Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Civil War Letters to Mary Hutchinson, 1861-1862, Accession #11361, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Chalottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased by the University of Virginia Library on January 7, 1998, from Alexander Autographs, Inc., Cos Cob, Conn.

Biographical/Historical Information

According to the history of the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry by Nelson V. Hutchinson (Rare Books E 513.5 7th 1890), the regiment was recruited and organized at Taunton, Massachusetts by Colonel Darius N. Couch, and was sworn into service on June 15, 1861. Company K was recruited from Dorchester. On July 12th it proceeded to Washington, D.C. by railroad on order of the Secretary of War, arriving in Washington on July 15, 1861. Camp Brightwood was located at the junction of Seventh and Fourteenth Streets, some five miles from Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of one letter from Frank [Erskine] and eleven autograph letters, 1861-1862, from Benjamin F. Hutchinson (d. 1862 September 1 at Craney Island, Virginia), serving with the 7th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, to his wife, Mary Hutchinson. The letters were written from Camp Brightwood, District of Columbia, Camp Winfield Scott, near Yorktown, Virginia, ten miles from Fort Monroe, Warwick Court House, Prospect Hill, and Berkeley Landing, Virginia.

The earliest letters are from Camp Brightwood, District of Columbia. In these, Hutchinson discusses: the wormy bread they had at first and making a stove out of flat stones and old tin dishes (1861 Oct 30); a mail robbery at the military post office at camp, the promotion of Colonel [Nelson H.?]Davis, the review of the regiment by Massachusetts Governor [John Albion?] Andrew (1818-1867), and visits to the Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institute (1861 Nov 20); the desertion of two men from Company K (1862 Jan 26); busy building a barracks during the winter, have three inches of snow and the new colonel was as drunk as a fool today ([1862 winter]); and the rumor about going to Texas, two more regiments arrived to take care of the forts, they have a new Colonel Davis as an officer, the camp of the Rhode Island 2nd [Regiment?] destroyed by an awful gale, which also killed a man in the New York 36th, and the celebration of George Washington's birthday (1862 Feb 26).

The next letters describe camping at Prospect Hill, Virginia, without tents, where the troops have damaged the plantation owned by Commander Jones, and a Rhode Island boy found an old shell which exploded and killed him; tells his wife to direct her letters to Washington, Key's Division, Company K, 7th MV ([ca. 1862 Mar]); describes the march to Prospect Hill, Virginia, through deep mud, and back to Camp Brightwood, where Willard found a new revolver in the road (1862 Mar 16). Back at Camp Brightwood, he reports a rumor about General Ambrose Burnside meeting with a reversal (1862 Mar 19).

In the next letter, Hutchinson identifies his regiment as the 7th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 4th Corps, [Darius N.?] Couch's Division, Brigg's Brigade, Company K, camped ten miles from Fort Monroe and 2.5 miles from Newport News, at [Camp W.F. Smith] where some are suffering from dysentery, "the [New] Yorkers have some of them died owing to being so dirty some say," saw Mount Vernon and the tomb of George Washington before they left, they started out from Alexandria on about fifty boats and were soon anchored at Fort Monroe and marched by the ruins of Hampton which had evidence of being a beautiful city with nothing left now but charred ruins, brick walls, and chimneys, land is very level with water close to the surface, Fort Monroe a grand fort with terrible guns, mentions the Monitor and a good many other gunboats, saw the sunken ships the Cumberland and the Congress , and says 70,000 camped in the field that night (1862 Apr 3). He sends a brief message to his wife from Warwick Court House, saying they have killed enemy cows, hogs, and sheep for food (1862 Apr 7).

At Camp Winfield Scott, during the siege of Yorktown, they are under shelling by the Rebels without much damage, five or six men were killed belonging to the 7th Maine Regiment, mentions a rumor that the Merrimac has been sunk, thirty men were killed trying to take a rebel battery, some siege guns are in position, Major [Franklin P.?] Harlow stole a Rebel picket's blanket and water dipper, and the men are suffering from a plague of wood ticks ([1862] Apr 18-19).

The last letter is from Frank [Erskine?] written at Berkeley Landing, Virginia, and mentions the battle at Seven Pines, a long hard retreat from the Rebels, camping near a swamp, prevalent sickness, bad water, "as for taking Richmond this summer I think it is out of the question," building rifle pits and forts, and sends love from Samuel and her husband, B.F. Hutchinson (1862 Jul 7).