8 - 14 Jan 1864

Jan 8 - A.m. went to members of the Sanitary Commission and told of the dirty cheerless barracks in which our men were.  Think they will be impressed a little after we leave.  From a technical defect in account could not get my pay.  Eve march to ferry but the rest would not venture.

Jan 9 - Sharp morning.  Marched again to ferry.  Men on it an hour or two.  I was chilly and had sick head ache.  Too much ice to cross.  Marched down off [at] New Albany [IN] and crossed.  Felt better.  Sleigh to Jeffersonville [OH].  Read "Edwards on the Sabbath*."



Jan 10 - Having left at 10 last evening we had a long ride to Seymour [OH] with we reached Sunday a.m.  Not seeing the necessity of my travelling on the Sabbath I applied for leave to stop off but Wagar disapproved.  Got on fine cars and were rapidly taken to Cin[cinnati].  There I felt very faint but got some meat.

Jan 11 - Dawn of a fine day found us rapidly nearing Columbus.  How merciful God has been to us.  Got home and washed up at noon.  P.m. hear part of Brough's* inaugural.  Have a very bad cold.  Men getting furloughs.

Jan 12 - A.m. went for [Col.] Wagar [Swayne] but he could not get my pay here.  He is nettled that the regiment's return is barely noticed here.  P.m. had a sleigh ride.  Eve felt very miserable from my cold.  Discussion on grate.

Jan 13 - Weather moderating.  Left at 4 a.m. but from delays we got to Grafton too late for the hack and I came on to Berea.  My cold a little better.  Evening got home same.  Found Ella in rather healthier condition than for a year and a half past.

Jan 14 - Ella at my request had forwarded my overcoat to Columbus so that I miss it.  Feel quite unwell from my cold.  Lucius is quite pretty and pleasant.  Mr and Mrs Boner called in at evening.

*  "The perpetuity and change of the Sabbath" by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).  You can read it here:
http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/sabbath.htm

*  John Brough (rhymes with ruff) was the 26th Governor of Ohio serving from 11 Jan 1864 until 29 Aug 1865.  He died in office of gangrene.  You can read about him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brough   Pictured below

15 - 21 Nov 1863

Nov 15 - Sabbath.  Distributed about 40 papers and 80 tracts.  Had a good service in open air at 10:30 a.m.  Pretty well attended.  A letter from Ella at noon.  P.m. read and went to battery.  Eve prayer meeting full and interesting.

Nov 16 - We were almost out of some needful provisions.  A forage train going out and it seemed needful someone should accompany it to get things.  Lest I should be considered useless I went and got quite a supply.  Some thieving and apprehension which made it unpleasant.  To be buying honey and seeking butter under such circumstances seemed unclerical, but I laid dignity aside to be useful.  Henry [my servant] dissatisfied and talks of leaving.

Nov 17 - Lovely Indian Summer day.  Busy fixing a desk and shelves so as to study and write.  Col. Sprague at dinner.  Dyspepsia about gone.  Milk is a great luxury.  We have honey too.  Read.  We had a good prayer meeting.  I have had some success in avoiding too much joking and sport and feel more of the spirit in my heart.  May the blessed Lord give me more.

Nov 18 - Lovely day.  Wrote to Ella and Sterne*.  Taught black boys.  Read.  Rode to Elkview where the bridge is to be rebuilt.  A pretty stream.  Am interested in "Mill on Liberty"*.  True and valuable ideas.  Quite a fire in woods near, burns fences, etc.

Nov 19 - Beautiful and mild day.  Enjoy quiet reading at my little desk.  Feel well.  Had prayer and thought on pastoral labor and today was enabled to speak to five pastors on divine things.  Some kinds of provisions scarce.  Good meeting eve.  One of the best days have had in a long time - a white day.

Nov 20 - Cloudy and rainy.  We got a good large mail at noon and newspaper.  Ella is more desponding than I have seen her for a long time.  Lottie and ma write good letters.  All are well.  Think of sending ma pocket money.  Satisfaction in study and reading.  Have plenty of chicken.

Nov 21 - Misty.  Got on well in sermon.  Stomach disordered by heavy biscuit and cornbread as we have no way to bake bread.  P.m. felt unwell.  Eve wrote to Ella.

