Summary Information
Joseph H. Spencer Papers
1861-1881
- Spencer, Joseph H., 1835-187-
Mss 154
0.8 c.f. (1 archives box and 2 oversize folders)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Spencer, a soldier in Co. G of the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment and an officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, consisting of letters to his sister, 1861-1865, which relate daily experiences of military life, enthusiasm for the Union cause, treatment of the war in the northern press, and attitudes toward Indians on the Minnesota frontier; his commission as a major in the Signal Corps; Military General Order #26; miscellany concerning Spencer and his regiment; and ten 1872 letters written by Spencer while on business trips in Minnesota.
English
https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00154
Biography/History
Sometime during the decade before the Civil War, Joseph H. Spencer emigrated from Vermont, where he had been born July 26, 1835, and began working as a clerk at Faribault, Minnesota for Skinner and Brothers of Northfield, Minnesota. At the outbreak of the war, Spencer was the first to sign the enlistment roll of Rice County (Minnesota) Volunteers.
As orderly Sergeant of the Faribault Guards at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Spencer began the military career to which he was totally dedicated for four and one-half years. During this period, Spencer received the Special Commendation of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks and General Shields at the Battle of Winchester (March 23, 1862). He was also commended by Major General Pope at the Battle of Cedar Mountain (August, 1862) and for services at Sugar Loaf Mountain during the Battle of South Mountain and Antietam (October, 1862).
Spencer saw action at the first Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) with Company G, 1st Regiment, Minnesota Infantry Volunteers. Promoted to Second Lieutenant, he was detached from the Regiment to become a signal officer in the Volunteer Army on special duty with the Signal Corps of the Potomac. Lieutenant Spencer was assigned to General Stone's Headquarters, Poolsville, Maryland until February, 1862, when he was transferred to Major General Bank's Division, then enroute from Frederick, Maryland to Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
During the summer campaigns of 1862, Spencer was in all the engagements of General Pope's Army from the Battle of Cedar Mountain to the second Battle of Bull Run (August 30, 1862). By the end of 1862, Lieutenant Spencer was assigned to the Signal Camp of Instruction in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. In January of 1863, he was detailed to inspect all signal stations within the lines of defense of Washington. In May and June of that year, Spencer was assigned to test cypher discs in the field.
The Signal Corps of the Army was established in March, 1863, and, shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Spencer was inspected by the Central Board of Examiners at Washington, D.C. for appointment in the Corps. He was commissioned a Captain in the Signal Corps and assigned to duty at the Office of the Signal Officer of the Army in Washington in charge of the records of the Signal Corps and receipt and issue of signal equipment and stores. Until that time, Lieutenant Spencer had remained a member of the 1st Regiment, Minnesota Infantry Volunteers.
In April, 1865, Captain Spencer was ordered to report to Major General George H. Thomas, Department of the Cumberland, to assume charge of the signal detachment connected with that Department (later the Department of the Tennessee). When the detachment was discharged in August, 1865, Capt. Spencer returned to Washington to assist in closing out the records of the Signal Corps. On the eve of his discharge in October, 1865, Spencer was made a Major in the Signal Corps and a Major of Volunteers by Brevet.
Upon discharge, Major Spencer returned to Northfield, Minnesota and married. He had three children: Etta, who died in May, 1868; a son Lynn; and Lillian, born in the summer of 1868. In Northfield after the war, Spencer was Financial Secretary for Carleton College. Apparently, he was establishing an insurance (?) business in Stillwater, Minnesota when he moved there with his family in September, 1872, about a year before his death, probably on September 25, 1873. His sister, Eliza S. Spencer, to whom the bulk of the letters in this collection are written, traveled to Northfield from Coventry, Orleans County, Vermont in October of 1864 and apparently remained there. A brother, George, returned to Lowell, Vermont after the war.
Scope and Content Note
The bulk of the papers of Joseph H. Spencer are letters (originals and typescript copies) Spencer wrote at frequent intervals to his sister, Eliza S. Spencer of Coventry, Vermont, from his various posts of duty throughout the Civil War. They are dated from April 26, 1861, two days after his enlistment in the Minnesota Volunteers to September 29, 1865, less than a month before his discharge from the Signal Corps. There is also one folder of ten letters which Spencer wrote to his wife and children in Northfield, Minnesota while on business trips to Stillwater, Minnesota. These are dated from March 25, 1872 to September 28, 1872. One letter is from Spencer's brother, George, written in Vermont in 1881 to Major Spencer's thirteen-year-old daughter, Lillian. The correspondence file is arranged chronologically.
