A Voice From the Past: Robert Close in The Civil War

from Albert Morgan.

Transcribed by Laurie Selpien

Robert Close was the son of John and Mary GRAHAM Close. He joined the 83^rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry July 18, 1862. He enlisted for a three year term. Below are letters he had written to his family while fighting in the Civil War. Some of the letters are in poor shape and I had to leave spaces where they were unreadable. Additional thanks must be given to Tom Biehl and his help translating the letters.

                                                                                                  On the boate Hastings                                         

                                                                                                        Oct 29^th 1862

Dear sister Mary,

I now take the present occasion to write to you a few lines to let you know that I am well, hoping you are the same. I received your letter on the 21^st and was glad to hear that you were well you say that you were surprised at wone going into the army after all that I saw at Corinith? But they did just make me fell that I aught to help to stop it’s rebellion. I like the army first rate who tell you we don’t get enough to eat it is all nonsense for we get plenty of everything and you know at home and the bread and molasses get molasses once a week and potatoes. We have not got told yet but we expect to get  ? every day now as the frays roll has been made out. If stores have any place that I could get my likeness taken I would get it and send it taken and send it. I was glad to hear that Andrew Lange was sent to College and my prayer is that he may be a good and useful man. Can you tell me when your hear any word from George Johnson and how he is getting along. We are still moving along we started from Paris on the 28^th and arrived at our present place of encampment in the evening that is four miles west of Lexington. The distance we traveled was about twenty two miles. We do not know how long we stay here we may remain for a week or so but it is uncertain. I have wrote several letters to Eliza but have never got any answers to them yet. Last week I wrote a letter to Jane and to Mr. McKnight and to Eliza . You can tell mother and father they need not feel uneasy if they do not get letters regular from me for we are moving so much that it is impossible. We have not had any fighting yet nor have we seen any large bodies of the rebels yet. The largest that we have seen was 75 that one of ours confirmed. I do not have time to write any more as I am ordered to go on guard. Give my love to Matthew and Mary Ella to father and mother, to Jane and James, Morgat ?, Patty and Johnny  to  Mr. McKnight and family and all inquiring friends try to send me some papers as we get no news at all. Your loving Brother R. Close

Mr. Robert Close in care of Capt D. W. Shockly Comp A. 83^rd Reg. OVG Camp near Lexington Kentucky or follow the regiment

                                                                                                Camp Near Memphis

                                                                                                December 7^th 1862

My Dear Sister Mary,

I now take the present occasion to write to you a few lines to let you know that I am well, hoping you are the same blessings. I received on Friday 3 news papers none were sent to Falmouth and the other two to Lexington. I was so glad to get them for it was the first paper that I got since I left Camp. Price and I have not received any letters from home since I left Louisville. I think that they might afford to write that often even if I don’t wrote them I have just come from inspection of arms and I thought that I would write today as tomorrow we go out on picket about 6 or 7 miles from camp on Saturday we moved our camp a little near town on the 5^th that was Friday it snowed all night but the next morning or so the sun came out it melted all away. Today it is Sunday and the time it hangs heavily on our hands. There was a preaching today as the minister went to the hospital to visit the sick there was a great deal of sickness in our Regiment. At present for now there is only 28 men fit for duty out of 75 there was three men poisoned out here last week belonging to the regiment they were not expected to live. The last that I heard from them it was from a cake they had bought of a of a woman we have not been found yet and don’t know if we will. Our captain says that we will be home by July. I hope that we all will. I would like to know if Mr. ?eay has got home or how he is. Give my love to father and mother Margaret, Kate Johnny to Matthew to James Robert and James and Jane. To Jane Knox to Mrs. Armstrong to Mr. McKnight and family to Mr. Hamma? And Gady and to all enquiring friends. Your Affectionate brother R. Close

