Letters of C.P. Goodrich 1st Wisconsin Cavalry

[NY Pvt]

All,
These are letters from C.P. Goodrich of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. It is a fantastic read. I am posting it as an attachment to save some space, but if anyone has trouble opening it, let me know and I can post it in full text.

Enjoy!

[DaveGink]

Great read!!! Thanks!

[John of the Skulkers Mess]

Might fine!

Good one Dane...

John

[ScottCross]

Dane,

I am assuming that these letters have been sold to different buyers and sent to the four winds. This is very unfortunate if so. While they are a wonderful archive as an entire grouping, it will now be very difficult for future researchers to actually use or publish excerpts from these. Thanks for putting them all together.

[NY Pvt]

Scott,
Yes, they were being sold separately, and they did go to different buyers, although I believe a few people bought most of them. So there may be a hope, of the letters coming together if someone is motivated and has a lot of extra funds.

However, looking back at the seller, I see that the letters I pulled together are not all of them. He seems to have put up some of them for sale a couple weeks before the majority of them. That is a project for tonight.

Everyday on EBay buyers split up collections of letters. However, thankfully this seller took the time to transcribe most of them, and it has paid off for him. The closing prices seem to be double or triple of letters sold of EBay with just the basic information.

EBay is a great place. I have learned so much from finds like these letters, to portraits, and beyond. Once one gets the eye for what is period and are originals, there is a wealth of knowledge posted everyday…for sale. But much of what is posted is gone in 21 days, and that is why my hard drive is filled with a couple thousand images.

[paul9thky]

Awesome stuff. Great details and insight into the federal cavalryman.

thanks

[NY Pvt]

All,
I finally was able to draw together all of the letters that were posted on eBay from C.P. Goodrich of t he 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. I missed a large number of letters the first time I compiled them and I still feel that some are missing (whether they have not been listed yet, destroyed during the war, or lost sometime in the past 140 years I do not know).

When I first posted them the content of the letters was about 20+ pages long. Now it is 75 pages. So pull up a comfortable chair. They are a great read. You really get to know C.P. Goodrich and his exploits by the end.

Hope you enjoy.

[DaveGink]

Thanks for This!!! It is such a great read and I appreciate your effort putting this collection of letters together!! It's such a shame to see them broken up and scattered about.

[DaveGink]

Thought you might find this site interesting. It has a biography of C.P. Goodrich and looks like it may contain some letters not included in your compilation. They may be very interested in learning about the letters you have.

http://www.macalester.edu/~browne/Tree/Bios/GoodrichCP.html

Also, here is the link to the Civil War photo of Mr. Goodrich:

http://www.macalester.edu/~browne/Tree/Bios/CPpix/CPGoodrich.jpg

[DaveGink]

One thing that strikes me is how you can see the decline of his emotional state as the war wears on him (and seemingly the men around him). Some very interesting accounts of battles, mounted and dismounted tactics, and foraging too.

[missourirelics]

I am currently writing an article on the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry "Swords and Swamps" the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry in Southeast Missouri. I bought four of those letters, unfortunetly I could not afford all of them. I paid way over market value because it is not often to find letters concerning the 1st WI cavalry in Mo. They truly are wonderful letters.

Paul Arnold
Commissary BGR

[DaveGink]

I am currently writing an article on the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry "Swords and Swamps" the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry in Southeast Missouri. I bought four of those letters, unfortunetly I could not afford all of them. I paid way over market value because it is not often to find letters concerning the 1st WI cavalry in Mo. They truly are wonderful letters.

Paul Arnold
Commissary BGR

It would be great to see those transcribed and added into that word file. :)

[NY Pvt]

Dave,
I think Paul meant that he bought four of the letters that are already posted in the word file. I could be wrong, in that case I would like to see them as well.
Thanks your for the links. It is great to see more letters, but I wonder when and how the collection was originally broken up. Of course now it doesn’t really matter as all the letters are spread from all across the country. It was interesting to see the photo of C.P. Goodrich, it was not really like the mental image I conjured in my head as I read the letters.
I think you do have a point about how as the war raged on you do see how it affected him mentally. However, I also feel that some of it was due to many of the things he saw soldiering that no longer interested him as they once had. He was an old hat at campaigning and simply did not write as much about it. While at the same time, he continues to writes about each different human reactions in some detail..

Paul,
Please let us know when the book hits the press. I had no knowledge or interest in the 1st Wisc. Cav. As a New Yorker who lives in South Carolina, but these letters opened a window. Not to mention Goodrich writes how he visited some of the boys in the 3rd Wisc. Infantry, and the 3rd Wisc. was brigaded with my ggg grandfathers unit, the 150th NY.

[missourirelics]

Will do, I'm heading to Madison, WI after the New Year to do more research...my letters are contained on the word file. I do have another set of letters from Ira Adams of the 1st WI, that are just as interesting. He doesn't give the detail of camp life, but does touch on the broader scheme of things. I'll let you know when I get closer to publication. Thanks for the info.

Paul Arnold

[neocelt]

Dane,

Thanks so much for your herculean efforts in preserving and sharing these letters with us--you're an oak! Thanks, too, to Dave for sharing the links for the additional letters and bio. data. Finally: Paul, thanks for chiming in, and please do post when you have time to come up for air--and keep us in the loop re: the article! This is superb stuff!!!

Cheers,

[ScottCross]

Paul,

We have two very good letters from members of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. You can view them at our website: http://www.oshkoshmuseum.org/Virtual/
If you publish them in your book, please give the museum proper credit and list the Object Identification Number in the footnotes.

Also, check for images on the website. You may want to contact me at the Oshkosh Public Museum, because I know we have some GAR portraits of individual members and a reunion photograph taken in Milwaukee in 1880. Company E & Company G were from Winnebago County, where Oshkosh is located.

scross@ci.oshkosh.wi.us

[missourirelics]

Scott, thanks for the info, I'm checking on it this afternoon. I think you and I graduated at the same university. I went to Southeast Missouri State University and received a B.S. in Historic Preservation. You were also in tha program, right? Thanks for the heads up.

Paul Arnold
Historic Preservation B.S.
Southeast Missouri State University, Class of '04

[GoodrichGS4]

Hello.

I am the gg grandson of C. Perry Goodrich and have a few of his letters myself. I also have about 150 pages of transcripts of his letters. From the tiny bit I compared, it seems that the transcript of the letters in the post are edited. I have only looked at the first two but mine have additional details about Perry and other people around him.

Interestingly, the oldest letter in my collection is from his wife, Frankie, dated January 5, 1862.

Tom Goodrich Browne
Saint Paul, Minn.