Beschreibung:

Lot of approximately 123 letters written by 2nd Lieutenant John William Peck, 1862-1865. The archive likely includes every letter written by Peck to his mother and sister in Indiana while on the front lines as well as a few other related items. The Civil War was not the first time the Peck family served the state of Indiana. In the 1830s, John William Peck was a member of the Indiana Militia but received a medical pardon from a doctor who examined his injured toes on his right foot. It would be impossible for him to perform a hasty or long march, wrote Dr. William Trafton (Evansville, November 3, 1834). The injury and medical note cleared Peck of all military duty. His son or relative, also named John William Peck, enlisted in the army 28 years later to fight for the Union. Peck and his cousin John T. Morris enlisted in the army on August 7, 1862. Peck mustered in as a corporal of the 4th Indiana Cavalry, Co. F. He reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant on June 1, 1865, but was not mustered into the position. His cousin, Morris, remained a private throughout his career in the same regiment, but different company. He wrote to his cousin Kate once about his service. That letter is included in the lot. Peck wrote home often to his mother and sister. At the start of his career, he faced many battles and was a part of several scouting parties. We had some hard times but not half as hard as some troops have had. Our co. used mortars during the bombardment of Ft. Morgan. We have been in [New Orleans] for quite some time past we are having very easy times here we don’t have much to do, he wrote (New Orleans, December 8, 1864). Peck and his regiment moved to Kentucky to pursue Morgan and stop his infamous raids of terror. Disgruntled from what he thought was a poor strategic move by his superiors, Peck wrote home: We have been after Morgan and had a little brush with him we fired on his pickets and killed 3 or 4 and taken seventeen prisoners then a Illinois general ordered the artillery to fire on them like fool instead of letting some of us surround him and the others make it charge…and then flank him on the right as we knew he would make for Bardstown he passed the road just a half hour before our men got there and I expect he is out of Kentucky by this time (Frankfort, KY, October 24, 1862). He and his fellow soldiers also participated in raids and confiscated good from Southern sympathizers’ homes. We are taking horses and n****** every day and night the Rebels are pretty thick out here me and another fellow took a fellow and he said he was a rebel and he had a good revolver we took it and took him to head quarters I paid him seven dollars for his share of the revolver, he explained. I want to kill about a dozen rebels with it the captain says for us to take any thing we want so the aint union men (Camp near Lebanon, September 2, 1862). It seemed that he was always in the middle of the action. He wrote that same week: About ten o’clock we heard thare was six thousand Rebels within 8 miles of here and we started double quick for to meet them at the Junction you ought to have seen the boys get sick and say they could not keep up they was afraid they would smell powder some fell of their horses and hurt themselves pretty bad. I was out on a scout fifty five hours I took four men out of Co. B they told me to go and find all of the secesh I could and so I went where ever I could hear of them we got several and brought them to the general we let all but one of them take the oath he was one of Morgans men (Camp Near Lebanon, September 7, 1862). The regiment continued their pursuit of the elusive CSA general. Scouting parties sometimes resulted in small skirmishes, which evolved into larger battles. Peck wrote: I just got back from a three day scout we started on Monday to fight the rebels and run them and run them about ten miles and then we drowed up in line of battle but did not het to fight that night but we had a grand fight the next day