This letter was written by Francis (“Frank”) M. Evans (1839-1903) of Lilly’s Hoosier Battery—the 18th Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery. The battery was formed at the end of 1860 by 22-year-old Eli Lilly, an Indianapolis pharmacist. He had recruitment posters placed around the city and recruited primarily among his friends and classmates. The unit contained six ten-pound Parrott rifled guns, and was manned by 150 men. The unit mustered in Indianapolis where it was drilled during 1861. Lilly was elected captain of the unit in August 1862 when the unit was deployed to join the Lightning Brigade commanded by Col. John T. Wilder.
The letters were written to Frank’s Aunt—Lousinda Evans—of West Point, Indiana. There are several letters in the collection but perhaps the best one is Letter #5 written one week after Chickamauga where the effective aim and deadly fire of the 18th Indiana Battery held back the charging rebel columns of General Longstreet’s Corps during the battle on 19 September 1863.
[Note: These letter come from the collection of Jim Doncaster and are published by express consent.]
Letter 1
Camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
April 15th 1863
Dear Aunt,
I received your kind letter the 13th of this month and was glad to hear from you. I should have answered your letter but the day I received your letter, we started out on a scout and was out 12 days. We was in several brushes [with the enemy] but did not get hurt. We lost two out of our battery. One was our Orderly Sergeant. He was sick and we left him at a house and the Rebs killed him. They killed five out of our brigade and have orders to kill all that they catch out of our brigade and we are going to return the compliment. We are going to kill all that we take after this.
It is dangerous to be taken now so we have to fight to the last as it is death to be taken prisoners as they will kill anyone. But it is only Wilder’s Brigade. They will take any of the men out of any other brigade and treat them as prisoners of war. The citizens say the Rebels are afraid of us. They say that we are a set of dare devils that don’t fear death or anything else. We have been out farther and run the Rebs farther than any other brigade in this department but we don’t get them to stand and fight us. They are afraid of us and as soon as they see us, they run and us after them.
The last scout we were out on we run two brigades two miles but could not get them to fight us. We captured 500 horses and mules and I don’t know how many niggers they brought in. We have destroyed this country for miles round. That is why the Rebs is down on our brigade so. We are going to burn Lebanon. It is nearly as large as Lafayette and we shall burn all of the Reb’s houses in the country around Lebanon and Liberty for killing our boys. We hung two men while out on the last scout. They commenced it first and we will soon learn them a lesson that they will never forget.
I will quit for this time but write more the next time. Your affectionate nephew, — Sergeant Frank Evans
Letter 2
Camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
May 28th 1863
Dear Aunt,
It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write these few lines in answer to your kind letter. Your letter found me well but nearly worn out as we are out on scouts nearly all of the time and we don’t have much times to rest. We are ordered out on another scout tomorrow again. We just came in off a scout yesterday. It is very hard here on the soldiers now—especially if we are on the march. It is very warm and dry and the dust is three and four inches deep. We can’t get water enough to drink. The last scout we was on we could not get hardly water to drink. Sometimes [we] come on a spring that we can get plenty of water but other times we have to march 60 to 80 miles without water.
May 29th. I did not get to finish my letter yesterday. I thought that I would finish it this morning. I had the ague yesterday and I don’t feel very well today and I feel very much like I would have another shake today. It is raining here today and it rained nearly all last night but it don’t rain very hard. We will be paid off next week and I want to send 30 dollars home. I will send it to you to keep for me until I come home. I want you to write and let me know who is going to see the girls….and how her and her man gets along and write all of the news. I got a letter from John two weeks ago. It was the first one that I have got from him.
