They Pitched Into Us Pretty Strong: A Buckeye Prisoner Recalls Port Republic

After months of captivity at Lynchburg and Belle Isle, Sergeant Samuel Wooldridge of the 29th Ohio wrote the following letter to his parents back home in Ohio. It had been four months since he had last been able to write them. The English-born sergeant was captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Port Republic on June 9, 1862, and endured three months as a prisoner of war. 

    "We were kept on a hill with no grass on it," was how he described Lynchburg. "We had no tents, two-thirds of us no blankets, only food enough to make us one meal a day and not very good at that. After about a week, we were taken into the fairgrounds. There we had flour, beef, bacon, beans, rice, sugar, salt, and vinegar, about half a ration of each. But being closely confined, we did not get exercise enough to make us very hungry." Life at Belle Isle wasn't any better. "There we lived on half a loaf of bread and every third day a small piece of beef, half boiled and unsalted. I thought that was pretty small rations, the smallest I ever lived on," he wrote. 

    Sergeant Wooldridge's letter, written to his parents William and Jane shortly after his release from Confederate captivity, tells not only his story of imprisonment but provides a fine description of the Battle of Port Republic. The letter first appeared in the October 16, 1862, edition of the Summit County Beacon published in Akron, Ohio. The Wooldridge family emigrated to the U.S. in 1851 and settled a farm in Stow, Summit County, Ohio. The 1860 census shows Samuel working as a farm laborer on his parents' farm in Stow, living with his older brother John (a 'common school teacher') and his younger sisters Anna and Sarah. 

 

English-born Samuel Wooldridge of the 29th Ohio went into action in partnership with Charles Talbott but missing his canteen. Spying a dead Confederate nearby "and thinking it was of no earthly use to him, I took it off and handed it to my partner he not having anything else to carry." Wooldridge would be captured later that morning and spend the next three months as a prisoner of war. 


Fort Delaware

September 21, 1862

 Dear Father and Mother,

          It is the greatest pleasure imaginable that I am permitted to write to you and express my opinions freely. It is about four months since I wrote to you from Catlett’s Station on our way to Fredericksburg. Two or three days after, I received the girls’ likenesses which you sent by S.O. Crosby. I got them the next day after we passed through Front Royal on the way to Fredericksburg. After we arrived at the latter place, we marched round by the way of Manassas Junction down through White Plains through Thoroughfare Gap and on back to Front Royal. We stayed there a day or two then went back to Luray and laid there another day.

          We then went down to Columbia Bridge expecting to cross the river but the bridge being burned, we did not cross. The Third and Fourth Brigades only were there. We were ordered to Port Republic to keep the Rebels under Jackson from crossing over the river at that place and getting out of the way of Fremont’s army which was close upon them.

But through some great blunder, the bridge was not burned. We have heard from the first that General [James] Shields ordered Brigadier General [Samuel S.] Carroll to burn the bridge; then we heard that General [Irvin] McDowell sent orders to General Carroll not to burn it, but to hold it is possible. The was on Sunday the 8th of June. Carroll, of course, did not know whether his men could hold the bridge or not till they tired it, and after they tried and found they could not maintain their position, it was too late to burn it. So, by gaining this point, the Rebels got over the river Sunday night and knowing that we had but a small force they pitched into us pretty strong.

Sergeant Samuel Wooldridge
Co. D, 29th O.V.I.

The battle began between 7 and 8 in the morning and lasted till about 11. Our cannons laid piles of them in the dust. I slept with Charles Talbott that night and in the morning, Charles took my sugar, I took his coffee, and we went into the battle in partnership. While we were fighting there was any amount of swearing. We first met them in a wheat field and drove from their position then occupied it ourselves and found many dead Secesh and one of their flags.

It so happened that I had no canteen at this time and as I was passing over the body of a Rebel, I saw a good canteen and thinking it was of no earthly use to him, I took it off his body and handed it to my partner, he not having anything else to carry. About this moment, the Rebels attacked our left pretty strongly where there was but a small force and we had to move to their assistance.

