Group Letters

Web Author's Notes:
This is a letter from a group of Company G soldiers, written to an editor of the Holmes County Farmer newspaper in Millersburg, Ohio. It was written while the 16th Ohio was at Camp Jackson in Columbus, Ohio, being trained and outfitted for the war.

The purpose of the letter is to refute various reports from back home that the regimental officers were not treating the men well and were taking advantage of their positions to gain improved food and quarters as well as rumors the entire regiment had been intoxicated. About 62 members of the Company added their names in support.

The letter was transcribed by long time website contributor John Pierson, a likely descendant of 16th Ohio soldier Pvt. Enos Pierson, Company C.

Head Quarters of McNulty Guards.

CAMP JACKSON,
COLLUMBUS, May 25th, 1861

Wm. Lother, Esq: -- We, the members of the McNulty Guards, having learned by the correspondence of our friends that there has been reports circulated in Millersburg, reflecting on the integrity and humanity of our commissioned officers, charging them with deserting us, (so far as the hardships incident to camp life is concerned,) and also ill-treating us. They also charge the whole company with being drunk.

We therefore declare that all such charges are entirely without foundation. We emphatically declare that our commissioned officers have not mistreated us, unless being punished by being placed under Guard for breaking Camp and company Laws, is considered ill-usage.

We also declare that they have always slept in the same kind of beds and in the same building that we have slept in. And that they have partaken of the same food that we did, up to last Saturday, at which time they received the extra rations allowed to officers, and traded them off for cooked food, thereby saving us the trouble of cooking for them. We further declare that they are too easy, rather than too hard with us for which they cannot be blamed, as it would not be policy to use that strict Military discipline which is exercised in a regular Camp where the soldiers are equipped, armed and doing military duty.

The charge that the whole company was drunk, is false. We will add for the satisfaction of other friends, that the company has shown more sobriety than the same body of men would have done under any other circumstances:

A. C. Kool,	D. B. Spring,
Elmer Y. Dobbs,	S. P. Hay,
Johnson Lemmon,	W. H. Anderson,
Charles Huston,	Benjamin Taylor,
R. W. Enos,	John Porter,
Robert Ellison,	George Parkinson,
W. M. Hall,	Hugh Tidball,
Mason V. Force,	W. B. Rose,
Zacharia Ray,	A. L. Freet,
Louis Foltze,	J. B. Riley,
John C. Manson,	W. H. H. Rutter,
John J. Robinson,	Thomas Summony,
Francis Genett,	Edward A. Smith,
Oscar Stucker,	John Spencer,
George Henderson,	S. G. Uhl,
R. H. Vorhes,	David Henderson,
Ohio Knox,	J. C. Wolgamot,
H. M. Wallach,	Alexander Durler,
A. J. Louther,	J. J. Yob,
Martin V. Ling,	J. B. Welsh,
A. S. Orr,	John Cenedy,
A. J. Boner,	C. Meadeaugh,
G. O. Minser,	O. C. Boon,
B. F. Beegle,	G. W. Morrow,
E. D. McCoy,	Martin V. Leeper,
Jesse Varnes,	J. F. Hana,
M. B. DeSilva,	Charles Genet,
H. M. Wilson,	B. J. Morris,
Wm. Koch,	W. H. Ross,
Frank Genet,	W. H. Irvine,
Simon P. Hay,	J. H. Gruen.