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Hd. Qrs. 129th Ills. Vol.
Gallatin, Tenn., Aug. 14th 1863

My Dear Wife

Yours of the 6th & 9th Inst. came to hand this evening.¹ I am very happy to hear that there is a fair prospect of your speedy recovery to health. If you should start early in next week for Carlisle, my letter may not reach you.²

I am sorry to hear that Mother [Murphy] has not yet concluded to go with you.³ I should like very much to have her go. Tell her I think it very probable I shall be in Carlisle in three or four weeks, & if she remains in New York or goes to Pontiac I shall not probably have an opportunity of seeing her. I could get a leave of absence now without doubt, but I gave my chance to Lt. Smith to-night.⁴ Col. Cropsey gave me the assurance to-day that I should go,⁵ but Mrs. Smith is beyond the hope of recovery & will not probably live more than a few days. Lt. Smith wants to bury her at home, & my going would prevent him. I can therefore cheerfully wait, & if no circumstances transpire to materially change the state of affairs here, my chances will be equally good on his return, & I feel that it is but justice to do so. The time furnished, however, will not give me an opportunity to go any out of my way, as only 15 days are granted.

I hope if you can content yourself & be happy, you will remain in Carlisle 5 or 6 weeks at least. If you cannot, I should be sorry to have you stay, & I will come to you wherever you are.

I surely never recd. any of your letters stating that Mother [Murphy] was with you. The letter you refer to says that Thomas was unwilling to return without you but Mother is not mentioned.

I cannot deliver your message to Alf. Huetson.⁶ He is at home, & I presume supremely happy.

You continue to write, “We shall wean Frankie next week.” I hope, my Dear Wife, you will not delay until your own health is sacrificed. I want to hear of your speedy recovery. I am happy to hear that Frankie is growing so rapidly in size, & I hope also in good qualities. I am afraid from the vast changes you find in your old home during your absence, that all the assistance I might be able to render you will be of no avail, as so many changes in my old home have taken place that you would not recognize it as the same place.⁷

I accept all the kisses in letter no. 1, and now for no. 2, You will be under the necessity of writing every day & sometimes twice a day to “catch up with me.” I have been writing every day lately. I am much obliged for the correction; I now recollect both Miss Root & Miss Reed, it was not my intention to give you pain for mentioning the noble self-sacrifice you made, & you will forgive me for repeating that whatever internal struggle you had, you never intimated anything to me. Let us praise God for your victory over yourself. I cannot see that any retraction of my former assertions are necessary, & I love you all the more for all your fortitude. None but God knew whether I would be with you in your severest trial as a wife, yet he ordered all so well that I hope I may never cease to feel grateful.

I shall be careful to eat none but ripe fruit and plenty of it. We have apples & peaches in abundance. Oh, how I wish I could send you some.

I should fully appreciate those kisses you wish to kiss & feel myself fully competent to return them with good interest. I perceive by your letter you have not yet decided whether I shall furnish a dress or receive a neck-tie, but as usual you expect soon to know. I should have no hesitancy in promising two dresses, believing that even possibility is in my favor.

Five days have elapsed since the date of your last letter, & Frankie by this time has almost learned to gain a living by eating. Write to me very soon, I shall feel very anxious to hear the result. I am happy for the assurance that you will not attempt to conceal from me the worst if at any time either of you should be sick.

I greatly fear I shall never have an opportunity to deliver your message of love to Mrs. Smith. She is unable to speak & in great pain. I spent about an hour with her this morning in company with Col. Cropsey. She was very happy & ready to die. God has bountifully blessed her. This evening she is much worse, several Drs. held a consultation in her case & have decided that she will die. I scarcely expect to see her again alive. King’s whole family have been very kind, & the girls sit up almost every night.⁸

Bill Russell & Scott McDowell arrived this evening. Bill is enjoying good health. He brought me a letter from Abbie [Remick] which I have enclosed to you. They report all our friends well. Mrs. McDowell is at Magnolia, Ills., with her mother counselling with a physician.⁹ Trudy is no better, & I fear will never be much better in this world. I saw a picture of their baby. It looks very healthy & quite pretty.