On Board the Steamer Citizen

Forest Point, Mississippi

28 miles from Vicksburg

Jan. 4, 1863

            Dear Brother,

I now take the present occasion to write to you a few lines to let you know that I am well, hoping you are the same. I received a letter and two papers from home today and was glad to hear that you all were well. I expect by this time you will have heard of the attack on Vicksburg and the failure of it. and the failure of it the gunboates had been bombarding it for a week before we had arrived We left Memphis the 21st and arrived at the mouth of the Zagoa river last Saturday a week ago that was the 27th that night we landed and marched to within a mile of the fortifications when we laid on our arms all night  the next morning we was awoke by heavy firing a short distance to our right we remained there till about 10 o'clock when we march till within gun shot of them there was only a creek between us and them there was several shell s fell in our Regiment but did no harm except to smash a cartchal box and nok a man senceless the next day there was heavy artillery firing all day the rebels occasionally replying the nex day several of the regiments crossed the creek and drove the rebels from their entrenchment but when they came to the second they found it to be 16 ft hight that they could not get over it it was here that our men suffered so much for the men could not see the batteries till they were nearly on them. Gen A.G. smyth (linedout) Smith ordered our Regiment to crosse it was that I felt afraid for to crose it was certain death for there could only two or three crose at a time and the hills was thick with rebels we marched down to within a few yards of the creek when we were halted and our Brigader General Burbridge ordered us to fall back to our old possitions he said that he was not go to get his men all slaughter that night the troops that was a crose the creek what was left of them camed over to us we remained there till new years night when the whole army retreated back to the boats General Pemberton the Rebel commander sent word over to Sherman to surrender or fight and Sherman sent word back to him that he would fight in the morning but that night we retreated from all acount we lost between 14 and 15 hundred men. I have not received any letters from Robert Shannon or M Jane Knose but received the gloves and Pin an hour before the boat left Memphis it has been Raining down here for three days but the but the sun is trying to shine to day. I have never had better health than at present Soldiering does not appear to have hurt me any Lincoln Procomation has had a bad effect on the troops here there will not fit-(fight) have-(half) as well now as they would have before for they say there(they) are only fitghing (fighting) for the niggers where before there(they) was fitghing for the union I have not time to write any more at Present give my love to Father Mother Margrit Kate and Johnny to Jone James Mary and
rember me to all friends Direct your letters to R. Close                    A 83 reg A. J.            A. O. Memphis Tennessee             be forwarded to regiment.     

                                                                                                            Young’s Point, Louisiana

                                                                                                            March 8, 1863

Dear Sister Mary,

I now take the present occasion to write to you a few lines to let you know that I am with good health, hoping you are the same. I wrote a letter to father and one to Jane a few days ago. I still have not received any letter from home for over a month now and I think it is strange and I have not received any from Matthew for a long time. There is talk of us going up the river tomorrow but I do not know how true it is anyhow we will have to leave here in a few days or run the risk of being drowned out for McClurand says that if the river raises a foot more it will break through the levee down at the canal. Yesterday morning about 4 o’clock the water broke through the canal and was going through at the rate of ten miles an hour. The men was working all through the night on it and kept it from breaking through the levee but it is almost labor thrown away for nothing is for almost as fast as they through the dirt on one side of it the water washed it away on the other. While I am writing this the boys are carrying their tents to the boats and boats are leaving for Milligan’s Bend about 25 miles from here. The Rebels will be in a good humor when they hear  that we will have to leave here and go farther up the river I think that they will be gladder than we will be to leave this old mud hole of a place anything for a change would serve us very well at present. The 77^th Illinois Regiment was paid off yesterday they were only paid two months wages but there is no telling when we will be paid off we may not be paid off for a month yet and then we may in a day or two. I have got nothing more to say at present give my love to all the folks and to all enquiring friends your affectionate brother Robert Close

P. S. Tell mother to write to me as soon as possible and as often as she can.

                                                                                                Milliken’s Bend 25 Miles from Vicksburg                                 

                                                                                                March 18, 1863

Dear Brother Matthew

I now take the present occasion to write to you a few lines to let you know that I am with good health, hoping you are the same. Precious blessings for which we ought to be thankful unto God for his kind mercies to us. I received a letter from Mary a few days ago in which she requested me to write to you soon as possible. The folks at home were all well then you will perceive by the heading of this letter that we have moved our quarters from Young’s Point to Milliken’s Bend which is a more pleasant campground and I think more healthy we moved up here 8 or 9 days ago. The whole of the 13^th Army Corps is here now. Regiment ? Major General John H. McClenand commands our corps. The news has just reached us that we are going to be paid off today I do not know    it I hope that it is for me to have not been paid off since I have ? We are acting as the General Infantry Body Guard and have been since Feb 8^th we have a fine time of it and life is fat and fine. We have just been paid and up to the first of January and now when I have got the money I do not know what to do with it. I do not like to risk sending it by mail for there is ? that it will never reach it’s place. I have also received a paper from home date March 9^th I have to stop writing now as I have to go on guard, write soon. R. Close

