"I Hope to Do My Country Service": The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry

I Hope to Do My Country Service

Great Lakes Books

A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at http://wsupress.wayne.edu

Editors:

Philip P. Mason

Wayne State University

Charles K. Hyde

Wayne State University

Advisory Editors:

Jeffrey Abt

Wayne State University

Sidney Bolkosky

University of Michigan–Dearborn

Sandra Sageser Clark

Michigan Bureau of History

John C. Dann

University of Michigan

De Witt Dykes

Oakland University

Joe Grimm

Detroit Free Press

David Halkola

Hancock, Michigan

Richard H. Harms

Calvin College

Laurie Harris

Pleasant Ridge, Michigan

Susan Higman

Detroit Institute of Arts

Norman McRae

Detroit, Michigan

William H. Mulligan, Jr.

Murray State University

Erik C. Nordberg

Michigan Technological University

Gordon L. Olson

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Michael D. Stafford

Milwaukee Public Museum

John Van Hecke

Wayne State University

Arthur M. Woodford

St. Clair Shores Public Library

I Hope to Do My Country Service

THE CIVIL WAR LETTERS OF JOHN BENNITT, M.D.,

SURGEON,

19TH MICHIGAN INFANTRY

Edited by

ROBERT BEASECKER

With a Foreword by

William M. Anderson

© 2005 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit,

Michigan 48201. All rights are reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced without

formal permission.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bennitt, John.

I hope to do my country service: the Civil War letters of John Bennitt, M.D., surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry / edited by Robert Beasecker ; with a foreword by William M. Anderson.

p. cm.—(Great Lakes books series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8143-3170-X (alk. paper)

1. Bennitt, John—Correspondence. 2. United States. Army. Michigan Infantry Regiment, 19th (1862–1865) 3. Michigan—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Personal narratives. 4. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Personal narratives. 5. Physicians—United States—Correspondence. 6. Centreville (Mich.)—Biography. I. Beasecker, Robert, 1946–   II. Title. III. Series.

E514.519th .B46 2005

973.7′75′092—dc22

2004010963

The paper used in this publication meets the

minimum requirements of the American National

Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence

of Paper for Printed Library Materials,

ANSI Z39.48–1984.

For Erika

Contents

List of Maps

Foreword by William M. Anderson

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Editor’s Note

1          I Am Not Very Anxious to Go into the Army

2          I Am Near the Land of ‘Dixie’

3          Our Regiment Is Completely Destroyed

4          I Am Beginning to Like the Service

5          We Are Here among Secessionists

6          Poor Rebels!—Poor Rebeldom!!

7          We Expect to Be Soldiers in Earnest Now

8          The Rebels Mean to Make an Obstinate Resistance Here

9          A Glorious Future Awaits Our Country

APPENDIX A. When Will My Dear Husband Come Home to Remain?

APPENDIX B. Timely Aid Rendered

APPENDIX C. Calendar of Bennitt Letters

Bibliography

Index

Maps

1. Southwest Michigan, 1860

2. St. Joseph County, Michigan, 1860

3. Area of operations, 19th Michigan Infantry, 1862–64

4. Atlanta campaign, 1864

5. Savannah and Carolinas campaign, 1864–65

Foreword

Since the publication of Bell I. Wiley’s two signal works on the common soldier, The Life of Johnny Reb and The Life of Billy Yank, readers and military historians have been interested in allowing soldiers to tell their story. Bruce Catton followed Wiley’s lead in using firsthand observations of soldiers gleaned from regimental histories in his well-regarded Army of the Potomac trilogy: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox. Ken Burns’s revered PBS Civil War series made Major Sullivan Ballou’s letter to Sarah a classic and Elisha Hunt Rhodes of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry a virtual voice of Union soldiers. In writing For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian James M. McPherson read twenty-five thousand letters and more than a hundred diaries from soldiers. In the introduction to his highly regarded book Citizen Soldiers, an account of the Normandy invasion, Stephen Ambrose states: Long ago my mentors, William B. Heseltine and T. Harry Williams, taught me to let my characters speak for themselves by quoting them liberally. They were there. I wasn’t. They saw with their own eyes, they put their own lives on the line. I didn’t. They speak with an authenticity no one else can match. Their phrases, their word choices, their slang are unique—naturally enough, as their experiences were unique.

Civil War letters and diaries are more alike than unique, yet those written by 19th Michigan Infantry surgeon John Bennitt have some distinguishing features. The limited education of many soldiers is evidenced through their unpolished writing, but Bennitt was both literate and formally educated. A graduate of the Cleveland Medical College, Bennitt had practiced medicine in Centreville, Michigan, for several years and had gone back to college in 1861 to acquire additional education in chemistry at the University of Michigan. He gratified his innate interest in learning throughout his military service. Concerned, for example, that he wasn’t getting enough time to study, he asked his wife to send his German grammar and reader and related to her that he and the assistant surgeon were reading a new work of science.

Bennitt’s letters provide an excellent running account of the duties and challenges of a Civil War physician. We read about prevalent diseases, the causes and treatment of sickness, preventative medical care, and surgery. Bennitt describes the difficulty of moving a field hospital, explains how he vaccinated black patients for smallpox, and recounts his role in examining and certifying the disability of soldiers. His correspondence depicts the demands on Civil War doctors: he shifted assignments according to the military’s needs, and his frequent requests for a leave to visit his family were denied.

Bennitt was a religious man. His faith in God exercised a strong influence in his life, and he believed that God’s will determined the course of events, including the war. He attended worship services, Bible classes, and prayer meetings whenever possible and helped organize a church, a Christian association, and a Sunday school for black children. He frequently summarized the content of sermons he had heard for his wife. Not easy to please, he related his critical assessment of a religious service held in McMinnville, Tennessee: Yesterday, Sabbath, attended Church (Baptist); shall not go again where such farcical performances are held if I know it.