Many changes have taken place in Pontiac, but generally for the better. I am led to believe from Bill’s talk that he has been trifling with Miss Turner. If I knew her, I could determine. I hope most earnestly it is not so, for I heartily despise anything of the kind. Henry Greenebaum sent me a pint of unadulterated English Brandy, sealed up, with the request that it should not be opened until I took sick. I hope to be able to carry it back to Pontiac with me, don’t you? You have as yet made no mention of the letter I wrote in answer to Sarah’s letter; is it possible that it, too, is lost?

Lt. McKnight is no better but is in a very critical condition. We hope for his recovery. The rest of our sick are rapidly improving. Plattenburg has not yet returned to duty but will very soon. I believe he is quite well again but is still resting. The duties have not been very heavy here this week, but this office [the Adjutant’s] is very confining. Scott McDowell will remain here for some time, I do not know how long.

I have written quite a long letter & must close, else I shall have nothing to write to-morrow. I do not believe you will be able to keep up with me but do all you can. Write very often, your letters make me happy. If mine are equally as interesting, I shall take pleasure in multiplying them. Give my love to Mother & all our friends. I hope to hear of Mother in Carlisle. You can draw on Remick at any time for $75. I shall be compelled to get a little back if pay-day is delayed. Kiss Frankie for me (Kiss) (Mary) (Frankie) (Mother) May God in Mercy bless you, for which I shall ever pray.

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. Mary Culver’s letter of Aug. 9 is missing from the Culver Collection.
2. Mary Culver had written, “My health continues to improve and if nothing happens to prevent, I will go to Carlisle week after next.” Mary Culver to J.F.C., Aug. 6, 1863, Culver Collection.
3. Mother Murphy did not plan to go to Carlisle, as she had not finished her visit in New Hartford. Ibid.
4. On Aug. 20, 1863, Lt. John W. Smith was granted a ten-day leave, with permission to return to Illinois. Regimental Papers, 129th Illinois, NA.
5. With Colonel Case on a 15-day furlough, Colonel Cropsey commanded the regiment. Ibid.
6. Mary Culver had directed her husband to tell Alf “to prepare Frankie’s bed and be sure and have it large enough, he is growing amazingly, a few feet longer than his own will do.” Mary Culver to J.F.C., Aug. 6, 1863, Culver Collection.
7. Mary Culver had complained, “I have been so poorly since I have been here, I have walked no where; and it does not seem as if I had seen many things that was once familiar, everything is so changed, it does not look like the place I used to know as New Hartford.” Ibid.
8. Mrs. Smith occupied a room in Gallatin at the Kings’, where Mrs. Culver had stayed during her visit.
9. Mary T. McDowell was the 26-year-old wife of J. Scott McDowell, a Fairbury farmer. Eighth Census, Livingston County, State of Illinois, NA.

Wednesday August 14, 2013
Submitted by Susan Hansen

Our goal in the UI Libraries’ book repair unit is to return a circulating book to the shelf as soon as possible; however, sustained speed is not a top qualification for our students. In the day-to-day operation of the unit, we don’t have races. But when I mentioned an unofficial record for number of rebacks performed, two current student assistants immediately set a plan in motion to surpass that record.

Larry Houston and Sarah Luko are students in the UI Center for the Book and work in the UI Libraries’ preservation department. Both possess exceptional hand skills and an exemplary work ethic; they have mastered the technique of rebacking. After gathering volumes with damaged spines, Sarah and Larry went into production mode. They worked in batches, side by side, replacing the damaged spines with new cloth and reattaching the original spine piece when possible. The dynamic duo ran out of books before the end of the work day. The final tally was 84 rebacks, a number roughly twice the expected production for two experienced student assistants. Kudos to Sarah and Larry!

