WESLEY WAGONER - CIVIL WAR LETTERS & Photos

Wesley was described as 5' 4", with blue eyes, light colored hair and fair skin. He worked for his father, John George Wagoner, as a store clerk as a young man in Hanover, Pennsylvania. He had already in his young years lost his mother when he was about seven years old. His father had remarried and the family had moved to Hanover from Manchester, Maryland. His stepmother gave birth to three other children during the 1850's but two of them died within a couple years. Wesley just had his father, stepmother and one half sister, which he affectingly called "Lizzie". But he was happy and content and a young man with a great deal of personal faith in God. With the firing on Ft. Sumter in South Carolina and the start of America's Civil War, Wesley's life would change forever.

He had to wait before entering the service, his family wanted to keep him safe as long as possible. But with him being a fit male of 18 years he at last enlisted in the 76th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment Union Army on October 28, 1862 (age 18 years old) and was sent to Camp Cameron, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by December 9, 1862 for training. His regiment was then taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina. His regiment was in charge of picket duty on Botany Bay, St. Helena and Folly Islands until July 1863. This regiment group was known as "Keystone Zouaves".

Wesley wrote many letters to his father while he was in the service. In one letter of January 1863 he asked to be remembered to his friends and family back in Hanover. In a special message to his little sister, Lizzie, he promised to bring her seashells he had gathered along Hilton Head Island. He learned later the following month that little six-year-old Lizzie died at home. Wesley was experiencing such heartache and being so far from his family there was nothing he could do.

Then in a letter to his father written the third week of June 1863 he wrote of the capture of the Rebel Ram, the monitor, as it had come down the Savannah River and the taking of 165 prisoners. He felt this saved the possible destruction of the Union fleet in the harbor. His regiment also received newspapers occasionally and he had read of the recent attack on SE Pennsylvania and northern Maryland (his hometowns) and was glad the people of the towns were able to keep the Confederates from taking the areas. Wesley received letters from other family members and friends fighting in other areas. One friend wrote of a recent battle of Chancelorsville and all the boys killed in the fighting. Wesley wrote to his father of the local conditions and how much it rained. This kept the flea and mosquito population high and was quite bothersome but they managed.

One of his last letters was written July 8, 1863 at Folly Island (7 miles from Charleston, South Carolina). He and the troops had been given 3 days rations of hard crackers and salt pork. The troops were moving out that night, possibly to take Charleston. His commander was Capt. William S. Diller. Wesley wrote that he would write his father again ". . . if God spares me."

The 76th Pennsylvania infantry regiment along with four companies of the 7th Connecticut made an assault on Fort Wagner on July 10, 1863 but lost 187 men in the bloody fighting. Wesley was taken as a prisoner by the Confederate forces on July 11, 1863 at Ft. Wagner, Morris Island, South Carolina. He was moved to Charlestown and then to Belle Isle Prison in Richmond, Virginia.

Conditions were very poor there, very little food, clean water or medicine. It was classified a prison camp, the housing for the prisoners just being tents. The prison was on an island in the middle of the James River making escape very difficult. There were few supplies for the Confederate forces so little or nothing was left for the Union prisoners.

For months Wesley saw death all around him as fellow prisoners died from previous wounds that were not properly treated, or death from sickness and lack of food. In November of 1863 he had a fever and was suffering from disease. A friend, Edwin Armstrong, from 2nd Regt., New York Cavalry, Co. "E", was with Wesley those final days. Wesley had been moved to General Hospital #21 in Richmond and was there 10 days. His fever worsens and "was out of his head" as stated by Edwin Armstrong who stayed by Wesley's bedside. Wesley died a Saturday morning, November 15, 1863. Wesley Wagoner was barely 20 years old. Edwin wrote on November 20, 1863 to Wesley's father, John George Wagoner, of Wesley's dying days. Surgeon John Wilkins (CSA) certified Wesley died of pneumonia and dysentery. So many prisoners died each day that their bodies were just put into a common grave by the prison. Wesley's father tried to have his son's body returned to Hanover but without any success. Many of the bodies were later buried in a special area in the Richmond cemetery.

PHOTOS OF BELLE ISLE, THE TENTS & THE GRAVESITES (by Rees)

By February of 1864 most of the surviving prisoners were moved to Andersonville Prison in South Carolina. The Confederates were afraid of a Union attack on Richmond and the freeing of the Union prisoners at Belle Isle. The remainder of the 76th Pennsylvania did scout, picket and guard duties and repulsed several night attacks from the mainland of South Carolina in the months that followed. They fought later in Richmond, Petersburg, Ft. Harrison and then to Ft. Fisher in North Carolina. The regiment was mustered out of Raleigh on July 18, 1865. The ship that took the men back to Pennsylvania sank on route and several men died at sea. The remnants of the regiment reached Harrisburg on July 23, 1865 and they were finally discharged.

John George Wagoner in just a few short years lost his first wife and four children. His death came in March of 1865 at the age of 43. Now his widow had only memories of a family that no longer existed due to disease, war and heartbreak. Wesley's letters were his only legacy.