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- Title
- Roswell Farnham Correspondence
- Description
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An 1849 graduate of the University of Vermont, Farnham taught school in lower Canada and northern Vermont while studying law. He was admitted to the Orange County Bar in 1857 and began a private practice. Farnham was commissioned from Bradford on May 1, 1861 as a 2nd lietenant in Co.D, 1st Vt....
Show moreAn 1849 graduate of the University of Vermont, Farnham taught school in lower Canada and northern Vermont while studying law. He was admitted to the Orange County Bar in 1857 and began a private practice. Farnham was commissioned from Bradford on May 1, 1861 as a 2nd lietenant in Co.D, 1st Vt. Infantry and mustered out August 15, 1861. He was later commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the 12 Vt. on September 19, 1862. After returning to Vermont, Farnham was elected to the Vermont State Senate in 1868 and elected governor in 1880. The collection includes letters to family and friends during Farnham's service in the First and Twelfth Vermont Infantry regiments. The letters contain detailed descriptions of regimental activities, including a narrative of the Battle of Big Bethel, camp life at Wolf Run Shoals in Virginia, and the hard march to Gettysburg in June 1863. Some sketches and maps are included. Also included are four letters from Sergeant (later First Lieutenant) Ezekiel T. Johnson (Tenth Vermont Infantry) of Windsor, Vermont, three written from Camp Washburn, Brattleboro, where his regiment was mustered into U.S. service, and one (June 13, 1863) from White's Ford, Maryland, giving an account of a cavalry skirmish. A letter (May 31, 1863) to Mrs. Mary Farnham from Private Nelson J. Rogers (Twelfth Vermont Infantry) describes regimental activities and the Confederate attack on a train near the camp of the Twelfth Vermont.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham Diary, 1848-1849
- Date Created
- 1848-1849
- Description
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Roswell Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 23, 1827, the son of Roswell and Nancy Bixby Farnham. Farnham's family moved to Bradford, Vermont in 1840, and he received his education at Bradford Academy and the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1849. Married to Mary...
Show moreRoswell Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 23, 1827, the son of Roswell and Nancy Bixby Farnham. Farnham's family moved to Bradford, Vermont in 1840, and he received his education at Bradford Academy and the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1849. Married to Mary Elizabeth Johnson on December 25, 1849, Farnham taught school before gaining admittance to the Orange County bar in 1857. When the Civil War broke out, he entered the First Vermont Regiment with the Bradford Guards militia as a Second Lieutenant. Farnham served with distinction in both the First Vermont and the Twelfth Vermont, and left the Army in July of 1863 as a Lieutenant Colonel.Following the war, Farnham became general counsel for the Vermont Copper Company and continued to work as both lawyer and administrator of the VCC for the rest of his life. In addition, he held a number of local and state political offices culminating in his defeat of Democrat Edward J. Phelps for the governorship of Vermont in 1880.
After completing a single popular term as governor, Farnham returned to his law practice. In 1889 he also became president of the newly-formed New England Company, a group of Northern investors interested in developing the coal and iron deposits of northwestern Georgia. The New England Company was never a success, and Farnham spent much of the last decade of the nineteenth century trying to save it and the VCC from bankruptcy. Badly injured in a fall in November 1898, Farnham recovered sufficiently to resume some of his work but never regained full health. Roswell Farnham died at his home in Bradford on January 5, 1903, at the age of seventy-five.
Three of Farnham’s four children lived to adulthood: Charles Cyrus Farnham (1864–1937), Florence Mary Osgood (1866–1958), and William M. Farnham (1869–1927). His first child, Roswell Phelps Farnham Jr., died in infancy in 1861. Farnham was predeceased by a half-brother, Cyrus C. Farnham, in 1863.
Topics in this diary include the curriculum, faculty, and student experience at UVM in the late 1840s; Burlington and neighboring towns in the late 1840s, UVM’s Lambda Iota fraternity, Zachary Taylor and the Whig Party, and teaching in Vermont and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Near the end of the diary are several essays written by Farnham during his senior year at UVM. Topics in these essays include religion, natural history, and King Lear.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
- Description
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Topics include camp life, food (lack of some items, abundance of others), daily routine, occasional discomforts. Farnham mentions rumors that the Regiment won't be sent to the South but more likely to New York, even though most of the men are looking forward to battle. Some discussion about...
Show moreTopics include camp life, food (lack of some items, abundance of others), daily routine, occasional discomforts. Farnham mentions rumors that the Regiment won't be sent to the South but more likely to New York, even though most of the men are looking forward to battle. Some discussion about postal service, i.e. how long a letter will take for sender and recipient. Col. Phelps is lauded as a good disciplinarian.
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- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
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Topics include being quartered with the Northfield Company and how the troops were greeted at Bellows Falls. One company member, the fifer, had the measles.
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- Roswell Farnham to Edwin H. Stoughton
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Writing from camp near Fairfax, Virginia to Brig. Gen. Stoughton this report includes placement of various troops including the 12th Vt. Vol. Militia regiment moving to the stone bridge, the passing of two bodies of cavalry, and a picket in the rear to look out for rebels.
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- Roswell Farnham to Asa P. Blunt
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Report to Col Asa P. Blunt regarding an inspection of several items including saddles, horses and bugles in the Second Connecticut Battery stationed at Wolf Run Shoals, Virginia stating the unfitness of some horses for duty and the disrepair of two bugles.
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- Roswell Farnham to [Laura]
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Topics include the death of Cyrus Farnham from typhoid fever.
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- Roswell Farnham to Laura
- Description
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Lt. Chamberlain resigns due to illness, General Stoughton taken prisoner by Fitz Hugh Lee’s Cavalry at the Court House (Virginia), the large number of sick men in camp many with typhoid fever, fears his best horse will not regain health, enclosed pictures (ambrotype, a photograph), suggested...
