Chauncey Hill, St. Charles Civil War Soldier: Epilogue

By Craig Hilmer

For the last several weeks The St. Charles Press has run a series of articles centered on the Civil War letters of Chauncey J. Hill to his young wife, Sarah Downing Hill. The Hills were residents of Saratoga in 1864, just starting their own farming operation when Hill was called up to serve the Union in the War Between the States. The Hills corresponded regularly from February 1864 to June of 1864 when Hill was captured at Brice’s Crossroad, Mississippi.

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

Hill wrote home one last time, that we know of, expecting release any day. Instead, we found that Hill was sent to the worst of all Southern prisoner of war camps, Camp Sumter, GA, as the Confederates called it, Andersonville, as the Union knew it. Conditions were so poor there that disease was the usual course for the interred, and survival was a matter of luck. Hill was not one of those so lucky and he died on August 18, 1864 of diarrhea, the leading cause of death at Andersonville. He joined nearly 13,000 prisoners who died at Andersonville in its mere 14 months of existence. Andersonville housed nearly 44,000 people in that amount of time, giving a prisoner a nearly one in three chance of dying.

Union soldiers were responsible for the burial of their dead and due to their meticulous methods and record keeping all but about 400 graves have been assigned occupants. Today, volunteers continue to provide information on the Union dead at Andersonville. One such volunteer is Kevin Frye of nearby Butler, GA. Frye volunteers on-site and will do look-ups for those who inquire on a specific soldier. Frye provided the photos in this article and has a website chock full of Andersonville info. Frye says that he has been looking up gravesites for about 12 years and supposes he does about three per day.

When asked to recall the most unusual or memorable lookup he has accomplished he responded, “There are so many stories of prisoners who were here, died here, as well as survivors. If I had to say which one was most surprising it would be of a soldier by the name of Carson A. Campbell of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry Company  C .  He died on 10/26/1864 and lies in grave 11477.  It turns out he is the Son in law of my Great Uncle  David F. Fry who was with the 11th Company E.”

The stone reads “Erected A.D. 1916 by the State of Minnesota in memory of her soldiers here buried who lost their lives in the service of the United States in the war for the preservation of the Union A.D. 1861-1865.”  Photo by Kevin Frye

Last week we explored the fate of some of Hill’s fellow Company K soldiers, focusing on those from the St. Charles area. This week, we’ll close out the series of the Chauncey Hill letters by catching up on Sarah Hill following the death of Private Hill.

Sarah, as we learned, was pregnant at the time of Hill’s death. In November of the same year she gave birth to Chauncey’s son and named him Howard Chauncey Hill. She and Howard lived with her family in the Saratoga area for about three more years. Her brother John Downing also served in the Union Army during that time and is believed to have returned home.

In about 1868 Sarah married a gentleman named H.G.West. West was from the area, perhaps St. Charles, though there is no record certain that can be found. It is known that he farmed briefly in the Rochester area. Interestingly, in a letter to Chauncey in late March Sarah mentioned that the West family visited the Downing family. It can be assumed that West was a family friend and that he and Sarah combined households after an extended and appropriate period of morning.

Sarah’s letters continued after this point, but to her children, thus a gap of about 15 years occurs in which we know little family history. In addition to Howard Hill, Sarah, while married to West, gave birth to children named Myra, Truman and Lucy.

During this time period little can be gleaned about family in the St. Charles area. We do know that census records show that both the immediate family, brothers, sisters and parents of Chauncey Hill and Sarah Downing moved on, to where we do not know. Sarah and Mr. West moved to Montevideo Minnesota, where Mr. West farmed. By 1894 Sarah was dividing time between Montevideo and Pomona California.

From what can be discerned from letters exchanged mother to children Mrs. West was quite happy with the West coast life and was well-suited to the climate. About 1916 she appears to have returned to Montevideo full time. In the available letters no mention is made of the fate of Mr. West. Sarah appears to have returned to Montevideo to help daughter Myra raise her children after the death of her own husband, Fred.

Truman West, Sarah’s second son, dropped out of school and struck out on his own in dramatic fashion. He appears to have sent a letter to his parents informing them of the same. Truman, it seems, found no pleasure in study and sought to make his way in the world on his own. He thought he might return to school at some point. The letter has no year date, but appears to be prior to 1890.

In 1894 Howard writes to Sarah saying that he has heard from Truman and that he is working in Dundee, laying pipe on a work gang and that the work appears steady. In 1916 a letter arrives to Sarah’s hand from Buckeye Arizona. He talks of his life amongst the Indians and of a looming war with Mexico. He offers fairly vivid descriptions of the poverty and lack of education in the area.

The next word of Truman appears in a letter from Howard in August of 1930. Howard is in San Francisco where he has had the sad task of retrieving Truman’s body from the morgue. Howard, in vivid detail, recounts what he has learned of Truman’s demise. It appears that Truman, having determined that he was unemployable and out of options, drowned himself in the bay. His body was recovered along with a suicide note. He wished that he be cremated and his ashes “scattered to the four winds.”

Howard decides it will be “more satisfactory to all concerned that remembrance of him not be obliterated in this way” and he was given a proper burial in Pomona.

For Howard’s part, he appears to have had a career in engineering, having worked in drafting and supervision. He worked first in Minneapolis and then in California. The last letter from Howard is in 1944 to sister Myrna when he retires to the International Order of the Odd Fellows retirement home in Saratoga California. Somewhat of an odd coincidence that he would finish his days in another Saratoga.

Sarah passed on in late May or June of 1944. She was apparently in ill health and Howard refers to her death as a blessing after much suffering.
Little is known of the two daughters' lives and eventual deaths.

All letters referred to in this article and those proceeding were courtesy of the Minnesota State Historical Society. As a pioneer family in Minnesota articles from the West and Hill families reside in the Historical Society and in the Montevideo Historical Museum.