Barry Popchock - Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa

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title	:	Soldier Boy : The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa
author	:	Musser, Charles O.; Popchock, Barry
publisher	:	University of Iowa Press
isbn10 | asin	:	0877455236
print isbn13	:	9780877455233
ebook isbn13	:	9781587291913
language	:	English
subject	Musser, Charles O.--(Charles Oliver),--1842-1938--Correspondence, United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, United States.--Army.--Iowa Infantry Regiment, 29th (1862-1865).--Company A, Iowa--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal
publication date	:	1995
lcc	:	E507.5 29th.M87 1995eb
ddc	:	973.7/77
subject	:	Musser, Charles O.--(Charles Oliver),--1842-1938--Correspondence, United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, United States.--Army.--Iowa Infantry Regiment, 29th (1862-1865).--Company A, Iowa--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal

Page iii Soldier Boy The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa Edited by Barry Popchock UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS IOWA CITY

Page iv University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright 1995 by the University of Iowa Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Design by Omega Clay No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Musser, Charles O. (Charles Oliver), 18421938. Soldier boy: the Civil War letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa / edited by Barry Popchock. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87745-523-6 1. Musser, Charles O. (Charles Oliver), 18421938 Correspondence. 2. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865Personal narratives. 3. United States. Army. Iowa Infantry Regiment, 29th (1862 1865). Company A. 4. IowaHistoryCivil War, 18611865Personal narratives. 5. Soldiers IowaCouncil BluffsCorrespondence. 6. Council Bluffs (Iowa)Biography. I. Popchock, Barry, 1950- . II. Title. E507.5 29th.M87 1995 973.7'77dc20 95-17660 CIP 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 C 5 4 3 2 1

Page v For Mom, who is reading this

Page vii Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 To War December 1862April 1863 11 2 Soldier Boy AprilJuly 1863 45 3 Army of Occupation JulyDecember 1863 71 4 Battle JanuaryMay 1864 101 5 Home Front JuneNovember 1864 133 6 Garrison November 1864February 1865 165 7 Peace Again FebruaryJuly 1865 187 Three Undated Letter Fragments 219 Notes 221 Bibliography 241 Index 245

Page ix Acknowledgments A small but select circle of people have contributed to this book. First, Civil War scholars owe a debt of gratitude to Hester Alice Musser, Charles O. Musser's daughter, who lovingly read and preserved his letters. Hester's son, Floyd Pierce of Lexington, Nebraska, has shown an equal appreciation of their historical importance, and it is through his kind permission that this book has emerged. Kudos as well to the following: Becki Peterson, archivist at the State Historical Society of Iowa, and her staff for providing substantial material on the 29th Iowa and its campaigns; Judy Mingus, my "hired gun" from Methuen, Massachusetts, who unearthed invaluable data at the National Archives on William Musser; and the Social Sciences Department of the Carnegie Library's main branch in Pittsburgh, which helped with interlibrary loan. I would like to express appreciation to Dad for sparking my interest in Civil War history. Finally, an old adage is in need of revision: behind every successful man, you will find two women. In this case, they are Gaile Beatty and Carole Popchock, whose chance meeting at a copy machine was the genesis of Soldier Boy. Without Gaile's generous cooperation, her great-grandfather's correspondence would not have become part of the published record. I am grateful, too, for her splendid maps and her willingness to suffer the tedium of proofreading. My wife, Carole, also served as a proofreader and performed numerous clerical tasks. More important, she brought the Musser letters to my attention after discovering their existence. The rest is history of a different sort.

Page 1 Introduction As hostilities dragged into the summer of 1862, Abraham Lincoln allowed that he would need more men to put down the Southern rebellion. On July 2, the president called for 300,000 additional volunteers to serve three years in the Union army. Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa echoed Lincoln's call to arms: "The time has come when men must make ... sacrifices of ease, comfort and business for the cause of the country."1 The state's response was not overwhelming at first. Farmers were busy with the harvest, lengthening casualty lists had dampened patriotic fervor, and Southern sympathizers discouraged enlistment. But volunteering accelerated in August when the men were threatened with national conscription. Iowa finally furnished twenty-two infantry regiments.2 More than half the state's prewar military-age population, 76,000 males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, eventually donned the blue uniformamong them 440 African Americans. Thirteen thousand would lose their lives.3

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