To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 11

This is the eleventh entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.

Camp 20th Regiment Bolivar

Heights, Va. September 23d 1862.

My dear John.

I answered your two last letters and have only to tell you that we marched here yesterday and forded the river. Sumner’s Corps is here and he in command.

I enclose a letter for Mary Ann⁠ [1]. I have sent home by Mr. Folsom⁠[2] who was kind enough to take charge of it, a bundle containing my heavy revolver, cartridge boxes, ammunition &c., some books I have done with, some private papers, a knife, &c. Please have “Barchester Towers”[3] bound, if you think it is worth it, and “Bleak House⁠”[4] too, when I send home the other volumes which Herbert⁠ [5] is now-reading.

Detail from "View of the camps of the Army of the Potomac,

on Bolivar Heights, near Harper's Ferry, after the 

battle of Antietam." Edwin Forbes (1839-1895)

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. 

Please have new plates put in the knife and send it to me when you have a chance. Let the pistol be cleaned, oiled and put away and the fixed ammunition kept for it. Give the private letters to Mary Ann to put in my box. As I know you like to keep some relics of a battle field, I send a piece of shell, and grape shot I picked up. It will give you some idea of what sort of a buzzing we had about our ears. Please tell me if you ever got my Buffalo skin I sent home last spring. I have forgotten whether or not it went safely.

Please send me by mail $6._ in U.S. Ones, and $4._ in postage stamp change. I have nothing smaller than $5._ and find great trouble in making change. Charge the $10._ to my account. By the way, can you not tell me roughly about how much you have charged to me? I feel sure I must have a considerable balance on hand, but would very much like to know how much.

We ought to be paid every day now, and when we are, I shall send home another $100._ Herbert is very much obliged to you for attending to a tent for him. I advised him to wait till mine came, and see how he liked it, but he read my description and felt sure it would answer. I hope it is of white Rubber, that is if both are equally strong. Very likely you will find some light lantern all made which will be quite as light and compact as the one I described. If so, buy it instead.

If the tent is what I expect it will be, it will be invaluable. Especially at this season, it is important to keep dry at night. The rubber coat will be very useful, I know. I hope the boots will not give you trouble. If Rice has saved my measure, it is all right. Do not let the soles be of extravagant thickness, as was formerly the fashion for “Army Shoes.”⁠[6]

I have not seen the 2d. Mass. since we were at Rockland⁠,[7] but hope, if we are near them again, to get acquainted with Capt. Morse⁠.[8] The 2d. Is now at Sandy Hook, about 6 miles from here, across the river.

I am at present quite lame from a boil which has selected a very unfortunate position. It is exactly on the cord or tendon which connects the extremity of the heel with the calf of the leg. It is very small, however, and will no doubt be well in a couple of days.
You never tell me how business matters and the estates are getting on, and whether the general affairs of the family are in a flourishing state. Please do tell me.

I suppose you no have quite an income from law. Write soon.

Your affectionate brother
Henry.

P.S. The Colonel’s man, George, desires respects.⁠[9]


Source Note

The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.

Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.

Notes:

1 Ropes’ sister Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842)
2 This is probably Charles Walker Folsom, Quartermaster of the 20th Massachusetts. Richard F. Miller, Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 11-12.
3 Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857).
4 Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852-53).
5 Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862.
6 See Henry Ropes to John C. Ropes, September 3, 1862 posted on this blog.
7 Probably Rockville, Maryland.
8 Lt. Charles Fessenden Morse (1839-1926), Harvard (1858) served as Captain of Company B, 2nd Massachusetts.
9 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891). “George” is probably an aide to Lee.

To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 10

This is the tenth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. 

Camp 20th Regiment Mass: Volunteers

Bolivar Heights, Va. September 26th 1862.

Friday.

My dear Father.

I have received no letters from home since I wrote last to you from this Camp. We are still quietly recruiting ourselves, drilling our new men and getting things generally to rights.

Col. Lee⁠ [1] is, as you know, in command of the Brigade, and to-day he detailed me to act as Aide-de-Camp. Lieut’s. Hallowell [⁠2] and Milton [⁠3], the two regular Aides of Genl. Dana⁠ [4] being away ill. I am to remain “during the absence of Lt. Milton.” The Colonel asked me to share his tent, and I am now with him. He has quite a cold yet and is not well, but

Capt. Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914)
Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society

I hope he will soon improve. I of course get a horse by this arrangement, and many other comforts. It is of course only temporary.

We are camped on the brow of the hill, the air is very pure and healthy, and I think I never saw a better place for one’s health. If you can find a recruit or Officer coming on, I should be very glad if you would send me my buffalo skin. By the time it gets here the nights will be cold enough for it.