Bennitt expressed strong opinions about equality and the preservation of the Union, and given his education and religious beliefs it is not surprising to read well-articulated philosophical statements. Two months into the bloody Atlanta campaign, Bennitt wrote: There are around me men of good minds and generous impulses, yet army service does not tend to refine the sensibilities, and there is a disposition to steel our hearts to anything like sympathy. The argument for this is; that there is so much suffering around us that if we sympathize with all we suffer with all, and we be thus worn out by pure sympathy. Hence each one in a measure lives within himself here, and look Northward for warm hearts, kind words.

Aside from revealing details about his absorbing assignment as a medical officer, Bennitt’s letters provide glimpses into military activities. Bennitt’s candor and the personal nature of correspondence to a spouse allow readers to enter the heart and mind of John Bennitt. He is a valuable observer of others and evaluates the motivation, behavior, and performance of his colleagues. He is not reticent in giving his opinion about officers and enlisted men he had met or with whom he had soldiered. Bennitt, for example, clearly expressed his dislike for the commander of the 19th Michigan, Colonel Henry Gilbert: I can only say that he treats me with consideration and courtesy, but I think he is guilty of gross wrongs that if brought to light would dishonorably dismiss him from the service. Looking up the stepson of a Centreville friend in a nearby regiment, Bennitt writes, I asked him if he maintained his integrity in the army: he replied that he did in a measure.... I shall take pleasure in trying to do something for him if I find him to be worthy.

Beasecker’s exhaustive annotation provides valuable contextual and explanatory information. He has skillfully honored the desire Bennitt expressed to his wife when he began his military service that his letters be preserved. Bennitt wanted to write more, for as he stated on the eve of the Atlanta campaign: Thoughts crowd my pen for utterance, but time lacks.

WILLIAM M. ANDERSON, Director

Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries

Acknowledgments

There are many people I wish to thank for their assistance and encouragement, but two individuals need special mention at the outset. First of all, gratitude must be expressed to Harvey Lemmen, who located and purchased the Bennitt letters and diaries for Grand Valley State University Library. William M. Anderson, while preparing a second edition of his book on the history of the 19th Michigan Infantry, learned of these documents in the library’s collections and arranged a visit so he could make use of them. At the time he indicated that the Bennitt letters and diaries were of particularly high quality and interest, and that endorsement led me to undertake this project. I also wish to thank him for contributing the foreword to this book.

Many people at libraries, archives, and historical societies were very generous in responding to what at times were questions regarding obscure details of history and society during the Civil War. I wish to thank Jeffrey T. Bradley, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan; Carl Hallberg, Assistant Archivist, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming; Dennis Harrison, University Archivist, Case Western Reserve University; Evelyn Leasher, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University; Kevin Driedger, Library of Michigan; Catherine Larson, Kalamazoo Public Library; Reference Services, Chicago Public Library; Sharon Carlson, Western Michigan University; Jewell Anderson Dalyrmple, Reference Coordinator, and Linette O. Neal, Library Assistant, Georgia Historical Society; Sally Gave, St. Joseph County (Michigan) Genealogical Society; Edward Hutchinson, Massachusetts Historical Society; Mary Jo Mlakar, Lake View Cemetery Association (Cleveland, Ohio); Sherry Hilden, Cass District Library (Cassopolis, Michigan); Heather Almond, Indiana Historical Society; Elizabeth Sloan Smith, Kalamazoo College Archives; Robin Rank, Information Services, Kalamazoo College Library; Kerry Chartkoff, Michigan State Capitol Archives; Larry Brueck, Sexton, Nottawa Township Cemetery.

For assistance with rosters of individual Civil War regiments I am indebted to Rex Gooch (23rd Missouri Infantry), William Kooser (105th Illinois Infantry), and Russ Scott (26th Wisconsin Infantry).

Colleagues at Grand Valley State University were also extremely helpful. Interlibrary Loan Librarian Laurel Balkema, her successor Carol Paggeot, and interloan clerks Mildred Holtvluwer and Jill Reyers were able to obtain many important references from other libraries and institutions. Patricia Parker, Legal Services Librarian, assisted with Michigan election laws. Dr. Carolyn Shapiro-Shapin of the History Department provided information on nineteenth-century medical practices. I am also grateful to the university administration and to Library Director Lee Lebbin for their support.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the excellent maps in this volume provided by Ron McLean, cartographer and visual designer at Ohio State University.

Introduction

The Civil War is arguably the defining event in the history of the United States. It has had enormous impact on the history of this country and still projects its influence on American culture, society, politics, and the national psyche to the present day—and undoubtedly will far into the future. Indeed, it is difficult to think of a part of the war that has not been examined and reexamined, analyzed and reanalyzed, or that has not become the subject of revisionist or deconstructionist polemics.

Public interest in the War between the States has remained high ever since the guns fell silent in the spring of 1865. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, societies of Confederate and Union veterans flourished, memoirs and regimental histories came off the presses by the thousands, and soldiers’ reunions and encampments abounded. Civil War reenactments that have become so popular today are by no means a modern phenomenon. One of the first took place in 1913 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Five hundred white-bearded survivors of the original encounter met again over the ground of Pickett’s Charge, brandishing walking sticks instead of firearms. During the centennial observations in the 1960s there was another flood of books published on the conflict. Well-regarded motion pictures, such as Glory, Gettysburg, and Cold Mountain have also brought dramatic incidents of the conflict to a fascinated public. The spate of Civil War books issued by academic presses, mainstream publishers, or authors shows no sign of diminishing.

A surprising number of personal narratives, diaries, and correspondence by Union and Confederate participants are issued yearly. Forgotten packets of documents are often found in family trunks or historical societies. The letters of surgeon John Bennitt are one example of these Civil War treasures.

Reading personal correspondence is, it must be admitted, largely a voyeuristic act. That the letters and journals are from a stranger removed in time nearly 140 years does little to diminish this blatant invasion of privacy. But letters have long been published as part of the historical record because they are both illuminating and immediate, and this type of intimate primary source material tends to be more trustworthy than contemporary newspaper reports or self-serving memoirs written years after the events described. We should not underestimate the importance of such personal accounts, because these glimpses into individual lives afford invaluable insights into both everyday, mid-nineteenth-century society and personal motivations, fears, and hopes of those directly affected by the then-raging Civil War. The letters of John Bennitt, an articulate and well-educated physician, provide such a view.

