Information
Sheet
R Murray, Thomas.
522 Correspondence, 1862-1867.
Two folders.
These are letters addressed to Thomas
Murray of Davenport, Iowa, by relatives serving in the Union army
during the Civil War. Included are
letters from a brother, William Murray, and a cousin, Thomas Murray, both of
whom served in Company C of the 20th Iowa Infantry in Missouri and Arkansas. There are also postwar letters regarding the
grave of William Murray, who was killed at Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
The 20th Iowa Infantry was
organized at Clinton, Iowa, in August 1862. The regiment moved to St.
Louis on 5 September, thence to Rolla and Springfield, arriving at the latter on 24
September. The 20th was
part of a brigade led by Brigadier General Francis J. Herron which became the 2nd
Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Army of the Frontier. Based in Springfield,
this army operated in southwestern Missouri
and northwestern Arkansas
against Confederate forces led by General Thomas C. Hindman. The Army of the Frontier’s first combat came
at Newtonia, Missouri, in October 1862. The campaign climaxed two months later at the
Battle of Prairie Grove, near Fayetteville,
Arkansas, on 10 December 1862.
The Murray
collection consists of letters written to Thomas Murray at Davenport, Iowa,
by a brother and two cousins serving in the military. A single letter, by cousin James Murray, was
written at Fulton County, Illinois, while James was serving in an
unspecified Union regiment. The largest
group of letters are by William Murray, Thomas’s brother. They begin at Camp
Kirkwood in Clinton
County, Iowa, and follow the
progress of the 20th Iowa by
steamboat and train to St. Louis and Rolla, and
the march which took the soldiers to Springfield,
Newtonia, and McCullah’s Spring in Missouri,
and the area around Fayetteville,
Arkansas. William Murray’s letters contain descriptions
of the campaign and the country, comments on camp life, and news of
acquaintances and friends. William’s
letters end just two weeks before his death at the Battle of Prairie
Grove. His grave on the battlefield was
erroneously marked as belonging to the 20th Wisconsin Infantry. Postwar correspondence by Thomas Murray
concerns the misidentification of his brother’s burial place.
The collection also includes three
letters written to Thomas Murray in 1863 by a cousin also named Thomas
Murray. He also served in the 20th
Iowa Infantry. In 1863, the Army of the
Frontier moved back into Missouri
to be nearer the railheads at Rolla and Pilot Knob. Two letters, from Camp
Culver in Wright
County and Camp
Totten in Phelps County,
describe the army’s eastward march. In
June 1863, the Army of the Frontier was broken up and sent to join forces operating
against Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The 20th Iowa
was among the reinforcements. Thomas
Murray wrote from Vicksburg describing the
journey from Missouri and events in Mississippi.
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