Beschreibung:

Lot of 14 war-date letters, three with original envelopes, written by Private Henry D. Isbell. Isbell (1843-183) was born in the rural farming community of Portage County, OH, to Robert Isbell and Charlotte Taylor Isbell. He enlisted as a private for three years' service on 8/7/62 and mustered into Battery A of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery. Letters span September 1862-September 1863 and are written to his father and mother, as well as to his sister Harriet Isbell Howland (1833-1905) and her husband John P. Howland (1828-1902). In August and September 1862, just after Henry Isbell enlisted, Battery A of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery was on its way to Louisville, KY, in pursuit of Confederate General Bragg. Isbell's first letter in this collection is written on September 6, 1862, from "New Parks Barrks, Louisville" to his brother-in-law John Howland. Isbell is very satisfied with his new barracks which he notes are much better than his old ones. He notes that he has a fine place to drill, he drills three times a day, and that his squad "is the best one in the field." Isbell also shares with his brother-in-law the exciting news that Confederate Raider John Hunt Morgan is in the area: "Morgan took a place called Brandon night before last about twenty-five miles south of here on the rail rode so our communications with the boys is cut off for the present...There is a great deal of excitement here Morgan is reported within twenty miles of here and every one thinks he will take the place with in a week. I hope he will. It is full of secesh." After a march to Nashville, the 1st Ohio Light Artillery was reviewed by General Rosecrans, who Isbell describes in a letter of November 15, 1862, as "a fine looking man and a fighting one two...." Rosecrans and Isbell's 1st LA were just weeks away from a major engagement, the Battle of Stones River which was fought December 31, 1862, through January 2, 1863. In this, one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War, Private Henry Isbell would experience fierce fighting. Writing to his sister from Camp Sill [Murfreesboro, TN] on February 15, 1863, he describes the battle saying, "Every gun had left the park before we had started our ceysone and then we stopped out in the open field and was going to hitch our horse on but we could not for they [the Rebels] were within six nods of us and we could not hold our horse after my horse was shot I went to the gun but it had gon up for most of the horses was shot and there was no one there but Lieut. C [Charles S. Cotter] and L.[ucias] Coe, John Whitney and one other canoneer...then I went with Lieut. C. to Dick Rogers brass guns and we went to working it as fast as we could, but the horse got shot and the limbe nocked to peaces and we had to leave it..." After Stones River Isbell moved to Camp Drake but remained at Murfreesboro until June. His many letters home during this extended period of encampment reflect both his contentment with a soldier's life, as well as impatience with the monotony that comes with it. He tells his mother in mid-April that "...if I live to get home I don't think it will be before my three years are up. I don't see as our armies are doing anything and if they can't move mutch...I am good for my three years." To his father, he writes "I like soldiering very well when it is dry and not too hot," and then later that month that "Everything is about the the same in the battery. We are all well but we want to get out of this place we have been here long enough it is to mutch of one thing." By May, however, Isbell is growing confident that a move is coming, and that difficult battles lie ahead. Writing again to his father while "On Picket on the Salers Pike, May 2, 1863," Isbell writes that "We came out here on picket...I like it much better than in camp...The news came from camp today that we was going to martch in a few days...If we move up we shall have some hard fighting in a few days. I would think it was about time for some one to do