Tell Lizz that I should like to see her and her baby but I think it will be a good while before that I get a chance to come home. I think that it will not be long until we have another big fight down here. There is one thing certain, Bragg will have to fall back to Chattanooga or fight us for we will crowd him to the last. You may look for pretty exciting times here in the course of the next month. I will close for this time. Yours until death, — Frank
Letter 3
Camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
June 18th 1863
Dear Aunt,
Your kind letter came to hand today and I was glad to hear that you was well. I am well, hearty, and well satisfied. We have all of the fun we want hunting rebels. We was out on a scout the first of the month and was out 8 days and I tell you that we made the Rebs get up and skedaddle about as fast as they generally travel. We had quite a fight with them at Smithville. We killed some 10 of the Rebs and got 50 prisoners. We had 5 men wounded in our brigade and one killed. We have some pretty hard scouts but then it is fun for us for I would rather be out on a scout than to lay in camp for I get so lazy that I can hardly see. The boys is all well so far as I know and are in a fine condition to fight and as soon as Grant gets Vicksburg, we will have all of the fighting we want. But let it come. The sooner it comes, the sooner this war will end.
I think that we will be paid off next week if we are not out on a scout Marson [?] and I don’t know when we will get back. We are kept scouting nearly all of the time and we don’t have much time to play but it is not as hard work as if we working on a farm.
I weight 155 pounds and am fleshier than I ever was but I am not half as stout as I was before I came into the service—that is, in strength—but more healthy by a good deal than I was at home. I don’t have much to do with Jim and Bill Crouse for they are as d_____ as the devil but you need not say anything about it so Crouse’s will hear it.
I will have to quit as I have to go to work so no more at this time. Goodbye. I will write again Sunday. Give my respects to all and keep a good share for yourself. — Frank Evans
Letter 4
Camped on Duck River, Tennessee
Sunday, July 12th 1863
Dear Aunt,
I wrote you a letter some time since and I thought it may [be] that you would not get it and I thought I would write again and let you know how I am getting along. I am well and enjoying myself and I am having a very good time. We have nothing to do today and therefore we take it easy. Everything is still here and there is not much fighting going on here. There is some skirmishing done in front but we are some 39 miles from our division. Our division is 15 miles below Decherd Station there at the foot of the mountains. There is 4 [ ] of our battery with the division and 2 with the brigade. Our section is with the brigade. We are a going to have 2 more regiments in our brigade—the 52nd Illinois and the 15th Indiana. They will be mounted this week and armed [with] the 7 shooting guns—the same that our brigade is armed with. And when we get the other regiments, they say that we have to go to Kentucky after Old Morgan. If we get after him, he will not get off very easy. It is reported that he is in Indiana and I hope it is so for it will bring some of the men that at home and sympathizing with the Rebs to a sense of their duty. It is the best thing that could happen for Indiana. It will stop their quarreling and set them at work to help put his rebellion [down]. But I think that the Rebs is about played out and that we will be at home this winter at the furthest.
I want you to get 13 dollars off Bill that he owes me and if there is anything coming to me of that corn, get it out and keep it for me till I come home and if I don’t come home, you would do with it as you please. I don’t know how much the corn will come to as Uncile Bill never wrote how much there was of it or what he had to pay for gathering it. I sent 20 dollars to Sim and he sent 5 back to me and I owed him 2 dollars. I will put Bill’s in an envelope by itself and you can hand it to him. — Frank
Letter 5
Camped on Tennessee river near Fryer’s Island
Sunday, September 27th 1863
Dear Aunt,
As I have been in the late battle [Chicakamauga], I thought that I would write you a few lines to let you know that I came out all right and without a scratch. I was in the fight Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I don’t want to get in another fight again soon but I think that we will have the biggest battle here that has ever been fought in the war and it will come off before many days. We are looking for it to commence everyday but every day the Rebs lay still strengthening [ ] the Rebs.
I never want to see such another sight as I saw last Saturday and Sunday. The battle commenced early in the morning and lasted until way after night and it was a continual roar of artillery and musketry and the bullets came as thick as I ever seen hail fall. I don’t see how any of us ever got out alive for there was not a [tree?] but what there was a bullet hole in it. I saw men that was shot all over—some with their legs shot off—some shot in the face—some shot in the head—some in the arms. I could not tell you in a week by writing how all the men was wounded. I don’t know how many there was wounded and killed but I know the Rebs lost a great many more men than we lost for we mowed them down like grass. They fell in every direction. We had to fight two to one but we repulsed them at every point.
