Postal History / Letter
This Civil War soldier letter was written by German emigrant Friedrich William Charles Heldman (1840-1912) of the
3rd Missouri Infantry
(90-day regiment) and then later the
17th Missouri Infantry
(a.k.a. “The Western Turner Rifles”). Though he signed all of these letters “William,” he was carried on the company roster as “Charles.”
The 3rd Missouri Volunteers evolved from one of several unofficial pro-Unionist militia units formed semi-secretly in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair, Jr. and other Unionist activists. The organization that would become the 3rd Missouri was largely composed of ethnic Germans, who were generally opposed to slavery and strongly supportive of the Unionist cause. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, four militia regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln.
The 17th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed at St. Louis in August 1861 by the St. Louis Turner Society, a German-American athletic and social organization. Under the leadership of Charles Stiefel and Frederick Leser, the St. Louis Turnverien placed its meeting hall in the hands of General Lyon, the Union military commander in St. Louis, and Col. Sigel, a former German officer. A new regiment known as the
Western Turner Rifles
was quickly recruited to serve for three years composed primarily of German-American officers and enlisted men from St. Louis who had previously served 90-day enlistments from May to August 1861 with the First, Second, Third and Fourth Missouri Regiments. These units fought under Brigadier General Lyon and Sigel at the capture of Ft. Jackson in St. Louis, the relief of St. Genevieve, Missouri and later in the summer at the battle of Wilson’s Creek.
A post war image of William Heldman and his wife (as featured on Spared & Shared).
William was married in 1874 to Anna Therese Mathilde Summa (1850-1935). In the 1900 US Census, William was enumerated in Feeme Osage, St. Charles county, Missouri, with his wife and four children, earning his living as a vine fruit grower. William’s parents were Anton Karl Heldmann (1803-1851) and Bertha Falkmann (1820-1890) of Bexten, Lippe Dettmold, Germany. Sometime in the late 1840s, the Heldman family emigrated to the United States where William’s father died in 1851 and his mother remarried Eberhard Fuhr (1823-1900). William’s younger brother, Theodore, served in the same company with him during several months in 1862 but was discharged for disability due to chronic diarrhea.
TRANSCRIPTION
[Rolla, Missouri]
January 10, 1862
Dear brother,
I have received your letter and I was very glad to hear that you are all well yet and I was very glad to hear that the secessionists got their property taken from them. I am very glad to hear that Johnson’s negroes ran away from him. The Turner Society of Detroit in the State of Michigan send down to us for Christmas three large tin boxes of cordial and a large box of sausage and a great many cigars. There is a great many Turners of Detroit. They are my best friends I have got. They are very fine boys.
We have got a general [
Samuel R. Curtis
] we do not like him. He is a man that don’t know anything about soldiers. He never was in the field yet. He always was in Jefferson Barracks. He has give us an order that we would soon have to march and all have to carry our clothes and this cannot be done, and this is a sign that [he] don’t know anything about soldiers. General Sigel only has command over his brigade. They ought to give him the command over the troops at Rolla. He deserves it and all the soldiers like him and if he resigns, they will have a great deal of trouble with his brigade. It is said that we would get a march and a very hard one.
We will have a great many dying along the road. Our regiment is not got hardly any sick ones but the American regiments are about half sick. But this comes because they eat everything the farmers bring to the camp. They bring pie and cakes and honey and all kinds of things and the pie is not half baked and this makes them sick. I will send fifteen dollars and next time I will send more. We have not got our second pay but I think we will get it in a few days. Father can use the money I send till I come back. This is all. Your true brother, — William Heldman
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