William Coleman Scope and Content Notes
The William Coleman papers document the experience of a volunteer
private infantryman and his brother during the Civil War. The collection consists
of fifty letters written by William and John Coleman (47 from William and 3
from John) to their mother and sister, between April 17, 1861 and November 14,
1864.
William Coleman's first letter is written from Fort Moultrie on
Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. The first letter details Coleman's training
and, in contrast to later letters the "comfortable" amenities of the
fort. At Fort Moultrie, Coleman writes of the unit's reorganization to the Confederate
service in June 1861. Though his telling of the reorganization of events is
vague, his description does explain the tense reorganization of the Sixth after
the bombardment of Fort Sumter (April 1861).
Throughout Coleman's letters is a clear sense of familiarity between
members of Coleman's company and himself. Individuals familiar to Coleman are
prominently mentioned within his letters: Robert Pagan (referred to in the letters
as Mr. Pagan), Robert "Faysnoux" Pagan (Robert Pagan's son serving
in the 23rd South Carolina Infantry), 1st Lt. John T. Elliot, J.T. Walker, "Buddie"
(son or younger brother of Coleman), and John Kennedy Coleman (J.K. Coleman,
William's brother). Of the above, John Elliot spends the course of the war with
the Sixth and is mentioned in seventeen separate letters. Further, research
into the Sixth South Carolina Volunteer Infantry has suggested that most members
from the Sixth were drawn from Chester, York, and Lancaster Counties in South
Carolina.
In reading the Coleman letters, the gradual deterioration of Southern
forces is clearly apparent. From the beginning of the war and its many triumphant
battles, Coleman relates the well-fortified position of the army in his letter
of November 24, 1861, "We had thought to have had a fight here before this,
as the day for a battle had been fixed several times, but it seems that the
yankees are not anxious to attack us and I think they are wise in not attacking
us at this point for we are strongly fortified and would be able to think with
a few thousand men to contend against any force the can bring out." In
subsequent battles, following Gettysburg, Coleman writes on February 7, 1864,
"It is true we have been at time very short of rations, and sometimes without
for a day or two, yet to say that corn in the ear was issued as a regular ration
is untrue." Yet optimistically within the same letter Coleman writes, "I
was thinking last night about our condition, and really I cant realize that
it is as bad as it was two years since, when McClelland threatened Richmond
his 200,000 men. The health of our armies is certainly much better. We have
better arms and amunition than we had then, and the tax in kind will furnish
us with ample subsistence. I cant see that we are in so critical a condition."
There is an obvious contrast between the real conditions of the army as far
as supplies and health and what Coleman wrote to his mother and sister (more
than likely to waylay their fears).
Eighteen sixty-four was a turning point for the Southern Army
and for Coleman. As his company continued to battle, Coleman was joined by his
younger son or brother "Buddie." On February 28, 1863, Coleman wrote
to his mother and advised her, "You ask my advice about Buddie's joining
the army this spring my advice is to keep him at home until he is eighteen."
By August 7, 1864, Buddie had joined Coleman in his company, and Coleman has
taken to looking after him. Only months later after battle on October 1, 1864,
Buddie is wounded on his collarbone. John Elliott is also wounded. From September
until the end of the war, Coleman's letters take on a critical and somber tone.
With the bloody losses and battles gradually mounting for the Sixth from July
1864 to December 1864, Coleman's letters express his reaction to the mass of
wounded men. On September 6, 1864 he writes, "Richmond is jammed with wounded
the wounds as a general thing are pretty severe. The country will be over run
with one arm and one leg men." The September 6, letter concludes without
being signed and is the only letter within the collection where Coleman does
not write a conclusion or his initials.
Regiment Assignment Timeline and Divisions
Sixth Infantry South Carolina Volunteers Rosters
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