Civil War Manuscripts Project
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Biographical Information

Henry Harrison Brown was born in Uxbridge, MA, on 26 June 1840, to Pemberton and Paulina Whitmore Brown. He was educated at Nichols Academy in Dudley, MA, and, following the Civil War, at the Unitarian Divinity School in Meadville, PA. He married and later divorced Fannie M. Hancox. Brown taught school from 1855 to 1870, except for the three years he spent in the service of the United States during the Civil War. He preached for the Unitarian Society at Petersham, MA, from 1887 to 1888 and at Salem, OR, from 1890 to 1892. From 1870 to 1885 he lectured on spiritualistic, reformatory and economic topics. From 1893 to 1900 Brown continued to lecture and considered himself a “soul-culture” teacher. From 1900 until his death in 1918, he worked as an editor and lecturer. He was the President of Now Folk publishers, San Francisco, CA, and editor of Now, “a Journal of Affirmation,” which was a “New Thought” magazine. Brown also authored many books and pamphlets, or “tracts.” He became President of the World New Thought Federation in 1905 and established a “cooperating community” in Glenwood, CA, in 1906. In July of 1916, Brown gave some of his Civil War letters to The Connecticut Historical Society (CHS). Brown died at Glenwood, CA, on 8 May 1918. In 1966, Brown’s daughter, Mrs. Winzola B. Andell of Long Beach, CA, gave the remainder of Brown’s letters, diaries and his transcriptions to the CHS.

Brown claimed he entered the work of mental healing and teaching in 1893. Some of his books are: The Lord’s Prayer: A Vision of Today; Concentration; Success; Self Healing; How to Control Fate; Not Hypnotism but Suggestion; Man’s Greatest Discovery; and Dollars Want Me. In addition to these books Brown also wrote and published many tracts, or pamphlets: Friendship: The Third Function of Sex; Body Building: The First Function of Sex; Procreation: A Secondary Function of Sex; The Ultimate of Sex: Spiritual Unfoldment; Place of Sex in Race Unfoldment; Social Hygiene: Sex Education; What is New Thought?; Healing Words of Jesus; and a published address entitled, A Triumphant Democracy (1915).

From Brown’s “Record of My Experiences as a Soldier in the 18 Conn. Vols. as Told in Letters to my Mother”

When the Civil War began, Brown had been teaching school in Fisherville, a cotton factory village three miles from his home in New Boston. Brown had very strong abolitionist sympathies.

On 5 September 1861, Brown attends and is moved by the funeral of General Nathaniel Lyon.

Every year on the anniversary of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth’s death (which occurred 24 May 1861), Brown commemorated the death of the young martyr, which was to him a profound memory. At about this same time, the Browns received a visit from Wilbur W. Birge, a comrade of Brown’s brother Adin, in the 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Adin B. Brown enlisted on 23 May 1861 and was mustered-in a Private, Company I, 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. He was promoted to Corporal on 27 April 1863 and was discharged on 22 May 1864. Henry frequently mentions his brother Adin. Brown also had a brother, Pemberton, and a sister, Abba, at home in Connecticut. Brown wrestled with his conscience for quite a while before enlisting; he was torn between continuing on at Nichols Academy in Dudley, MA, and going to war.

21 August 1861: "I am afraid if I go I may turn coward. I am of too nervous a temperament altogether. I cannot at times command myself. If I think of war all the time I better be there than here…" Many of Brown's letters demonstrate his strong attachment and sense of duty to his mother.

18 March 1862, Brown had received a letter from his friend Abiel: "He says the balls come as near as he wished & that he dodged some after they had passed him."

6 August 1862: "I… decided that I must be one of that 600,000" Brown is responding to President Lincoln's two calls for volunteers at about this time.

22 August 1862, notes buying “a vest (a metalic bullet proof one) as did many others, but this morning the Col. placed the vendor under arrest untill he had refunded all the money. The Col. says the thing is a swindle.” The 18^th Connecticut Infantry was armed with Springfield rifles.