More than sixteen thousand Union and Confederate physicians served during the Civil War, but, compared to other officers and enlisted men, relatively few published their reminiscences or memoirs. Two or three surgeons wrote the history of the regiments in which they enlisted, and a few score contributed articles to professional and historical journals describing their medical observations or general military experiences. The earliest Civil War letters from a physician to appear in print seem to have been those of Dr. Benjamin F. Stevenson of the 22nd Kentucky Infantry (Union) in 1884, but only recently has the interest in Civil War medicine given the impetus for the publication of more letters and journals of surgeons. For a representative list, see the bibliography.

Biographical Note about John Bennitt

Tracing information about John Bennitt and his family proved challenging because most sources misspelled the surname, rendering it as Bennett. His army service records as well as the U.S. Census Bureau preferred this form, as did the Michigan adjutant general and the 1877 St. Joseph County history.

John Bennitt was born on March 24, 1830, in Pulteney, Steuben County, New York. He was the thirteenth child of Daniel Bennitt and his second wife, Rebecca Norris. In 1837 his family moved to a farm near Orland in Steuben County, Indiana. Bennitt attended the district school there until 1845, when he enrolled in the classical course offered by the LaGrange Collegiate Institute in Ontario, Indiana, about ten miles west of Orland. LaGrange was a Christian coeducational institution that emphasized moral reform, temperance, Sabbath observance, and human equality. While undertaking this two-year program of study, he taught a portion of the year at the district school.

Completing his studies at LaGrange at the age of seventeen, Bennitt immediately went on to study medicine under a preceptor, Dr. Madison Marsh of Orland, and attended Cleveland Medical College (now School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1849 he moved to Centreville, Michigan, where he continued his medical studies under Dr. Silas D. Richardson, who had also practiced in Orland. Bennitt returned to Cleveland Medical College and graduated from there in 1850 with a M.D. degree. In March 1850 he entered into a medical partnership with Dr. Richardson that lasted until 1855, when he went into practice by himself. Bennitt, a firm believer in self-improvement, spent a few months of each year that he was professionally connected with Dr. Richardson in New York City attending medical lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the autumn of 1861 he enrolled in at least two courses among those offered by the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Michigan.

In late December 1852, Bennitt married Charlotte (Lottie) Mary Williams. Two years Bennitt’s senior, she had married Israel V. Williams in April 1849 in Berrien County, Michigan, gave birth to her daughter, Clara, in December of that year, and apparently was widowed soon thereafter. Charlotte was born in Vermont in 1827 and emigrated to Orland, Indiana, in 1836 with her parents, Cyrus and Mary Chapin Choate, and three siblings. It is likely that Bennitt and his future wife knew each other as children in Orland and attended school together. Their first child, Jennie, was born in 1853. Two subsequent children died young: Adelpha Fredrika in November 1856, at the age of one, and a boy they had in June 1860 who did not survive more than fifteen months. Three more daughters followed: Hattie, Ellen, and Mary, born in 1862, 1865, and 1870, respectively.

Bennitt appears to have had a successful medical practice in Centreville, and by 1858 the family lived in a large two-story brick home that still stands on the southwest corner of Main and Clinton Streets. According to the federal decennial census taken in August 1860, they had living with them the minister of the Centreville Baptist Church and his wife, a young married couple who were teachers, and a servant girl. Bennitt claimed to have real estate worth two thousand dollars and personal property valued at the same amount, indicating that he was fairly well-to- do according to the standards of the early 1860s. However, by the time he wrote his first letters to his wife in November 1861, something had gone seriously wrong with the family’s finances. Bennitt was in debt, and their house was in imminent danger of foreclosure. The female servant as well as the pair of teachers had departed from the household, and Bennitt made references to monetary difficulties and disparaging remarks about patients who did not attend to payments for medical services. In that light it is distinctly possible that one of the reasons Bennitt entered the army in 1862 was to ensure that he would be paid regularly and be able to meet his financial obligations.

A religious man, Bennitt joined the Centreville Baptist Church and was baptized in 1855. Shortly thereafter he was elected deacon and became director of the Sunday school. The financial difficulties of the Baptist-affiliated Kalamazoo College in the 1850s and 1860s concerned him, and he supported that educational institution financially as best he could. While in the army he was instrumental in making provisions for and organizing Sunday religious services for his regiment, brigade, and division no matter where they were. In his letters and diaries hardly a Sabbath goes by without a reference to it (sometimes he wrote lengthy devotional essays). As an absent Christian father, he was assiduous in trying to give religious instruction to his daughters through his writing. He was very critical of the lack of religious respect given Sundays by the commanding officers at all levels of the army. He believed that military duties should cease on Sundays and that attention should be paid to spiritual things on those days, lest God’s punishment be visited upon the Union.

A detailed history of the regiment in William M. Anderson’s They Died to Make Men Free: A History of the 19th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War obviates the need for anything more than the brief outline that follows. On August 8, 1862, Bennitt enlisted for three years’ service as assistant surgeon in the 19th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. The regiment had begun organizing on July 15 at Dowagiac and completed recruiting its ten companies on September 5, after which it moved by railroad to Cincinnati and in October was ordered to join the Army of Kentucky at Covington. It operated in northern Kentucky until February 1863, at which time it moved to Nashville and thence to Franklin, Tennessee. On March 4, 1863, part of the regiment, along with other Union formations, was captured in the engagement at Thompson’s Station, Tennessee, while on a reconnaissance. Three weeks later, on March 25, the remnants of the 19th Michigan and other Union units were captured by Confederate cavalry while guarding a railroad bridge near Brentwood, Tennessee. Bennitt could have been released at once because of his status as surgeon, but he remained with the captives to tend to the wounded and all were marched to notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Fortunately, the officers and enlisted men were exchanged at the end of May.

