SOPO Editor’s Note: Captain Henry F. Young of the 7th Wisconsin wrote twenty letters while at the Siege of Petersburg from June to December 1864. Researcher Roy Gustrowsky transcribed this letter from the original at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. He is currently in the process of writing a regimental history of the 7th Wisconsin. “Delia” was Henry F. Young’s wife, and “Father” was his Father-in-Law Jared Warner, a prominent businessman of Grant County, Wisconsin. Gustrowsky has magnanimously made these transcriptions available to the Siege of Petersburg Online for publication, and we thank him for his generosity.
UPDATE: I recently learned that a new book has been published by the University of Wisconsin Press, entitled Dear Delia: The Civil War Letters of Captain Henry F. Young, Seventh Wisconsin Infantry, and edited by Micheal Larson and John David Smith. If you want to read all of Henry’s letters throughout the war, purchase the book!
Camp 7th Wis[consin] Vet[eran] Vol[unteer]s
Near Weldon R Road Va
October 30th 1864
Dear Delia
I am very busy making out my Muster & Regt. Rolls as tomorrow is Muster day1, but I must take time to write you a few lines. I received your welcome letter three or four days ago, glad to hear you were all well. We have just returned from a movement on the left which from some cause at present unexplained proved a failure, that is if it was intended as anything more than reconnaissance; our Corps was not engaged, only in Skirmishing. We came back to camp all right with 200 prisoners2-don’t make too much calculations for wintering in Tafton till you hear from me again; for as soon as F Boynton gets his Commission as Lieut. I will Muster out if they will let me, and under existing orders they can’t help it. The fact is I can’t stand another Winter Campaign it will kill me with Rheumatism. I have it now whenever i lay out on the damp ground. I actually believe I am getting old.
My love to all
Ever yours,
Henry3
***
Letters of Henry W. Young:
- LT: June 20, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: June 27, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: July 2, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: July 15, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: July 26, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: July 29, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: August 4, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: August 6, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: August 23, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: September 2, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: September 5, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: September 15, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: September 19, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: September 27, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: October 6, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: October 13, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: October 21, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: October 22, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: October 30, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 5, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 7, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 10, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 13, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 20, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- LT: November 23, 1864 Henry F. Young (7th Wisconsin)
- SOPO Editor’s Note: Muster day, the day where you counted heads for payment purposes, occurred on the last day of the month. ↩
- SOPO Editor’s Note: This was Grant’s Sixth Offensive, and the main barttles both occurred on October 27, 1864, Boydton Plank Road on the left, of which Henry is talking, and Second Fair Oaks on the right. ↩
- Young, Henry F. “Camp 7th Wis Vet Vols.” Received by Dear Delia, Near Weldon R Road Va, 30 October 1864, Petersburg, VA. ↩