* Stearne Chittenden, Richard younger brother (1 Jan 1833 - 8 July 1887)

* John Stewart Mill's (1806 - 1873) essay "On Liberty" published in 1859

15 - 21 Sept 1863

Sept 15 - Read papers and wrote letters.  Distributed testaments in Illinois battery - well received.  A private there had been a city missionary in Chicago.  At Missouri hospital.  Toward evening weary, but spirited a little and nervous.  Anti-Vallandigham* resolutions largely signed in regiment.

Sept 16 - A little cloudy, quite a relief.  Fine display of the brigade and cavalry out on inspection.  Felt weary toward evening and somewhat dis-spirited and lonely but the prayer meeting did me good.  Feel my work is great but must cast my care on the Lord.  Feel want of family intercourse and society.

Sept 17 - Rain, clouds and cool wind.  Beginning to feel the monotony of camp life.  Read in "Chaplain's manual" useful instructions on dealing with sick and well.  Eve to prayer meeting of 32nd Missouri.  Not as interesting as ours I think.  Burnside* has marched on a hoodless conquest and deliverance of E. Tennessee.  Appetite less voracious.

Sept 18 - Chilly day.  Rode to town on my little horse.  Liked him and did not like him.  The horse question has troubled me much for ten days.  Rosencrans has taken Chattanooga and Burnside.

Sept 19 - Chilly still. Lib. our cook sick and Jim cooks.  Studied etc.  P.m. to 32nd hosp[ital].  Shall alternate daily between that and ours.  Gave tracts and papers.  Eve talked with Col Herrick of bringing wife and friends south in winter.

Sept 20 - Fine day.  An unexpected and delightful tho' short call from Sam who has a furlough of 20 days.  He is well.  His regiment has suffered and is suffering much from sickness and death.  In p.m. preached to an unusually good number of soldiers.  Col Herrick has talked to officers about attending church.  Very bad sick head ache in eve.

Sept 21 - Fine day.  A.m. to Chaplain's meeting etc.  P.m. school.  My school room does well.   Six or eight in attendance.  In eve spent an hour or two with Col. Swayne who is quite sick.  Prayer with him.  Good letter from Ella and Henry.


*  Clement Laird Vallandigham was born 29 July 1820 in Lisbon Ohio.  He was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio legislature in 1845 and 1846, and by a very small margin to the U.S. Congress in 1858 and 1860 representing the district around Dayton.  When the war broke out the majority anti-secession population of Dayton turned him out of office by a large margin in 1862.
He was a member of the copperhead movement and was vociferously anti-war on the basis of states rights, and perhaps racism played a part as well, as he defended the institution of slavery.
After the war, Vallandigham returned to Ohio, lost his campaigns for Senate and the House of Representatives on an anti-Reconstruction platform, and then resumed his law practice. By 1871 he won the Ohio Democrats over to a "new departure" policy that would essentially neglect to mention the Civil War.
Vallandigham's assertion that "he did not want to belong to the United States" prompted Edward Everett Hale to write The Man Without a Country. This short story, which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in December 1863, was widely republished.
Vallandigham died on 17 June 1871 in Lebanon, Ohio, at the age of 50, after accidentally shooting himself with a pistol. He was representing a defendant in a murder case for killing a man in a bar room brawl. Vallandigham attempted to prove the victim had in fact killed himself while trying to draw his pistol from a pocket when rising from a kneeling position. As Vallandigham conferred with fellow defense attorneys in his hotel room, he showed them how he would demonstrate this to the jury. Grabbing a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put it in his pocket and enacted the events as they might have happened, shooting himself in the process. Vallandigham proved his point, and the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was acquitted and released from custody.  Pictured below



Union General Ambrose Everett Burnside was born 23 May 1824 in Liberty Indiana.  He attended West Point, graduating in 1847.  He fought in the Mexican-American war doing mostly garrison duty in Mexico City near the end of the war.  At the close of the war, Lt. Burnside served two years on the western frontier, serving under Captain Braxton Bragg in the 3rd U.S. Artillery, a light artillery unit that had been converted to cavalry duty, protecting the Western mail routes through Nevada to California. In 1849, he was wounded by an arrow in his neck during a skirmish against Apaches in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Burnside was a brigadier general in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised a regiment, the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry, and was appointed its colonel on May 2, 1861. Within a month, he ascended to brigade command in the Department of Northeast Virginia. He commanded the brigade without distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run in July, committing his troops piecemeal, and took over division command temporarily for wounded Brig. Gen. David Hunter. After his 90-day regiment was mustered out of service, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on August 6, and was assigned to train provisional brigades in the nascent Army of the Potomac.