I have not much more to write—only that I am worn out for we don’t get to rest. We have been in 18 different fights since we left Murfreesboro and only lost 3 men killed and none wounded. I saw brother Tom last Friday after the fight and they moved over on the left wing on Saturday and went into the fight. His regiment was in the fight Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but I don’t know whether he was hurt or not but I have reason to think that he came out all right.
This leaves me well and enjoying camp life and ready for another fight. Old Rosy is ready for the [Rebs] again and we will drive them to the wall or die.
Goodbye for this time. Love to all. — Frank Evans
Letter 6
Camped near Kingston, Tennessee
December the 12th, 1863
Dear Aunt,
I received your kind letter while we was camped at Marysville, Alabama, and I had not time to answer it for we had marching orders and started the next morning for Tennessee and we have been on the march ever since and when we was stopped, we had no chance to send our mail out. We are on our way to Knoxville to reinforce Burnside. Kingston is some 30 miles from Knoxville. We will get there tomorrow providing we don’t have any bad luck. We have marched through some of the hardest looking country that I ever saw. I don’t see how anybody can live in such a country. I would not live here if they would give me all of the land there is in 20 miles square.
I have not much to write about. You may think that we have plenty to write about but it is one thing over and over again. We are not with Wilder’s Brigade now. We was ordered to leave it the 20th of last month and report to the First Division of Cavalry. You can direct your letters to 18th Battery Indiana Artillery, First Division of Cavalry, Tennessee.
I am well and enjoying myself very well. The health of the boys is very good. We have less sick men than we ever had since we have been out. We have had a good many to die since we have been out. We have had 25 to die since we have been out and 25 discharged of disability. Out of 156 men we started out with, we have 100 left and there is 10 of them back sick. Some of them has not been with the battery since we left Louisville. I have not seen brother Tom since I left him at Murfreesboro last October. I don’t know whether he is with his regiment or not. I want you to write and let me know how you’re getting along and all of the news in general.
I will close for this time hoping to hear from you soon. I don’t know whether this will get to you or not. So goodbye for this time. Tell Aunt Jane and Liza to write as I wrote last. So no more at this time. I remain your affectionate nephew, — Frank Evans
Letter 7
Camped near Marysville, East Tennessee
February 9th 1864
Dear Aunt,
I received a letter from you that you wrote in November last and I thought that I would answer it. We have not had any mail lately and our back mail just came up last Sunday. I am well and hearty and enjoying myself very well in this wooden [?] country. This is the damnedest country you ever heard or read of. We have a fight every other day and then we don’t see or hear of anything but Rebs. We have not had a newspaper since we left the Department of the Cumberland. I am tired of this department and all of the boys from the Army of the Cumberland is and they all want to get back to our old department.
Well I have nothing new to write. We had a fight with the Rebs on the 27th of last month and we give them a very bad thrashing—one that they will recollect some time. We captured two pieces of artillery from them and 150 prisoners besides all of their dead and wounded fell into our hands. We drove them like a lot of sheep before us for 8 miles when dark set in on us and we could not follow them any further. We have not seen any of them since and I don’t think they will trouble us anymore soon.
I want you to tell Will to send me a dollar’s worth of postage stamps if you have the money. You can send them. I have no postage stamps and I can’t get them here nowhere. We are all well. So no more at this time but I will write more in a few days. Goodbye till then.
— Frank Evans
Letter 8
[First part of letter is missing]
…it seems as it is the only brigade that they can trust to do anything. I am not discouraged in the least for we have not been in any fight that we have been whipped. We have been victorious in every fight but we are run down and need rest. We have been in the saddle 24 days and nearly every night until ten o’clock and out at 3 in the morning and it raining nearly all of the time. But for all of the bad weather, we have had a good time. I would not have missed it for anything in the world.
I shall quit for this time and try and do better next time. Write all of the news. I have not seen a newspaper for a month. So no more at this time. I remain your nephew until death, — Frank Evans
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