, it would have shocked me to see a man cut with a knife, or knocked down with a club. Now I can see any number of men killed and never give them a thought or glance (Fort Anderson, NC, February 27, 1865)
  
  At the battlefield near Kinston, NC, Miller wrote of the intense fighting:
  
  Our company, as usual, was thrown out at the skirmishers with the companies of the 129^th Ind on our right and companies of the 130^th Ind on our left, and moved through the woods to uncover the rebs with a line of battle supporting us. We struck the rebel skirmishers who were advancing at the same time, and charging with a yell drove them through the thick pine woods, until coming to a narrow opening, we found ourselves within less than 300 yards and if I didn’t hurt anybody, why, there is no virtue in powder, and lead, and Springfield rifles, that’s all…the loss of the Rebels was very severe, our own loss was very slight…In the action of the 8^th, we had two men wounded. John Goddard in the leg, flesh wound, and Bob Brannock in the neck by a piece of shell, slight. I, as usual, came out alright tho’ I had several pretty close cuts. I have been in 14 knock downs, and come out unhurt…I think the rebellion is about “played out” (Kinston, NC, March 14, 1865).
  
  Certain of their success later that summer, Miller confidently wrote to his father:
  
  The humiliation of the rebels is complete. Occasionally we will find a defiant one, but there are “few and far between.” The North Carolinians are glad enough to have quiet and order restored once more. They think they are able to take care of themselves now without any further trouble. If Holden is elected gov., as I have no doubt he will be, they will have a man who has from the outset, been firm and unswerving in his devotion to the Union and one who will have neither sympathy or mercy for the rebels (Greensboro, NC, May 15, 1865).
  
  Miller’s predictions were correct. Three months later he and his regiment mustered out of service on August 25, 1865 and headed towards home. Although peace had been restored, Hiram sensed that his son was still in danger. He wrote to his son:
  
  When you was passing through the hardships of long marches and severe battles, I was prepared to hear of any misfortune that might happen to you, but now that the War is virtually over and dainger has almost disappeared, I feel more anxiety about you if possible…that some misfortune may over take you after having preformed your duty so nobly as a solider in the service of your country. May God still protect you and enable you to return home safe and sound (Greencastle, IN, June 5, 1865).
  
  Despite his ill feelings, Miller did return home safely to his family. He continued to live in his beloved state until his death. 

  Condition

  Typical folds and toning of the paper.
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