General Burnside also fought in North Carolina, Antietam, Fredericksburg, East Tennessee, The Overland campaign and the Crater.

Burnside was relieved of command on August 14 and sent on leave by Grant; Meade never recalled him to duty. A court of inquiry later placed the blame for the Crater fiasco on Burnside and his subordinates. In December, Burnside met with President Lincoln and General Grant about his future. He was contemplating resignation, but Lincoln and Grant requested that he remain in the Army. At the end of the interview, Burnside wrote, "I was not informed of any duty upon which I am to be placed." He finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865.
Burnside was noted for his unusual facial hair, joining strips of hair in front of his ears to his mustache but with chin clean-shaven; the word burnsides was coined to describe this style. The syllables were later reversed to give sideburns.

8 - 14 Sept 1863

Sept 8 - A very warm day.  Gave in my mare and halter at govt. stable and got a receipt from Capt. Eddy.  Saw a man at Washington hospital, apparently a sincere Christian, a communicant of our church and promised to administer the sacrament.  Buried a soldier of 32nd Mis[souri].  They have many sick and unusual mortality.  No letter from Ella yet this week.  Good pr[ayer] meeting.

Sept 9 - Warm.  Administered sacrament to a poor soldier in Washington hospital.  Apparently a devoted Christian.  At noon a watermelon and cake at dinner.  Upset my digestion and stupefied me some.  I cannot be as careful in camp as at home.  Oh that I might never over load my stomach.  "Thy table is a snare and a trap".  A letter from Ella.

Sept 10 - Very warm.  To Wisconsin hospital in the a.m. but accomplished little.  Studied etc.  Got over my dyspepsia.  Poor old Mr. Grimshaw died after a very short illness.  P.m. to Christian Commission and saw and prayed with poor Hicks, who is very low in Jefferson hospital.  Get almost exhausted walking in and out, partly from weather and partly want of practice in activity.

Sept 11 - Warm and very dusty.  We buried Mr. Grimshaw in the morning.  I attended auction of condemned stock.  A man had bought and I bought of him at 25 dollars a small and rather exhausted looking mare.  Pleased with my bargain.  We had orders to be ready to move at sunset.  I hurried and worked till bed time in preparation.

Sept 12 - Col. Swayne has come.  Think we will go into Arkansas.  A letter from Ella.  Hearing I was and no letter (fault of mails) she is very anxious.  Sends $10.00.  Wants to come if I will send for her.  A loving true wife.

Sept 13 - Usual routine of duties.  Fair attendance at p.m. service.  Read at hospital.  Evening a chaplain's meeting and I baptized Murphy, Page and Howard.  In evening saw Col. Swayne.  Walked in and staid with him.  Brings a good letter from North.

Sept 14 - Fine day but dusty.  Chaplain's meeting.  Nausea and vomiting after breakfast but feel better.  Errands down town and school.  See that my new purchase [the mare] is too small to carry me but will keep till I can sell or trade and if we march will go afoot some.

24 - 28 Aug 1863

Aug 24 - Col. Sheldon called on Col. Herrick to my surprise.  Not quite well but going back.  Col. Swayne left for Ohio.

Aug 25 - Remarkable change yesterday a.m.  Clouds and chill wind.  It is strengthening.  Men have requested prayer meeting every night except when on guard.  I urge religious thoughts and reading in regiment.

Aug 26 - We begin to eat.  Clear but cool day.  Am stupid and weak.  By request attended funeral of a soldier in 63rd O[hio VI].  P[rayer] meeting in eve.  A supper given at G[?] house to Gen. Grant.  I was not invited.