25 August 1862 finds Brown at Fort McHenry, Annapolis, MD.

2 September 1862: on this date Henry witnessed the following exchange, “ ‘Halt! Who goes there?’ & received in reply ‘Grand Rounds!’ ‘Advance Ground Arms & give the Countersign!’” Brown notes that Company D was the second company on the left in regimental line.

14 September 1862: On dress parade, “As Col. Ely was putting us through with the manual of arms one of the government horses ran upon the ground followed by a dog. While the Col. was giving the order ‘Right shoulder shift, arms!’ he having given the first part when the dog ran between him and the regiment; by some misstep his [the dog’s] feet went from under him he fell & gave a ‘Yap’ just as the Col should have said ‘Arms,’ & up went the guns of one entire Co. with many stray ones in other Companies. So pleased was the Col. & other officers that a dog should give orders for him that they laughed. This of course gave permission for the men & we laughed. The Col. gave no more orders that night.” Brown notes that at about this time he was writing both poetry and prose pieces for the Windham County Transcript signed either F. H. W. or Fred Holand Whitmore.

30 October 1862: Brown leaves Fort McHenry and marches seven miles to Fort Marshall

26 November 1862: "When I enlisted I weighed 128 lbs. I now weigh 146…"

27 November 1862: Brown hears from a rebel prisoner that the Union army “is large enough to eat the other [Confederate].”

3 December 1862: Brown receives cayenne pepper from home, which the soldiers were using in their drinking water and for stomach distress.

5 December 1862: the debate of the Lyceum that day, was “Resolved: -- The Negro has received from the white man greater wrongs than the Indian.” Brown notes that the 27 members of the Lyceum met only four times in December of 1862. Later in the month, Brown reveals himself to have been a great advocate of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and not at all an admirer of General McClellan. Brown’s own heroes were Elmer Ellsworth and General Fremont.

12 December 1862: Brown notes that when he left home he weighed 128 pounds and that this day he weighed 156 pounds.

Pasted in the back of the first volume of transcriptions is Company D’s Lyceum Record Book, with its preamble, constitution, by-laws and the signatures of members. The book also records the order of exercises and minutes of meetings.

Volume Two:

This volume contains a manuscript list of field officers and the roll of Company D; a facsimile of the X Corps badge; a broadside containing General Milroy’s farewell dated 26 June 1863; a newspaper clipping from the Norwich Bulletin, 23 June 1863, regarding the battle of Winchester; and printed orders from headquarters, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina, dated 21 August, 2 and 21 October 1864, the latter of which concerns the death of General D. B. Birney. The order dated 2 October 1864 warns officers not to take bounties or to be counted on local quotas under the new draft. A printed order from Headquarters of the Army of the James, dated 18 December 1864, tells of the victory in Nashville. The volume also contains a newspaper clipping, 31 January 1864 regarding General Milroy’s visit to the 18^th Connecticut’s Division. The men referred to General Milroy affectionately as “Daddy.” Also included is a broadside extra from the Windham County Transcript, 6 July 1863, regarding casualties at the battle of Winchester.

18 December 1862: Brown records the gossip that Colonel Ely was engaged to Governor Buckingham’s adopted daughter and that the 18^th Connecticut was costing the State more than any other regiment being composed mainly of married men.

30 January 1863: notes they received “leather stocks – dog-collars today.” These were designed to make the men hold up their heads. Too many in the regiment had the tendency to focus on the heels of the man in front rather than on his shoulder.

8 February 1863: warns his mother, “Do not make idols of your boys.” Henry’s brother John D. Brown was also serving with him in Company D. John D. Brown enlisted on 8 August 1862 and was mustered-in a Private on 18 August 1862. John Brown was discharged from the 18^th Connecticut on 15 March 1864 in order to accept a commission as Captain in the 43^rd United Stated Colored Troops. Henry mentions his brother John often. Brown also notes he enjoys the Hartford Press, the New York Tribune and the Independent (also New York) and he believes the Hartford Times, the New York Herald and the Providence Post harm morale. He also notes that the 18^th had received the sobriquet “Buckingham’s pets” and that the men in the unit were referred to as “holiday soldiers.”

