Michigan in the Civil War
Buck family.
Fifty-six letters (1861-1866) written by Andrew Newton Buck of Hillsdale, Mich., to his brother, Myron. There are detailed descriptions of camp life(quarters, food, pedlars and sutlers, gambling, foraging, picket duty); comments on officers, slavery, Copperheads, religion, and rebel deserters; an outline of the "Buggy Brigade" plan. He was in several battles (July2-8, 1863) and gives details of the cavalry's part in the battle of Gettysburg under Custer. Buck served in Company I, 8th Connecticut Infantry in 1861-1862. He was at home from April to November, 1862 because of illness, then re-enlisted as quartermaster sergeant in Company F, 7th Michigan Cavalry. He was transferred to Company C, 1st Michigan Cavalry in October, 1865, and mustered out at Salt Lake City in 1866. From there he took a stagecoach trip to California before returning home.
Forty letters (1862-1864) written by Curtis Buck of Englishville, Mich., to his brother, Myron, from Corinth, Miss., and Rome, Ga. He gives some details of camp life, foraging, scouting and skirmishing, but his chief interest is mail from home. Buck was in Battery B, 1st Michigan Light Artillery, taken prisoner at Shiloh, wounded in action in March, 1865, and confined at Macon and other places for fifty-three days.
The collection includes one letter (June 10, 1864) written by John T. Bettis of Alpine, Mich., to Myron Buck in which he tells about running a saw and gristmill in Chattanooga, Tenn. Bettis was an artificer in Company D, Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, 1861-1864.
Also one letter (Sept. 26, 1864) of Watt E. Brown, Company F, 128th Indiana Infantry, written from Decatur, Ga.
This collection is available on microfilm for interlibrary loan.