Remarkable archive of 16 handwritten letters from Major William C. Shaw, a soldier in Company B of the 38th Indiana Regiment, dated between October 1861 and March 1865. The letters amount to 70 pages, with Shaw writing to various family members, the majority addressed to his father. Shaw rose from the rank of sergeant to major, and his regiment fought under General Sherman from Tennessee through Georgia and into the Carolinas. Most significantly, Shaw offers several exciting and harrowing accounts of skirmishes and heavier confrontations with the Confederacy.
Among the family members that Shaw writes to is his cousin James A. Wilson, the recipient of a trio of fantastically detailed letters, the most impressive of which recounts Shaw’s first full-scale assault at the Battle of Stones River; the 8-page letter, penned on February 21, 1863, at a camp near Murfreesboro, in part: “We laid here until darkness brought a cessation of hostilities but we were required to lay on the wet ground without any fires and no blankets…and we could hear the wounded moaning & crying and entreating for somebody to come and take them away for they were freezing to death…[the Rebels] did not appear to care about us seeing them for they built fires in the woods & we could see them standing around but when they would hear a gun discharge they would scatter…at daybreak the cannons commenced their terrible barking again and we were taken to the front again—double quick where we were placed in a sassafras thicket.”
Highlights from the collection:
October 17, 1861, from Camp Nevin in Kentucky: “I have got into the Telegraph Office here now. I came over from the 38 Regt yesterday morning & went to work. The General (McCook) says that I shall still hold my position in the Co. yet I do not know how long my engagement will last but I think it will be a good while. I worked two days & a half on the wire from the Rail Road to head quarters.”
November 14, 1861, again from Camp Nevin: “The reason that I left Head Quarters was that the Brigade Surgeon thought that he could order me around just as he pleased. I stayed over there just twenty seven…days & I will get for it Ten dollars & Eighty Cents…I will send it home the first chance I get. We get for our meals Flour & boiled meats, we mix up the flour in water & then bake it in frying pans with a little grease…Where we are now we have to go about a mile for water…We have got Enfield Rifles now they are lighter than the musket.”
March 8, 1862, written from “Camp Andy Johnson, 3 miles South of Nashville,” in part: “You ought to have seen us moving from where we bivouacked the other night to the present camp. Every man in the Regt had about four or five bundles of fodder on his back, and you could not see any of the men, nothing but fodder. Since we have been in Tennessee we have had three or four awful cold days. As we were marching through Nashville the people came to their doors and windows and looked as sour as vinegar.”
November 22, 1862, written from “Camp Edgefield Junction” in Tennessee, another lengthy and detailed letter to his cousin: “I think that I wrote you a letter since the battle but you may bet that I never want to get into another one for it was awful…for a while & you may know if I ever prayed I did then for I thought I would drop every second but as the Lord would have it I was spared when we retired from our first line of Battle.”
December 7, 1862, written at Camp Negley near Nashville: “On yesterday the 6th we got ordered to move into another Brigade, we are in the Pa Brigade now. The choice was given for the best regiment in the 2nd Brigade.”
January 18, 1863, from a “Camp Near Murfreesboro” in Tennessee: “We had a very hard scout here the other day we started from camp on a scout with three days rations & we went to Versailles a distance of 12 ½ miles passing through Salem…The object of our going there was to head off a Brigade of Rebel Cavalry that was supposed to be coming that way. We stayed three days and rained all the time…on the night of the first days fight in front Murfreesboro we had to lay on a wet cornfield all night & let the rebels fire at us but we were not allowed to return the fire for we wanted them to advance out of the…woods…but they did not come so there we laid all night without a bit of fire out there. I got my feet frost bit…The boys here do not feel like they have anything to fight for now, for they think that they are fighting to free the Negroes.”
January 28, 1863, camp near Murfreesboro: “We were out with a foraging or rather a supply train to Nashville we started from here on the evening of the 22nd & got across Stone River & camped on the Battle Ground where Rebel Washington battery was planted during the fight it is awful to see the destruction that has been done from here to Nashville of the pike all around Laverne the rebel Cavalry burn our trains, in some instances they burnt the mules up along with the wagons alive & there is about five hundred horses laying along the pike that were killed in Cavalry Charges.”