I am perfectly well. Best love to Mother. Please thank Sister Mary or her letter and say I intend to write very soon.

By the way, I believe I have not acknowledged yours of the 20th. Enclosing Sister Mary’s letter.

You seem to overestimate the battle of Sunday⁠ [5] compared with that of Wednesday the 17th. Sunday’s fight was a decided victory, but the battle of the 17th was the greatest battle ever fought on this continent and the loss fearful. Our Corps of about 15,000 men lost between 5000 and 6000, our Division more in proportion and our Brigade the most of any in the Division although it is the smallest. Col. Lee says except at Ball’s Bluff he never was under such a fire. It seems to me an awful responsibility rests somewhere. The 2d and 3d lines were advanced under the heaviest fire for no purpose, and the left flank left entirely exposed. Had the 3d line covered the left, the 2d been placed on the open field and ordered to lie down and the first kept the enemy at bay by skirmishers till a battery could have been brought to bear on the enemy’s position, I think things might have resulted differently, and lives saved.

However it is easy to criticise after all is over.

Col. Lee sends his respects.

Your ever affectionate Son

Henry.

Source Note

The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.
Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.


Notes

1 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891).

2 Capt. Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914), Harvard College, 1861 was severely wounded in the arm in the West Woods.

3 Lt. William F. Milton, Harvard (1858).

4 Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822-1905).

5 The Battle of South Mountain was fought on Sunday, September 14, 1862.

To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 9.

This is the ninth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.

Camp 20th Regiment on field near 

Sharpsburg, Md. Sunday September 21st 1862.

My dear Mother.


I have not written to you for a long time, but I knew it was the same thing to write to Father, and I have kept him as well informed of my movements as possible. Ever since we left Harrison's Landing, August 16th, I have not had a day or even an hour when I could be sure we were not to get immediate orders to start.


I have written fully to the others about the late battle, and have no more to say. You have no doubt seen full lists of the killed and wounded. I am entirely ignorant of the movements of the Rebels and even of our own troops. I hear however two reports, one that Genl. Sumner's Corps is not to cross into Virginia, but be left to protect Maryland, probably to stay near the Potomac; the other that Dana's Brigade is reported

Col. William Raymond Lee
Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society

unfit for service. As you know Genl. Dana⁠ [1] is wounded; and of our Regiments the 7th. Michigan is almost destroyed, the 42d New York (Tammany) dispersed and almost broken up, and the 19th and 20th suffered heavily. Col. Hinks⁠ [2] mortally wounded, Lt. Colonel Devereaux⁠ [3] and the 1st Captain⁠ [4] wounded, the Lieut. Colonel of the 59th killed⁠ [5], and we have lost Col. Palfrey⁠ [6]. Col. Lee ⁠[7] is quite broken down and ill. Do not of course needlessly alarm his family, but it is the opinion of all here, that he is quite incapable of enduring the hardships of a camp life longer. He ought to go home and be attended to and nursed. He does not take care of himself at all, and gets wet through, and sleeps without a tent on the wet ground &c, when he could just as well be comfortable and leave such rough duty to younger men. Then you know he is by no means a young man, and, as far as I have observed, an old man cannot endure hardship like a young one. Cold and wet and exposure use up an old man, when a young one gets over anything after a few hours of sleep and a good breakfast. The reason why some old men do flourish so out here is that they take things easily and take great care of themselves, like old Sumner ⁠[8] for instance. So as we are very short of Officers, and the Regiments greatly reduced in the number of men, we shall probably be left to lie still and recruit for a time.

I am delighted to find Mr Willard⁠ [9] is Major. I have tried to see him but have been as yet unable. Capt. Macy⁠ [10] saw him, and he enquired particularly for me. 

If you have an opportunity please send me 2 pairs of my blue woolen socks. I like them rather better than the Government socks, and they wear better.


We are now camped on a part of the battlefield, and the trees are marked with shot and often split by balls and shells. Most of the dead are now buried, but large numbers of horses still remain and pollute the air.


The farmers about here have shown the greatest patriotism and kindness.


They came on the field the day after the battle and took great quantities of wounded to their own houses to nurse and attend to them. I hear that in the midst of the battle a farmer brought 5 horses to one of our batteries from his own barn, and generously gave them to supply the places of those killed. Herbert Mason ⁠[11] was particularly exposed, as he was on the left. He lost all his non-commissioned Officers, and half of his men. Our Division lost about one half.


A very good man of my Company, named Riley⁠ [12], was killed instantly. He was poor and worked in a foundry in Chelsea, where he has a wife and 7 children. They may possibly be in want. Perhaps you could visit them when you make your charitable rounds.


