CIVIL WAR LETTER - 17th Missouri Infantry - Battle Augusta Kentucky - Nice Find!

Description

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
Helena, Arkansas
August 16, 1862
Dear Father,
I have received a letter of Rudolph Muller today. He wrote to me that Theodore and Herman were going to join the volunteers. If they go, tell them to come to our company or at least to our regiment for they will have more friends in our regiment than in any other one. But it will be very hard for Theodore. We have sometimes very hard times but if he does join the volunteers, he must come to our regiment if it is time yet. But what are all the other heroes of Augusta a going to do? Are they going to stay at home or join the State militia? I have not much news to write to you but that I am always well yet. We get plenty of ice every day now. I have sent a letter to you with two men of the Benton Hussars. One of them is Mitler. Tell Rudolph Muller I will write to him shortly.
Your true son, — William Heldman
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