A Quiet Corner of the War: The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862–1863

The Letters

 The Letters Gilbert and Esther Claflin, April 10, 1874. (family collection) [Probably November 19, 1862] Waukesha Dear Esther, We are still here; shall probably go to Madison tomorrow. We have had thus far first rate fare. There are a good many long faces here, and some cases are truly pitiable. I have learned from the commissioner that we have got to furnish our blankets for the present. You will have to send me one by express to Madison . I am better. Love to all, Gilbert Claflin  [Probably November 19, 1862] Dear Gilbert, William has just brought in your letter. I was a little surprised that you were still at Waukesha. I had supposed you were in camp having soldier’s fare. I finished my washing and cleaning today, and when I sat down tonight I went to sleep as usual. Elton has made him a whip stalk this evening, but he is minus a lash. He sold a bushel of little apples today and brought me the quarter. The boys have drawn two wagonloads of chips and got them in today. Everything has went on smoothly. I could not ask for any better children than they have been so far. Your mother is very quiet, knitting your socks. I read your letter to her. She says you can have her blue and white coverlid and I shall send you the one we have had on the lounge. I shall send them out tomorrow morning so they will get to Madison as soon as you do. 13 Gilbert, I always thought if you were called from my side life would be nothing but a dark blank; but there has come a change in my feelings. It seems as though I could bear the separation with a cheerful resignation and put my whole trust in God. Now Gilbert, if by making this great sacrifice we can help the cause of truth and liberty is it not better than living merely for ourselves? Price is very careful of my health. He said tonight, “Mother you had better go to bed. You can’t stand it to work so.” If you can’t come home this week please let us know. Yours a¤ectionately, Esther Claflin  [In pencil] Madison Dear Esther, I am enjoying camp life1 much better than I expected I should, but when I shall come home is a matter of uncertainty as it is now next to impossible to get a pass. I have just been to the quartermaster’s and got all the bread I could carry. You would be surprised to see [the] quantity that our boys, 115 in number, consume in a day. I suppose you got the letter that I sent, and have sent the blanket. I got my blanket today. Love to all, G. Claflin note 1. Camp Randall, where Gilbert was posted, was on ten acres of gently sloping, welldrained land that was previously the state fairgrounds a mile and a half west of Madison, Wisconsin. When Gilbert arrived a year and a half after the first soldiers came, animal sheds had been transformed into barracks, and the “Temple of Art” (where fair-goers had admired the works of Wisconsin artists) had become an indoor drill room (Mattern, Soldiers When They Go, 4).  14 A Quiet Corner of the War Camp Randall November 21, 1862 Dear Esther, I sent you a line out of camp yesterday by William Campbell,1 which you will doubtless get before this. I had but a short time to write in, and could say but little. But today I got a pass down town to get some things which I need. When I was in Waukesha I bought me some overhalls, and they do not come amiss. It will be some time, doubtless, before we get a furlough. The pressure on the drafted men is very great, and every inducement that can be o¤ered is o¤ered to induce them to enlist or procure substitutes as most of the substitutes enlist, and a good many are enlisting in order to get home on furlough. So far as the hardship and the disagreeableness of camp life is concerned , I can stand it first rate, but the privileges of a social and religious nature which we are, to a great degree, deprived of is the hardest of all. But on the whole it is much better than...