February 13, 1863, at Murfreesboro: “Lieut Lenan is going home tomorrow morning for the purpose of catching some deserters of our Co., but I don’t believe he will bring them back.”
June 10, 1863, at Murfreesboro: “We are afraid here that Grant will have to give up his siege and go somewhere else for fear of ‘Joe Johnson.’ Further time will tell its own tale…It is reported in camp this evening that Vicksburg is ours with 35,000 prisoners & guns plenty of them a Lieut of Co. K of our regt. Got it from one of general Rosecrans Staff Officers.”
July 8, 1863, written at “camp 2 Miles from Dechard” in Tennessee: “We started from Murfreesboro on the morning of the 24th…but in the course of a half hour the rebels began to shoot at one of our Batteries on a hill in front of us and their balls would overshoot and light in among us, one ball, a shell I think, lit in the left of our regt & the right of the 2nd Ohio wounding two men…Early the next morning…we marched boldly in the face of the Rebels and the Regt was halted in a gulley…We skirmished with the Rebs for about an hour…We charged over a large wheat field and then over a large hill but while we charged the Rebs lit out to the rear so there were no men hurt on our side. After we had made our charge we halted and watched our left. Genl Negley advance, for from where we were we could see two miles to our left. I think it was the finest thing I have seen since I have been in the Service.”
July 19, 1864, written from the “2nd Line of battle 4 miles from Atlanta, Ga.,” in part: “We did move the river at a bridge two or three miles above RR Bridge the rebel skirmishes were not away from the bank of the river an hour before our Engineers had a pontoon bridge over and the 2nd Division (Davis’s) crossing, we advanced four miles yesterday evening, we are now within a quarter of a mile from the rebel’s breast works…We expect to be in Atlanta in less than a week.” Shaw implores his sister to write to him more often, before continuing: “There is some very hard fighting upon the left of us about a half mile it is Genl. [Absalom] Baird’s Division the 3rd of the 14th corps advancing and finding out the Rebels position. We will have our lines formed in a few days and then Genl. Sherman will go to trying his plan of fighting…Tell every body that know me that I am well and near Atlanta, Ga.”
September 3, 1864, written in pencil from “Jonesboro, Ga.,” in part: “I cannot control my feelings as I write it was only through the protection of my heavenly Father that I escaped…the order came for the 38th to go we got outside of the front line of works & sent 3 companies out as skirmishers and started for the rebel works, 75 yards in the dense woods. The rebels has cut all of the brush down and plaited it together but we climbed over it and drove & took the rebels right out of their works—we then chased them and crossed the Rail Road & fought for a half hour but having no support upon either flank we had to give them up we lost in the eight killed & twenty eight wounded…The Army of the Tennessee are following the rebel army now part of our Corps started back to Atlanta tonight with some 1,500 prisoners a part of the 9th Ky was taken some of the Duckwall boys from Louisville are among the prisoners.” The charge of the 38th Indiana broke the Confederate defense of Atlanta and led to Sherman’s capture of the city the next day.
September 19, 1864, an eight-page letter from Atlanta, consisting of a package request, his plans for the future, and how his faith aids his war-time experience and mentality: “O how much joy & consolation for me while in battle; upon the march or while in camp—is the remembrance of apart at least of my stay at home to think what pleasant associations I firmed and of the happy moments & how we passed together in praising & singing Gods most holy words—God grant through the prayers of my Brothers & Sisters & friends that I may go through the trials that I am called upon to pass & eventually when through with these present privations may be permitted to return home…Do you all have the same confidence in my Heavenly father that I do—do you trust in him—do you think that he watches & protects me in the hour of battle?”
December 18, 1864, written “In line of Battle near Savannah, Ga.,” addressed to his entire family, in part: “I bought myself an overcoat at Atlanta before leaving…I would not have missed this campaign for a great deal, for we passed through some nice towns upon the route and then saw such nice country and then we had no fighting to do only an occasional skirmish with the rebel cavalry, having only a few persons hurt…I am going to try and go to New York and get an outfit, it may be that I will go there and have you send me my things from home, but I cannot go until Savannah is taken…I have kept a Diary of events upon this campaign and when I get it full I will send it home for the gratification of the home folks for at times I have let my mind out very freely and it would not suit for every body to read it.”
