After the battle of Shiloh, Charles Milton Adams writes a letter for Godfrey Arn. It is about his brother Major Fred Arn who served in the 31st Indiana Infantry. Under General J.G. Laumann. Godfrey Arn was too young to enlist so he served as Fred's servant. I believe I have matched enough of the penmanship to authenticate it.
[letter directed to Mr. J.C. Johnson]
Poor Fred lost his life on that bloody field of Pitsburg Landing while gallantly leading his men. He was shot on Sunday the 6th, but lived just 24 hours longer, just long enough to learn that our men had beaten back the enemy...He died on Monday the 7th between 12 and 1 o'clock. His body was brought home by his brother John [who] was a private in the same Regt. & he was buried here last Sunday. Poor Fred has left many friends behind. The Regt. to which he belonged the 31st Ind. had 21 killed, 103 wounded & 4 missing. Total 128 out of about 450 men of the Regt. were thus disabled in this battle thus showing pretty hard fighting. The Co., Co. A of which Fred was first Capt. [U.S. military records give his rank as Major] went into battle with 40 to 50 men. Of these 3 were killed, 10 were wounded & 1 missing. I shall start now immediately for the field of battle to bring home his horse and other effects. Yours, Godfrey Arn
Fred Arn is buried in the Montezuma,Indiana Cemetery
Letter Source
Hey, that is awesome. The letter directed to Mr. (Capt.) J. C. Johnson. Capt. Johnson is my great grandfather and also was room mate and close friend of Fred Arn while attending the Un. of MI. In fact, my grandfather is named Fred Arn Johnson -- named after my the Major I'm sure!
ReplyDeletePS: There are 2 pages of the original letter, which I have.
ReplyDeleteI am Sassy (Sylvia) JOHNSON.
I would like to see the complete letter.
ReplyDeleteI can email it to you.
DeleteThe address is wadams16 "at" cox.net
DeleteI'll get it to you tomorrow. Sorry, been busy!
ReplyDeleteGodfrey Arn is my great-great grandfather. One of Godfrey's son, who was named after his brother Fred Arn, is my great grandfather. Is the letter not in Godfrey's handwriting?
ReplyDeleteThe letter is written by Charles Milton Adams, the hand writing matches his, It is unknown why he wrote the letter for him
ReplyDelete