Show moreLt. Chamberlain resigns due to illness, General Stoughton taken prisoner by Fitz Hugh Lee’s Cavalry at the Court House (Virginia), the large number of sick men in camp many with typhoid fever, fears his best horse will not regain health, enclosed pictures (ambrotype, a photograph), suggested reading for Laura with specific book titles stated as well as books he is reading (Motley's History of the Dutch Republic and Woman in White), orders for Colonel Blunt to report to the station to take command of the Brigade, description of who is in the photos being sent home.
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- Roswell Farnham to Frederick Holbrook
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To the Governor of Vermont, Frederick Holbrook regarding names recommended for promotions, reporting Colonel Blunt at Fairfax Station, and the capture of General Stoughton.
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- Roswell Farnham to Laura
- Description
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Another mention of the death of Cyrus Farnham, family financial issue addressed, reporting the death of four men in camp, $400 sent home and wishing Charlie Harding to acknowledge receipt.
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- Roswell Farnham to Laura
- Description
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About ambrotype photo well received by Laura, that is well be protected by glass, his letter having been read in Sunday School by Mr. McKeen, instructions regarding financial matters at home, greetings to folks at home, inquiry about financial and other issues regarding Cyrus including wishing to...
Show moreAbout ambrotype photo well received by Laura, that is well be protected by glass, his letter having been read in Sunday School by Mr. McKeen, instructions regarding financial matters at home, greetings to folks at home, inquiry about financial and other issues regarding Cyrus including wishing to have a "miniature" by Cyrus, and Roswell Farnham being put in charge of the detachment of Wolf Run Shoals, more details about the Kelly's Ford engagement on the 17th.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham to Laura
- Description
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Topics include the good times the officers' wives are having in camp, the watching of the Guard Mounting, Picket Guard Mounting, battery practice and regiment drill, ladies sent to Alexandria as orders received that the whole brigade is to move and information about Cyrus’ death and belongings.
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- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
- Description
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A brief letter from Farnham who writes of the unit moving out but not knowing where they are going, of being sad with wife gone but hopes she reached Scott House in Washington safely and is well ; urges her to write every day and he will also.
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- Roswell Farnham to [Mary Farnham]
- Description
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Roswell Farnham checks up on his wife, Mary ; expresses being sad and lonely once she had left camp, asks her to write him and tell him how to direct his letters to her, instructions to her if she needs money and for her to check her clothing for vermin since she was in camp for such a long time.
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- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
- Description
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Farnham writes of the unit preparing to leave Wolf Run Shoals, expresses his wishes to see his wife, Mary, again, feeling sad with his wife absent from camp but glad she is safe, sends a photo by way of Capt. Ormsbee that Mary is to take care of photo, Mr. Peach is ill, letter from Henry and his...
Show moreFarnham writes of the unit preparing to leave Wolf Run Shoals, expresses his wishes to see his wife, Mary, again, feeling sad with his wife absent from camp but glad she is safe, sends a photo by way of Capt. Ormsbee that Mary is to take care of photo, Mr. Peach is ill, letter from Henry and his clothing business.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
- Description
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Topics include dropping a note to Mary Farnham to figure out logistics of her visit.
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- Roswell Farnham to [Mary Farnham]
- Description
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Topics include Mary Farnham finally heading home from her stay in Washington D.C., arrival of General George J. Stannard & his headquarters to be at Union Mills, Va., the prediction of moving soon & possibly guarding the railroad, an update on some of the men in camp, reference to Mr. and Mrs....
Show moreTopics include Mary Farnham finally heading home from her stay in Washington D.C., arrival of General George J. Stannard & his headquarters to be at Union Mills, Va., the prediction of moving soon & possibly guarding the railroad, an update on some of the men in camp, reference to Mr. and Mrs. Peach, and the possibility of Roswell Farnham becoming a colonel in a new regiment.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham to [Mary Farnham]
- Description
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Topics include being field officer of the day on picket line, Freeman Keyes in camp, concerns for his horse Burnie's health, stern orders from General Abercrombie regarding drills, request for photographs of his wife be taken and sent to him.
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- Roswell Farnham to [Mary Farnham]
- Description
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Writing from Warrenton Junction, VA, on the railroad in an open field topics include marching from Wolf Run Shoals to Union Mills, then by train to Falmouth, writes of his horses Burnie and White Face, relates a fight with the men of John Singleton Mosby (nicknamed The Gray Ghost, a Confederate...
Show moreWriting from Warrenton Junction, VA, on the railroad in an open field topics include marching from Wolf Run Shoals to Union Mills, then by train to Falmouth, writes of his horses Burnie and White Face, relates a fight with the men of John Singleton Mosby (nicknamed The Gray Ghost, a Confederate cavalry battalion commander) resulting in casualties, the capture and escape of Union soldiers, the killing of a Rebel spy, and the capture of a Rebel major, captain, and two lieutenants.
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- Title
- Roswell Farnham to Mary [Farnham]
- Description
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A brief letter stating again his unit's move to Warrenton Junction, the continued sickness of Nelson, Contrabands coming in and telling of victories by Gen. Joseph Hooker (nicknamed Fighting Joe) and the hearing of cannonade during the Second Battle of Fredericksburg (also known as the Second...
Show moreA brief letter stating again his unit's move to Warrenton Junction, the continued sickness of Nelson, Contrabands coming in and telling of victories by Gen. Joseph Hooker (nicknamed Fighting Joe) and the hearing of cannonade during the Second Battle of Fredericksburg (also known as the Second Battle of Marye's Heights May 3, 1863, part of the Chancellorsville Campaign).
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