The regiment was reorganized in June 1863 at Columbus, Ohio, and sent to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as part of the Reserve Corps of the Department of the Cumberland. In October 1863 the 19th Michigan was ordered to McMinnville, Tennessee, where it undertook garrison duty. It remained there until the end of April 1864. At that time the regiment became part of the 20th Corps, Army of the Cumberland in General Sherman’s Atlanta campaign. After the fall of Atlanta in September, the 19th Michigan continued to participate in Sherman’s operations: the Savannah campaign from November to December 1864 and the Carolinas campaign from March 1865 to the end of the war.

Evidently, Bennitt was highly regarded as an army surgeon not only by the men in the 19th Michigan but also by his medical colleagues and superior officers. In December 1862, after only four months in the service and while still at the rank of assistant surgeon, he was ordered by the commanding general to take charge of his divisional hospital, a much higher level of responsibility than regimental surgeon. In July 1863 he was promoted to Surgeon, and while at McMinnville he was put in charge of the General Hospital. During the 1864 Atlanta and Savannah campaigns he served as surgeon to the 3rd Division, 20th Corps hospital as well as to the hospital of his brigade. In January 1865 he traveled to Cincinnati to take a twelve-day examination from the Army Medical Board to be considered for an appointment as surgeon, U.S. Volunteers. In late February 1865 he was in Charleston, South Carolina, looking for an opportunity to rejoin the 19th Michigan, which was still with Sherman’s army on the Carolinas campaign. While waiting, he was named chief surgeon of the 3rd Brigade Coast Division and was even appointed principal of one of the city’s schools that had just reopened. In mid-April he rejoined his regiment near Raleigh, North Carolina, but the war was all but over. After marching north to Washington and participating in the Grand Review, he was mustered out with the rest of the 19th Michigan on June 10 at Detroit but remained on duty until June 23, 1865.

When he was still on active service with the army, Bennitt was offered a position on the faculty of the Cleveland Medical College, his alma mater. At that time he was not inclined to accept, but after he returned to Centreville in June 1865 and took up his suspended private medical practice, he had second thoughts. Early in 1866 he agreed to assume teaching duties in physiology and histology at that institution and moved to Cleveland. His wife and daughters followed in 1867, and in that year he was appointed professor of principles and practice of medicine, a position he held until his death. He was elected dean in 1873 and served in that capacity until 1881, when the Cleveland Medical College and the Medical Department of Wooster University merged and became the Medical Department of Western Reserve University.

On May 21, 1892, Bennitt died while on an extended visit at the Youngstown, Ohio, home of his daughter and son-in-law, Jennie and John F. Taylor. He had been recuperating from illness and overwork brought about not only by his teaching duties at the medical college but also by the private medical practice he had established upon his arrival in Cleveland twenty-five years earlier. The cause of death was at the time attributed to mental and physical exhaustion, no other specific diagnosis being apparent. The Cleveland Plain Dealer printed a lengthy obituary, calling Bennitt a distinguished Cleveland physician and a victim of his professional zeal. He was buried in Woodland Cemetery and reinterred in a larger family plot in Lake View Cemetery in 1916.

Bennitt’s dedication to his profession can be seen in his membership in a number of scientific organizations. In his first years as a physician in Centreville he was instrumental in reestablishing the St. Joseph Valley Medical Society, which had been originally organized in 1835 but had become dormant after ten years. While in the army he also organized less formal medical societies for the benefit of himself and his fellow surgeons. He was affiliated with the American Medical Association, the Society for the Advancement of Medical Science, the Cuyahoga (Ohio) Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, and the Society for Medical Science.

At some point after Bennitt’s death, Lottie moved to Pasadena, California, where she joined Jennie and John Taylor, who had moved there from Youngstown. Charlotte Bennitt herself died there in 1916, and her remains were returned to Cleveland to be buried with her husband’s. Clara Williams Kingman, John Bennitt’s stepdaughter, died in 1919. Of his other daughters, Hattie Bennitt had died in 1867, not having attained five years of age. Jennie Bennitt Taylor and Mary Bennitt Burdick both died in 1929, two days apart, and Ellen Bennitt died in 1946.

The Bennitt Letters and Diaries

In 1992, an antiquarian book dealer in Ohio put Bennitt’s Civil War letters and diaries up for sale. They were purchased by Grand Rapids resident Harvey E. Lemmen, who immediately gave them to Grand Valley State University Library, where they joined the extensive Abraham Lincoln and Civil War collection he had donated to the institution the previous year.

The collection consists of 208 letters, the vast majority written to Lottie and the remainder to elder daughters Clara and Jennie. The letters themselves are written on good-quality stationery of various sizes and manufacture. Most of the paper has a high rag content, a quality that has contributed to their good condition. The black ink originally used has faded over time to sepia, and in some places where it soaked heavily into the paper the ink has eaten holes in the paper fibers. Unfortunately, none of the envelopes Bennitt used to mail these missives has survived; their absence prevents gathering information about Civil War mail routes and transit times, as well as the changes of address for Lottie and the daughters during the war. The lack of a permanent residence, apparently caused by the loss of the Bennitt house through foreclosure, forced the Bennitt women to lodge among friends and relations in the Michigan towns of Centreville, Three Rivers, and Plainwell as well as in Orland, Indiana.

The first sequence of letters begins in November 1861 upon Bennitt’s arrival in Ann Arbor to attend medical courses at the University of Michigan, and it ends with his departure for Centreville in January 1862. There is a single letter hastily written from Port Huron in early July 1862 that suggests Bennitt may have been scouting for a new location to continue his medical practice while visiting friends. The second sequence begins in August 1862 when Bennitt pens his first letter home after enlisting in the 19th Michigan, then in the process of organizing at Dowagiac, and ends with a June 1865 communication while awaiting his mustering out in Detroit.