By Eric Rumsey and Janna Lawrence

As discussed in a previous article, searching for Food, Diet, and Nutrition in PubMed is tricky because the relevant Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for the subject are scattered widely in the classification scheme. To do a thorough search, therefore, it’s necessary to use a number of terms. To make this easier, we have created a search strategy, or hedge, that combines most of the Food-Diet-Nutrition terms in one search.

The hedge search, of course, is much too large to be useful by itself (it gets over 1.5 million citations in PubMed). So it’s intended to be combined with another subject. A typical example would be finding the nutritional aspects of a disease.

Here is the hedge:

food OR foods OR beverages OR diet OR dietary OR vitamin OR vitamins OR nutrition OR nutritional OR nutrition disorders OR food industry OR nutritional physiological phenomena OR dietary fats OR dietary proteins OR feeding behavior

To use this search, click this link. You can also copy the text above and paste it into the PubMed search box. If you have a personal “My NCBI” account in PubMed, the hedge search can be saved for later use, or it can be made into a search filter. For information on setting up and using saved searches, see here; for more information on filters, see here.

List of terms in the hedge. Terms on the list that have no accompanying text are searched only as text-words (words appearing in article titles or abstracts), and as words that are part of MeSH terms.Terms below that are found in MeSH (which are also automatically searched as text-words) have brief commentary.

• Food – MeSH term Food is a very large explosion. (An “explosion” is a MeSH term that, when searched in PubMed, also retrieves closely related terms that are narrower in scope. These related terms can be seen when the term is searched in the MeSH database linked to PubMed.)
• Foods
• Beverages – MeSH term Beverages is a large explosion
• Diet – MeSH term Diet is a large explosion
• Dietary
• Vitamin
• Vitamins – Vitamins is a MeSH term and explosion, although the only specific vitamin included in its explosion is Vitamin B Complex. Many vitamins do have the word “vitamin” in their MeSH term, so they are picked up by the word “vitamin” above.
• Nutrition
• Nutritional
• Nutrition disorders – MeSH term Nutrition disorders is a large explosion
• Food industry – MeSH term Food industry is a large explosion
• Nutritional Physiological Phenomena – MeSH term Nutritional Physiological Phenomena is a large explosion
• Dietary Fats – MeSH term Dietary Fats is a medium explosion
• Dietary Proteins – MeSH term Dietary Proteins is a medium explosion
• Feeding behavior – Most of the terms in the Feeding Behavior explosion are picked up by other search words in the hedge linked above. But the MeSH term itself picks up a few unique, useful citations.

Disclaimer: This hedge is not ALL-inclusive for Food-Diet-Nutrition. As complicated as the subject is, it’s not possible to include all of the relevant terms in one search. This is especially the case because most plant-based foods are not in any category that can be searched together. The Food explosion does include many specific foods, but most plant-based foods are only in the Plants explosion, and not in the Food explosion. For tips on searching for plant-based foods, see here.

Hd. Qr., 129th Ills. Vol.
Gallatin, Tenn., Aug. 14th 1863

My Dear Wife

No letter from you yet. It is four days since I recd. your last letter. I have continued to write every other day, & I presume you have done the same, but the irregularity of the mails prevent their coming.

We received a dispatch from Bill Russell; he will be here this evening. Scott McDowell is with him. I anticipate a very pleasant time for a few days, & a host of News from Pontiac. I shall send you everything of importance by next mail.

I shall be really happy if I but receive a letter from you assuring me of your good health and Frankie’s. As soon as you get quite well, I shall expect a full history of your visit. I want to know all that transpired during your stay in New York. Will you go to Niagara? If you go to Harrisburg by way of Rochester, it will not be very far out of your way to go to the falls. I hope to see them some day, &, if you can do so, I should advise you to go & see them.

I have not received one particle of News of any kind since I sent you the letters I recd. I will write to Sis [Maggie Utley] this morning to send me 3 or 4 white shirts by [Alfred] Huetson. She can easily find them; can she not? I shall direct her to look in the desk drawers; all I fear is that they may be locked.

