WEST PLAINS, Mo. – History teachers will tell you it’s not always easy to make the events of the past come to life for the students of today, but a recent gift to Missouri State University-West Plains should aid in that effort for students studying the American Civil War.
West Plains resident Chuck Kimberlin recently presented to university officials over 50 letters written by Sgt. John L. Arnold, a young man from Trenton, New Jersey, who served in Company E of the 97th New York Regiment during the conflict. The dates on the letters range from the earliest days of the war in 1860 until 1864, when he was discharged as a captain from the Union Army.
Kimberlin gifted the university with the letters in honor of his late mother, well-known local genealogist Irene Kimberlin, who had contacts across the country. He found them among her things after she died.
“Someone, possibly a member of John Arnold’s family, gave my mother these letters years ago because he or she thought my mother would enjoy doing some research on them,” he recalled. “I knew she had them. I had seen them, and I knew what they looked like, but I had lost track of them. When she passed and we cleaned out her things, we found them. I decided that, in memory of her and for the potential they have, I would give them to the university.”
When Kimberlin presented them to Chancellor Drew Bennett, he told Bennett that university officials could do anything they wanted with them, but he hoped they would be used for academic endeavors. “I feel they could be used for research on this individual or for the time period in general,” he explained.
Assistant Professor of History Connie Morgan agreed, saying they will provide a wealth of information for students, faculty and historians alike. “What will be interesting is the information he can provide about the battles he witnessed and the daily life of the soldier,” she explained. “He’s basically giving us a look into the daily life of a Civil War soldier. This was the first time something like this had happened in our country, the first time something had divided our nation. Both sides thought it would be a very short, bloodless war, and they both were fooled. Neither side was prepared for what truly happened.”
The topics covered in the 52 letters range the gamut, from details about various battles to the everyday, mundane activities of a soldier. In every letter, Sgt. Arnold gives his location at the time he wrote them. “There was enough information that you could look at a map and follow him,” Kimberlin said.
In his early letters, he describes mustering in at Albany, New York, and the regiment’s journey to Washington, D.C., by rail, wagon, barge and foot. “There were a lot of times he seemed upbeat and excited, but they also tended to be the same type of letters soldiers have written home in every war. There’s excitement, there’s sheer boredom, and there’s the mundane information of breaking camp and moving somewhere else,” Kimberlin said.
Sgt. Arnold also talks about several well-known battles, such as the Battle of Fredericksburg, the siege at Petersburg, the second Battle of Bull Run, as well as the lesser-known Battle of Cedar Mountain in Culpepper, Virginia, Morgan added. “Most of their military time was the mundane. When you look at the war’s length, most of the time was spent in camp,” she explained.
Some of the letters also detail Sgt. Arnold’s time working at Carver General Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he met Abraham Lincoln more than once, Kimberlin said. “He describes Lincoln coming out to visit the troops, sometimes with his son, Robert Todd, who had his own little uniform and pony. Lincoln also visited a camp Sgt. Arnold was in, and on that visit, he described Lincoln as being tall and very thin and mentioned he would be surprised if the president lived through the year. Even so, Sgt. Arnold wrote that on every visit, Lincoln would shake every soldier’s hand,” Kimberlin said.
Just as important as the battle information contained in the letters is the social history described among the pages, Morgan stressed. “Personal letters are the best way for us to know what daily life was like. They can give a weather report, a crop report, the latest scoop on the gossip in town. When you read these letters, you feel the emotion of the writer. You don’t get that sense of emotion in today’s emails. That’s why these letters are so amazing,” she explained.
The letters also reveal much about Sgt. Arnold himself. From the neatness of his handwriting and the grammar he used, he appeared to be an educated man, and the paper stock he used, pages of which included an embossment, indicate he may have come from a family of means. The quality of the paper probably helped in the letters’ preservation, Morgan said.
Currently, the letters are being transcribed and digitized so their content can easily be accessed online. Morgan said this is a painstaking process that will continue for several months. Once completed, however, their information will be accessible from any place with Internet access through the Garnett Library’s website, she added.
Meanwhile, Morgan is researching Sgt. Arnold and the history of the 97th New York Regiment. “We will do a chronological line of the letters and the information included in each to get a better understanding of how and where the regiment moved,” she explained.
“I really hope students, as well as historians and others interested in the war, take advantage of these letters and the valuable information they provide. I think there are a number of learning experiences students can gain from this information,” Kimberlin said. “It also would be nice if people were inspired by this gift to go and find similar interesting things that would have academic value for students on this campus,” he added.