Aug 27 - Fine and cool.  Rather weak.  A letter from Ella but too short and in pencil.  In p.m. to town on business and eve a pleasant call at Col. Boyd's with Col. Herrick.

Aug 28 - Rained most of the a.m.  I studied.  Often feel tired and weary in my work.  Have prayer meetings every evening except when on guard.  Bowels some sore.  Chilly weather.

16 - 22 July 1863

July 16 - Got some new pants and vest and some books contributed by John Andrews for the camp library for our regiment.

July 17 - As usual Pa and I get pretty warm in discussing political affairs so I shall stop it.  I am an unconditional Union man.  He favors the peace Democrats.

July 18 - Trying to get baby's photograph.  P.m. rode to Gahana with Lieut. Connell* of the 43rd.  Eve at Col Swayne's.  Gen. Brayman* walked home with Ella and I with ma.

July 19 - A pleasant Sunday at Trinity a.m. and eve.  Spoke at Pres[byterian] Sunday School concert in the afternoon.  Capt. Henry Chittenden* at Camp Chase*.  Morgans of Ky in the state.

July 20 - We left for Elyria at 11 a.m. I have got my leave extended not being quite strong and well.  Arrived at 3 in the rain.  Ella had bad headache.

July 21 - Saw folks in town.  Happy place.  Pleasant here.  Saw our sweet old home.  Ella has more sore mouth.

July 22 - John Morgan* captured near Salineville [Columbiana County, Ohio].  Pay my debts and visit some.  Sell Topsy for $60.00 to Mr. Gordon.

* Zachariah A. Connell, a 1st Lieutenant in F company, 43rd OVI.  He enlisted as a private on 3 Oct 1861, was appointed 1st Sergeant 1 Jan 1862, Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant 17 July 1862, and 1st Lieutenant 3 Sep 1862.  He was discharged 28 Aug 1863.
*Brigadier General Mason Brayman (23 May 1813 - 27 Feb 1895).  Became 7th Governor of the Idaho Territory, serving from 1876 to 1880.  Pictured below

* Henry Treat Chittenden, Richard's younger brother, born 18 Dec 1836.  He died 30 May 1909.
* Camp Chase was a Union training and staging camp as well as a prisoner of war camp on the west side of Columbus, OH.  There is a cemetary there where 2,260 Confederate soldiers are buried.  The cemetary is located at 2900 Sullivant Ave.
* Confederate General John Hunt Morgan (1 June 1825 - 4 Sep 1864) pictured below

1 - 8 June 1863

June 1 - I hear from Ella regularly.  She is pretty well and so is the boy I am happy to say.

June 2 - Hundreds of wounded arriving from Vicksburgh about his time.

June 5 - Several men taking small pox removed to pest-house.  I wish they had a chaplain.

June 6 - Great Union celebration in Memphis in commemoration of the occupation of the city by the Federals June 6 1862.  Speeches etc.  Not many of the aristocracy present.

June 7 - Fine day.  Tracts a.m.  Not quite so formal in distributing so many to every tent.  At 11 went to Episcopal church.  A good sermon and staid to communion.  P.m. preached to regiment and eve service at union chapel.

June 8 - Chaplain's meeting in p.m.

introduction

This is the Civil War diary of Richard Lucius Chittenden, chaplain of the 43rd Ohio regiment.  Below is a picture of Richard.

He was also the rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio at the time. I am transcribing the diary as copied by his daughter Mary Chittenden Parks (b. 2 March 1866 in Elyria, Ohio), while she was living in Paradise, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the years 1905-1907. Some of Mary's handwriting is hard to decipher and I do not have the original diary to compare with, so there may be words that I cannot decipher...sorry about that! I have no idea where the original diary is, or if it is even extant. The handwritten copy from which I am working is the property of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Elyria, Ohio.






Below is a picture of St. Andrew's in 1850.

The first entry in the diary is dated 1862 and is an introductory paragraph. The diary actually begins 1 Jan 1863. The final entry is June 13 1865.

