Dearest Anna: A Buckeye Surgeon's Final Words to His Wife

    It was Sunday May 3, 1863. The place was a copse of woods along the Plank Road west of the Chancellor House near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Surgeon Charles August Hartmann, a wounded Federal prisoner in the hands of the Confederates, suspected that he was dying. The Confederate ball that had pierced his abdomen the previous evening had injured "only a small portion of my intestines," but the German-born doctor was leaving nothing to chance. As the thunder of battle roared about him, he tore a piece of paper from his ledger and composed these last words to his wife Anna back home in Cleveland, Ohio. He wrote in German, his native language, which translates as follows:

May 3, 1863

Dearest Anna,

    During the terrible rout of our troops yesterday afternoon, I received a ball in the abdomen. I am in the hands of the Southerners. Only a small portion of my intestines are injured and all may yet be well. I will write thee, however, as long as I am able, in order to say to thee a last farewell in case I should not survive. Thou wilt receive this letter only in the event of my death. I do not fear it. It is only that I must leave thee and the children so soon.

    My pocket book with over $100, my watch, pocket knife, and canteen have been taken from me by Alabama troops. Write to Dr. [John] Knaus and have him sell my horse, saddle, and blankets if they are saved and send thee the money. Procure my back pay and thy pension through Jacob Mueller. Bring up our children to be worthy men and with my last kiss, farewell forever. Oh thou poor, beloved all, and sorely tried woman.

    The last greeting from thy August.

Surgeon Charles August Hartmann, 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Cleveland Soldiers and Sailors Monument

    Dr. Hartmann was born in Germany in 1824 and emigrated to the United States prior to 1850. Setting up practice in Cleveland, Ohio, he became active with the Cleveland Turnverein, a German social and gymnastic association. By the advent of the war, Dr. Hartmann had been elected coroner of Cuyahoga County and was considered competent and was well-liked in his profession. After the death of his first wife Sarah, he married Anna Magdalene Boyd on December 4, 1855 and they had one daughter, Leonora Augusta, who was born August 21, 1860. Interestingly, Dr. Hartmann served as his wife's attending physician during her "confinement" as related in the pension documents. 

    The Cleveland Turnverein was abolitionist in sentiment, and when war broke out, many of the men enlisted, most of them joining Co. K of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Dr. Hartmann stayed behind until the second major call for troops in the summer of 1862 when he chose to join the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a predominately German unit. He enlisted August 26, 1862 at Camp Taylor in Cleveland and was commissioned as surgeon of the regiment. The 107th Ohio was mustered into service September 9, 1862, left the state in late September, and was assigned to the Army of the Potomac where it joined the Second Brigade of the First Division of the 11th Army Corps. Its first major action was at Chancellorsville, an utter disaster, the regiment losing 220 men, among them Dr. Hartmann. The sad story of the 11th Corps at Chancellorsville has been discussed extensively on this blog, and I'd recommend Edward C. Culp's account to give one an idea of what Dr. Hartmann experienced that evening. 

The situation on the evening of May 2, 1863; the location of the 107th Ohio is at the center of this map just west of the Talley House. Surgeon Hartmann was "attending to his duties in the rear of the regiment," most likely at the hospital located just behind the 25th Ohio. Letters from members of the regiment mention Surgeon Hartmann trying to rally the regiment during the retreat, and several mention that they thought he was wounded and in the hands of the enemy, but in the confused situation of the immediate aftermath of the battle, no one really knew. It would be a month before his wife received word that he had died. 

    Following her deceased husband's advice, Anna filed for a widow's pension on June 17, 1863. Affixing the date of Dr. Hartmann's death was difficult. "It is shown by certificates that the said surgeon was wounded near Chancellorsville in battle May 2, 1863," it was written. "Was stated as being in a Rebel hospital, the wound very severe. Surgeon Buckley thinks he died about the 12th of May. Surgeon Meyers thinks his death about the 6th of May and that he died of said wound. Claimant [Anna] thinks he died the 10th of May." 

    To support her claim, Surgeon Louis G. Meyers of the 25th Ohio wrote a letter to the Pension Bureau on April 18, 1864. "After the Battle of Chancellorsville, I was within the Confederate lines and in charge of a portion of our wounded near the Wilderness Church," he wrote. "I was informed that Surgeon Charles Hartman of the 107th Ohio, to me well known, was badly wounded at the Confederate Division Reserve Hospital at a place about two miles from my post. When I visited him on or about May 6th, I learned from him that he had been wounded at the time the attack was made on the First Division of the 11th Corps in the afternoon of May 2nd. At that time, he was in the rear of his regiment attending to his duty. Upon examination, I found that Surgeon Hartmann had been struck by a piece of shell which entering at the spinal column had ranged forward and upward, coming out near the navel and had lacerated his intestines extensively, the contents of the latter freely oozing out and covering the whole abdomen. The doctor was in possession  of his mental faculties but showed signs of approaching death from mortification having a small pulse, cold extremities, etc. Considering him unfit to be moved and dying, I made the best arrangements possible for him and left him for my other duties. George Buckley, surgeon U.S.A., and medical director of the 11th Corps, went the next day to see me about Dr. Hartmann and coming back reported that Dr. Hartmann had died the night before and had been buried that morning. I heard the same from a Rebel ambulance driver who was expressly sent by the attending surgeon of Dr. Hartmann to tell me so."

Knaus took over the duties as regimental
surgeon after Hartmann's death

    Where is Dr. Hartmann buried? That's  open to question, but best guess is that he is buried among the thousands of unknown dead at Fredericksburg National Cemetery. However, he is memorialized by a large medallion of his bust on the West Column of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Cleveland, Ohio, the only soldier not a general who was so honored. On May 9, 1864, the Pension Bureau awarded Anna a pension of $25 per month starting from May 12, 1863. An application for an increase was made in 1876 but apparently denied, and the pension payments stopped in October 1887, Anna having died October 3, 1887. She never remarried. 

    A few online sources list Dr. Hartmann as the only surgeon killed in action during the Civil War, but this is simply not true. Consulting the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion published in 1875, it lists 19 surgeons who were killed in battle during the war, another 13  killed by "partisan troops or assassinated by guerillas or rioters," eight more died of wounds, while nine more died of accidents while in the line of duty, giving a total of 49 surgeons who gave their lives during the war. The Medical History lists Dr. Hartmann as among the killed in action, but more accurately (given that he died several days after being wounded) he should classified among those who died of wounds. 

Sources:

"A Brave Man's Last Words," Cleveland Morning Leader (Ohio), June 15, 1863, pg. 3

Regiment roster for the 107th Ohio

Civil War Widow's Pension for Charles A. Hartman, Fold3.com

Barnes, Joseph K. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of Rebellion (1861-65). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1875, pgs. xxx-xxxi

Smith, Jacob D. Camps and Campaigns of the 107th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1862-1865. Navarre: Indian River Graphics, 2000


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