Bennitt employed three diaries during his enlistment. All are variations of the pocket variety commonly used by Civil War soldiers, measuring about 3½ by 6 inches. Besides one page devoted to each day (or three days in one diary), it contained handy information such as astronomical and tidal data, rail distances and times between major cities, postal rates, stamp duties, and space for personal accounts and memoranda. Bennitt’s diary entries are more difficult to read because he was forced to squeeze his writing about the events of the day into a very small space. In addition, he includes shorthand accounts of the sick and wounded soldiers he has seen as well as his financial accounts and to whom he is indebted and vice versa. Because of space constraints, the diary entries are not included in this book, though I used them to clarify references in the letters that otherwise would have remained obscure.

The letters to Lottie are chatty, intimate, and filled with detailed descriptions of camp life, countrysides marched through, medical procedures, deaths, rumors, battles, regimental gossip, social functions, and religious observations. In some cases it is surprising that he does not shrink from sharing with her the horrible aspects and destructive consequences of war. He continuously offers her medical and financial advice, the latter sometimes annoyingly repetitious, and he nearly always asks her for information regarding friends, relations, and events back home. Bennitt enjoys teasing his wife about women he has met socially in the places the regiment is posted, but there is no doubt about his deep love and concern for her. In some of his letters, especially those written from Ann Arbor in December 1861, it is easy to witness his implicit expressions of intimacy.

In some cases Bennitt shows himself to be petulant and something of an ingrate. At one point he asked Lottie to make him shirts, but when they arrived in camp he complained that the arms were not long enough and would not wear very well. Likewise he found fault with some of the packages of food that she sent him.

Throughout his letters Bennitt agonizes over where they will live once the war is over. He often revisits the factors for and against remaining in Centreville; at other times he believes that moving to Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Three Rivers, or other locations would be better for him and his family. But he nearly always ends those ruminations by asking Lottie for her preferences.

Bennitt is highly critical of the Union regiments from Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee that the 19th Michigan encountered. He looks upon the men from these units as ignorant, dirty, and given to vice. He believes that Michigan regiments are the best as far as cleanliness, orderliness, and military bearing and that those from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana are a close second.

It is interesting to witness Bennitt’s changing views of slavery and race. It is obvious that before the war he did not think about slavery much other than to believe that it was un-Christian as well as the proximate cause of the war. In his opinion, blacks were by nature inferior to whites, and compensated servitude—that is, paid wages—was better than unconditional and precipitous emancipation. By war’s end, after he has seen firsthand the effects of slavery and has had contact with former slaves, he comes to the conclusion that the future generation of blacks will be more intelligent than the Southern whites of the Confederacy. He also agrees with the idea that blacks should be enfranchised because it would be safer for the country to have the vote in their loyal hands rather than with disloyal whites. Bennitt feared that even with the Union victorious in the Civil War, slavery may not have been dealt a mortal blow and that proponents of freedom would have to make certain of its total demise.

Bennitt was an inveterate letter writer while he was serving in the Civil War. His diaries make reference to a great deal of correspondence with a wide variety of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. This may explain the numerous times he repeats himself in his letters to his wife: with so many other missives going out, he had trouble keeping track of what he had already said and to whom. It is not known whether any of these other letters he wrote have survived, for none has come to light.

Civil War Medicine

Bennitt practiced medicine at a time when the profession was in a fragmented state. Traditional—and simplistic—medical theories of disease were failing to explain what was actually happening to patients, and many practitioners doubted the wisdom and efficacy of dosing the sick with large amounts of chemicals, usually toxic mercury compounds. Physicians trained in hydropathic, homeopathic, or other relatively new systems of medicine offered the public what today would be called alternative treatments that often did more harm than good. In the medical profession there was no clear understanding or consensus about the nature of disease, the structural and functional changes it produced in an organism, or the mechanisms by which it spread. Suggestions that illness might be caused by microscopic animals were for the most part ignored if not completely derided. Yellow fever, malaria, and other fevers were believed to be a separate type of disease caused by miasmas and decaying vegetable matter.

Because of the lack of state-licensing requirements, medical schools in the mid–nineteenth century in many instances were merely diploma mills whose main raison d’être was to make money for their faculty, not to graduate skilled physicians. Even at highly respected medical schools, such as the University of Michigan, qualifications for a medical degree in 1862 were not overly demanding. Six months of study was all that was needed for an M.D., and that consisted of four daily lectures, twice-weekly clinical demonstrations, a microscope laboratory, and a thesis. A large part of the medical training took place at the side of a preceptor, an established doctor who took an apprentice as an assistant for a few years. In this case learning by watching was the practical result. With these varying methods available for attaining a medical diploma, it comes as no surprise that the competence of the American physician of the 1860s ranged from excellent to abysmal, and this was true with Civil War regimental surgeons. With good reason, many soldiers feared the surgeon more than the battle.

Other than the stethoscope, relatively sophisticated medical instruments were not in widespread use at this time. Few doctors had access to a microscope, and the ophthalmoscope had been developed too recently to be in use as a standard diagnostic tool. By his mentioning and employment of both these instruments, Bennitt appears to be both knowledgeable of the current advances in medical science and a conscientious practitioner of them.

There were 125 standard-issue medicines that made up the pharmaceutical supplies of the Union medical officer. These included both ether and chloroform for surgical anesthesia, quinine for fevers, ipecac and calomel as emetics, laudanum and morphine for pain, alum used both as an emetic and astringent, and whiskey as a stimulant. Opiates were given freely, despite widespread knowledge of their extremely addictive properties. Bennitt mentions his own occasional use of morphine to ease the symptoms of a cold or cough as well as the physiological effects that the drug had on him.

Disease was the major cause of death of Civil War soldiers. In the Union army, of 360,000 total fatalities during the war, nearly two-thirds (225,000) were due to disease. Many of these deaths were among recruits from rural and isolated areas of the country who were put into regimental camps and there exposed to diseases that their comrades from towns and villages already had some immunity against. The majority of these deaths are attributed to dysentery, diarrhea, and variously named fevers. Of the 1,206 men who had enlisted in the 19th Michigan, 54 were killed in action, 31 died of their wounds, 7 died while held in Confederate prisons, and 132 died from disease. This ratio, 92 to 132, is much better than the average, indicating that this Michigan regiment was a relatively healthy one.