3 March 1863: “If ever there was a just war if a man ever had anything to fight for this is the one & the time.”

13 April 1863: "I asked a pass today of Col. N. for this evening but was denied. Wouldn't I like to be in command over him a spell."

4 May 1863: mentions a black surgeon with a commission from Governor Andrews of Massachusetts had been attacked in Baltimore because he was in uniform.

7 May 1863: mentions seeing General Tom Thumb and wife.

12 May 1863: describes the State prison in Baltimore in great detail.

23 May 1863 Brown is at Harpers Ferry.

25 May 1863, Brown's regiment arrives at Winchester, VA

Volume Three:

Included in this volume are: a blank sheet of Confederate stationery manufactured by W. & J. Bonitz, Goldsboro, NC, depicting a CSA flag and cannon vignette and an eight-line poem; a broadside containing Special Orders No. 16, Headquarters, Dept. of the Susquehannah, 26 June 1863, in which Colonel L. B. Pierce, 12^th Pennsylvania Cavalry, relieves General Milroy and assumes command of the troops in the vicinity of Bloody Run, PA. Brown also notes that the right wing of the 18^th consisted of Companies A, H, F, D and C.

4 June 1863: notes a mounted man is never allowed to approach a sentinel but must deliver the countersign on foot.

5 June 1863: many would not do without their “sponge” to wash dust from their faces, to bathe their heads and necks, to pour water upon them on the march & “have a wash.” Notes that some of the boys were keeping a “rubber belt – a bandage of fine rubber” [tourniquet] in their pocket to be used upon wounded limbs.

13-15 June 1863, the Battle of Winchester, VA, took place and much of the 18^th Connecticut Infantry (ca.600) was captured; however, on 16 June, Brown was in Hancock, MD.

22 June 1863, Brown writes a post mortem of the defeat at Winchester, VA

26 June 1863: notes his 23^rd birthday.

28 June 1863: he cannot forget the noise of battle, “for several days I could not lie down but the cracking of a stick or the step of a foot or a horse-hoof would waken me & I would start as though a shell had burst near me. I am over that now but the music of battle rings in my ears just as that of a violin used to ring when I went to bed after we had a dance.” Brown believed that General Milroy was "outgeneraled." He notes, "How the boys loved Col. Ely." Ely had been captured at Winchester, VA.

30 June 1863: here is pasted a Confederate postage stamp found by a friend of Brown’s near Hagerstown, MD [p. 48], and another on page 52.

7 July 1863: Brown was 5’8 ½” tall, had brown hair, hazel eyes, was a teacher and was born in Uxbridge, MA.

Volume Four:

13 August 1863: speaks highly of General Milroy and relays a story of his kindness to Privates.

14 August 1863: Brown was detailed as nurse at U. S. General Hospital in Hagerstown, MD, over 12 wounded rebels. He was not fond of the job but felt it to be good discipline to nurse his enemies and very useful to know how to nurse sick comrades.

16 August 1863: though he looked forward to returning home he suspected he would not be content there after a few weeks with the lack of “excitement & so many to talk to.”

