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Head Quarters, Company A, 129th Ills. Vols.
Frankfort, Ky. Octr. 10th 1862

My Dear Wife

I wrote to you yesterday evening & supposed that before this we would be on our way to Lexington. The order was countermanded & we were sent to the heights west of the city to support a Battery. We are camped on a hill about 250 feet above the city giving us a fine view of all the surrounding Country.¹ I do not know how many troops are here but judge about 60 to 75,000.² The rebels are reported to be some ten miles south east of us, but, as we are only following up to support the Army in advance of us, we may not get a sight of them for some time to come.³

My health is quite good, though I am troubled with a slight cold. We get no news here & are not able to get any information about the plans here. We never know where we are going nor when until the order comes & seldom have more than five minutes to get ready. As our movements are so uncertain, you may direct all my mail to Louisville until we get into some permanent Camp. We get all our provision from that place & have better & surer opportunities for sending & receiving the mail.

We left some of our boys in Louisville sick; Luther Vandoren, Reason Syphers & A. A. Rockwell.⁴ We left N. W. Hill in Shelbyville sick. We have not heard from any of them since. All here are well except some very sore feet. Frankfort is 60 miles from Louisville & has a very shabby appearance. It is the poorest looking Capital I ever saw.⁵

I have taken it for granted that all of our friends learn of me through you. I cannot find time to write much & that time I prefer to spend in conversation with you. I wish I could send you some of the fine cedar & pine trees that stand all around us. [Jonathan] Duff promised to let me have two of those pines in his garden for our yard. It might be well to have them planted this fall. I think the price is 50 cents apiece. Bro. Utley promised to have them planted.

Tell Bro. John [Murphy] I have not heard of Miller’s Battery since we left Louisville.⁶ I hope he is well & able to be around before this. Do not let him come until he is perfectly well, or he will soon be sick again.

We suffer most for water. All the wells are dried up, & there has been no rain since 1st July. I hope soon to hear from you. I must go out to drill & shall probably be busy all day. Kiss baby for me. Do you call him Frank or Franklin? Give my love to all our friends. Tell them to write. May the Grace of God abound in all your hearts & the richest of Heaven’s blessings rest upon my Dear wife & child. Farewell.

Your affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

P.S. Please send me one dollar’s worth of postage stamps. I am out & cannot get any here.

1. On the 10th Colonel Smith sent two companies of the 129th to patrol the adjacent hills. No Confederates were seen, but from a black the Federals learned that the citizens had made off with a large number of tents left by General Sill’s division when it passed through the area. Smith, on checking into this matter, recovered nine tents from one of the citizens. These tents were issued to the soldiers of the 129th, and provided a number with shelter from the cold rain which drenched the area on the 10th. G. P. Smith to Chapin, Oct. 11, 1862, Regimental Letter Books, 129th Illinois, NA. [↩]
2. J.F.C. has again overestimated the number of soldiers. On the 10th the only Union command in and around Frankfort was Dumont’s division, numbering about 10,300 effectives. O.R., Ser. I, Vol. XVI, pt. II, p. 658. [↩]
3. On Oct. 10 Kirby Smith’s Army of Kentucky rendezvoused with Bragg’s Army of Mississippi at Harrodsburg, 27 miles south of Frankfort. Ibid., pp. 927, 931. [↩]
4. Luther Vandoren, a 19-year-old Nebraska, Ill., farmer, was mustered into federal service on Sept. 8, 1862, as a private in Company A., 129th Illinois Infantry. Private Vandoren was drowned in the Cumberland River, near Gallatin, Tenn., June 10, 1863. Reason Syphers, a 26-year-old Livingston County farmer, was mustered into federal service on Sept. 8, 1862, as a private in Company A, 129th Illinois Infantry. Private Syphers was given a medical discharge at Louisville on Nov. 1, 1862. Almon A. Rockwell, a 36-year-old Pontiac shoemaker, was mustered into federal service on Sept. 8, 1862, as a private in Company A, 129th Illinois Infantry. Private Rockwell was given a medical discharge at Louisville on Nov. 21, 1862. Compiled Service Records of Union Troops, NA. [↩]
5. Private Dunham echoed J.F.C.’s opinion of Frankfort. Writing his family on Oct. 17, he observed, “F is the poorest and smallest place for the capital of a state I ever saw. I had rather live in P. than to live here by all odds.” Through the South with a Union Soldier, p. 28. [↩]
6. Miller’s battery had remained in Louisville when Buell’s army took the field. Report of the Adjutant General of Illinois, Vol. VIII, p. 665. [↩]