1 50 1 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/f8f8df3d3c273838cff2b4738b7ce5d9.jpg 508b138ee5d5a17ba2366ab86a588bfe PDF Text Text 1st Camp near Washington May 25th Dear Mother, I recieved your letter to night and was ever so glad to hear from you. It seemed a long time since I had heard from you. we had our Grand Review Tuesday and it was grand I tell you. the streets were decorated with flags, with mottoes from every state and the names of every Battle. the Streets were jamed full of folks stagings built up. President Johnson and all the rest of the big bugs were there and Mr. Humphrey, came up to my ambulance and shook hands with me, he said he would see me. but he has not come yet, I did not have a chance to talk with Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/468902486a87b9bad14e9e852ec545be.jpg 50b4e2821b01ecc727271416f0b2b085 PDF Text Text him. Did you get the letter I mailed at Richmond. I am going to fech home my woolen Blanket + Rubber. and Over- coat. and I have a new Pr of Pants and a Cavalry Jacket. The Pants cost now $4.75 and they wont wear very good. some of them are good and some are not. it is all luck and chance if you get a good Pair. you put your name down for a pair and the number you want. well when they come, the Lieut hands you a Pair the number you want. well prehaps they will be nice fine ones and prehaps coarse one, you cant take your pick. all Goverment clothes want sewing over again. will all rip apart in a week. the Pr. of pant I am wearing now I got in the winter some time. there is holes comeing in the knees now. I think you can get better ones home for the same money although I dont know. I aint as fat as I was in the winter. I am so sorry Pas health is so poor I will write more tomorrow. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/f6f4b5f826632448c1de9803b2bd8683.jpg cfe9cb2477f62c45494a426065bf359b PDF Text Text 2nd I guess I will write a little more to night. <s>as I am</s> I heard to day that the Goverment had taken procession of the Rail Roads for fifteen or twenty days. If that is so I dont think I will see Mr. Humphrey, for I guess he will have to dig out for they wont let any Citizens travel on them. I hear to, to day that our Corp was going to march to Baltimore. The 120 N.Y. + 11 New Jersey are going home in a day or two, they are most all sixty two men. It is my opinion we will all get out in a month or so. If they keep me till the 15th of July it will be two years and I will get my $75 Bounty, but if they dont It will be a matter for Goverment Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/f63d6df6ae185fd2eb4de677456166c1.jpg e436ee02722df71651d9a905218c23f2 PDF Text Text to decide. The Goverment use the soldiers real mean in some things. there was a man here wose wife was dead and they would not let him go home to bury her. and another who’s Father was very sick they would not let go. but I suppose it was the Corps General who would not sine it. there are so many rumors one dont know what to believe. one thing I dont want to go to Texas. who is Nora Candie is it my old teachers sister. The Troops and all marched all the war from Burkesville [Burkeville, VA], could not get transports. about the time comeing through Richmond you see our train was next to the troops and the 1st Divis Heavy train came in on a cross road a run right in front of the Doctors. it was their fault letting them run in so. they were leading the train. when our Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/5263d7d9b73e0d02f40c356c82ad48ed.jpg 40a9b7f06c2a74253fbc3c276fd3ca94 PDF Text Text Lieut found it out he made a fuss about it and they all got into a fight over it. one of our sergeants breaks through their train + we followed him you see by keeping close up close to- gether they could not get through his horse kicked the mules. it was a great time, shouting to horses men swearing + every thing. Lieut Pancoast came back and we went it over the pavements on a dead run, we would cut their train and away we would Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/dd9b3e73f1aef811899e2ecb9440de0d.jpg eba558f78484b6a9f10797bc94138fb1 PDF Text Text go it. blind as the boys call it. wall after a hard struggle we got through ahead of them. you see the Trains are so long it takes an hour nearly for them to pass. and on a march the train on the lead of the Corps stops at dark and them in the rear wont get up till ten or eleven oclock, they take turns of going ahead. I tell you an Army is a big machine to run. you say we had ought to stop before dark. we dont have the say in such things. the line of march is all laid out by the Corps Gen how many miles and you have to go it if it takes till morning. you know but little about an army. it is like being a slave. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/files/original/d661d75093fdaa0e01f6f2ad46a5ddfa.jpg 5b665754d0f40dcd93ecac101de611d1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William A. Leonard Papers, 1864-1865 (Ms2011-106) Subject The topic of the resource Petersburg (Va.)--History--Siege, 1864-1865 United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Diaries. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 Civil War Petersburg (Va.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865. Description An account of the resource The collection includes William A. Leonard's letters home from February-July 1865, as well as his diary from August 1864-April 1865. Leonard served as an ambulance driver in and around the siege at Petersburg, which is the focus of his short diary entries. His early letters focus on war news and rumors, daily life, and news from home. Letters following Lee's surrender emphasize Leonard's experiences while stationed around Washington, DC, daily life (including the growing frustrations of soldiers wanting to get home) and his complaint's about the rumors and delays of his regiment's discharge and payment. All the letters in this collection were written home to Leonard's parents, usually his mother. He continually reassures her not to worry about him, requests various things from home (especially stamps), and talks about his daily life. He frequently writes about plans for when he gets home. Leonard's religious sentiments also recur throughout his correspondence. He also includes war news and who he has seen, though he reveals his priorities and lack of interest in being a soldier, saying in March 1865: "we have got a good man to steer the machine, that fellow they call U. S. Grant. Sheridan & Sherman are giving them fits. I have seen