Before we got there, the Rebels had attacked our battery three times and each time had been driven back, leaving many of their number biting the dust. Then they came round still further to the left and acting as sharpshooters, shot the horses belonging to the battery so it could not be taken away. It was thought by General [Erastus] Tyler to be time to retreat and the retreat was commenced. Our regiment was ordered to cover the retreat.

The 7th Ohio got away with but little loss, retreating and firing as they went. That was the last I saw of John and Thomas Ely. I have since heard that Thomas was slightly wounded in the shoulder at the Battle of Culpeper Courthouse but I presume you have heard from the boys. The 5th Ohio and we were side by side on the retreat. There was an order given to strike into the woods. I was one of those that went into the woods and kept with the rest as well as I could. The boys got awfully scattered in the retreat. I kept close by our flag bearer, rushing along to get out of the way. But the Rebels had the advantage of us for they kept to the road and could travel a good deal faster. They headed us off and soon surrounded us. There was about 20 men in the squad I was taken in. Oscar Brewster, S.O. Crosby from Co. C, and Ettie Lemoin’s brother from the 5th Ohio were taken in the same squad. They were all you would be likely to know.

We were then marched over the road we had tried to stop Jackson from going on. We were guarded by men you could not tell from Negroes only by their color. They talked exactly the same way. The first night we were captured, we slept on the top of the Blue Ridge within about a mile of Weird’s Cave. Tuesday morning, we started again and they took us about four miles. Just at the foot of the mountain, they thought it best to stop awhile at an old log barn. It was raining pretty briskly.

Belle Isle Prisoner of War camp was located near Richmond, Virginia

There was about 400 of us in this old barn. We got nothing to eat until the second night after the fight then we got a little dough baked on a board and a little strip of meat. The next morning we got a little more raw dough. We were then taken to Ivy Station and stayed overnight. Thursday morning, we left this place for Charlottesville and got there about noon, staying until evening. Then we marched down to the cars and 40 of us were ordered into each little freight car. On Friday, we hustled down to Lynchburg and there we joined about 1,500 of the men Jackson took out of the hospitals and a few he took from General Banks while that general was retreating before him in the Shenandoah. We were kept on a hill with no grass on it. We had no tents, two-thirds of us no blankets, only food enough to make us one meal a day and not very good at that.

After about a week, we were taken into the fairgrounds. There we had flour, beef, bacon, beans, rice, sugar, salt, and vinegar, about half a ration of each. But being closely confined, we did not get exercise enough to make us very hungry. About all we could do was to eat, drink, then lie down and sleep. We were kept at Lynchburg until the 6th of August when we were taken to Belle Isle near Richmond. There we lived on half a loaf of bread and every third day a small piece of beef, half boiled and unsalted. I thought that was pretty small rations, the smallest I ever lived on.

We had been there about four days when S. Gaylord and a few more of our regiment were brought to the Isle from the Battle of Cedar Mountain. We lived (barely lived) till the 7th of September when we were called out to be sent to the arms of Father Abraham. We marched 15 miles to Aiken’s Landing and got on board the boat just as the sun went down. Now we felt safe sleeping under the Stars and Stripes once more. We went down the James River to Fortress Monroe then up the Potomac to Washington. We lay about a mile from the White House that night. The next morning, we went back to Alexandria, loaded on a load of coal, and started for Fort Delaware. On our way down the river, the old pilot (being asleep I think) ran the old steamboat onto an oyster bed. There we lay for two or three days. The steamship Spalding was sent to take us through and now we are here in America where we can live, I think.

In Richmond, we had to pay 25 cents for three apples, the same for five small peaches; flour was 25 cents per quart and everything else in proportion. Here we can get a cap full of splendid peaches for 5 cents, two apples for a cent, and melons for almost nothing, but I have not been able to buy any for a very good reason: not having any money. We have just got some new clothes and begin to look a little more respectable. The government owes me 7 months’ pay; I have not heard when we shall be paid nor what they are going to do with us.

Sergeant Wooldridge would be killed in action May 8, 1864, during the 29th Ohio’s attack upon Dug Gap in northern Georgia.

Source:

Letter from Sergeant Samuel Wooldridge, Co. D, 29th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Summit County Beacon (Ohio), October 16, 1862, pg. 2

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