Without ether and chloroform, surgical procedures during the Civil War would have been impossible. These two chemicals, recognized as viable anesthetic agents only since the late 1840s, allowed physicians the time needed for relatively simple operations on injured patients. Three out of every four operations done by army surgeons were amputations. Traumatic to the body in the best of circumstances, amputations were seen as necessary to remove shattered limbs and bones that, if treated less aggressively, would invariably turn gangrenous and lead to death. The survival rate for amputations averaged a surprising 75 percent if the wounded man was operated on within the first twenty-four hours of receiving his injury, but the rate fell to 50 percent if surgical intervention was delayed beyond one day. The location of the amputation was also a factor in mortality rates. The further the injury was from the trunk of the body, the better one’s chance for survival. For example, removal of the hand resulted in about a 3 percent mortality rate, but 85 percent of those who endured the amputation of a hip died. Not all wounded, of course, needed amputation; in fact, only 15 percent of those wounded in battle actually died from injuries.

The Civil War could be said to have advanced military medical knowledge in many areas, but probably most important was the realization that the sooner wounded men could be removed from the battlefield and given medical attention, the greater their chances of survival.

Editor’s Note

Although for the most part John Bennitt’s letters are well written, they do exhibit some literary idiosyncrasies. His spelling is not always standard; for example, he consistently spells cannon as canon and is often heedless of the rules of capitalization. I have left his spelling as it is, adding missing letters within square brackets only when necessary for clarity (e.g., Dr. R[ichardson]). Bennitt’s punctuation is for the most part unconventional, showing a marked propensity for the use of dashes rather than commas, semicolons, periods, or new paragraphs. These I have retained. When he begins a phrase with quotation marks, in many instances he forgets to signify the end of the quotation. These I have supplied in the interest of clarity. Occasionally, as he pauses to dip his pen in the inkwell or reaches the end of a line, Bennitt, in his haste to resume, omits a word when he begins to write again. These missing words are supplied within square brackets (e.g., [regiment]). If a supplied word is a guess, the word is placed within square brackets and followed by a question mark (e.g., [see?]). It is rare that an illegibly written word cannot be deciphered through context, but when that does occur the questionable word is followed, without a space, by a bracketed question mark (e.g., dime[?]).

In most of his correspondence Bennitt crossed out words or letters to amend his own spelling or as he changed his mind about what he was writing. I have deleted most of these self-corrections in the interest of clarity, but I let those remain that either did not clarify his writing or gave an interesting perspective to his thought processes.

Bennitt makes frequent references to people, places, things, and events that required no explanation at the time to either Lottie or to himself but which are not evident to current readers. I have attempted to identify, explain, and amplify all of these references in footnotes; however, a few remain elusive. As a devout Christian who knew the Bible well, Bennitt often enhances his letters by quoting verses, and I have tried to identify these as well as the other literary sources he sometimes employs.

I Hope to Do My Country Service

Southwest Michigan, 1860

St. Joseph County, Michigan, 1860

1

I Am Not Very Anxious to Go into the Army NOVEMBER 1861 – JULY 1862

Dr. John Bennitt’s letters to his wife, Lottie, and daughters Clara and Jennie begin the day he arrives in Ann Arbor to take classes in the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Michigan. He has left his family and medical practice ostensibly to improve himself professionally; however, he has put the onerous task on his wife of trying to collect unpaid debts from his patients during his absence and paying on accounts they owe. At the same time it is also evident that he is concerned about being away from home, especially during what seems to be an economically difficult time for his family left behind in Centreville.

Besides relating his day-to-day attendance at lectures, Bennitt describes in some detail the wide range of educational, social, and religious events and activities available to the inhabitants of a small college town in the 1860s. With exasperating frequency, he debates with himself whether to remain in Centreville or to relocate to a place where opportunities might be better. Indeed, in July he expressly travels to Port Huron to assess the possibilities of finding a successful and lucrative medical practice in that city.

The seven-month-old Civil War remains mostly in the background while Bennitt studies in Ann Arbor, but from time to time he makes references to friends and acquaintances from Centreville and other parts of St. Joseph County who joined the 11th Michigan Infantry or other state military units earlier in the year. Bennitt reluctantly ponders if ultimately he will need to enlist as well.

1

Ann-Arbor Nov. 8th 1861

My Dear Wife:

I arrived this morning about 5 o’clock. All safe and sound. Have not felt very well to-day, for I did sleep any hardly.

Have attended the 4 lectures to-day and spent nearly 3 hours in the chemical laboratory. Have not found a boarding place to suit yet. I am very well pleased with the appearance of things at the college. Prof Douglas¹ is very kind and affible. & He has a splendid microscope of Grunos² make. Cost $170.⁰⁰.

I think if I could have you and the little girls here I could be very well satisfied to remain indefinitely. Write me if anything is wrong with the children or yourself. Write every week at least. Herein is the a/c and note of Dawall. Follow him up so that you can get it next week [and] pay Mr. Smith $11. if he paid my order per Evans³—

Pay Mr. Cady $3.00 for use of the carriage as soon as you can, after that send me about $10.⁰⁰ then pay Geo Keech $9.22.⁴

I must make some arrangement to pay N. C. Bouton about $15. D. H. Lord $19. L. T. Hull 12.⁵

If FitzSimmons pay his A/c to Spitzer I shall not worry about the balance. If Elder Nichols will see Mr. Seymor & remind him that it was in consideration of cash down that I consented to take $4 less for the horse, & that I must have the balance ($22.) at once.⁶

Kind regards to all friends especially to Elder & Mrs. Nichols⁷ & Auntie TenBrook & Carrie⁸— "Tell both of the little girls Something" for me, & take a large lump of kindest regard for yourself from

Your Affectionate

John Bennitt

2

Ann-Arbor Nov. 10th 1861

My Dear Wife:

I have just returned from hearing Father Cornelius,⁹ as he is called here. A very good man he seems to be, and much beloved by all. He preached from Leviticus X. 1 to 12 showing the danger of disobedience of the positive commands of God as illustrated in the cases of the two sons of Aaron who were destroyed because they went into the tabernacle with strange fire in their censer. He seemed to think they did it under the influence of wine, from the prohibition given in the 9th verse: and it illustrates the evils of strong drink, as it led to disobedience of God’s commands.

