Thomas Reed's Civil War Letter

This is for GenLady's Where Were You? carnival - so where were we during the Civil War?

A lot of my ancestors weren't actually in the US yet in 1861-1865. Quite a lot of them were in Austria-Hungary (Galicia and Ukraine) and wouldn't start arriving until the 1890s. One great great grandmother was in the Black Forest region of Baden, not to arrive in new York until 1869. Her future husband was a teenager in Bremen. And other great great grandparents were living on a small estate in Bad Kleinen, Mecklenburg, in northern Germany. They hadn't lost all their money yet - that would come in the 1870s.

So the ancestors who were here were the Hickses, Barnetts and Reeds. Thomas Reed (1828-1904) was the most interesting of the Civil War vets in the family. I'll save him for the end.

My great great grandfather Daniel Losee Hicks was in Brooklyn, working on the ferries and later on during the war selling pencilcases. I haven't found any evidence of his being in the war, though his brother Lemuel was in the Union Army. Lemuel Hicks enlisted May 27, 1862 as a Private in the 47th New York Infantry Regiment and was mustered out September 1, 1862 at Brooklyn, NY.

David Barnett, Daniel's brother in law, took time out from his new law practice to join the 56th Regiment New York. He was later a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' association founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois. It was dissolved when its last member died in 1956.

Thomas Reed of West Chester, Pennsylvania was in the Union Army from 1861 to 1864, and became Captain of his regiment. He was a carpenter and cabinet maker. In 1861 he was 33 years old, with at least two children, and had been married for 10 years to Sarah Elizabeth Williams. His daughter Alida Agnes (my great grandmother) was about to be born in October of 1861.

Thomas wrote a letter to his son Henry about his service, which tells the story better than I could:

H.W. Reed

Dear Son,

Immediately after President Lincoln's Proclamation calling for 75,000 Men to "Suppress the Rebellion and to cause the Law to be duly executed" I assisted to recruit and fully equip and arm a Company of Infantry at West Chester Pa. known as the "Grey Reserves" under command of Capt Enos Chrisman. We offered our Services to the Government, but as our own Town was threatened by the Rebels from Maryland, we were stationed at W.C. subject to the order of Government through Gov. A.G. Curtin, of Penna. [D]uring Seven Months we were on Guard duty subject to call at any hour. [I]n the meantime many of our officers and men joined other Regiments and so decimated our Company that we concluded to form another one which we recruited under Capt R.M. Frame (afterwards Col of 10 Regt) this Company was designed for active service numbering 98 men. During Gen. Lee's Raid into the Northern States in 1862, a call was made for 30,000 Penna Troops and our Company being fully equipped and armed and being well drilled we were ordered [crossed out - 'away to'] to Harrisburgh on the 10th of September 1862. There we were assigned to the 10 Regt P.V. Col R.M. Frame. I being 1st Lieut Commanding, on the 12th I was elected Captain of the 1st Company, on the 15th we were ordered to Chambersburgh on the 16th from Chambersburgh to Hagerstown Md. We arrived in Hagerstown on the morning of the 17. (Battle of Antietam)

[In margin of 1st page: The 10th Regt was the first to cross the State Line into Maryland and became subject to Federal Authority under Gen McClellan for which we rec'd a Complimentary speech from Gov. Curtin in person] and reported to Maj Gen Reynolds 1st Corps 3rd Div. We were at once assigned to Guard duty in Hagerstown and on the Rail Road and pike approaches. Picketing the roads leading from Hagerstown and Sharpsburg to the Battlefield, Guarding prisoners &c. Lee and the Rebel Army having retreated across the Potomac into Virginia we were withdrawn on the 25th and ordered to Middletown Pa where we laid in Camp until the 1st of Oct when Gov Curtin ordered the 1st and 3rd Company (Capt Everharts) to West Chester to be in readiness to proceed to the Bridges and fords on the Brandywine dividing Cecil Co Md from Chester Co Pa, but on our arrival at W.C. the order was countermanded and we remained there performing the Same duties as heretofore. My Commissions date from the Eleventh and twenty-second of September 1862 and remaining or in good force until the 1st Monday in October 1864. Consequently I was in the Service from April 1861 till Oct 1864 having served my time of enlistment and having recd for all this but 1 month's pay from the Government having furnished my own uniforms Side arms and general fit out.

I remain yours &c, Thomas Reed (Late) Com Capt A 10th Pa Infantry

The letter was probably written in the 1870s or 1880s, when Henry (Harry) Reed (Thomas' eldest child) was grown up; he was born in 1853.

The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil, with 23,000 casualties. It was the first Civil War battle to be fought on Northern soil. Thomas was very lucky to have been assigned to watch the Railroad and the pikes, instead of being right on the battlefield.

Image is a photograph of Thomas Reed, taken at Fredrick's Knickerbocker Family Portrait Gallery, 770 Broadway at the corner of 9th Street, New York City. It is helpfully dated 1887 in the lower lefthand corner, which would have made Thomas age 59. Painting of the Battle of Antietam from Wikipedia, link above.