War was no stranger to the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. A small farming community at the outbreak of the Civil War, Sudbury stood ready to support the cause of the Union. Uriah and Mary Moore, a local farmer and his wife, parents of ten children, sent four sons off to fight for the Union. George Frederick Moore was twenty years old when he joined the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment in 1862, along with brother, Albert. Their brother, John, had enlisted in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment and had been serving since 1861. In 1864, a fourth brother, Alfred, joined the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment. The eighty-four letters in this collection span the years from August 1862 to the end of the War and include correspondence to and from Pvt. George Moore and five family members. George's personal diaries from 1863 and 1864 are also included, as well as the 1867 diary of Sarah Jones, the girl he married. Through research the family is traced long after the war, revealing their travels and accomplishments. Explanatory passages that accompany these letters highlight the campaigns of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts through the war years. George Moore took part in battles from South Mountain and Antietam to Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbell's Station, and the Siege of Knoxville. He participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the assault on Petersburg. The letters to and from George Moore and his loved ones provide an intimate glimpse of the trials, not only of the soldiers, but of the family who sent their boys off to war.

from your loving son

CIVIL WAR CORRESPONDENCE AND DIARIES OF PRIVATE GEORGE F. MOORE AND HIS FAMILYBy Mary Ellen Hoover Elin Williams Neiterman E. Dianne James

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Sudbury Historical Society
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-3694-3

Contents

Acknowledgements..............................................................................................ixIntroduction..................................................................................................xiiiThe Moore Family in 1862......................................................................................11862..........................................................................................................71863..........................................................................................................311864..........................................................................................................811865..........................................................................................................151George F Moore 1863 Diary...................................................................................177George F Moore 1864 Diary...................................................................................221Sarah Elizabeth Jones Diary 1867..............................................................................253The Moore Family After the War................................................................................307Appendix A Patents of George F Moore.........................................................................331Appendix B Moore Genealogy....................................................................................341Appendix C Sudbury Civil War Monument Dedication..............................................................349Appendix D Civil War Soldiers from Sudbury, Massachusetts.....................................................353Appendix E Timeline of the Thirty-fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers with Maps...........................359Appendix F Commissions during the Civil War...................................................................363Appendix G Governor Andrew and Generals mentioned in the letters..............................................365Massachusetts.................................................................................................373Appendix I Payments to the Sudbury Soldiers of the Thirteenth Regiment........................................375Bibliography..................................................................................................377

Chapter One

The Moore Family in 1862

Mary and Uriah Moore and their ten children lived in Sudbury in the 1800's. In September of 1862 the Moore family was preparing to say goodbye to George and Albert as they left to fight in the Civil War. Their son John had been one of the first men in Sudbury to sign up almost a year before. By 1864, when twenty year old Alfred enlisted, four sons of Uriah and Mary Moore, George, Albert, John, and Alfred, were fighting in the Civil War.

Uriah Moore, age 5.6, was the oldest of Curtis Moore and Polly Nixon's ten children. At the beginning of the Civil War, Uriah had a large family and was a prosperous farmer. He and his wife owned a large farm in Sudbury, which was referred to as "the old place," even in legal documents and tax records. Somehow, though it is never made clear, at some point in 1862 Uriah was declared an "insolvent debtor." His home, land, equipment, and livestock, were scheduled to be sold at auction in the fall of 1862 to satisfy his debts. Uriah's loss of wealth noted in town records of 1861 and 1870 is startling.

Sudbury Town Records for 1861: Moore, Uriah: House-4.00, barn-200, shed-75., 5.7 acres-2000, old place house-3.00, 2 barns-4.00, shed-15., corn house-25., shop-20, 99ac.-1800, Knights lot-20 acres-3.00, 3. horses-24.0, 4. oxen-170, 10 cow-220, 2 swine-20, chaise-25., 10 M lumber-110, Tax 3.8.15.

Sudbury Town Records for 1870: Moore, Uriah: House-5.00, barn-15.0, shop-5.0, land 3. &fra12; acre-4.5.0, horse-3.0, carriage-3.0, tax 13.13.

The new land and house purchased from the proceeds of the auction were put in the name of his wife, Mary. Money became an issue for the family. Throughout the war the boys sent money home. Uriah was in poor health and without his grown sons he was left with much of the woodcutting and farm work to do himself. There are twenty-two letters in the collection from Uriah to his son, George, and undoubtedly he wrote just as many to his other three sons. Uriah sometimes asked, "When will you all be near each other? I want to see you." In early May of 1864, he visited all of his sons but Alfred. In his next letter to George he wrote, "It seemed like a dream." Uriah's letters contain many phonetically spelled words which may have come from his early 1800's education. Uriah was a very bright and hard working man who loved and missed his sons.

Mary Hayward Dakin Moore was just a year younger than her husband. She was a small, rather fragile looking woman with lovely handwriting whose letters showed she had a good education. Mary worried and prayed for the safety of her sons. She would often write to George saying, "take care of Albert" even though Albert was seven years older than George. When Albert was sick and left behind, she wrote, "I hope that Albert catches up with you." She sewed clothes for all her family in Sudbury and made shirts for George. Often it took so long for them to arrive that she imagined that someone else would be wearing them by the time George received them. During the war, fabric was scarce and expensive, so Mary frugally made over the older boys' clothes for the younger ones. She also sent her boys chicken pies that were often inedible when they arrived. When George became sick at the end of August, 1864, Mary traveled to be with him. Both Uriah and Mary wrote to George separately and he, in turn, wrote each of them individual letters. Mary always signed her letters, Mary H. Moore. Her obituary states that she was always proud of giving the service of four of her sons to the Civil War.

Francis Uriah at age 29 was the oldest child in the family. He suffered from an illness that was never explained beyond the fact that he had "terrible pains in his head." Because of this condition, he was considered unfit to be a soldier and did not enlist, nor was he drafted. He was a faithful correspondent to George, keeping him informed of family matters and the latest news from Sudbury. He read the Boston newspapers to gather information on the progress of the war, and relayed news that he learned from the trips he and his father made to Boston, talking with returning soldiers. George and Francis also exchanged newspapers to keep one another abreast of the news of the Civil War. Francis worked as a carpenter for the family, putting on an addition to the new house and helping his father cut wood. Town records show the town paid him for painting jobs and fence mending. Francis's letters are filled with commentary about the town of Sudbury and family activities and are often infused with subtle humor. Whatever his illness was, it became worse in early 1865, and he did not survive to see George and his other three brothers return home.

Albert Henry was 26 when he was mustered into Company D of the Thirty-fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers along with his brother, George....