The application of text was further illustrated in the disobedience of Adam & Eve to follow[?] command & of Ananias & Saphira. Elder Cornelius is somewhat quaint yet he is a very good reasoner & I should think on the whole a good pastor. Congregation not very large. Singing tolerably good. A melodeon about like the one in our church with a fair player, a lady. I was invited into the choir by an acquaintance made through Mr. Trowbridge¹⁰ (cousin of Minister Trowbridge¹¹ of 3 Rivers). I remained to Sunday School & entered by invitation the Bible class—taught or led by this Mr. Trowbridge (he is a graduate of Kalamazoo I believe). Just here was some interest, as the class was mostly intelligent young men. Elder Cornelius led another class of rather younger men. Sunday School not very large, about like ours. They use the Bell in it & the Jubilee in the choir¹² so that I was at home at once, and felt so.—Had some talk with Elder Cornelius after meeting. Invited me to come to his house.

Nov 11th He lectured in the evening from Round and prayer & congregational singing closed the exercises. There was a S[unday]S[chool] concert at 2 P.M. but I did not attend, but attended a lecture at the College Hall by Pres. Tappan,¹³ on the getting of Wisdom.—quite instructive.

Attended a lecture on Saturday evening by Prof. Winchell¹⁴ of the University on the Progress of Future ages. He speculated some, upon the probability that after a long period the sun would cease to be hot, the earth become cold and incapable of sustaining man & finally fall to and become a part of the sun & the other stars come together forming one chaotic mass—Which might be considered as the end of the present order of things. Then the Almighty might put forth his fiat or power & institute a new order of things. Separate this chaotic mass into worlds & Systems or worlds & Sun &c. &c.—

I have a place to board that promises to be very pleasant in the family of a very respectable Physician, Dr Lovejoy¹⁵—a man about 55 with quite a pleasant wife & two nearly grown up sons at home, in College. No living Daughters. Have for a room mate a first course Medical Student—a graduate of Beloit College, an apparently very fine young man. There are also boarding in the family a literary Student & a Law Student—agreeable young men, & we all feel quite at home—except I have not my wife & little girls. If I could have them and [a] few other friends from Centreville I could be very well content to remain here. Our room is pleasant—about like our east chamber i.e. about same size, & having North & East windows, on a street corner—Very fine residences in front of both windows back from the streets with splendid grounds, paths & trees around.—Above the buildings on the north I have a view of woods & fields[. . . .]

[Final page(s) missing]

3

Ann Arbor Nov. 16th 1861

My Dear Wife:

If you knew how much I desire to hear from you, you would not so long delay writing. I have been here eight whole days and not a word from you, longer than any time before for several years. I am so anxious to know how you are getting along, & how Jennie & Clara are:—in fact how all things are moving.

Nothing of particular interest has occurred to me since I last wrote you: I have been engaged in the Laboratory this week each afternoon at least three hours and sometimes four. I think with good improvement of my time, I shall be in a condition by the end of a course, to engage in chemical analysis with profit, at home. Prof. Douglass is a very pleasant man, and I have had some very good times with him in microscopic investigations. There are about sixty Students in the Laboratory, & it is a busy looking place to go into—all engaged in working with chemicals, each one on a different substance perhaps, but all eager to for investigation. Each one has a table & a set of chemical reagents & apparatus.—I intend when I come home to get a set of fixtures for working in chemistry & then I can go along by myself. I could have made but sorry work alone in the matter to start.

My forenoons are spent in studying Chemistry & carrying out my notes, and attending two lectures. I have visited several patients with Dr. Lovejoy in the City & rode into the Country yesterday some four miles.—Among other patients I visited one who was run over by a rail-road car crushing the leg so that amputation above the knee was necessary. This was on Monday. The boy, who is about 12 years old is a quadroon, was at Bull Run battle—has no parents & has run wild, up and down the Rail Road as he could steal a ride. He was attempting to jump on a freight train that was in full motion when[?] was thrown down and run over. He is doing well.

I shall begin dissecting on Monday, perhaps to-day. I wish I had one of my old linen coats here. I want also Hogg on the Ophthalmoscope, Beale on the Microscope¹⁶ which is at Dr. Richardson’s,¹⁷ & my Diploma. Some money would not be amiss if it could be had, as I shall be out of funds in a week from now. Send some word of invitation to Robert Hazard,¹⁸ to pay a little. See that Dawall pays immediately. If you can get the Book from Dr. R[ichardson]’s have it ready with the other things so as to send by express¹⁹ & send by Seymour to Kalamazoo, together with money if practicable. Seymour ought to pay the Balance on Charly²⁰ immediately.—

I received letter &c from Mr. Oaks.²¹ The matter of a position for me in Col. Stewart’s regiment²² is still undecided. I am not very anxious to go into the Army unless you can go along. Still I will go if duty calls. What do you think of living at Kalamazoo if we should think best to leave Centreville?

This City has many attractions that would make it a desirable [place] to live & I doubt not I could do a good business here in a year or two. I could rent a comfortable good house here for a rent not much above what we pay in interest on the one where we live. They have a very fine Union School house here & it is said a very good school. The advantage for our improvement would be greater here than at Kalamazoo. The advantages for the little girls would be better at Kalamazoo by and by. I like the country around Kalamazoo better than hereabouts. Mr. Johnson²³ will be coming out here about the last of December & I wish you could make an arrangement to come out and stay a week or two if he does & I remain here. Indeed I would be glad to [see] Jennie & Clara too if the thing be practicable. Come then & stay two or three weeks till I am ready to go home.

I shall not make any farther effort to get into the army for I think too much of my family to be long separated from them unless it be necessary, but shall go if wanted in Col. Stewart’s and my proposition accepted. I shall however remain here as long as I can, for the opportunities here are too good to be lost.