Richard enlisted on 14 Nov 1862, and was a part of the Field and Staff Officers of the 43rd Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry which mustered in from 31 Aug 1861 to 29 Jan 1862 at Camp Andrews, Mount Vernon, Ohio.  They were mustered out on 13 July 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky by Captain William H. Carr of the 10th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

Richard was born on 10 July 1830.  He was born in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, the eldest son of Asahel Chittenden (born May 1797 in Waterbury, Connecticut - died March 1880 in Columbus, OH) and Harriet Herpin Treat (born 1810 in Connecticut - died June 1872 in Columbus, OH) who were married in March 1829.  They moved west to Columbus Ohio in 1829.

Richard graduated with honors from Kenyon College in 1849.

In the Bishop's address at the 37th Annual convention of the Diocese of Ohio, meeting at Grace Church, Sandusky 27-30 Sept 1854 Richard was mentioned as a candidate for holy orders.

The General Catalog of Kenyon College 1826-1899 lists Richard as a non-graduate of the Theological department for 1857.

In 1857 Richard was in Chicago, Illinois serving as an assistant at Trinity Church, where he was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Henry John Whitehouse, Bishop of Illinois on Wednesday, 11 Nov 1857.
Below is a picture of Bishop Whitehouse, second Bishop of the Diocese of Illinois.


At the 21st annual convention of the Diocese of Illinois, meeting at St. Paul's Church, Springfield 15-17 Sept 1858 Richard is listed as the rector of Zion Church (now called Grace Church), Freeport.  He became rector of Zion Episcopal Church on 9 May 1858.  Their original 1852 building was destroyed by a tornado on 18 July 1861, a year after Richard left to return to Ohio.  In his convention address Bishop Whitehouse mentioned Richard's ordination in Chicago, and in another report he is listed as a candidate for ordination.  St. Andrew's first rector, the Rev. Anson Clark, is listed as the rector of Emmanual Church, Rockford, Illinois in the convention report.

Richard married Ella Rebecca Howard of Elyria on 18 Sept, 1861.   She was born in June 1838 in Washington DC, the daugher of Sebra (Sebring) and Ellen Howard.  The family had moved to Elyria by 1850 and attended the Methodist Church.  Ella's father was a contractor according to the 1859 Elyria city directory.  The family home was on the West side of Cedar street North of Broad street.  Ella's father died on 19 March 1862.  The Chittenden home was at the corner of Middle Avenue and 3rd street, the site of the present church building. 

Ella was received into the Episcopal Church by Assisting Bishop Gregory T. Bedell.  Richard and Ella were married by Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine at St. Andrew's, one of the few couples at the time who were actually married in the church builing as most couples were married in the rectory or their own home.  One of the witnesses was Wagar Swayne, the man who would soon be one of Richard's fellow officers in the 43rd OVI.  He must have been a personal friend of Richard to be a witness at his wedding.  They both grew up in Columbus, although Richard was four years his senior.

At the time of the 1850 census Richard was living in Ward 2 of Columbus, Franklin Co., Ohio and was a student.

At the 1860 census Richard was renting rooms from the Norton family in Elyria and had taken up the post as Rector at St. Andrew's.  Oddly there is no Norton family listed in the 1859 Elyria city directory.  Perhaps the Norton's moved to Elyria just before Richard did.

At the 1870 census he was living in Elyria, Lorain Co., Ohio. His mother-in-law, Ellen Howard (born c.1810 in Maryland) and Ella's sister Emma C was living with them (Mr. Howard had died in March 1862).  They had one daughter, Mary Campbell Chittenden (Parks), born 2 March 1866.  Their son Lucius Howard Chittenden who had been born in 1863 died on 3 Feb 1865.

At the 1880 census they were in East Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. Two more daughters had been born, Harriett E (Witmer) in 1871 and Grace M (Taylor) in 1875. Ella's sister Emma C Howard (b. 1849/50) was still living with the family as well as her mother's sister Caroline Howard (b. 1815).

By 1895 Richard was the rector of three small parishes in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; All Saints, Paradise, Grace Church, Nickel Mines and Christ Church, Leacock.  All three seem to be extinct now, but their cemeteries still exist.

Richard died 15 Nov 1913 in Paradise, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania and is buried in All Saint's Episcopal Cemetery.  Ella died in 1920 and is buried beside her husband.

Below are the colors of the 49th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry