CIVIL WAR LETTER - Indiana Sanitary Commissioner - Aboard Ship to Visit Soldiers

Description

Civil War Letter
Civil War letter written by Thomas Kizer - a Sanitary Commissioner from Winchester, Indiana.  GREAT TRAVEL LETTER here written aboard a steamboat south of Evansville (stuck on a sand bar!) and heading south into the war theater.
This Civil War soldier letter was written by Thomas W. Kizer (1824-1901) of Winchester, Randolph county, Indiana. Thomas was a son of Elias and Margery (Ward) Kizer. He married Susannah Way, daughter of Jesse Way, on Jan. 4, 1846. When Thomas died in November 1901, the
Indianapolis Journal
printed his obituary as follows:
Though not mentioned in these letters, Dr. Richard Bosworth was also from Winchester, Indiana. He started Medical school before the war and finished in 1865 at the University of Michigan. This is his business card while working for the Indiana Military Agency in Memphis in 1863. (Courtesy of Shane Hubbard, his descendant.)
“Winchester, Indiana, November 29.—Thomas W. Kizer, one of the oldest citizens of Winchester and a lifelong resident of this vicinity, died here yesterday. Thomas W. Kizer was born near here on November 24, 1824, the son of Elias Kizer, a pioneer of this county, and moved to this city in 1831. Here he held several offices of trust, Under President Fillmore he was postmaster. He was township trustee for ten years. He built the public school building that is called “Old Central,” a three-story brick, solid today and in use for school purposes. He was school director of this city and member of the School Board. He was a charter member of the Winchester I. O. O. F. Lodge, No. 121, and was the recipient of may prizes for being the oldest Odd Fellow at several lodge gatherings. The lodge here was named in his honor and he rarely missed a meeting. His widow was his fourth wife. Of his ten children by his first wife, but four are living. His greatest pride was Fountain Park Cemetery. At the organization he was a member of the board of control and had been for several years a member of the National Cemetery Association…To his untiring energy and good taste the cemetery is largely indebted for its present success and beauty, which is accounted to be the third in the State as to beauty. At his death he was seventy-seven years old and, barring bad health, he was present at every funeral that ever took place at Fountain Park Cemetery regardless of age, color, birth, or identity. His funeral probably will be the largest ever held in Randolph county…”
Yet for all of the proud accomplishments ascribed to Thomas Kizer in his obituary, nothing is mentioned of his personal contribution as an agent to the Indiana Sanitary Commission in 1863 which is revealed by the following two letters. Indiana’s chapter of the U. S. Sanitary Commission was ordered by Gov. Oliver P. Morton in 1862 after the Battle of Fort Donelson. From that year to December of 1864, the Indiana homefront raised approximately ,000 in cash contributions. Over 0,000 worth of goods and supplies were donated, totaling nearly 9,000 in overall aid. Aside from those who gave money and supplies, the Commission was comprised of a whole host of volunteers who served as sanitary agents, collection agents, surgeons, and nurses—both male and female. Of these, nurses comprised the greatest number, some of whom stayed on with Sherman’s army on his March to the Sea in 1864, rendering aid to all Union soldiers, not just those from Indiana. At least two of the females identified by Kizer in the entourage he joined in August 1863 were prominent Female Physicians—Dr. Mary Frame Thomas and Dr. Chloe Annette Buckel (though Kizer failed to identify them as physicians). The other females listed may also have been physicians for all I know. I have not yet found biographical sketches for them.
Thomas wrote these letters to his sixteen year-old son,
William Diggs Kizer
.
Addressed to William D. Kizer, Winchester, Randolph county, Indiana
Transcription
Ohio River below Evansville
on board of Steamer Sunnyside
1
Sunday evening, August 16 [1863]
We arrived at Evansville last evening about six. Got supper at the Washington House. Prof. E[benezer] Tucker
2
of Liber and I went up on the cupola of the hotel and took a birds eye view of the City of Evansville. Come down, went to the [Ohio] River and our boat had just arrived. We went on board. The inquiry was made where is the Clerk of the [State] Sanitary [Committee] goods and they set me to work to receive the goods on board. I worked until 12 and then went to bed. Slept tolerably well.
The mosquitoes made a faint rally but retreated by morning. Reason was good mosquito bars. Putnam & I room together in the Ladies Department. This is a good boat and an excellent set of officers as I ever saw on a boat—kind, sociable, and sober. There is nineteen of our crew—fourteen gents (counting myself one) and five ladies as follows: E. J. Putnam, T. W. Kizer, J. M. Hamilton, M. P. Voris from Winchester. I put our names down first because we are first class fellows.
Dr.
W[illiam] H[enry] Wishard
, Johnson County
R[obert] C. Wishard
, Johnson County
A. J. Wood, Johnson County
Dr. James Marquis of Jay County
G. H. Moore of Jay County
Allen Jaqua of Jay County
Ebenezer Tucker of Jay County
J. P. Southard, Marion County
A. S. Southard, Marion County
Mrs. Mary F[rame] (Meyers) Thomas
of Richmond [Indiana]
Mrs. Mary Woolfe of Richmond
Miss [Chloe Annette] Buckel
of Muncie
Miss H[arriet] Spring of New Castle
Mrs. [Elizabeth] Lee of Warsaw
[see newspaper article below for published list of names]
On we go here. We passed the mouth of the Wabash River on a little further and we are stuck fast on a sand bar now about sunset. Spars put out shoving ahead. Finally got over about nine o’clock. Landed to take on coal for the round trip down and up here. Stayed all night and until about 9 in the morning. Went slow all day. Near sunset passed the mouth of the Cumberland river at Smithland. About one mile below, stuck fast on a bar all night. At 7 got loose. Went 1 or 2 miles further and fast again for 2 or 3 hours. Now passing Mound City. There is a very large, fine U S. General Hospital. This place is 7 miles above Cairo, Illinois.
I will give you the cost of our boat per day 0. .50 per day for board. The living is good and everything pleasant. Write to me at Memphis, Cairo, & Evansville. Get the directions from Mrs. Putnam or put in with her letters just as you please. We will arrive at Cairo this Tuesday evening about four o’clock. Think we will get away from [here] this evening though not certain. We all enjoy first rate good health and no fears of getting sick.
I partially contracted with Aaron Hudson for one of those drills that Teals have charge of near the Depot for provided that I did not get any better suited. You and Grandfather Way see Charlie Avery’s Drill and if you like it better and the price is better, take his. If not, take the other. Single Rank is the best. Get the money and pay for it. Get the plowing done as soon as it can be so that the wheat can be sowed early. If you need any help, hire it if you can get the advice of your Grandfather and Kizer & Way if need any.
1
The Steamer Sunnyside was destroyed by fire in November 1863 near Island No. 16, twenty miles below New Madrid. She was carrying 1300 bales of cotton. Thirty passengers, including, eight ladies, were drowned in attempting to get to shore.
2
Ebenezer Tucker was the first teacher of the Union Literary Institute at Union City, Randolph county, Indiana—one of the first schools to offer higher education without regard to color or sex before the Civil War. It was established in 1846 by a biracial board, including free blacks from nearby settlements. Ebenezer also wrote in the
Anti-Slavery Bugle
in 1853 that the school had already had “three hundred colored youth” attend the school by that date. Ebenezer went on to teach at Liber College in Jay County which also served “old, rich or por, black or white” students.
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