This letter was written by Enos Wheeler (1842-1930), the son of Elihu Wheeler (1811-1884) and Harriet Fogle (1822-1877) of Noble county, Ohio. Enos enlisted on 9 August 1862 in Co. E, 92nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) and remained with the regiment until 1 September 1864 when he was transferred into the Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC).
According to Wheeler’s obituary, he was a member of Gilbert’s Brigade and later of General Crook’s Brigade in the Army of the Cumberland. He took part in the battles of Pocatalico Creek, [W.] Virginia; Hoover’s Gap, Tenn.; Lane Chapel, GA; Tullahoma, TN; Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Brown’s Ferry, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge and a number of minor engagements. Records show that he was wounded in the left shoulder in the Battle of Mission Ridge on 25 November 1863; that he spent two months in a hospital at Nashville, Tenn, before taking a four months furlough to his home in Ohio. He rejoined his regiment at Resaca, GA., and shortly thereafter was transferred to the VRC because of disability from wounds.
Enos was married in 1866 to Violetta Lamley (b. 1844) in Noble county, Ohio.
Transcription
Camp near Nashville, Tennessee
February 16, 1863
Dear Cousin,
It is with the greatest of pleasure that I seat myself down in my tent with pen in hand to let you know that I am well and in good spirits and sincerely hope that when these few lines comes to hand that they may find you enjoying the same good health for health is the only thing that we enjoy in this world of misery and war. Well, Elisabeth, your kind letter came to hand the other day and I was glad to hear that you was well.
Well, we are camped about 3 miles from Nashville, Tennessee, and a very nice country it is around here but we ain’t a going for to stay that [long]. We are going to Murfreesboro or about a hundred miles beyond where there is going to be a battle fought. The name of the place is Chattanooga.
Well, Old Tennessee is a very sickly country. The water is not very good. It gives us all the shits. There is nearly one third of the regiment that is not able for duty now since we come here and before we came there was not hardly any sick [with] the mumps and measles and each has got into the 92nd. There was one man broke out with the measles yesterday morning in our company. But there has none of our company that has got the mumps nor the aches yet.
February 17, 1863
I am still on my legs yet and hope you are the same. Well, it is raining today and has been raining ever since yesterday and it rains every other day here. Well, me and James W. Barry 1 and Caleb R. Davis 2 took a walk this morning around among the regiments and they told us at the 84th Indiana Regiment that there was a man died in Co. A, 84th Indiana but they did not say what ailed him.
And when we was in the steamboats, there was a man died in Co. G, 92nd OVI but I cannot say what ailed him, and there is one very sick with the quinsy now in our tent by the name of Benjamin Davis. 3 He is so bad that he cannot swallow anything at all not han’t eat anything for four days.
Well, Elisabeth, you said in your letter that you would hate to be a soldier for it was a hard life to live. I tell you are right when you think so for a soldier’s life is a hard life to live the way we have to live. The way we have to sleep, two of us sleep together and we lay down our gum blankets on the ground and then our coats and then lay down and put our woolen blankets over us. And I was out on picket the other day and we made our bed right in a tree top that had been cut down and we broke the brush away so that we could lay down and with nothing over us but out blankets and it come my turn to stand about one o’clock and the coons got to fighting on a tree a little piece from us and such another fuss they did make. It was enough to scare the old boy.
Well, Elisabeth, you said that you heard that I was married. Certainly I am. But I don’t know who it is to for there is nobody fool enough to have me.
Well, Lieutenant [William C.] Okey come to the camp today and we got orders tonight to march in the morning and if not in the morning, orders might be expected at any time. Direct to Nashville, Tennessee, to follow the regiment. Well, I must close this short letter by asking you to write again. Tell Tommy I would like to hear from him. — Enos Wheeler
To his cousin Elisabeth W.
1 James W. Barry enlisted in Co. E, 92nd OVI at the age of 21 on 16 August 1862. He died of disease on 24 April 1863 at Carthage, Tennessee.
2 Caleb R. Davis enlisted at the age of 18 in Co. E, 92nd OVI on 8 August 1862.
3 Benjamin Davis was 21 when he enlisted as a musician in Co. E, 92nd OVI on 22 August 1862.
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