Rumor says that the 129th will leave Gallatin this week.¹ I have no reason to believe that it is true, yet it is not improbable. Mrs. Smith is no better; ’tis a bitter Struggle with death. God alone knows which will conquer; she is resigned to her fate. Her disease has been of so long duration and so severe as to almost make death desirable; she has expressed such desires I am told. She is utterly helpless.

I saw Mrs. Laurence & Mrs. Loir [Lore] yesterday evening, they are both quite well.²
I tried to get permission to go to Bowling Green Ky., to meet Bill & Scott but had my usual luck in refusal. I have no cause to complain. God has given me excellent health, &, if I could but know that you were well & happy, I should be fully satisfied. It is hard to be so far away from those we love when sickness or troubles intervene.

I fear I am a dreamer, but I have tasted of realities. I have often thought how happy we will be in Heaven. “There will be no sorrow there.” We will not be separated but to all eternity enjoy each other’s society. Let us try hard to take Frankie with us. Teach him of Jesus as soon as he can understand. Perhaps I shall be with you by another year, when together we will teach him & pray for him.

Have you any further evidence of your former anticipations? You must not fail to tell me of all your hopes and fears, joys & troubles. I hope to receive a long letter from you this evening.

I sent you a coral & gold embroidered Masonic Pin. I have not yet seen a fitting pin, or I should buy you one. Give my love to Mother [Murphy] & all our friends. Kiss Frankie for me. I have never heard of the letter I wrote to Sarah. Tell me whether it was received. May God bless you, My Dear Wife, & bless our child. Keep us all in health & restore us speedily to our homes & each other’s society. Let us continue to pray. I shall very probably write to-night, so till then, Farewell.

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. With the destruction of Morgan’s command and the withdrawal of Bragg’s Confederate army from Middle Tennessee, the danger of a raid by an organized Rebel force on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad had been alleviated. Partisans would have to be guarded against, but to cope with these required less troops. General Rosecrans could now redeploy some of his troops guarding that vital railroad.
2. Mrs. Laurence of Pontiac was the wife of Pvt. Reuben E. Laurence of Company G.

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Tuesday afternoon
August 11th 1863

Mr. J. F. Culver

My Dear friend I received your kind letter, was glade to hear from you. It always gives me pleasure to hear from you. perhaps you think I do not mean that, Mr. Culver! but I really do! We have been having very warm weather here. it is very plesant to day I suppose you almost suffer with heat at your place. Mr. Russell says it is very warm down their, you must take good care of Mr. Russell do not keep him longer than one month, the young ladies of Pontiac will miss him very much you know he is quite a favorite among the ladies. Mr. Culver I cannot tell you who he is after, he goes with all of them, but I can tell you off great many that is after him if I thought best, you know he is a friend to every person. (I do not know wether it is him or his money) he talks considerably of a Miss Carrie perhaps you know her, what & who is she do not tell him that I said so? I wish you could come home soon for I expect to start to school soon if I can get Mother into the notion of leting me go back I wish you was here to help me coax I do want to go so badly I often think how I have wasted my time in by gone days if I had it to do over I think I should off done different for instance. I should of done my own examples written my own composition &c but now I am a going to improve my time, Father and Mother have bought Lida and myself a very nice Piano when you come home I will play you a waltz I believe all soldiers are fond of dancing at least we hear you are poor soldiers get it all around, Mr Culver they are in great distress about the Methodist church Mother wanted to know if you would try and help raise some money you have heard all about it before this time if you could only raise one hundred dollars, they are a going about the matter in great earnest I hope they will have good sucess!

Mother has been at Gardner a meeting for a viseting for a few days She came home to day, they have prayer meeting every sunday morning at five Oclock they get very happy sometimes so they say I have never been their yet it is rather early for me to go. I am a dreaming about that time I have no news to tell you I expect Mr Russell will tell you all of the news;

I am glad that Russell is going on one acc- for Mr Bond has not rested well since he has been here you would pity him if you could only see how bade he looks. he was asking Maggie this evening if Russell was a going to write. I hope you will excuse me for not writing more this time but I do not know what to write. I hope I will hear from you soon I would sooner see you than a letter, we all send our regards excuse all mistakes

your friend
Abbie

Hd. Qr. 129th Ills. Vol.
Gallatin, Tenn., Aug 10th 1863

My Dear Wife

I recd. your letter of the 2nd inst., bringing me the news of Frankie’s misfortune & your health scarcely improving.¹ I hope Frankie may prove not to be seriously injured. Your letter, though several days later than your last, does not intimate that you have weaned Frankie yet. I expect to hear that your health is rapidly improving after he is weaned.

