My Surprising Reseach on a letter from a Soldier in the 1st Virginia

Mild53

First Sergeant
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Jun 1, 2011
Location
Maine
So last night, bored, I decided to transcribe and see if I could identify the author of a confederate letter. This was included in of a set of CW letters that I bought a couple years ago and written by Enoch Whittemore of the 5th Maine. The date of the letter lead me to believe that it was picked up by Enoch on the battlefield in Virginia, while the 5th was engaged in the Peninsula Campaign. Since the letter is incomplete and unsigned, I assumed that I would never know much about the people mentioned in it.

However in a couple hours, I was able to identify the soldiers metioned in the letter and where they were from ( Richmond and Hanover) and without leaving the couch. Isn't the internet amazing?

Now If someone knows who sister “Mattie” is, maybe we can solve the mystery of the author too.

York Town April the 23rd 1862

Dear Sister,

As I am at leisure today, I seat myself to drop you a few lines to let you know how I am getting on. This leaves me unwell. I have been unwell for several days. Several of our boys are sick but none very ill.

We have been seeing a very hard time since we have been down here but there is joy in the thought of a better day coming. Yes Mattie I hope there is a better day coming. I sincerely hope that this war may end very soon and then it will be that we can return to our dear friends and relatives. I hope never to be engaged in such a wicked and unjust war as this.

Well Mattie I know of nothing interesting to write you.

We are within a few miles of the Yankeys. They shell us daily. Our army and the Yankeys are within a mile of each other. We lose from 3 to five men every day.

One of our men has just returned from the First Virginia Regiment and brought the sad intelligence that two of my acquaintances being wounded. One was Ned Fernyhough (Spelled Furnamhoe in the letter) he I have no doubt is dead by this as he was dying today when our boys left there, we was wounded in the thigh with a shell.

The other was Monk (Looked more like Frank in the actual Letter) Wingfield of Hanover, brother to Charles Wingfield, one of my messmates. He is not seriously wounded, oh it is so distressing ( END)

From: War History of the Old First Virginia Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia, By Charles T. Loehr, 1884

Page 5
In March 1861 I with many of my young Richmond friends organized a company which was known as the Old Dominion Guard. Joseph G Griswold was elected Captain and William H Palmer First and Henry Harney Second Lieutenants. Soon we had over eighty men together and by constant drilling and the interest we took in being soldiers the company made a splendid appearance. On the 20th we went into barracks on Main between Seventh and Eighth streets that is we got a lot of straw piled on the upper floor of the building where we slept. Not very comfortable the first night but then it was something new. The next day we were mustered into service of the State of Virginia by General Baldwin and commenced to do duty Part of the company was sent to take charge of the custom house and a part to Rocketts to stand guard over the steamers. A few days after this we were attached to the First regiment of Virginia volunteers as Company D

Page 17
On the 8th left Louisa Courthouse and halted near Tolersville on Mountain Road The next day marched twenty to Brick Store on the 10th to Ground Squirrel Church county and on the 12th stopped at Young's Mill Pond we remained till the 16th when we marched through and embarked on the steamer Glen Cove in the reaching King's Mill wharf at 2 AM on the 17th rested the river bank till 9 AM then marched to Winn's Mill we halted The next day the 18th took position in line works doing picket duty and strengthening the works enemy's line was about 1,000 yards distant and we were under severe shelling In the rear of our line were some cabins put up for winter quarters During a heavy rain of our men got in one of these cabins for shelter when the enemy's shells struck the cabin and exploded therein Corporal EM Ferneyhough and wounding Private MJ Wingfield both from Company D. Ferneyhough was the first our company lost he was a brave and noble fellow and death was a cause of universal regret

Page 24 ( May 30, 1862)
It will not be amiss to relate an incident here. A few days to the fight orders had been issued to hold the men strictly for their arms and ammunition. During this battle Monk Wingfield from Company D had his musket into fragments by a piece of shell. When told to throw it away and pick up another hundreds of them were about, he replied, I am not going to pay fifteen dollars my gun I am going to carry it back to the ordnance wagon he did the next day when he got another gun.
 
Fantastic find! Couple points:

1. From the phrase, "one of our men has just returned from the First Virginia Regiment. . ," I gather that the letter writer was from a different regiment.