31 August 1863: describes his Confederate patients as, 1) a Virginian with a bullet wound. Bullet entered lower left jaw and exited under his right shoulder blade. The wound had healed but for his jaw which continued to fester and eject bone fragments. He was treated with a flaxseed poultice twice a day. “[A] very nervous fellow,” nicknamed “Pip.” 2) A Georgian with typhoid fever who had been neglected by Confederate surgeons and who now also had a very large bed sore on his back, "as large as a pint bowl & quite deep.” He, too, was treated with a flaxseed poultice and also received a wash with a zinc solution. This soldier was healing quickly. 3) An 18-year-old Virginian who had lost his right foot but who was doing well. 4) A Virginian with a wound in the right arm near the shoulder. 5) A Georgian. A bullet entered his bowels and lodged under his left rib. His situation was, according to Brown, “precarious.” 6) A soldier from Fairfax, VA, with a wound in the left hip. He was doing well. 7) A Virginian with a bullet wound through both legs and another in his heel [?]. He was, Brown noted, “almost as good as new.” 8) A Georgian with a bullet in his left leg. 9) A North Carolinian who had lost his left arm. 10) A Georgian who had lost his left arm. 11) A North Carolinian with grape shot through his left shoulder under his collarbone. Brown noted it was, “an ugly wound but doing well.” 12) A deserter from Tennessee with ague chills.

7 September 1863: Brown comes down with the measles.

28 September 1863, Brown was transported to Martinsburg, WV.

30 September 1863: notes that after a month of illness from the measles he weighed 131 lbs.

4 October 1863: asks for larkspur seed to kill lice as, Brown noted, the asylums then used. Brown strongly dislikes Major Peale. He was writing letters to the Windham County Transcript and the Norwich Bulletin and signing them “Sterling.”

6 October 1863: asks his mother for a bottle of Moors “Excelsior” ink.

3 December 1863: notes a revival at the Methodist church, with a full house every night. “A few have gone forward for prayers & their ‘boo-ho’ is tremendous. One woman . . . siezed [sic] by ‘the spirit’ jumped up siezed [sic] a gentleman & gave him a kiss heard all over the church. The man was probably her husband & I judge from appearances seemed used to it . . .  [I] shall try & not transplant the custom.”  Brown speaks eloquently of the 18^th’s Adjutant Porter who was killed at Winchester on 15 June 1863, rendering a detailed account of this respected officer.

4 December 1863: first mention of men being examined for commissions in newly forming African American regiments.

16 December 1863: hears a contraband stating that his master threatened to “put me in his pocket’ [sell him].

19 December 1863, Brown writes of his excellent impression of Colonel Ely as a soldier and a man.

Volume Five (Copied in 1913):

9 January 1864: notes he had applied for admission to the “Free Military School” in Philadelphia preparatory to going before the Examining Board in Washington for a commission in a black regiment. He applied to the School along with Sergeant Robinson, Company C, company U. S. color bearer of the 18^th. Brown says he had considered this move for a long time and had weighed it carefully. He notes that 47 of every 100 examined are rejected.

16 January 1864, Martinsburg, WV: speaks of the Company pet “Kitty,” left behind by Company E. Brown enticed Kitty with a string to run across the table upon which his brother John, who was deeply engaged in studying tactics, had created “lines of battle,” “mixing right & left divisions so that no manouvers [sic] in tactics would bring them into line. She [Kitty] would put the whole regiment in to confusion & make ‘paws’ in the midst of drill upsetting Col. Lt Col. & Maj. I laugh J. tries to look cross but must smile…”

19 February 1864: In Washington Brown visited the Patent Office. “I weighed myself on one of Fairbank’s scales in the right wing of the building & weigh 141 ½ lbs.” Brown had passed his exam as a first-class First Lieutenant. He also notes the library of the Smithsonian “is extensive but not so large nor so attractive as the Antiquarian Hall in Worcester.” Brown hoped to be assigned to the 30^th Connecticut Infantry (Colored), but was instead assigned to the 29^th Connecticut Infantry (Colored) on 22 February. Brown arrived at the Fair Haven camp of the 29^th Connecticut on 10 March 1864.

1 March 1864: "Left the boys & the '18' for good with many regrets."

21 September 1864: hears news of Sheridan’s recent victory and before leaving the trenches called over to the rebels asking them about General Early. The rebels replied, “Beef. Beef,” in reference to the Confederate capture of Union beeves near City Point.