Grant & Mede a number of times this summer I had a great deal rather see you + Pa. I dont want to see Nora because she wanted me to go soldiering" Although battle descriptions are not necessarily the focus of Leonard's letters, his 1864 correspondence contains details of being fired upon a Petersburg, of picket duty, and later, of transporting injured men. In June 1865, he writes several letters detailing the sight of unburied dead men and horses and the sound of fighting from the front at Petersburg. In May 1865, he writes of the incompetence of the doctors: "The Doctors here dont have any thing fit to give any one and the bigest of them dont know how to doctor a hen anyway. They take the wounded men legs and arms off half the time. when there is no need of it, do it practice there has been a number of times I have heard of that...The Doct of the Regt was a clerk in an apothecary shop..." Leonard's diary begins in August 1864, apparently when he was appointed to drive an ambulance. His entries are short and refer mostly to his daily activities: who or what he was conveying to and from the hospital at City Point outside Petersburg; what letters he sent or received; war news; or when he attended religious meetings. Shortly before the diary ends in April 1865, he notes the firing of guns and cannons "for the death of abram Lincoln President of the U.S. who was shot by a man by the name of Booth." He refers to the death of Lincoln and its effect on the soldiers in several letters, as well. Leonard's own correspondence suggests he kept a previous diary--in August 1864, he inquires if his mother has received the one he sent home--but it is unknown if this diary still exists. William A. Leonard was born about 1843 to Joel A. (b.1817) and Sophia Leonard (1816-d. before 1880). His parents were both natives of Vermont who moved to Massachusetts. William and his two sisters, Leonora (b. abt. 1852; and who William calls "Nora" in his letters and is later listed as "Mary" in a least one set of census records) and Roselia (b. abt. 1859) were all born in Great Barrington, Berkshire County. It is unknown what line of work William Leonard was in prior to the war, though he was living at home with his family. He was drafted into service in July 1863 for a three year term with Company F, 16th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry. In mid-July 1864, the 16th Infantry mustered out. Existing veterans and recruits, Leonard included, were transferred to the 11th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry. From at least August of 1864 until Lee's surrender, Leonard served as an ambulance driver, transporting wounded from battlefield to hospital. His unit spent nearly a year in and around Petersburg. While stationed outside Washington, DC, waiting to muster out, Leonard also drove civilians in and around the city. He particularly makes mention of taking family members to hospitals to get news of soldiers. Leonard returned home to Great Barrington in July 1865. In 1880, he was living at home with his father, Leonora and her husband, and Leonora's brother-in-law. At the time, he was employed at a woolen mill. In 1894, he purchased a plumbing and steam fitting business from a former employer. Later census records suggest he was married to a woman named Hattie (probably Henrietta; b. abt. 1863), but it is unknown when. They had daughter, Nellie, in June 1897. Sources: Ancestry.com Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service. The Metal Worker, vol. XLI, January to June 1894. New York: David Williams, 1894. Via Google Books, November 2011. Abstract A summary of the resource. The collection includes William A. Leonard's letters home from February-July 1865, as well as his diary from August 1864-April 1865. Leonard served as an ambulance driver in and around the siege at Petersburg, which is the focus of his short diary entries. His early letters focus on war news and rumors, daily life, and news from home. Post-surrender letters emphasize Leonard's experiences while stationed around Washington, DC, daily life (including the growing frustrations of soldiers wanting to get home) and his complaint's about the rumors and delays of his regiment's discharge. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Leonard, William A., b. abt. 1843 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vt/viblbv00953.xml">See the Finding Aid for the William A. Leonard Papers</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1864/1865 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://omeka.lib.vt.edu/files/thumbnails/spec_forms/PubPermission.doc">Permission to publish material from the William A. Leonard Papers must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.</a> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ms2011-106 Bibliographic Citation A bibliographic reference for the resource. Recommended practice is to include sufficient bibliographic detail to identify the resource as unambiguously as possible. Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: William A. Leonard Papers, Ms2011-106, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va. Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. <a href="http://spec.lib.vt.edu/">Special Collections, Virginia Tech</a> Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter, William Leonard to Mother, Camp Near Washington, May 25, 1865 (Ms2011-106) Subject The topic of the resource Civil War Petersburg (Va.)--History--Siege, 1864-1865 United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 Bibliographic Citation A bibliographic reference for the resource. Recommended practice is to include sufficient bibliographic detail to identify the resource as unambiguously as possible. Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: William A. Leonard Papers, Ms2011-106, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vt/viblbv00953.xml">See the Finding Aid for the William A. Leonard Papers</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865-05-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://omeka.lib.vt.edu/files/thumbnails/spec_forms/PubPermission.doc">Permission to publish material from the William A. Leonard Papers must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Letters Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Leonard, William A., b. abt. 1843 Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. <a href="http://spec.lib.vt.edu/">Special Collections, Virginia Tech</a> Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ms2011-106_LeonardWilliam_B1F2_Letter_1865_0525 archived