Post by Marc LeVine on Dec 29, 2006 16:17:44 GMT -5
Life on the front in the War Between the States
Union soldiers’ letters home provide poignant glimpse into Civil War
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer
PHOTOSBY JEFF GRANIT staff Brick Township historian Gene Donatiello wrote his latest book “A Family of Soldiers, Letters Home to Herbertsville from the Civil War,” after longtime resident Elmer Havens gave him a suitcase full of family letters shortly before he died in 2005.
Cpl. Aaron Elmer had already had his share of tragedy when he volunteered to fight for the Union cause in the fall of 1862.
His young wife, Mary, had died in March of that year at age 21, leaving him with two young daughters. They had already lost a son in infancy.
Elmer, 28, wrote home regularly to his sister-in-law, Esther Tilton, who took over the care of his daughters when he joined the 28th Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry E Company.
He was wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Elmer was eventually taken to Douglas Hospital in Washington, D.C., to recover.
His last letter home, written in a wavering script, came on Feb. 8:
“Dear Sister,
Some of the letters used in Gene Donatiello’s latest book about Brick residents in the Civil War. The stationery includes color lithographs that promote the Union cause.
I am a great deal worst I have got a very sore throat. I am agreeing to send you 26 dollars tomorrow by Adams Express Co you can use it for whatever you think, best to use it for the family. I have not eaten anything for 3 or 4 days from your brother AE”
There was another message on the back of the letter, dated Feb. 9, 1863. It was penned by a different hand.
Your Dear Brother died this morning.
“It was a climax to everything,” said township historian Gene E. Donatiello. “It answered the question of what happened to him.”
Aaron Elmer’s story is one of four Union soldiers’ stories told in “A Family of Soldiers, Letters Home to Herbertsville From the Civil War,” written by Donatiello, the founding president of the Brick Township Historical Society.
Donatiello had been friends for years with Elmer Havens, the great-great grandson of Cpl. Aaron Elmer. Havens had saved a treasure chest of letters from the Curtis, Elmer, Herbert, Pettit and Tilton families. Most of the letters were written in the 1800s.
The two visited shortly before Havens died at 87 in 2005. Havens handed Donatiello a battered suitcase. Inside was a historian’s dream, letters he had saved from those five families, all familiar names in what is now the Herbertsville section of the township.
“He said, ‘I’m giving these to you. You will know what to do with them,’ ” Donatiello said. “I felt that Elmer made me the personal guardian of things. He put so much trust in me.”
So began months of days and nights spent poring over faded letters from men and women long dead. Donatiello couldn’t tear himself from them.
“I have to rein him in once in while,” said Lenora, his wife. Both are retired Brick Township schoolteachers.
“He is lost in the past,” she said. “He is immersed in these people.”
Donatiello began to research census records. He read and reread the letters, trying to determine the family connections.
Elmer Havens had never known his great-great-grandfather’s entire story until Donatiello told him.
“He was thrilled,” Donatiello recalled. “It’s nice to know your family history. You have to know where you came from.”
The book includes letters from Aaron Elmer, Private John Curtis, Private Richard B. Pettit and Cpl. Samuel A. Elmer.
The envelopes are postmarked with a names like Allenwood, Freehold, Herbertsville, Jacobstown, Laurelton, Long Branch, Lower Squankum, Manasquan, Newark, Shark River, Shelltown and Trenton.
The soldiers’ letters provided a glimpse of what the War Between the States was really like, in between more mundane descriptions of the weather and what they had to eat.
Private Richard B. Pettit, a Herbertsville resident, left his wife, Charlotte, and six children to enlist in the 14th Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry D in August 1862.
Pettit described the practice of burying dead Confederate soldiers in an August 1862 letter to Samuel A. Elmer.
“Well samuel i will tell you how they bury the rebs here ... [t]hey dig a trench it is long enough to put 25 men in they dig it a bout 18 inched deep then they lay them in they lay one mans head between the others feet and so keep on until they get it ful.”
Pettit managed to make it through three years of combat. He was discharged in June 1865. He took the train back to Freehold and spent three days hiking back to Herbertsville, according to the book.
Eleanor Norcross, Pettit’s great-granddaughter, told Donatiello of his homecoming.
“Upon arriving at the Herbertsville School, he turned down the road heading toward his home. he could see small children playing around his home. As he approached, the children ran into the house hollering, ‘Ma a stranger is comin.’ ”
Donatiello, a retired history teacher, taught at Brick Township and Brick Memorial high schools. He was appointed township historian in 1995 and to the Brick Township Historic Preservation Commission in 1998. He co-authored “Images of America: Brick Township,” published by Arcadia Publications. The book has already sold out in two printings.
He is already working on his next project, a book about 20th-century summer camps and resorts in the Brick Township area, like The Cedars and Camp Freedom.
Donatiello is looking for any photographs of resorts and camps for the book. Anyone with information may call him at (732) 458-4317.