12 March 1864, New Haven, CT: notes that his Captain, Edward Bacon, had taken him home to his father’s (Leonard Bacon) home for tea in the evening.

19 March 1864, New Haven: "Our regiment [29^th Connecticut Infantry (Colored)] received a fine flag from the hands of Dr. Bacon presented by the colored ladies of New Haven and embarked at sunset in transport Warrior for Annapolis."

22 March 1864, New Haven: "I never saw a regiment do better marching than ours today."

12 May 1864, New Haven: has 36 in his Company (I) “who write a good legible hand.”

The end of this volume contains a National Tribune account, “Capture at Winchester,” by J. H. Sawyer, Company B, 18^th Connecticut Infantry, written well after the war from the soldiers’ home in Lafayette, Indiana. Other volumes contain more articles from the Tribune on Winchester by J. H. Sawyer.

Volume Six:

2 June 1864, Port Royal Island, SC: writes of picket firing along the line one night. Perhaps Brown was witnessing Colonel T. W. Higginson’s “Night in the Water”! See Higginson’s Army Life in a Black Regiment (Boston, 1870, pp. 152-166).

14 June 1864, Beaufort, SC: “I believe Old Abe will be in history if not a greater Pres. than Washington at least his peer… yet he has allowed his Cabinet to snub our best Generals…”

15 June 1864: describes with pride his new quarters, “ . . . to use a camp word – ‘Hunkie!’”

2 July 1864: interesting story of the dismissal of Capt. Thomas Dunlap, Jr., Company F, for drunkenness. Notes that Dunlap was the brother-in-law of General Sheridan. Also notes the 29^th Connecticut was armed with Springfield rifles.

9 July 1864: "Our Sergt. Major [Horace N. Loudon] died a few days ago [6 July]. He was a New Haven negro. He was a nobly formed man & the smartest black-man it has been my fortune to meet."

29 July 1864: writes of General Order Number 109, Headquarters, Department of the South, 16 July 1864: “we are limited narrowly in the information conveyed by our letters. Even in mentioning that our regt. is on Picket is disobeying orders.”

Three clippings from the National Tribune are included at the end of this volume. Two of the clippings tell the story of the battle of Fort Fisher, NC, and the principal Union officers engaged in that battle. The third clipping pertains to black troops at Petersburg, VA.

Volume Seven:

27 August 1864 finds Brown "In the trenches before Petersburg."

28 August 1864: writes of his regiment’s reception by white troops as overheard on the march: “ ‘Glad to see you here to help us!’ ‘Thats a large regt. Bigger than our whole Brigade.’ ‘White troops don’t march like that!’ ‘Johnies don’t like you fellows!’ ‘He’ll pop at you every chance he gets.’ ‘Don’t be afraid of his Baby cry!’ (his yell).” Brown also noted that during his regiment’s withdrawal from Strawberry Plains, back across the James River, the 29^th was forced to march through thick woods and mud 18-inches deep with stragglers from every white regiment lining the way, breaking the 29^th in two places. However, Brown noted that the regiment marched on with few stragglers. “ ‘What regt. is this?’ I said to a squad that filled the road. ‘The Irish Brigade!’ ‘Be jabbers!’ said one soon after [‘] it’s a nagur regt. Kape your nagurs to the left! Kape your nagurs to the left!’ But on we marched & once in a while a white Irishman would get in amongst us. ‘Kape your nagurs to the left! I’ll not march with nagurs!’ & away he would get to the other side the road calling, ‘Jimmy’ or ‘Pat!’ ‘Kape to the right! My gun is in here!’ said one burly fellow knee-deep in a mud-puddle. Thus our way was cheered our boys echoing the cry ‘Kape your nagurs to the left!’” Brown noted that all but four men kept with the regiment.