James⁠ [13] does very well now, and I shall no doubt keep him. 

Love to Mary Ann⁠ [14] and all. I shall try to write to her next.


Your affectionate Son


Henry.



Source Note

The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.
Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.

Notes

1 Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822-1905), West Point (1842), commanded the Third Brigade of John Sedgwick’s Second Division, II Corps (second brigade in line in the West Woods). He was seriously wounded in the leg. See further, biographical entry in Cullum’s Register.

2 Colonel Edward Winslow Hinks (Hincks) (1830-1894) commanded the 19th Massachusetts, Third Brigade (Dana’s), Second Division (Sedgwick), II Corps. He was seriously wounded, but not killed, in the West Woods.

3 Lt. Col. Arthur Forrester Devereux (1838-1906), 19th Massachusetts.


4 Probably Captain Edmund Rice (1842-1906). For more on Rice, see Brian Downey’s Antietam on the Web under Edmund Rice.


5 This is John Lemuel Stetson (1834-1862). For more on Stetson, see blog entry for November 11, 2009.


6 Col. Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831-1889), Harvard College, 1851, Harvard Law School, 1853. He would be hit with grapeshot in his shoulder in the West Woods on September 17.


7 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891) led the 20th Massachusetts from its inception at the outbreak of the war through Antietam. He was captured at the Battle of Ball's Bluff (Virginia, October 1861) and spent four months in close confinement in bad conditions at a Richmond POW camp. Once paroled in late February 1862, he returned to Boston to recuperate. A family member was struck by the changes to Lee and other returning officers: "They were worn and old-looking, with the strange expression those carry who have been in confinement, or under a great pressure of care. [Y]outh had gone out of them...[replaced by] silence and listlessness, and dull lines about the face that were sad to see." After convalescing in Boston, Lee rejoined the regiment and took them through the punishing Peninsula Campaign of the spring/summer 1862 where he was left severely wounded and unable to walk. A commentator wrote of the regiment that at the end of the campaign, "they look used up." Returning to the regiment in early September 1862, Lee led the 20th into the West Woods on September 17th. Of the 400 that entered the woods that morning, 137, or 34%, were left dead or wounded on the field. Some went missing and have never been found. Nearly all regimental officers were counted as casualties including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Francis Palfrey, and Edward Revere. The action left Lee broken. Two days after the battle, Capt. George Macy found Lee in a stable not far from the field, he was "drunk, broke, and hungry, and his uniform soiled with his own diarrhea...he was just like a little child wandering away from home." He resigned his commission shortly afterwards and he remained "frail and shaky" for the remainder of his life. Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 116-119, 127-28, 154, 161, 170-183, 218; John C. Ropes, “William Raymond Lee,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28 (May, 1892-May, 1893), pp. 346-348.


8 Edwin Vose Sumner (1797-1863) commanded II Corps, Army of the Potomac.


9 Major Sidney Willard (1831-1863), a Harvard graduate (1852) and Boston lawyer, served as a Major in the 35th Massachusetts, IX Corps. He would be killed at Fredericksburg on December 13. C.A. Bartol, A Nation’s Hour: A Tribute to Major Sidney Willard (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1862), pp. 14, 30-31.


10 Lt. George Nelson Macy (1837-1875) from one of Nantucket’s oldest families would rise to General by war’s end.


11 Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862, was severely wounded in the West Woods.


12 Irish born Private John Riley (1824-1862) served in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts. A resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts he was an “iron puddler” at the time of his enlistment on August 26, 1861. The 1860 Massachusetts Census found him residing in Worcester with his wife Fanny, also born in Ireland, and six children ages 15 to 1 years old. Fanny filed for widow’s and minors' pensions on May 11, 1863. John Riley is buried at Antietam National Cemetery, Section 17, Lot A, Grave 15. U.S. Census, Massachusetts, 1860; Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, The Adjutant General, compiler (Norwood, MA: Norwood Press, 1931), p. 585; NARA, RG 15, Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, compiled 1949 - 1949, documenting the period 1861 - 1942.


13 James Smith (1842-1864) was a “case maker” from Northampton before the war. He wrote to John C. Ropes on November 5, 1863 “a few lines in accordance with the expressed wish of your late Brother Lt. Ropes with whom I was a servant…” He signed his letter “James Smith, Head Qrs, 3d Brig., 2d Div., 2nd Corps, A.P.” He would be killed on June 9, 1864 at Cold Harbor. Ropes Manuscript, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library; Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, The Adjutant General, compiler (Norwood, MA: Norwood Press, 1931), p. 586.


14 Ropes’ sister, Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842).