Information Sheet
R Coleman, Elizabeth C.
619 Coleman family correspondence, 1862-1865.
One folder.
These are
letters written to Elizabeth C. Coleman and her parents during the Civil War,
by relatives and friends in the 6th Missouri Infantry. Included are letters from Otterville and Rolla, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi,
1862-1863; one from Washington, D.C., in 1865; and two from Pilot Knob, Missouri, in 1865. The letters contain camp news and information
on mutual friends. The letters from
Pilot Knob concern postwar employment.
There are nine
letters in this collection; seven original letters and scanned copies of two
others. They were written by soldiers in the 6th Missouri
Infantry, a
volunteer unit organized at St. Louis during the summer of 1861, and addressed
to Elizabeth C. “Lizzie” Coleman, a Missouri resident, and her parents. The authors were Coleman’s brother and her
uncle, and a penpal serving with them in the Union army.
Thomas M.
Coleman was Elizabeth’s
brother. His letters, written from the
6th Missouri’s Camp
Lemain [Lamine] near Otterville in Pettis County, Missouri,
in January 1862, included comments on winter weather, officers, and the men in
his mess. He also wrote from Vicksburg, Mississippi on
10 March 1863, and from Washington, D.C. on 25 May 1865, where the 6th Missouri had gone to
participate in the Grand Review. Coleman
wrote that Missourians among the crowd showered the regiment with
bouquets. Mark Anthony, a native of Tennessee, served in
Company D of the 6th Missouri Infantry.
He wrote Elizabeth Coleman from Rolla in Phelps
County, Missouri, on 21 May 1862
after having escorted army supply trains to Batesville, Arkansas. Anthony did not know Lizzie Coleman, but
hoped to strike up a correspondence with her on the recommendation of his
comrade, Martin Claybaugh. His introductory
letter contains autobiographical details and patriotic sentiments. Martin L. Claybaugh, also of Company D of
the 6th Missouri,
addressed Lizzie Coleman as “niece.” His
letters, from Vicksburg (1 April 1863) and
Pilot Knob in Iron County, Missouri (5 March and 18 June 1865), include
camp news, patriotic expressions, news of mutual friends, and speculation
about employment as a collier at the iron furnace in Pilot Knob. Claybaugh was still serving in the
6th Missouri when his first letter from Pilot Knob was
written, but it was only a few weeks until the regiment was mustered out at Little Rock, Arkansas.
By the time he wrote Lizzie Coleman on 18 June 1865, Claybaugh was
employed at Pilot Knob.
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