30 August 1864, in the trenches before Petersburg, VA: General Birney was “known as the man who marches his troops to death by all the troops in the Dept.” Brown also writes that "Yesterday I sent some men to get some branches to shade the door of my bomb-proof & they brought maple with leaves just tinged with yellow & red… for awhile I was homesick & wished the branches had not been brought."

5 September 1864: Brown was awakened “by the most terrific cannonade I ever heard…. On the left the cannonading was incessant … and was regular as the beating of the pulse I cannot describe the effect or the sound of a distant cannonade. It is more terrible to me than when I am nearer the guns. That heavy throbbing like the beating of the pulse of some mighty monster whose very breath would annihilate us. Throb, throb far to the left, yet we could feel the concussion in the air…” What Brown was probably listening to was a salute to Sherman’s victory over General Hood.

21 September 1864: upon hearing the news of Sheridan’s victory of 19 September, Brown overheard the following exchange between Union and Confederate pickets:

“ ‘How’s Early?’ we cry. ‘All right!’ says Johnie. ‘We’ve whipped him & got 3,000 prisoners!’ we cry. ‘That’s a d—d lie!’ says Johnie. ‘How’s beef!’ he cries. ‘We’ve plenty. Have you eaten hides & horns yet?’ reply the Yanks. ‘Early’s too late! Johnie 9 Battle-flags!’ ‘Johnie come over! Now’s your time.’” Later, Brown wrote, “Johnie sent a rifle (cannon) shot richochetted [sic] over the bank at one time showing thereby his sensitiveness. ‘Let’s have another John. Come yourself. We’re ready for you![‘] & another came just skipping the bank. Another cheer from our boys & ‘Let’s have another!’ The rebs evidently thought it would not do to waste iron & would cause us to drop our heads by flashing powder . . .” Brown uses a term several times, which meant “skedaddled;” it looks like “schyugalled” or “scuyugled.” A Rebel deserter came into the lines of Company F, as he passed, one Black soldier said “Johnny . . . we are brothers now!” "Johnny" had no further reply.

18 October 1864, Chapin's Farm, VA: the 29^th Connecticut did not have a U. S. flag until this date, when they drew one from the Quartermaster Department. The flag was presented to the regiment by Colonel Doubleday of the 45^th United States Colored Troops, accompanied with music from the band of the 8^th United States Colored Troops. Brown notes that Generals Terry and Hawley were among the spectators.

29 October 1864, Brown writes a lengthy account of a fight his unit participated in at Kell House. The regiment suffered 12 killed and 68 wounded on October 27-28, 1864.

In the back of this volume are pasted-in Brown’s letters of 1 October 1864, in the trenches before Richmond, on a confiscated blank Confederate special requisition (No. 40) and 8 October 1864, near Chapin’s Farm, VA. Also pasted in is a letter from Captain Edward W. Bacon to Acting Adjutant H. H. Brown, 29 October 1864, before Richmond, calling favorable attention to the bravery of Private Richard Thornton on 27-28 October 1864:

“I desire to call to the favorable notice of the Captain commanding the commendable bravery of Private Richard Thornton of my command in the action in which this regiment was engaged on the 27^th & 28^th insts.

Private Thornton, though a recruit and for almost the first time in action was among the foremost of the company in the advance upon the enemy; using his rifle with effect and upon reaching their works posted him self in the slashing and assisted materially in silencing one of the many guns opened upon us, though constantly exposed to a heavy fire of grape & musketry.

Had young Thornton been less daring, -- as he could easily have been --, he might have saved himself a severe wound which, if not fatal, will necessitate the amputation of one of his legs.

While calling attention to this case, from many, I wish not to reflect upon any other man of my command of all of whom, with one exception, I can speak nothing but praise.

                                                                                    Your obdt. Servt.

                                                                                    Edward W. Bacon

                                                                                    Capt. 29^th Conn. Vols.,

                                                                                    Comdg. Comp. ‘I.’”

