Love and Valor (eBook)

Introduction

Jacob B. Ritner was born December 16, 1828 on Birch Farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Seven years later, his grandfather, Joseph Ritner, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. When Governor Joe Ritner lost his reelection bid in 1838, amidst charges of vote fraud perpetrated by his opponents, Federal troops were called to quell the rioting in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Jacob’s father Henry, deciding that farming was a more honorable and stable profession than politics, gathered his growing family and moved to Iowa.

Jacob’s wife, Emeline Bereman, was born in Kentucky in 1831, but her father moved the family to Indiana because of their opposition to slavery. In 1845 the Beremans moved again, this time to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa where Jacob and Emeline met at Howe’s Academy, a school run by a former high school teacher of William Tecumseh Sherman. Jacob and Emeline married in 1851 and Jacob supported his wife and new family by working as a teacher in southeast Iowa.

Immediately after the Civil War erupted, Jacob responded to Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers and enlisted for 100 days in the Union cause. Many people thought the war would be over by the end of this term. The war soon engulfed Jacob’s and Emeline’s families: two of Jacob’s brothers, all six of Emeline’s brothers, and Emeline’s father joined the Union Army; Emeline’s mother worked as a nurse in St. Louis.

During his 100-day term with the 1st Iowa Infantry, Jacob saw action with General Nathaniel Lyon in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri, where General Lyon suffered fatal wounds. After his initial enlistment expired, Jacob became a recruiting officer, and then reenlisted in the 25th Iowa Infantry, where he was mustered as First Lieutenant of Company B. During the Vicksburg campaign, his superior officer resigned, and Jacob was promoted to Captain of Company B.

The 25th Iowa Infantry participated in many of the major campaigns of the western theater as part of the 15th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee. They were with Generals Grant and Sherman for the siege of Vicksburg. After Vicksburg came Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain; Jacob was wounded at Ringgold, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga. The 25th Iowa participated in the siege and capture of Atlanta, and then were part of Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea.” After capturing Savannah, they marched north through the Carolinas. At the war’s conclusion, Jacob marched in the Union Army’s Grand Review in Washington, D.C.

The 15th Army Corps, which included Jacob and the 25th Iowa Infantry, was originally led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. It remained under Sherman’s authority as he next became commander of the Army of the Tennessee, and then the head of all the western armies.

Throughout the war Jacob and Emeline corresponded with each other, and their letters demonstrate that they both drew much of their emotional strength from each other. Both would encourage the other to write long, detailed correspondence of their daily trials. This not only provides us with life in the field of a soldier during the Civil War, but also portraits of the Iowa women who stayed behind and cared for their families.

Finding the Letters

The creation of this book was a family project that spanned over eighty years—over 165 years if we date back to Jacob’s letter to Emeline just before they were married in 1851. In piecing this story together, I found the actual body of letters in three different places.

My grandmother’s sister, Nellie Chase Price, first transcribed and typed Jacob’s wartime letters in the late 1930s; these serve as the main body of this book. In 1961, the 100-year anniversary of the start of the Civil War, my grandmother introduced me to the typed copies of Jacob’s letters. Who would guess that what so fascinated to an eight-year-old would seem even more engaging some thirty-two years later? My initial work was based on Nellie’s typed copies of Jacob’s letters.

But my father advised me to find the original letters, frequently saying “If you do not find the original letters, people may think that you just made up this story.”

Finding the Letters:
The Turkey Farm Letters and the First Photo Album

In my search to find Jacob’s original letters, my father urged me to contact his long-lost cousin, Martha Lou Price Bugbee. “Where is Martha Lou?” I would ask, and my father would say, “Well, she lives on a turkey farm in North Dakota somewhere, at least she did 25 or 30 years ago, and you really do need to find her.”

After scratching my head for several months, I attempted to find Martha Lou. I did not expect to really find her, but I wanted to tell my father that I had made a good-faith effort.

I purchased a CD rom phone book, which purported to list all active phone numbers in the United States. I was able to sort the data and get a list of all Bugbees in North Dakota and Minnesota. I planned to spend the entire weekend calling every Bugbee on this list, explaining who I was, up the ancestral line up to Jacob and Emeline, and then down to Martha Lou, asking the person on the other end if they had ever hear of Marth Lou.

On my very first phone call, a woman answered the phone. I introduced myself, and went through the ancestral path described above. I then asked the woman if she had ever heard of Martha Lou. Her response – she was Martha Lou. I had found her on my first phone call.

Martha Lou and her husband had recently moved off the turkey farm into a senior citizens home. Underneath her bed, Marth Lou had boxes containing some of her most important possession, which included Civil War family correspondence and photos of Jacob, Emeline, and a Civil War era photo album that included pictures of many of their family members. This set of letters included Jacob’s letters to Emeline before and after the war, and other family writing throughout the war.

But it did not include Jacob’s war time letters, nor Emeline’s letters.

I refer to this second set of letters as the “Turkey Farm” letters. I was very fortunate to have found the second set of letters before I found the first set (Jacob’s war time letters.) If I had found the first set first, I would have stopped looking and never would have found this second set of letters and all the photographs.

In my great fortune, I eventually found two more Civil War era Ritner and Bereman family photo albums.

Finding the Letters:
Jacob’s Letters

As thrilled as I was finding the Turkey Farm letters, I still had not located Jacob’s war time letters.

Nellie Chase Price, who had typed Jacob’s letters in the 1930s and 1940s, had hoped to have his letters published then. She submitted the letters to one publisher, who rejected the submission. The rejection letter suggested that she donate the letters to some local historical society.

Based on that rejection letter, I contacted several historical societies that may have received Jacob’s letters, if Nellie had followed that advise.

One of those contacts was directed to a branch location of the Iowa Historical Society in Iowa City. I made a phone call presenting what I was trying to find. The person on the other end was familiar with the Civil War letters that they had. His initial reaction was that they did not have Jacob’s letters, but he would check and get back to me the next day.

He call the next day and gave me the great news that they had Jacob’s letters!

Part of what made this strange for me was that I had graduated from the University of Iowa, and my college apartment was just two blocks away from the Historical Society. For two years I had walked by Jacob’s letters every day on my way to class.

But at this point, and for several years later, I did not have any letters written by Emeline, which I thought no longer existed.

Ghost Story:
How Emeline’s Letters Found Me –
The Most Important Ghost Story

Many strange things happened while researching the story. I refer to the strangest of the strange as ghost stories. The most important of the ghost stories is how Emeline’s letters found me. That’s the way I like to tell this story – her letters found me and not the other way around.

I have made a great effort to find the graves of the people mentioned in the book – I even published a book The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa. One of the graves I really wanted to find was the grave of Henry Ritner, Jacob’s father and my 3x great grandfather. I knew that Jacob’s parents had lived on a farm near Danville, Iowa, which is a small town, about half way between Burlington, Iowa and Mt. Pleasant.

On one of my trips from Chicago to Mt. Pleasant to see the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, which is like a county fair, I stopped by Danville to see if I could find Henry Ritner’s grave. I stopped at a gas station on the edge of town and asked the young woman working the cash register if she could direct me to the local cemetery. She gave me directions to Jaggar Cemetery, which was located about two miles out of town. After some wrong turns I eventually found the small country cemetery. I walked up and down the rows looking for Henry’s grave, which I eventually found.

Much to my surprise, next to Henry’s grave, was the grave of Evangeline Ritner, Jacob and Emeline’s first child who died in 1853, two weeks before her first birthday. Those of you with children...