For more information about the Brick Township Historical Society call (732) 785-2500
Union soldiers’ letters home provide poignant glimpse into Civil War
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer
PHOTOSBY JEFF GRANIT staff Brick Township historian Gene Donatiello wrote his latest book “A Family of Soldiers, Letters Home to Herbertsville from the Civil War,” after longtime resident Elmer Havens gave him a suitcase full of family letters shortly before he died in 2005.
Cpl. Aaron Elmer had already had his share of tragedy when he volunteered to fight for the Union cause in the fall of 1862.
His young wife, Mary, had died in March of that year at age 21, leaving him with two young daughters. They had already lost a son in infancy.
Elmer, 28, wrote home regularly to his sister-in-law, Esther Tilton, who took over the care of his daughters when he joined the 28th Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry E Company.
He was wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Elmer was eventually taken to Douglas Hospital in Washington, D.C., to recover.
His last letter home, written in a wavering script, came on Feb. 8:
“Dear Sister,
Some of the letters used in Gene Donatiello’s latest book about Brick residents in the Civil War. The stationery includes color lithographs that promote the Union cause.
I am a great deal worst I have got a very sore throat. I am agreeing to send you 26 dollars tomorrow by Adams Express Co you can use it for whatever you think, best to use it for the family. I have not eaten anything for 3 or 4 days from your brother AE”
There was another message on the back of the letter, dated Feb. 9, 1863. It was penned by a different hand.
Your Dear Brother died this morning.
“It was a climax to everything,” said township historian Gene E. Donatiello. “It answered the question of what happened to him.”
Aaron Elmer’s story is one of four Union soldiers’ stories told in “A Family of Soldiers, Letters Home to Herbertsville From the Civil War,” written by Donatiello, the founding president of the Brick Township Historical Society.
Donatiello had been friends for years with Elmer Havens, the great-great grandson of Cpl. Aaron Elmer. Havens had saved a treasure chest of letters from the Curtis, Elmer, Herbert, Pettit and Tilton families. Most of the letters were written in the 1800s.
The two visited shortly before Havens died at 87 in 2005. Havens handed Donatiello a battered suitcase. Inside was a historian’s dream, letters he had saved from those five families, all familiar names in what is now the Herbertsville section of the township.
“He said, ‘I’m giving these to you. You will know what to do with them,’ ” Donatiello said. “I felt that Elmer made me the personal guardian of things. He put so much trust in me.”
So began months of days and nights spent poring over faded letters from men and women long dead. Donatiello couldn’t tear himself from them.
“I have to rein him in once in while,” said Lenora, his wife. Both are retired Brick Township schoolteachers.
“He is lost in the past,” she said. “He is immersed in these people.”
Donatiello began to research census records. He read and reread the letters, trying to determine the family connections.
Elmer Havens had never known his great-great-grandfather’s entire story until Donatiello told him.
“He was thrilled,” Donatiello recalled. “It’s nice to know your family history. You have to know where you came from.”
The book includes letters from Aaron Elmer, Private John Curtis, Private Richard B. Pettit and Cpl. Samuel A. Elmer.
The envelopes are postmarked with a names like Allenwood, Freehold, Herbertsville, Jacobstown, Laurelton, Long Branch, Lower Squankum, Manasquan, Newark, Shark River, Shelltown and Trenton.
The soldiers’ letters provided a glimpse of what the War Between the States was really like, in between more mundane descriptions of the weather and what they had to eat.
Private Richard B. Pettit, a Herbertsville resident, left his wife, Charlotte, and six children to enlist in the 14th Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry D in August 1862.
Pettit described the practice of burying dead Confederate soldiers in an August 1862 letter to Samuel A. Elmer.
“Well samuel i will tell you how they bury the rebs here ... [t]hey dig a trench it is long enough to put 25 men in they dig it a bout 18 inched deep then they lay them in they lay one mans head between the others feet and so keep on until they get it ful.”
Pettit managed to make it through three years of combat. He was discharged in June 1865. He took the train back to Freehold and spent three days hiking back to Herbertsville, according to the book.
Eleanor Norcross, Pettit’s great-granddaughter, told Donatiello of his homecoming.
“Upon arriving at the Herbertsville School, he turned down the road heading toward his home. he could see small children playing around his home. As he approached, the children ran into the house hollering, ‘Ma a stranger is comin.’ ”
Donatiello, a retired history teacher, taught at Brick Township and Brick Memorial high schools. He was appointed township historian in 1995 and to the Brick Township Historic Preservation Commission in 1998. He co-authored “Images of America: Brick Township,” published by Arcadia Publications. The book has already sold out in two printings.
He is already working on his next project, a book about 20th-century summer camps and resorts in the Brick Township area, like The Cedars and Camp Freedom.
Donatiello is looking for any photographs of resorts and camps for the book. Anyone with information may call him at (732) 458-4317.
For more information about the Brick Township Historical Society call (732) 785-2500