On Boat Hastings

                                                                                                                                                May 28, 1863

Dear sister Mary,

I now take the occasion to write you a few lines to let you know that I am well, hoping that you are the same, blessings. I received your letter an the 22^nd just as the boat was starting out. glad she wrote and that he could have jumped with joy to get a letter I have not received the letter from Matthew that he said he was going to send. I would like very much if he would write to me. I do not know that I can say much about the town where Robert Shannon is as I was working all the time that I was there. After the first of the year was over from all that I could learn from the older settlers the country is healthy and the land appears to be rich would   better I think if you go out there that would raise sheep. Raising sheep I know frays a man first rate. I know for my part what I intend to do is go out if I am spared in two or three years you can have a snug home and owe nobody anything that you can’t do in the city I liked it first rate if I was out there and I think it

 (note tear in paper)

That they can

To hear that

A nice farm by

And if you united

Do not depend on Robert

Or Richard to try to get a farm for they never bothered themselves about any when I was there it would been but Matthew or Faster to have went out this fall and looked about for themselves I have nothing more to say as it is getting dark So I will have to stop I will write to you as soon as possible You need not answer this letter Your Brother R. Close

Robert Close

Born in 1844 and died September 2, 1863. He was killed in the siege of Vicksburg Mississippi he was 19 years old. For more information see Close family

John Alexander McClenand

Born in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, 30 May, 1812. On the death of his father in 1816, his mother removed to Shawneetown, Illinois, where the son subsequently worked on a farm. In 1829 he began the study of law, and in 1832 was admitted to the bar. In the same year he volunteered in the war against the Sacs and Foxes, and on his return was engaged for a time in trade. In 1885 he established the Shawneetown "Democrat," and also resumed the practice of his profession. In 1836-'40 and 1842 he was elected to the legislature, and in 1843 was sent to represent his state as a Democrat in congress, where he served till 1851. His first speech was upon the bill to remit the fine that had been imposed on General Andrew Jackson by Judge Hall, of Louisiana. He was the chairman of the committee on resolutions of the Illinois Democratic convention of 1858, and in that year was re-elected to congress, serving from 5 December, 1859, until the beginning of the civil war. He then resigned, returned home, and, with John A. Logan and Philip B. Pouke, raised the MeClernand brigade, the president appointing him brigadier-general of volunteers.

 McClernand was given a brigade in Missouri, serving under General Ulysses S. Grant, and performed well at the engagement at Belmont, Missouri, where the Union forces surprised the Confederates and pushed them from their positions. Believing the day was won the Union soldiers began celebrating and McClernand started a political speech. However, the Confederates ferried reinforcements across the Mississippi, rallied, and routed the attackers. McClernand cut short his harangue. In February 1862, Grant elevated McClernand to command of the 1st Division, Department of the Missouri, which he led in the advances on Forts Henry and Donelson. The U. S. Navy, under the command of Admiral Foote, took Fort Henry without any help from the Army. But at Fort Donelson, McClernand, on the right flank, was attacked by the Confederates and was being pushed back when Grant arrived just in time to take control and stop the Confederate advance.

In March 1862, McClernand was promoted to Major General and commanded the 1st Division, Army of the Tennessee. He led the division at Shiloh and Corinth and was soon back in Illinois to raise troops, a job at which he excelled. After his recruitment duties, Lincoln put him in charge of the Vicksburg operation, but Grant, who didn’t like McClernand (and vice versa), started the campaign—a campaign which began with Sherman’s defeat at Chickasaw Bayou—before McClernand arrived to take command. McClernand, however, with an independent command, did succeed in capturing Fort Hindman on the Red River, but the results were of little consequence in the over all campaign against Vicksburg. After McClernand’s Red River raid, he was put in command of the lead corps of Grant’s army marching down the west bank of the Mississippi to cross the river and assault and besiege Vicksburg. However, on June 19, General Grant relieved McClernand of command after his poor performance in the assault on Vicksburg and his subsequent letter-writing campaign to newspapers disparaging other Union officers for not supporting him in his attacks on the city. He briefly commanded a corps in the Department of the Gulf in early 1864, but, due to illness, he resigned after a month.

After the war, McClernand practiced law in Illinois. In 1870, he was elected to the circuit court and served on the bench for 3 years. He stayed politically active, even presiding at the 1876 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, which nominated Samuel J. Tilden to run for president against Rutherford B. Hayes. McClernand died on September 20, 1900 in Springfield, Illinois, and is buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Selected sources:
Eicher, John H. & David J. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue - Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.

pictured left Major Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and Major-General John A. McClernand [check] on the Antietam battlefield. Photograph by Alexander Gardner, Oct., 1862.
Reproduction number: LC-DIG-cwpb-04326 (b&w copy scan of LC-B8171-7929)