Chauncey Hill: Part 8

By Craig Hilmer

Chauncey J. Hill, in 1864, was a 26 year old farmer just married to 20 year old Sarah Downing. Both had family who farmed in the Saratoga area and were themselves just setting up their own household and farm when Chauncey was called up to offer his services to the Minnesota 9th Regiment, Company K for battle in the Civil War.

He and Sarah corresponded during the war and those letters were maintained by family until they were donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in the 1960s.  The Press has run seven weeks of these letters to date. This is the final installment of the letters

Private Hill, in our series, finally sees battle at Brice’s Crossroads, Mississippi. Sarah struggles to deal with not hearing from Chauncey, even as she learns that she is pregnant with his child.

Saratoga, June 19” 1864 

My Dear Husband,
It has been a week since I have written to you, it is bad. I have been looking and waiting to get a letter from you, but have not received anything from you in more than two weeks; it seems a long time.  I feel very anxious to hear from you. I hope I will hear no bad news, but I’m afraid I shall. Mrs. Wood heard from Jerry two or three days ago. He was better and taking care of the sick at Memphis. He wrote that the Minnesota 9th had orders to march with 20,000 others in pursuit of the guerillas. He wrote that you started from Memphis with three days rations and had not heard from you since. 

I’m afraid you will have some hard fighting to do. I feel very uneasy about you, for I know that you are in danger. I hope and pray that you will be kept from harm and be permitted to return to us soon. 

Cousin Lewis True is here paying us a visit. He was drafted and came down to Rochester intending to go but when he got down there and saw the drafted man, as soon as they were examined, turned into a yard where the hot sun was shining down on them, he thought if that was the way they had got to be served he had rather pay the $800.00. So he paid and came on down here.

This letter was never signed and one might assume never mailed.

Two days before, on June 17th, Chauncey sent this letter to Sarah:

Mobile Alabama 

My Own Dear Wife,
It is with something of pleasure and also something of pain I pencil these lines. It is a pleasure to feel myself still in good health and looking forward to the time when I can once more see the dear ones at home. It is painful to know I am farther than ever before from those dear ones knowing they are in anxious suspense for tidings of the missing.
However, I am here healthy and hopeful. God has spared me in the hour of battle, sustained me in all trials, and I am in the hands of those who have treated me with kindness and care. 

I was parted from Joseph after being taken prisoner. I was left behind on account of a lame foot. He went forward and I think he is behind now. When we came down to this place from Meridian we passed many of the boys when we came down on the cars. Levi Taylor and William Walker are here with me in health. Lieutenant Neidenhoffer is also with us. Robert Durham and others are with Joseph. Our little completely routed and cut up. Many were separated during the retreat. 

The weather here is very warm for us. I think we will leave for Americus Georgia tomorrow where there is said to be an exchange camp. We get enough to eat and dry quarters.

The battle that Hill was captured in was on June 10th at Brice’s Crossroads, MS. Hill’s battalion marched the entire night to get to the battle site. Upon arrival officers requested rest for their troops but due to failed strategies and poor Union decision-making the Union was taking a strong beating. Instead of rest, the soldiers were pressed straight into battle. For many, like Chauncey, this was their first fight.  Months of drilling and training did not prepare them for the stifling heat, devastating humidity and jungle-like terrain. On the verge of exhaustion from marching all night the soldier of the 9th cramped up from lack of water in the heat of the noon day and battle.  As Union soldiers retreated many were cut down, others, like Hill, were separated from their troops and captured on the spot, Others like Joseph, Hill’s good friend and brother to Sarah, were captured as a unit later in the day or shortly thereafter. As a regiment the Minnesota 9th took one of the worst beatings of any Union unit on that June day at Brice’s Station.

Private Hill, did in fact, not go to Americus, or, if he did, it was not for exchanges. Chauncey wouldn’t have known that U.S. officials had suspended prisoner exchanges as the Confederates, growing shorter and shorter on able-bodied men, would send repatriated solders straight back into the fray. Men who were prisoner one day were back fighting against the Union the next.

By stopping exchanges the Union hoped to dry up the flow of Confederate soldiers. Able-bodied men from 18-30 were fairly much used up in the South at this point of the war. Recruitment had already reached to “volunteers” as young as 14 and to men well above 30. The Union was out-attriting the Confederacy.

With the exchange of prisoners ending the South had a new problem on hand; what to do with tens of thousands of Union POWs. Resources were meager enough for their own troops and they were now pressed to feed and house ever swelling numbers. Their solution was to hastily build large stockades designed to handle 4 to 5 thousand men. Those stockades, before war’s end would house double, triple and even more the number they were meant to hold. Food supplies were not plentiful enough to reach the Union guests and water, when available was often muddied, heavily polluted streams downstream from the privy sites of the Rebel soldiers. Disease was rampant.

Hill wound up in the worst of those Confederate prisons, Andersonville in Georgia. At it’s peak it housed over 20,000 Union soldiers. Rations were scarce and in poor condition and uncooked. Firewood was scarce. Shelter even more so. The heat was terrific, the rains, when they came, torrential and chilling. The water supply was grossly unsafe and served as a latrine for the 20,000 soldier. Dysentery was not only common but unending. Scurvy was routine as was lice. Deaths of Union soldiers were first measured by the week, then the day, and finally, by the hour.

The marker for Chauncey Hill’s grave stands among many others near Andersonville in Mississippi.  Photo by Kevin Frye

This letter, on The U.S. Christian Commission letterhead closes our ongoing segment on the Chauncey J. Hill Civil War letters:

“Copied from Mr. (Miron) Tower’s journal.” 

Chauncey J. Hill died Aug 17th, 1864 some time between the hours of 2 and 4 o’clock A.M. He died without a struggle so that the men sleeping with him did not know he was dead until morning. He got up at 2 o’clock and went out of the tent.
Having had the care of him for ten days I found that he was reconciled to die. His countenance was pleasant and calm the day before he died. We walked to the gate to see the Dr. He was weak and supported himself by putting his arms around me. We had a good chat that evening. He appeared to think he should recover and that we should have  good times at home. His last words to me were thanking me for my help and we shook hands on parting. May God bless you.
Miron Tower, Andersonville GA

Copied by a Mrs. M.W. Marming who visited Andersonville prison and brought news back to Union soldier’s relatives.