"Letters from the Civil War"

Thanks to everyone who came to our second lecture in our winter lecture series. Russ VanDervoort presented a fantastic lecture full of interesting history as he followed up his popular lecture from last year "Letters from the Civil War"

We had a full house for Russ' presentation! Great food and great company :)

We started a little earlier than expected (whoops...the director was a little too eager to learn...). But luckily that gave all of us who weren't at the lecture least year some time to get a quick recap! Russ shared with us what his research had provided about the life of Charles Shepard. Despite his dedication of time and effort into uncovering more about this Waterfordian's life, the closest he was able to find to a photo of him was this documentation. Russ pointed out that Charles' position in the army turns out to have been as a "machinist", but his everyday occupation had been that of a peddler (apparently of everything)

But for this lecture, Russ wanted to find some more clues about the life of Charles' wife, Emma Thompson, and that of his daughter who he never had the chance to see. It's amazing to learn just how little time Emma had with Charles, as well as the difficult background she had. She had been orphaned, married, had a daughter, and widowed all before turning 20! There were difficulties in receiving a widow's pension of $12 - ineligibility since prisoners of war were deemed no longer in the service of the Union Army, and remarriage excluded any benefits as well.

Russ read a few of the letters Charles sent home to his family, noting the things he took the time to "write home about" like the luck he'd had earlier on in avoiding having to eat hardtack rations, and noting the greenery and singing birds around where he was stationed that were an unusual occurrence for someone from Waterford, NY during January.

One of the other things he pointed out was that Charles wrote of his daughter but hadn't actually made any suggestions on a name for his baby. Based on his research, it doesn't seem like his daughter Addie was able to claim anything either for her father's services in the Union Army.

Here is an image Russ provided that shows Charles' sister Rebecca on the right, and his daughter on the left. The two were very close, with a 1 year age difference between the two of them.

The lecture also went into Russ' research on the battles and other war-related details that Charles' mentions in letters home. He commented on how observant Charles was about the events going on around him, with comments as accurate as news reports of the battles. One example was the #2 Blunder in US Military History, known as The Battle of the Crater, which Charles wrote about in one of his letters.






Russ researched more into the time Charles spent as a prisoner of war of the Confederate Army. He had 38 letters of Charles to aid him in his research, but Russ found that Charles didn't send out any letters from prison. As we learned, mail could be sent out although there were probably any number of reasons that Charles could have stopped writing or that his letters just didn't reach home.

Following up on the time spent in prison, Russ took us through the research he compiled to create as close to a trail of the last days of Charles' life as possible. He spent 153 days as a prisoner of war, dying only 22 days before he would have been released like fellow prisoner and friend, John Troy. It seems Charles first went to Libby Prison before possibly getting transferred to Belle Isle Prison, and then ultimately making his way to the #4 worst Civil War Prison Camp -Salisbury Prison.

Russ did his best to finish on a more positive note. He shared the story that the obelisk monument at Salisbury National Cemetery, where Charles is buried in an unmarked plot, is supposed to have its shadow pass over each grave in the cemetery to commemorate the lives lost.

Thanks again to Russ VanDervoort for presenting us with such a detailed history of the life of this soldier. It was a fascinating lecture and I'm sure I left at least several pages worth of stories out! If you want to add something you found most interesting that I've left out - or feel the need to correct - share in the comments!

And thanks to the Van Schaick Island Country Club for hosting us. See you again February 7th!