Mrs. Smith has taken a relapse, and all this day they have been looking for her to die. She was easier this evening. You would scarcely know her. Mrs. McKnight is still here with her husband; he is very low but may recover. Lou [Allen] left for home about 10 days after you left. I informed you [of this] in a former letter. Allen says she is quite well. Mrs. Ray went home about two weeks ago. Mrs. Fisher is still here in good health; also Mrs. Coppage & Mrs. Soir.² Mr. Kay is still here & expected to be able to start home with Mrs. Smith by to-morrow or next day.³ Saml. McGoodin is in the enjoyment of good [health] & assigns as the reason of his not writing that he cannot write. I have offered to write for him if he calls on me. I have been interrupted & shall close for to-night, so Good night, may holy angels guard you.

Morning Aug 11th/63: I am in excellent health this morning. The weather is excessively warm. I can scarcely tell you which [rail] road is preferable to go to Harrisburg. You can go through New York & Philadelphia. It is about as cheap as any & gives you a chance to see the cities, but is somewhat difficult for you alone. The easiest rout[e] for you is to go to Rochester & take the [rail] road to Harrisburg, direct through Elmira & Williamsport. The fare either way is about the same & will cost from 10 to 15 dollars. If you go by way of New York, you will be compelled to stay there all night, get to Philadelphia about 2 o’clock next day, leave Philad. at 11 P.M., & get to Harrisburg at 3 A.M. next day, leave Harrisburg at 8 A.M. & get to Carlisle at 10. By the other rout[e], you will have fewer changes & at smaller towns. Try & take the train from Rochester in the evening, & you will get to Harrisburg in time for the train to Carlisle next day.

I have not heard what has been done with Allbe & Soph. Gagan took his whole family [to California] with him. We have got Bell tents similar to the one the sergeants used.⁴ I wish you had returned the Canada Bill to me. I could have returned it & satisfied the old man; as it is, I do not know how to convince him. I sent you a letter from Bro. Johnie by last mail. He is still at Shelbyville, Tenn.

I have been act. adjutant of [for] a week. Phil (Plattenburg) is in the Hospital but will be back by to-morrow. I was interrupted last night, & now it is mail time. I will enclose a letter from Sis giving the Pontiac news. With love to all, I must haste to say, good bye. May God bless you.

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. Mary Culver’s letter of Aug. 2 is missing from the Culver Collection.
2. Mrs. Bay of Pontiac was the wife of Pvt. George W. Bay of Company G; Mrs. Fisher of Pontiac the wife of Sergt. Augustus F. Fisher of Company G; Mrs. Coppage of Scott County the wife of Capt. Joseph W. Coppage of Company I; and Mrs. Loir (Lore) of Joliet the wife of Pvt. Robert C. Lore of Company B.
3. Mrs. Smith was the eldest daughter of John and Joanna Kay, prosperous Pontiac Township farmers. In 1860 the Kays were living with their other nine children. Eighth Census, Livingston County, State of Illinois, NA.
4. Colonel Case on June 12 had complained to the post commander that his troops were “sadly wanting in tents.” Although the officers had wall tents, the enlisted men had been issued worthless second-hand tents or had picked up tents abandoned by other units. He accordingly wished to requisition Sibley tents for the regiment, as it would be stationed at Gallatin for some time. His efforts to secure Sibley tents for the regiment were unsuccessful, as orders were given by the chief quartermaster, Department of the Cumberland, to have the troops turn in their old canvas and draw “shelter tents.” Case to Sweet, June 12, 1863, Regimental Papers, 129th Illinois, NA.