Write me what is done with the horse. How Elder Nichols & wife are, & what the Church is doing if anything about the future of preaching.—How the choir prosper. How Auntie Tenbrook & Carrie, & Mrs. Goss²⁴ & all the other good friends. To all, my kind regards. Do Do write me twice a week, or more.

Your Affectionate Husband.

Wm FitzSimmons agreed to pay J. W. Spitzer through Mr. Smith the amount of his account $31.00 about Dec 1th. I wish you would follow that up when the time comes and see that it is done. Keep yourselves as comfortable as you can. Take good care of the children. Tell them Something for me twice a day or oftener &c.

Direct letters to me, in care of Dr. Lovejoy Box 252, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Affectionately Yours

JB

4

Ann Arbor Nov 17 1861

My Dear Wife:

By yesterday’s mail I sent you a letter; by the same I received yours of 14th inst. Heartily glad was I to hear from you, and to hear that you were all in good health. It will be best to be careful how Jennie goes to school. I fear she will not endure study & confinement. See if she can be excused with three or four hours at school. I am anxious that she should be improving her mind; yet it will be safer to watch her physical health, for the present, to only send her to school as much as is consistent with her good health.

I have been to meeting again to-day, to Bible class (led by Mr. Trowbridge)—this afternoon to the Presbyterian Church to hear a Canadian-Frenchman, who was formerly a Catholic preacher. His speech was very broken but with careful attention I could understand him. He related some of the experience that he was called to pass through in his renunciation of Catholicism. He sung two stanzas in French to a tune familiar:—Joy to the World.

This evening I attended Episcopal Service. They have a very good preacher, very good organist—Prof. Frieze²⁵—& one singer—a Mr. Harvy²⁶—who by the way is a teacher of music. He has a fine voice, of which he has perfect control—but he does not articulate as well as he might. It seems a little odd to see a choir of only one singer, but the organ roared out music enough. The congregation joined [in] somewhat. The organ stands on a platform near the floor between the front doors & reaches near to the cealing above, which is higher than in our church. The one singer stands just in front—elevated about two steps above the congregation—There is for organist & choir? the space of two slips, shut in by themselves. I sat next slip in front, & sung, when I knew what to sing.

I was called upon to lead the choir at the Baptist Church to-day, in which I of course acquitted myself well.

I met Elder Gregory²⁷ to-day & he introduced his wife to me & invited me to call on him at his home. He will preach or lecture to young men on next Sunday evening at our church. He seems just the same pleasant man as ever.—I will finish this in the morning.—

Monday Morning 18 Nov. Just risen.

If Elder Nichols is willing to look after the interests of the horse, I would rather Wm Henry²⁸ would not have him; but I fear Eld-Nichols will feel burdened with him. Advize with Mr. Smith about the matter.

If you can rig up a pair of my old pants so as to be ½ decent & send it with the things I mentioned in my previous letter. It does not matter much about the pants, but they would not be amiss in the dissecting room. Lay[?] then send by Mr. to Kalamazoo in a snug bundle the linen coat (or two) the Pants.—the Diploma in the case. & the following books: viz: Hogg on the ophthalmoscope; Beale on the Microscope; (it is at Dr. Richardson’s) & My Bible. If it will not make too large a bundle you may put in the best coat there is there, so that I need not wear the one I have into the dissecting room when the weather becomes cold. If you send Money, send it in the same manner, in a separate package, or in a letter in shape of a draft.

I have not found time yet to reply to Capt. Oakes, but will do so to-day.

I think I will write to Mrs. Tenbrook & Carrie soon, & to Dr. R[ichardson].—

Be very careful of your own & the children’s health. Tell me if anything is the matter with you or them, without reserve.

Kind regards to all.—Tell the little girls something for me.

Affectionately Your Husband

Do write often. It does me good to receive a letter from you—Little girls, write too, every time.

5

Ann Arbor Nov 22 1861

My Dear Wife:

Your most welcome letter of the 19th & 20 inst. is just received. The moisture run over some at the thought of my little Jennie being sick & her Mother bearing the whole care, with all of the other care that seems to be pressing on you just now. Then a sense of relief was felt when I read that she was better;—doing well. I heartily coincide with the idea of keeping her from school. Let her exercise in the open air in pleasant weather as much as may be: give her something to occupy her time & mind, & that will be gentle exercise in the house when the weather is unfavorable. If you can have her read to you a little each day, something that she can comprehend with a little explanation. If those Rollo Books²⁹ are in the S[unday] S[chool] Library, get the first of the series if you can, & have her or Clara read few pages from it each day; with such talk about it as will naturally arise, & much improvement may result to the little girls, without overtaxing Jennie. You will exercise your own best judgement relative to Clara’s going to school. I would not send her unless there is a prospect of benefit to her. You would better visit the school & see with an unprejudiced mind so far as you can what the state of things is before taking her out entirely. What does Elder Nichols think of it? I cannot tell, but I do not think it would be well to take her from school without some very substantial reason. We must take somewhat into account the effect it would have upon the school now, & in the future. But there is a more immediate consideration, & that is will it be beneficial for her to go? Will it be detrimental for her to discontinue? Will it not be a bad precedent to establish for her? It seems to me best not to say anything derogatory to the character of the school or the teacher, & avoid so far as possible saying anything about the matter. Thus we will stand uncommitted, and be in a condition to work to the better advantage when another teacher shall come on the stage.

You see from this, that I have in mind to return to Centreville. I cannot tell how that may be. If I could educate my children there as well, I would be comparatively well satisfied to live there. But with such work as we have with school, I cannot feel that my great duty is discharged unless I can feel able to employ a tutor for them at home or privately, which I dislike. I doubt not but that I shall be able to do business at Centreville again; for it does not seem that Dr. Hale³⁰ expects to do much or he would attend to business there better than he seems to. What think you? What is said about the matter, if anything? I wish to know something of how things will shape and how the people there will feel about my return, for I wish to be ready to go to work as soon as I shall have finished my course here. I should be glad to stay here as long as I can, but I cannot bear to be away from my family. While I am busy about Scientific investigations I forget for the time about home. But when evening