2. Charles Wingfield might be C. R. Wingfield, who shows up in the 1860 as the younger brother (21) of M. J. Wingfield (23), both sons of Mrs. S. B. Wingfield of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia.

Wingfield.jpg
 
So you like digging too!
  1. Maybe, or maybe he was on picket. The reference to messmate may mean the same regiment.
  2. Yes these Wingfields look right! And a pretty wealthy family it appears. I think I saw in the history mentioned that both wings served in the 1st. Thanks so much.
Can you divine who Maggie is? For bonus points!
 
Fantastic find! Couple points:

1. From the phrase, "one of our men has just returned from the First Virginia Regiment. . ," I gather that the letter writer was from a different regiment.

2. Charles Wingfield might be C. R. Wingfield, who shows up in the 1860 as the younger brother (21) of M. J. Wingfield (23), both sons of Mrs. S. B. Wingfield of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia.

View attachment 52599

Thanks for your help!

According to the regmental history There were three Wingfields in the 1st VA


Wingfield LR Co. D
Wingfield MJ Co. D
Wingfield Samuel L Co. D

So CR in the Census copuld be LR on this list - and an error was made in transcription. So I will assume that Charles in the letter, CR in the Census and CL in the regimental history are the same person. It is plausible that brothers close in age woud enlist in the same regiment and company.


My next step is to check the 1860 Census for all the members of company D, to see if there is one with a Mattie for a sister.
 
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Thanks for your help!

According to the regmental history There were three Wingfields in the 1st VA


Wingfield LR Co. D
Wingfield MJ Co. D
Wingfield Samuel L Co. D

So CR in the Census copuld be LR on this list - and an error was made in transcription. So I will assume that Charles in the letter, CR in the Census and CL in the regimental history are the same person. It is plausible that brothers close in age woud enlist in the same regiment and company.


My next step is to check the 1860 Census for all the members of company D, to see if there is one with a Mattie for a sister.

Nevermind, LR Wingfield was Lamuel R Wingfield, he survied to be one of 17 when the regiment surrendered at Appomatox.
 
Identifying Mattie will be difficult, but maybe not impossible. The key, of course, is identifying the writer of the letter.

I still believe that this is from someone outside the First Virginia. This is how I would pursue that.

First, identify the unit of Charles Wingfield, the "messmate" of the writer. Very likely he was in a unit in the same division as the First Virginia at the time the letter was written.

If the letter writer was a messmate of Wingfield, likely they were in the same company of that regiment. From there, you may be able to narrow down to men of that company who were killed or captured in late April 1862. That should be a very manageable list.

Finally, go to the 1860 census and see if you can find where one of those soldiers had a sister Mattie or Martha. Those were common names, but it might work.

Good luck!
 
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Identifying Mattie will be difficult, but maybe not impossible. The key, of course, is identifying the writer of the letter.

I still believe that this is from someone outside the First Virginia. This is how I would pursue that.

First, identify the unit of Charles Wingfield, the "messmate" of the writer. Very likely he was in a unit in the same division as the First Virginia at the time the letter was written.

If the letter writer was a messmate of Wingfield, likely they were in the same company of that regiment. From there, you may be able to narrow down to men of that company who were killed or captured in late April 1862. That should be a very manageable list.

Finally, go to the 1860 census and see if you can find where one of those soldiers had a sister Mattie or Martha. Those were common names, but it might work.

Good luck!
Thanks AndyHall, I am stuck on finding the unit of Charles or C. R. Wingfield. No luck with the NPS Soldiers and Sailors data base, or the Civil War Data Base.

I learned a bit about the Wingfield family though - a early and prominent VA family that includes General Winfield Scott, who for some reason dropped the “g”. You never know what you will find when you start looking....
 
Thanks AndyHall, I am stuck on finding the unit of Charles or C. R. Wingfield. No luck with the NPS Soldiers and Sailors data base, or the Civil War Data Base.

I learned a bit about the Wingfield family though - a early and prominent VA family that includes General Winfield Scott, who for some reason dropped the “g”. You never know what you will find when you start looking....

I did notice that there were a slew of Wingfields in Hanover County, which I'm sure will complicate things.
 
Your "Monk", Marcellus "Monk" Joyner Wingfield, 1st Virginia Co. D, later killed at Gettysburg, had a brother Chastain Rufus Wingfield in the 4th Va Cavalry Co. G.
 
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