Information
Sheet
R Kullman, Frederick August, 1843-1893.
120 Papers, 1855-1980 (bulk
1855-1866).
Three
folders, photocopies.
These are miscellaneous papers and a
Civil War diary of Frederick A. Kullman, a resident of Cole Camp, Benton County, Missouri,
and a soldier in the 13th Missouri Cavalry.
His papers include confirmation and emigration certificates from Bavaria, military
service records, correspondence, photographs, and genealogical information on
the Kullman family. The wartime diary
covers service at Rolla and Licking, Missouri,
in 1865.
Frederick A. Kullman was born in 1843 in Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, Prussia
(now in Germany). His family emigrated to the United States in 1855, settling in Benton County, Missouri. Kullman was one of the first Union volunteers
from Benton County during the Civil War. He served from June 1861 through May 1866,
first in the Benton County Battalion, then the 5th Missouri
State Militia
Cavalry, and finally in the 13th Missouri Cavalry, a unit
composed of veteran
militia cavalrymen. Kullman returned to Benton County
in 1866, where he married Margaretha Barbara Hassfurther, an immigrant from Bavaria. The Kullmans lived in Benton County
until their deaths, his in 1893 and hers in 1927.
Most of the Kullman papers are associated
with his military service. There are
only two ante-bellum documents, Kullman’s certificate of confirmation in Prussia, 1855, and a certificate of approval
for the Hassfurther family to emigrate from Bavaria in 1856.
The military items in the Kullman papers
include discharges from the various units in which he served, 1861-1866, his
appointment as eighth corporal of the 5th Missouri State
Militia Cavalry, and
pension papers filed by his widow after his death in 1893. Also related to Kullman’s military service
are letters to his father, written from Salem
and St. Louis, Missouri, in 1863 and 1864, and a diary,
1865. The diary covers the period from 1
January through 26 April 1865, during which Kullman served at the posts of
Rolla and Licking, and received his veteran's furlough. Aside from an enjoyable visit home, the diary
records routine scouting, escort, and foraging duties in the Big Piney River area of Phelps and Texas counties. The duty was very prosaic, and Kullman seems
to have been more irritated by mud, delayed mails, and military policemen than
by rebels. Indeed, only one skirmish
with bushwhackers occurred during the period, but there were several scrapes
with the Provost Guard at Rolla. Despite
the limited nature of the duty, Kullman’s diary is a useful account of an area
in a period for which there are few primary sources.
The rest of the collection consists of
miscellaneous postwar documents. They
include the certificates of election of Frederick A. Kullman as county judge
of Benton County, 1888, undated photographs of
family members, and genealogical data on the Hassfurther family.
Several items in the collection are in
German. Typed translations are
available. Kullman’s name is rendered
“Friedrich A. Kullman” in the earliest papers.
The collection reveals a gradual Anglicization of the name.
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