Interfiled with the correspondence are a few copies, made by Spencer, of Special Orders and Commendations by his superiors, as well as official notification of Spencer's promotions.
There is one folder of miscellany including two lithographed copies of the original Enlistment Roll of the Northfield and Faribault Volunteers in April, 1861. The original document was sent to the Governor of Minnesota by Spencer who had 200 or 300 copies made in New York in January, 1865. Filed here, also, are a testimony of the proficiency of certain members of the Signal Corps, including Spencer; rules and explanations for the use of the cypher disc; a copy of general orders from the Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, July 23, 1862; copies of Spencer's commissions; and speeches, clippings and printed material concerning him. Spencer's commission as a major in the Signal Corps, signed by President Andrew Johnson and Edwin V. Stanton; and General Order #26 by Major General Banks in Virginia are oversize items.
Spencer wrote with enthusiasm for the Union cause in letters rife with colloquialisms and easy humor. The letters are filled with his observations, especially those letters written the first two years on the front. He wrote about places in which he was stationed, and the local population and its attitudes. He described his daily routine and detailed his work as a signal man, the ciphers, and the flags, lights, and rockets used in signaling. Spencer reconstructed what he could of the engagements in which he participated, especially the first Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Winchester, sometimes giving particulars of troop movements and mentioning officers on both sides. He described the appearance of Fort Sumpter on September 7, 1863, weather conditions, and the mud of Washington's streets. Contemporary politics and events are touched on, e.g. the burning of the Smithsonian (Jan. 31, 1865), Lincoln's second inauguration (Feb. 24 and March 5, 1865), and Lincoln's death (April 20 and 23, 1865).
The letters touch on the attitude prevalent on the Minnesota frontier toward the Indians (Nov. 29, 1862 and passim); some scattered home remedies for warts (April 14, 1864) and sprains (Feb. 14, 1864); the inaccuracies in the northern press regarding the conduct of the war; and General Stone's arrest for treason and his confinement in Fort LaFayette. Spencer offered opinions on Cabinet Secretaries William H. Seward and E. M. Stanton, and on General George B. McClellan (Dec. 11, 1862). There are careful details of Spencer's financial arrangements and an explanation of investments in United States Government Bonds, the “Five-Twenties” of the period, and the selling for profit of certain bank notes and “Green-backs.”
The Bill to Organize an Army Signal Corps is discussed (March 9, 1863) as well as the actual organization of the Corps and examinations for officers (July 4, 1863). Spencer mentioned the observation balloons of the Signal Corps, and his meeting General U. S. Grant, shaking hands with Lincoln, and going to the theater to see Edwin Booth in Richelieu. The letters comment, also, on such topics as the Confederate threat to the capital in July of 1864 and Spencer's reactions to news of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) in which his old Regiment, the 1st Minnesota Volunteers, suffered severe losses.
In April, 1865, as he journeyed to join Major General G. H. Thomas, Spencer wrote of the work of rebel guerillas, southern battlefields, southern soldiers, the cost of living, the cities through which he traveled, and a description of a Tennessee planter's home (April 30, 1865).
There is, also, specific mention of a Captain H. R. Clum of Janesville, Wisconsin (December 16, 1864; January 30, 1865; January 31, 1865; and February 3, 1865).
For complementary details see Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 1861-1865, pp. 2-13.
Administrative/Restriction Information
The 196 letters and documents of this collection were presented to the Society for the McCormick Collection about 1952 by Mr. G. M. (Guy Maurice?) Wilcox who received his M.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1902. At the same time the society received from Mr. Wilcox the old leather trunk, army field desk, and camp chair that had gone with Spencer through his campaigns, and the honorary flag given him to signify his Special Commendation at the Battle of Winchester. The papers were transferred from the McCormick Collection to the Manuscripts Collection, March 24, 1971.
Processed by Joanne Hohler and LM, March 24, 1971.
Contents List
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Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
1
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April 26, 1861 - Dec. 22, 1862
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Jan. 2, 1863 - Dec. 28, 1863
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Jan. 1, 1864 - Oct. 16, 1865
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Box
1
Folder
4
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March 25, 1872 - June 19, 1881
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Miscellaneous, 1861-1866
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Oversize Folder
1
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Commission as a major in the Signal Corps, Oct. 7, 1865
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Oversize Folder
2
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Military General Order #26, April 10, 1962
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