Joseph Spafford Correspondence
Collection Overview
Joseph Spafford served in the 4th and 16th Vermont Infantry Regiments. His letters are written to his mother and to his sister, M. Jane Spafford, in Upper Falls, Vt. (a village in Weathersfield), as well as to a friend, Homer White, in New York City.
In his letters, Joseph Spafford writes of camp life including information about men from Weathersfield and surrounding towns. In a letter dated January 2, 1862 and marked confidential, Spafford writes very frankly about officers and the politics of promotion. He also writes of an opium user with the initial C. In other letters he describes troop movements, and gives information on sickness in the Regiment. He also writes of having his picture taken and of receiving newspapers and other items from home. In one of his letters while in the 16th Regiment, he describes how some soldiers collect souvenirs from battlefields, including human remains.
Time Period Covered: September 15, 1861 - December 19, 1861
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Related Archival Collection(s)
Published: December 08, 2010, University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Center for Digital Initiatives
Rights: Requests to reproduce this item should be sent to Vermont Historical Society Library, vhs-library@state.vt.us. For more information, see http://cdi.uvm.edu/about/rights. More information.
Browse Options
Creator(s)
Recipient(s)
- Spafford, Mary Jane [39]
Place(s)
- Military campsVirginia [13]
- United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Medical care [2]
- United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Women [2]
- United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865 [1]
- United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Military reconnaissance [1]
- Vermont -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 [1]
- VermontHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865 [1]
Format(s)
- text [39]
Genre(s)
- correspondence [39]
Topic(s)
- United StatesArmy Military life [19]
- Diseases [9]
- Families of military personnel [9]
- Military leaves and furloughs [7]
- Postal service [6]
- Operational rations (Military supplies) [3]
- Drill and minor tactics [2]
- Promotions, Military [2]
- Soldiers Alcohol use [2]
- United StatesArmy.Vermont Infantry Regiment, 4th (1861-1865) [2]
- War casualties [2]
- Capitulations, Military [1]
- Homesickness [1]
- Medicine, Military [1]
- Military discharge [1]
- Military discipline [1]
- Morale [1]
- Photographers [1]
- Picketing [1]
- Recruiting and enlistment [1]
- United StatesArmy Surgeons [1]
- United StatesArmy.Vermont Infantry Regiment, 2nd (1861-1865) [1]
- United StatesArmy.Vermont Infantry Regiment, 3rd (1861-1865) [1]
- Women in war [1]
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Format: ("text")
Recipient: ("Spafford, Mary Jane")
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-01-02
Resource type: correspondence
Written to his sister from his Virginia camp, topic include politics of promotion and his chances of getting promoted, theft in the Regiments, photographs, and the opium habit of an unnamed soldier from Jamaica, Vermont.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-01-28
Resource type: correspondence
A very brief letter mentions continued rainy weather and deep mud; also a comrade has typhoid fever and not expected to live.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-01-30
Resource type: correspondence
Spafford's brief letter has an underlying tone of being anxious to hear from home. The rainy and muddy weather continue.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-03-25
Resource type: correspondence
Writing from the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria VA, topics include difficulty in getting a furlough at the present time, illness among others at the hospital from the Regiment, and the keeping and responsibility of using the Company's money for needed purchases for the men.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: [1861-09-16]
Resource type: correspondence
Spafford writes from Brattleboro of the possibility of his sister and Lizzie visiting him before departure, of his time consuming duties as Orderly, of Captain A's wife already having come for a visit.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1861-12-08
Resource type: correspondence
Topics include Captain Atherton expected arrival in Cavendish to recruit men for the regiment, the sending of a photograph, reference to Laurence, the daguerreotype man from Chester who will be taking pictures of the 2nd Vermont Regiment.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1861-12-15
Resource type: correspondence
Topics include winter quarters in a pine woods, officers to have log cabins, he using the Captain's tent with plenty of bed clothes, inquiries about home, seeks opinion of the war from home, sending hard crackers home, poor writing ink.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-01-26
Resource type: correspondence
Topics include resignation of officers and promotions of new officers, pay, visiting the 3rd Vermont, sickness in the Regiment, getting vaccinated for small pox, and rumors of marching orders.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-03-06
Resource type: correspondence
Spafford writes of difficulty of getting postage stamps in the correct amount needed to mail letters home and that the prepared rations ordered for possible march on Feb 27th were consumed in camp.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-03-15
Resource type: correspondence
Topics include being unable to march with the Regiment when orders came down to move out, of his dislike of how the hospital was run in Camp Griffin and him leaving that hospital, of living in tent with soldier who also had not moved out with the earlier call to march, being sent by ambulance to the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria, being diagnosed with pleurisy and a detailed description of hospital life and medical care at the Mansion.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-04-09
Resource type: correspondence
Writing to his sister from the Mansion House Hospital topics include bad weather in Alexandria, Virginia, delayed arrival of letters from home, sewing on chevrons on his coat to help pass the time in his hospital room, and battle news of rebels defeated at Corinth and surrender of island no. 10.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-04-11
Resource type: correspondence
A very brief letter tells his sister not to write as he will be leaving the Mansion House Hospital for Washington.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-05-14
Resource type: correspondence
Topics include waiting for his military discharge papers, his plans for returning to Vermont, and his plan to travel with Sergeant Peabody of the 2nd Vermont.
Title: Joseph Spafford to Mary Jane Spafford
Creator: Spafford, Joseph, 1837-1866
Date: 1862-05-11
Resource type: correspondence
Writing from Carver Hospital in Washington D.C. topics include his waiting for his military discharge papers and plans for getting home to Vermont.
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