Richard Thornton, of Greenwich, enlisted on 27 August 1864 and was mustered-in a Private, Company I. He was wounded on 27 October 1864 during an engagement at Kell House, VA. He received a disability discharge on 15 August 1865.

Volume Eight:

20 November 1864: writes of his mother’s letter of 6 November in which she had written “Don’t think that I do not . . . feel your exposures, hardships & privations.”

It is remarkable that Brown’s very poor penmanship was not a severe handicap to his position (albeit temporary) as Acting Adjutant. However, Brown does admit, “it is no uncommon thing to have them [officers] return it [a message or official paper] with the endorsement, ‘Respectfully returned to Adj Brown for explanation. I am unable to read it.’” Brown writes of the endorsement returned on a hastily written circular sent to Capt. Camp, commanding regiment: “ ‘Hdqrs Detachment 29 Conn Vols Cold 4 mile Redoubt Nov. 17, 1864 Respectfully returned to Lt. Brown. The united wisdom of the officers of this Post being unable to decipher it. We are also unable to understand the part we can decipher. He will please have some one who writes the English language write an explanation.’”

26 November 1864: notes that regulations require 9 buttons on a jacket. He had received one made in Connecticut with only 7 buttons. He also notes that he receives a $22.50 per month allowance for a servant (his boy, Tom). He states that it would cost him $41.00 per month to muster an enlisted man as a servant.

14 December 1864: from a letter of 15 December. Brown reported as Acting Assistant Aide de Camp to Col. [Brigadier General?] E. Martindale, 2^nd Brigade, 3^rd Division, XXV Corps. “I act in his place & he sees through my eyes & issues his orders with my tongue when he does not wish to use his own.”

Notes only four pounds may be sent by U.S. mail.

Brown had detailed a man named Saunders [See diary, 9 December 1864] as clerk. See example of his beautiful lettering in Volume 8.

Brown joins the 1^st United States Colored Troops as Captain, Company F, on 2 January 1865. The unit was assigned to the 1^st Brigade, 3^rd Division, XXV Corps.

26 June 1865: notes his 25^th birthday.

29 January 1865, Brown had visited the site of the battle of Fort Fisher three days after the action there. Brown noted, "He that participated in a fight knows very little of it. Brown continues, “The reporters must gather from many his story & from many witnesses he speaks.”

27 February 1865: upon entering Wilmington, “the contrabands filled the streets & welcomed us by shouts of joy. ‘We’re free! We’re free! De chain is broke . . . This is my boy now,’ said an old man as he held his child by the hand.”

Several clippings from the National Tribune regarding the capture of Fort Fisher are in the rear of Volume 8.

Volume Nine:

16 May 1865: Brown had recently written his mother for an account of the money he had been sending home. Apparently, due to the ill health of both Pemberton and Paulina Brown, his parents had been having difficulty in paying the rent and meeting expenses. Henry hears by letter of his mothers cost-saving ventures and writes of his reaction,” I felt like crying . . . It is my privalege [sic] to help you & I rejoice that I am able to begin thus late to repay you for your care to me . . . You saw wood & split it! Oh! that I was there when you tried, you would never have seen the ax or saw again . . . I am too proud to cut my own wood, to black my own shoes, hardly to draw my own breath & my mother out cutting wood!” Apparently Paulina Brown had also been doing some heavy yard and garden work, and the Browns had also sold their cow “Jessie.”

28 August 1865: Brown was tired of active service at Fort Hatteras. “I am trying by means of books to keep in remembrance that there is a world beyond & that sometime I shall return to it & bid adieu to the cheerless planet where I lead a life next in loneliness to the Man in the Moon . . .”