March 26, 1865, from Goldsboro, North Carolina, an eight-page letter to his cousin, in part: “I will again assume the grateful privilege thus afforded me to write you a few lines…and to assure you that I am still upon praying ground devoid of harm—for the Rebels labored in vain. But I must admit that they pushed me a little upon the 19th of this month…we left bivouac & we were 26 miles from Goldsboro & intended going there that day. After marching about five miles, our front was disputed and the Brigade Mounted Foragers ‘Dog Robbers’ & ‘Bummers’ were ordered to drive the Rebels but could not when the 1st Brigade was thrown into line and pushed forward over the field to attack the barricade across the road behind which were the Rebs…Up went the 1st Brig onto the works and away pell-mell went the rebels 300 cavalry—the brig following them ½ miles when Boom! boom! boom! went some artillery in front.” Shaw details the various positions and counter-movements of the Confederate troops, mentions an ill-fated reconnaissance that resulted in tragedy for the 38th and the 79th regiments, and then touches upon his own near-death experience: “When the column fell back I ordered the skirmishers to retire a piece and just as I turned back spat! a ball took me upon the right shoulder just barely hitting the shoulder bone—then I threw my hand with the exclamation Oh! I am wounded! But could find no hole in my coat nor any blood but felt considerable pain, then I could not use my right arm, so I placed myself down behind a tree to rusticate a while. The men in the mean time insisting that I should go to the rear but I was determined to stay and see it out.”
Also includes an unsigned handwritten nine-page account of a visit to the Jonesboro Battlefield and Andersonville Prison, dated March 11, 1874; and a 5-page handwritten draft for an 1895 speech on the death of General Walter Q. Gresham. In 1874, Shaw undertook a journey to the Jonesboro Battlefield and Andersonville Prison in order to identify the graves of his fallen men. His remarkable account reads, in part: “I was soon on the spot, where 9 1/2 years ago, I stood contending for our rights and at the point of the bayonet, giving the Rebels theirs—From the stump of a chestnut tree I took a ball, with a piece of the wood attached, which was fired at me during the latter part of the engagement. From the spots where Lieut. Adam Osborne of Co. ‘A’, and Corpl. Whittaker of Co. ‘K’ were killed, and Maj. Carter, Capts. Jenkins & Penny were wounded, I brought away with me some sprigs of pine…The appearance of the battlefield has changed very little, and it took very little stretch of the imagination to people the fields and works and fight the battle over again.” He then describes going to the Andersonville cemetery, where he conducted a “search among the 13,710 graves for the 38th dead,” recording eleven gravesites of fallen members of the 38th Indiana. After describing the grounds of the cemetery, he discusses his arrival at Andersonville Prison's gates: “Entering the Grounds through the natural gateway, I found myself upon and overlooking a spot, which, if it had tongue to tell, could recount tales which would pall even the sufferings of the occupants of the Black Hole of Calcutta…Imagine a field as large as nine of New Albany’s business blocks…enclosed by palisades of rough hewn pine logs…Imagine, if you can, how great must have been the suffering of the 35,000 to 40,000 soldiers in this plain, with no shelter by day or night, but the houses of dirt they dug in the ground…from one hundred and seventy five to two hundred died daily.”
In overall very good to fine condition. William C. Shaw (1844-1922) was mustered into service as a 17-year-old sergeant in the 38th Indiana on September 18, 1861. At the start of the Civil War he served as a telegraph operator at Russeville, Kentucky, and later earned a promotion of Second Lieutenant on September 1, 1864, the very date Gen. Henry W. Slocum evacuated Atlanta, making way for the occupation of Union troops a day later and setting the stage for Sherman's March to the Sea. Shaw was also commissioned First Lieutenant on September 4, 1864, as Captain on November 4, 1864, and finally as Major on June 8, 1865. At the close of the war, the 21-year-old Shaw was detailed by Colonel D. H. Patton to write a history of the Thirty-eighth Indiana, which was later published by General A. D. Streight in 1866.
