A Wisconsin boy in Dixie: Civil War letters of James K. Newton PDF
Preview A Wisconsin boy in Dixie: Civil War letters of James K. Newton
A WISCONSIN BOY IN DIXIE CIVIL WAR LETTERS OF JAMES K. NEWTON A WISCONSIN BOY IN DIXIE ill III II I II II II II II II II II II II I I II II II II II II I I II II II II III I II II II II II I II I III II II I II I I II II II II I CIVIL WAR LETTERS OF JAMES K. NEWTON EDITED BY STEPHEN E. AMBROSE THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS A NORTH COAST BOOK The University of Wisconsin Press 114 North Murray Street Madison, Wisconsin 53715 3 Henrietta Street London wc2E: 8LU, England Copyright © 1961 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Copyright renewed 1989 All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 Printed in the United States of America Negative numbers for illustrations obtained from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Iconographic Collections are as follows: illustration 1, WHi(x3)12922; illustration 3, wHi(x3)11494; illustration 4, wHi(x3)10556; illustration 5, wHi(x3)12905; illustration 6, WHi(x3)12902; illustration 8, WHi(x3)49381; illustration 9, WHi(x3)49330; illustration 10, WHi(x3)12906; illustration 12 and cover, WHi(x3)49329. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Newton, James King, d. 1892. [Correspondence. Selections] A Wisconsin boy in Dixie: Civil War letters of James K. Newton I edited by Stephen E. Ambrose. 214 p. cm. "A Nor th Coast book." Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-02484-9 1. Newton, James King, d. 1892-Correspondence. 2. Soldiers Wisconsin-Correspondence. 3. United States-History- Civil War, 1861-1865-Personal narratives. 4. Wisconsin-History- Civil War, 1861-1865-Personal narratives. 5. United States. Army. Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, 14th (1862-1865) 6. United States- History Civil War, 1861-1865-Regimental histories. 7. Wisconsin-History Civil War, 1861-1865- Regimental histories. I. Title. E60!. N56 1995 973.7'81-dc20 94-24104 II II I I I I II I I I I I II II I I I I I I I I I I I II I I I I II I I I ! II II I I II I I II II II II II I! II I I I!I I II I I 11II I I I I I II! II II EDITOR'S NOTE James K. Newton's letters, which are in the Abel Newton Papers in the State Historical Society Library, Madison, Wisconsin, were usually written in ink on paper of good quality. Newton's handwriting, perhaps because he had been a schoolteacher, is easily legible. It was Newton's custom to fill the pages of his letters as copiously as pos sible; as an aid to smooth reading, the letters reproduced here have been broken into paragraphs, and some punc tuation has been added. In a few instances, words missing because of the mutilation of pages or the writer's over sight have been supplied in brackets. Miswritings obvi ously accidental, such as "thing" for "think," have been silently corrected. Not all of the letters which Newton wrote during the war appear in these pages, and from those printed here some deletions have been made. Personal or family mat ters of little interest to the general reader have been omitted. To avoid repetition, many of Newton's refer- v vi EDITOR'S NOTE ences to his health-a subject of considerable importance during the Civil War, when sickness and disease claimed more lives than did bullets-have been eliminated, as have a number of his comments on the weather and his com plaints about the lack of mail. To keep the focus on Newton himself, incidents which he mentioned but in which he was not personally involved have for the most part not been included. Two letters from Newton's brother Samuel, describing campaigns in which he participated, have been included. All deletions within the letters have been indicated. The editor wishes to thank Dr. William B. Hesseltine of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. 0. Lawrence Burnette, Jr., Miss Josephine Harper, and Miss Margaret Gleason of the staff of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Mrs. Elizabeth Groh of the Louisiana State University in New Orleans, and Mr. Donald M. Love, Secretary of Oberlin College, for their kind assistance. He is grateful to Mr. John Hunter of Madison for permission to reproduce the drawings of Alex Simplot, formerly in Mr. Hunter's pri vate collection and now in the Wisconsin State Historical Society Museum, to Thomas Yoseloff, Inc., for permission to use the photograph of Logan's Mine from The Photo graphic History of the Civil War, and to the Cartographic Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin for preparing the maps. S. E. A. New Orleans, Louisiana March, r96r I!llI!llI!IlllI!llllI!I!I!I!I!IlllllI!I!IlllllI!III!I!III!IIIlllI!IlllI!IlllI!I!I!I!IIIII!II TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, xi ONE Off to War, 3 TWO Shiloh, 13 THREE Running all over Secessia, 27 FOUR The Vicksburg Winter, 51 FIVE The Siege of Vicksburg, 69 SIX Mississippi Interlude, 84 SEVEN Return to Combat, 103 EIGHT Routing the Confederacy, 130 NINE Early Reconstruction in Alabama, 162 Roster of Company F, 175 Index, 183
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