At the end of Volume 9 are more clippings from the National Tribune regarding Winchester; a bill before the legislature regarding volunteer officers; a letter to the Tribune from J. H. Sawyer [formerly of Company B, 18^th Connecticut], who also wrote many of the Tribune articles regarding Winchester. All of these clippings are dated 1916. Also included: an article from the Daily Chronicle (Washington), 9 October 1865, regarding the return of the 1^st DC Volunteers (the 1^st United States Colored Troops); a printed copy of General Orders No. 50 from the Adjutant General’s office, War Department, Washington, 27 March 1865, regarding the flag raising at Fort Sumter and the plan of ceremonies for 14 April 1865; finally a letter from Charles J. Hoadley, of The Connecticut Historical Society, thanking Brown for his gift of “relics.”

*Examination of Brown’s letters (MS)*

Letters in this collection were carefully collated with Brown’s transcription. Letters found in this collection that it appears were not transcribed are: 15 (only the first four pages were not transcribed), 19, 24, and 29 November 1863; 5, 7, 13, 14, 17, 22 and 29 April 1864; and 17 February 1865.

Letters transcribed, but for which no hard copy was found are: 7 to 9 August 1863 (beginning “Dear Parents: I will commence a letter . . .”); 1 December 1863 (beginning “I mailed a letter to mother . . .”); 3 and 4 December 1863 (the last few lines only are missing in hard copy, “I have hopes of obtaining visites . . .”); 12 May 1864 (the latter part beginning “Tea is useless as a…” is missing as hard copy); 12 June 1864 (beginning “When I ret’d to camp . . .”); 15 June 1864 (beginning “Do you remember . . .”) and 17 June 1864 (same letter; part beginning “I am tired tonight. . .”)

Letters:

14 April 1864: notes Captain Bacon had been two years in the Navy and had a brother serving with the 7^th Connecticut Volunteers. Brown also states his belief that the 29^th Connecticut will soon become the 50^th United States Colored Troops.

17 April 1864: notes one of the 29^th’s Assistant Surgeons had been in the Navy, the other in the service of the Government in Chile for 3 years.

22 April 1864: notes his mother’s (Paulina Whitmore Brown) birthday was 19 April.

17 April 1865: a very sorrowful and angry letter to his family regarding the assassination of Lincoln.

26 June 1865, Fort Hatteras, NC: “The people on the island are the most ignorant disgusting class I have ever been thrown among . . .  & [I] am inclined to believe the story they tell of one of the Chaplins [sic] that came with Butler’s expedition when the place was taken. He visited (so the story goes) one family & entering into religious conversation asked after some previous remarks if she was not aware that Christ died for sinners. ‘What’ exclaimes [sic] the woman [‘] is he dead? When did he die? Well since the war brake out we don’t get no papers & we don’t get any news! I hope now you uns has come we know of such things right soon after they occur.’”

Diaries:

Volume One: 10 October 1862 – 31 December 1863.

19 February 1863: "General Butler… visited the fort accompanied by staff & various officers. Commander Woodhull walked in front of the gun as it was discharged & was thrown down the parapet & killed."

19 August 1863: on guard in hospital over wounded Rebels at Hagerstown, MD. Notes the death of Emanuel Simmons, 62^nd Virginia Infantry, of a severe wound in the shoulder caused by a shell.

21 October 1863: Many men of the 18^th had been captured at Winchester in June; by this time many had rejoined the regiment and on this date were reissued arms. Many of these paroled prisoners refused to take up these arms having had no formal assurance that they had been officially exchanged. When they were assured they had been formally exchanged, they accepted their new rifles.

Volume Two: 1 January 1864 – 1 November 1864

In February of 1864 Brown was in Baltimore, Washington and Martinsburg. In March, he was in New Haven, CT, and was mustered in as Captain of Company F, 1^st U.S.C.T.

Volume Three: 6 November 1864 – 6 June 1865

17 April 1865, Brown was kept awake from 10 PM to 12:30 AM the previous night by cheering in the various camps over the reported surrender of Johnston. The celebration, however, proved to be premature. Brown also noted visiting Raleigh, NC.

Some names of the men of Company F, 1^st USCT, are listed on the back pages of this volume, usually in the context of clothing or equipment drawn, or recruits received by the regiment.