Lewis Wood
Letters, 1862-63, 8 items, Ms91-011
Introduction:
Lewis Wood was a private in Company K of the 2nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, possibly serving as the company's cook. He entered service at age 37 as a member of Company K on August 24, 1861, and was transferred to Company H on February 17, 1863. On April 20, 1864, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps.
The collection consists of eight letters written by Wood to his wife Mary Louisa Wood, in Unionville, Ohio. Seven of the eight letters were written in January and February 1862, from Camp Dennison, Ohio; enroute to Missouri; and in Hudson, Platte City, and Kansas City, Missouri. The last letter was written on April 9, 1863, from Covington, Kentucky.
Wood makes no mention of battles or skirmishes that his regiment might have been involved in, but the letters portray accounts of movements of the company, daily routine activities and items of his personal interest. He writes about purchasing food and other necessary items and mentions points of interest as they travel by railroad cars. Tunnels, rivers, and the prairie fascinate Private Wood, since these are new sights. The February 16, 1862, letter includes an interesting account of a slave auction in Platte City, Missouri, in which a woman and children were sold, and with the information that the latter were the children of the man who sold them.
Wood's letters reveal a phoenetic use of the English language and a general lack of knowledge of spelling or grammar. He uses clever combinations of vowels and consonants to acquire the words he wishes to express.
Additional information about Lewis Wood is available in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Vol. XI, on pages 93 and 104.
Provenance:
The Lewis Wood letters were purchased from a manuscript dealer in 1991, and transcribed by Betsy Jones, department volunteer, in December 1997. The inventory was completed in May 1998 by Laura Katz Smith, Manuscripts Curator, Special Collections Department.
Contents list:
- January 3, 1862, from Camp Dennison, Ohio
- January 12, 1862, from Camp Dennison, Ohio
- January 13, 1862, from Camp Dennison, Ohio
- January 15, 1862, enroute to Missouri
- January 28, 1862, from Hudson, Missouri
- February 16, 1862, from Platte City, Missouri
- February 24, 1862, from Kansas City, Missouri
- April 9, 1863, from Covington, Kentucky
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Manuscript sources for Civil War Research
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