Summary Information
Daniel Webster Letters, 1859-1865
1859-1865
Wis Mss 55S
0.6 c.f. (2 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Letters from Daniel Webster to his fiancee, Gertrude Moore of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, written while he was working at various jobs in North Bend, Galesville, La Crosse, and Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and later while serving as a lieutenant in the 1st Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery in the Civil War, 1861-1865, and in other temporary assignments.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis0055s ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Daniel Webster was born April 12, 1833. Very little can be learned from the letters concerning his early life, except that his parents were pioneers of Ohio and that he attended commercial college in Cleveland in 1855. During the Civil War, Webster served in the 1st Wisconsin Battery, Light Artillery. Records reveal that after the war was over, Captain Webster was associated with John Kellogg in the law firm of Kellogg and Webster of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1868-1869, was county judge for a few months in 1870, and then resigned. His whereabouts after 1870 could not be traced.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists almost entirely of letters written by Daniel Webster to his fiancee “Gertie.” The first letters were written in June, 1859, when Daniel was employed as a bookkeeper for Mr. Douglas, who was interested in the lumber and rafting business in North Bend, Wisconsin. He proposed marriage to Miss Gertrude Moore and until the correspondence ceased in January 1865, he wrote her on the average of twice every week. Before enlisting in the Civil War in 1861 he seemed restless and uncertain about what he wanted to do or where he should go to make money enough to become a success in life. He felt that his present position offered no future and decided to attend the University of Galesville in the fall of 1859. He took a short course with the idea of teaching a country school if nothing better was offered, but soon decided against that means of earning a living, and after looking around North Bend and La Crosse, and considering a proposition in Black River Falls, he returned to Galesville University with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He continued his studies there through September 1860, when he went to Elkhorn to clerk in his uncle's store. He disliked that type of employment so much that he stayed in Elkhorn only five months, then went to La Crosse where he read law in an attorney's office and kept books in Henderson's store. While he was in La Crosse, there was much talk of the Civil War; men were enlisting, and on October 11, 1861, Daniel was mustered into service with the 1st Wisconsin Battery, Light Artillery. He started as an orderly sergeant to drill the men in his division, but soon was sent to Camp Utley, Racine, where he became a 2nd lieutenant. From October until December his letters to Gertrude told about the happenings in camp and his expectation of being transferred.
For the next four years the correspondence dealt almost entirely with the Civil War. In January 1862, he was sent to Louisville, in April to Lexington, and in May he was assigned to command the “Tornado Siege Battery” that was being formed to take a group of 80 men picked by Morgan from seven states. This group of men was generally known as the “Hog Eye Battery.” In October the “Siege” was abandoned and Webster went back to the 1st Wisconsin Battery as a 1st lieutenant. During the summer with the “Siege” he described the Battery's encounter with 45,000 rebels at Cumberland Gap, the short rations of the troops and horses, the heavy siege, the way they held their position without surrendering, and the exhausting march through the mountains to the Ohio River, bound for Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, where the men were all to receive new outfits, badly needed.
About this time he decided to send news of the soldiers he met and some of his daily experiences to papers in Elyria, Ohio, as well as La Crosse, Elkhorn, and Galesville, Wisconsin, signing his letters “Dan,” or “D.W.” His brother Iral wrote him that his column took the lead of all others and his letters went the rounds of the camp, the men turning the pages to find what he had to say before reading the important war news on the front page. His father and many friends also wrote enthusiastically of his journalistic endeavors, and it occurred to Webster that newspaper work might become a means of earning a living after the war was over.
In December he went to Memphis, where he stayed about two weeks before orders came to board the steamboat War Eagle on the Mississippi, bound for Vicksburg. At this point the Battery was divided. The right half, with all of the horses and drivers and half of the guns and cannons, were placed in charge of Lieutenant Webster as part of General Sherman's Division. With them went the 4th Division from Indiana, which was with the Wisconsin men all around the Gap. The left half was placed on the steamboat Empress under charge of Captain Foster. The descriptions of this trip down the river are colorful and very realistic. By March 4, 1863, Webster was no longer with the La Crosse Battery, but was detached and placed in charge of the 7th Michigan Battery which had no officers of its own. In May he was wounded and sent to an officers' hospital boat in Tennessee, where, he notes, his board cost $5.50 a week. While recuperating, he had plenty of time to think but scarcely energy enough to write; when he did write, he mentioned his desire to obtain a leave of absence and come home. In August he was granted a leave and went to La Crosse, Milwaukee, and Ohio. While in Milwaukee he tried to persuade his fiancee to marry him, but she decided against it at that time.
Soon after he returned to the Wisconsin Battery he became the commanding officer, which position he held until January 1865, when he was promoted to Acting Chief of Artillery for the Department of the Gulf, with headquarters in New Orleans. His salary was now sufficient to support a wife, so he wrote to Gertrude to come to New Orleans where apparently they were married, for the letters cease.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by the Oregon Historical Society, February 1950. An additional Webster letter dated December 25, 1862 was presented by William Graham, Madison, Wisconsin, 1989. Accession Number: M89-259
Contents List
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Box
1
Folder
1
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1859
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Box
1
Folder
2
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1860
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Box
1
Folder
3
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1860-1861
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Box
2
Folder
1
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1861
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Box
2
Folder
2
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1861-1862
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Box
2
Folder
3
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1862
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Box
2
Folder
4
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1862-1863
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Box
2
Folder
5-6
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1863
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Box
2
Folder
7
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1863-1864
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Box
2
Folder
8
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1864
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Box
2
Folder
9
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1864-1865
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