Filed under: Benedict, Blanchard, Boalt, Bradford, Buckingham, Christian, Connecticut, Converse, Deaver, Farrar, French, Hassell, Lovewell, New England, Norwalk, Ohio, Ohio, Prescott, Preston, Sawyer, Talcott, Taylor, Wanton, Wickham, Winthrop | Tags: Benedict Genealogy, Blanchard Genealgy, Bradford Genealogy, Buckingham Genealogy, Christian Genealogy, Connecticut History, Converse Genealogy, Deaver Genealogy, Farrar Genealogy, French Genealogy, Hassell Genealogy, Huron County History, Lovewell Genealogy, New England History, Norwalk Ohio History, Ohio History, Preston Genealogy, Talcott Genealogy, Taylor Genealogy, Wanton, Wickham Genealogy, Winthrop
“Sufferers’ Land.”
The “Firelands.”
These evocative and descriptive phrases refer to a region in Northern Ohio set aside by the state of Connecticut for “Sufferers” who were burned out of their homes by the British in the Revolution. Part of the Western Reserve, it covers present-day Huron and Erie counties.
After the War of 1812, a flood of emigration erupted out of crowded New England, the result of a pent up desire for new land that had been held in check by the threat of Native Americans defending their homes and the spur of economic hardship engendered by the catastrophic “Year without Summer” of 1816. Most of these pioneers were bound for the Firelands.
Thus began one of the great migrations of American history; a flood of humanity that poured out of New England and settled lands stretching along the southern shores of the Great Lakes from upstate New York to Illinois and across the Mississippi River into Iowa.
These settlers greatly impacted the history of the United States. In the 1850’s, some of them entered Kansas and clashed with the leading edge of another great migration that had settled the South — a tragic foreshadowing of the Civil War. The grandchildren of the settlers of the Old Northwest formed the backbone of the Union Army of the West during that war and made possible the Republican majority that ruled the nation the remainder of the century.
This website presents histories of the Firelands and genealogies of families that settled there.
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The Sufferers’ Land is a history of the settlement of the Firelands from the founding of the town of Norwalk in 1817 by Platt Benedict to the final Pioneers Reunion and founding of The Firelands Historical Society in 1857. This story may be read from the beginning starting at the Prologue, or by selecting any of the 53 episodes in the Index of Posts.
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A genealogy of families who settled in the Firelands is also included on this website. These include the Benedict, Wickham, Preston, Taylor, Buckingham, Christian, DeForest, Deaver, Walker, Shaon, Smith, Bradford, Talcott, Farrar, French, Lovewell, Hassell, Converse, Blanchard, Wanton, Winthrop, Dudley, and Sutton families.
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Little Doctor on the Black Horse is a memoir of Doctor David DeForest Benedict of Norwalk, Ohio, a Union Surgeon during the Civil War. It was written by his granddaughter Harriott Benedict Wickham, who included in the story excerpts of letters he wrote to his wife from the field and from Libby Prison, where he was a prisoner of war. An episode of the story is posted every Monday, with the most recent installment immediately below this post. See the Index of Posts to read the entire memoir.
I would appreciate any comment you may have about this post. Please click on the comments button below, or contact me by email at dawbarton@aol.com. Thank you.
© 2009 by David W. Barton. All rights reserved
Filed under: Civil War, Uncategorized | Tags: Civil War, David DeForest Benedict, Libby Prison
Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., 10/29/63 – “Dear Hattie, Please send me a box of eatables: 5 lbs. Ground coffee, 1 of tea, 20 of brown sugar, 1 ham of dried beef, a small cheese, if you can find it, and as much butter as you’ve a mind to; put up in oyster cans. Also anything else suitable for prison life, some pickles. I shall want you to send me a box about every two weeks. Capt. Riggs got a box and all things came all right, even to the lining in the vest pocket. I’d like a shirt, but what I want most is something to eat and . . . I should like to see you very much. It is harder to be a prisoner than a soldier. Money is put in the commandant’s office and doled out of at $50 per month, hardly enough at the prices here.”
The prison furnished rations, but slim ones — two meals a day. Those with money could have guards buy for them in the markets. In the letter a faint trail of dots runs from the “and” up to and circles around “send me” and “money”, where in tiny dim letters are “hide” and “send”.
Hattie understood his secret message, which the censors apparently missed, for family tradition says she “colored” the butter with gold pieces. These got through safely, like the aforesaid “lining in the vest pocket”, for David’s next letter states: “I got the box all safe. The contents are being duly dissected.”
This letter also asks, amongst other things, for “1 three-cornered file, 1 small round file, and send some light reading.” the files at first puzzled me. Was he thinking of escape? Then I remembered the two bone napkin rings he carved in prison, one for Mamie and one for little Hattie. These were made from the bones of the beef issued as rations. He also did some wood carving.
“What rations the Confederates furnish are good, but the same every day. We boil the beef for soup for dinner, then the meat is chopped as hash for breakfast. We get but two meals a day. We can buy things from the city markets, but many of us have no money, and prices are very high. Money can be sent by mail, but it is taken out and put to our credit in the commissary, and handed out at only $50 a month, which will hardly keep one here.”
Next Week: Exchange and Return Home
© 1961 by Harriott Benedict Wickham Barton. All rights reserved.
Filed under: Civil War | Tags: Battle of Chickamauga, Civil War, David DeForest Benedict, Rosecrans
In September 1863, Rosecrans’ (the soldiers called him “Old Rosie”) army was maneuvering here and there through northwest Georgia. Rumors were about that a big battle was impending. David prudently sent home the pistol his grandfather Platt B. had given him for “if a surgeon is captured with a gun, he is a combatant; if no gun, he can expect better treatment.”
On Sept, Rosecrans had taken Chattanooga and pursued Bragg’s army into north Georgia, where, on Sept. 19-20, at Chickamauga, he was defeated and forced back into Tennessee. And a Chickamauga David’s premonition proved true. Here is his next letter (an account of the battle given at end):
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Chickamauga Valley, Ga., 9/28/63
“My dear wife, I am here held as a prisoner of war. I am well and so far have been treated as a gentleman. I have taken a parole to stay with our wounded, and when they have been disposed of, to report to Atlanta for imprisonment. This may be the last you will hear from me for some time, as we are to be held as prisoners of war until some Confederate surgeons are released; so say the Confederate officers. Take good care of the children and remember your absent though affectionate husband, D.D. Benedict.”
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We can imagine poor Hattie’s dismay! It was almost a month until his next letter, and it could not have been a very comforting one
GO TO NEXT POST – Libby Prison
© 1961 by Harriott Benedict Wickham Barton. All rights reserved.
