Civil War Letter home from Lemuel Kelley June 14, 1862

Letter from Lemuel Kelley  to his father Lemuel Kelley

Located at the National Archives, Washington DC
Lemuel Kelley Father’s Civil War Pension File
Transcribed by me

June the 14^th 1862

Camp (word crossed out) Near Front Royal VA

Dear father I seat my self this evening to rite you a few lines to let you know that I am well and I hope thes few lines may finde you all enjoying the same blessing.  Father I will send you 25 dollars and James sends you 15 dollars we send it to Washington City by the Chaplin and he will express it from ther if you get it want you to write and tell me or if you don’t get it want you to rite eney.  How for bidley sent twenty dollars and hav not heard from it yet if you got it.  I wish you would rite and tell me all a bout it father I have not resieved a letter from you sence I have ben in the servies.  I think you would rite if you would just neglect it.  Father it does me just as much good for me to get a letter from home as it (word crossed out) does you and mor to when I draw a game.  I will send you you some more but a man has (word crossed out) to have some here but I will send you every sent I can.  Shar if you answer this but if you don’t I will not.  Well I have nothing of importnact to rite this time only I expect to leave here before long where we will go next I cant tell but the talk is that we will go to richmon but I cant tell but if eney of the the troops has to go it will be us for we have to march more then eney troops in the field.  Well father I will close O yes I will tell you that I paid billy for the saddle the gun is mien now I only drowed 2(?)2 and 5 cents and paid him five and sent 25 hom and have five left.  So I will leave thes few remarks to you

Civil War letter from the Kelley Boys home

Letter from Lemuel Kelly to his father Lemuel Kelley
Located at the National Archives, Washington, DC
Lemuel Kelley Father’s Civil War Pension File

Date and Place missing from top of letter

Dear father (rest of line missing)

10 dollars by expres and James sends you 20 dollars.  I borrowed five before when I sent and I said it and I did not Draw but 17 and 15 cence.  I will send you all the money I can spar you must write as soon as it comes to hand.  I want you to pay the the Mortgage as fast as you can and I will help you all I can nothing more only I am well and all the rest of the boys.  Yours truly

Lemuel A Kelley

You must write and tell me wheather you got it or not give my love to all

Adventures at the Archives FTF Post is up!

My next Family Tree Firsts post is up, and you can read all about it here.

It was the most incredible experience, and I had the best time.  Yes, I have always found being locked in a room with a stack of dusty papers and books a grand adventure.  Its true, I do.  You should have seen me wandering around Europe looking at museums, castles, and historic sites.  My husband thought he was going to lose me at the V&A once. He did almost lose me in Salzberg, Austria when I was on a quest to find Paracelsus's Tomb.

Now I have gotten off topic again...easy to do.

I have over a thousand images that I am going through.  Yes, a lot of images.  One thing I have been taught about doing research (from my mother, my mother-in-law, my husband,historian friends, and my college mentors) is that you copy everything.  Absolutely everything.  Never leave a page un-copied, and never just copy part of the page.  You never know when you will need information from another section of the document, or that date stamp on the back as proof of when it was created.  All records are important, you just may not know it right then.

In a past post I talked about preparing for my research, and then my experience at the archives.  Over the next few weeks I hope you all enjoy my tales of what I have found.  I have records on the following people to look through:

Anna Combs, widow of Charles Combs (the senior), War of 1812 Pension File
Theresa Arvin, widow of Henry Arvin, War of 1812 Pension File
Henry Arvin Land File
Polly and Nettie Cody, widow and minor of Button Cody, Civil War Pension File
Mary and William Combs, widow and minor of Charles "boy" Combs, Civil War Pension File
Harry Coad aka Henry Thompson Civil War Pension File
Lemuel Kelley, father of Lemuel Kelley, Civil War Pension File
Julia Bartlett, widow of William Bartlett, Civil War Pension File

Wish me good digging!

Fearless Females: Religion

What role did religion play in your family? How did your female ancestors practice their faith? If they did not, why didn’t they? Did you have any female ancestors who served their churches in some capacity?

The current generations are not nearly religious as my great grandparents were, and I think a lot of that is due to the inter faith marriages that happened on both sides of my family.  There is a repeated theme of Catholics and Protestants marrying each other.  I am not saying that is a bad thing, it just caused some interesting dynamics in the family.  Where to worship, what to baptize the children, who was right...

Most memorably, was my great-grandmother Bertha Zeta Kelley.  She married a Catholic man, James Albert Arvin, but didn't like Catholics.  They had 9 children.  The first three were baptized Catholic, my grandfather was fourth and he was not baptized as they had an argument about what faith he should be.  The rest were protestant.  She couldn’t even bring herself to vote in the Presidential Elections that JFK won, even though she was a democrat, because she couldn't vote for a republican and couldn't vote for a Catholic.

*Image: swainboat via photopin cc

Civil War Research

This morning a simple search out of curiosity has turned into another marathon reading session.  How does this always happen?

I am currently enrolled in a class through Family Tree University called “Civil War Research: Find Your Ancestors in the War Between the States.”  It is two weeks into the four week class and I am quickly filling in the holes of my education on this subject.  Of course my eldest child (who is fascinated with the Civil War) is just in awe that I am taking a class on this subject.  We do homework together at the dining room table each night; I think purely so he can watch me and ask questions.

In the class we are introduced to the National Park Service site “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System” as well as several other excellent resources.  My husband and I have five known direct ancestors that fought in the Civil War.  There are several other uncles and cousins, but I haven’t got to all of them yet.  Out of pure and simple curiosity I started to one by one enter their names into the database…and whoa!  I spent the next several hours running back and forth between the CWSS, Fold3, and Ancestry checking, double checking, and looking for various ways to prove and validate what I was seeing. 

It ended in a decision that I have to make a trip up to NARA… sooner rather than later. 

**I found out there is a problem with the CWSS links below. It will take you to the database but I can not link directly to each of the regiments histories. If you want to read about the history of these regiments, I encourage you to explore the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors site.**

Here is a summary of what I found today: 

·        Harry Coad aka Henry C Thompson (husbands 2^nd great grandfather):  His middle name is most likely Clay.  I found information on the 5^th Missouri and 66^th Illinois infantry regiments he fought in.  No information for the 14th regiment that he served in.

·        Kelley Family:

o   I found the following names at Find-a-Grave:

§  LA = Lemuel A Kelly

§  JH = James H Kelley

§  WH = William H Kelley

§  These are ½ brothers of my 2^nd great grandfather Charles Morgan Kelley

o   They were all in the 14^th Indiana Infantry Company C

o   There were several other Kelley/Kelly’s that similar names (even Lemuel) that may be related.

·        Combs Family:

o   Charles Combs Jr:  70th Indiana Infantry, Company C and possibly the 27^th regiment, company B.

o   Found the draft books for Charles’s Brothers Silas, Byrd, James (my 3^rd great-grandfather), Pleasant, and John Joseph.  (US Civil War Draft Registration Records, Ind 7^th, vols 1 and 3)

        o   Silas was in the 145^th Indiana Infantry, company I.

·        Francis Marion Bline (3^rd great grandfather) was in the Harrison Cavalry, Mounted Hoosiers 6 Regt, Indiana Legion.

      ·        I learned what the three regiments Button Gwinette Cody (husbands 3^rd great grandfather) was assigned to participated in.  8^th Indiana Cavalry (Private), 6^th Indiana Infantry (Captain), 10th Indiana Cavalry(Quartermaster Sargent). 

I would say it was a productive day yes?


*Image is that of Charles Combs Jr, provided by Cousin Debby.