April 5, 1865 Letter from William Hoyt to Wife Phebe Campbell
[Note: The original letter was copied by their granddaughter,
Jessica HOYT Thompson, perhaps in the 1950s. And now transcribed by her
son, William Thompson. We tried to preserve the original grammar and
spelling. Wm. Hoyt was a Private in Co. H, 275th Regiment, PA
Vols.
Jessica's notation was:
"Dody was his 2 year old son. The Watson referred to was a prisoner in Libby Prison for years and finally escaped after several attempts in which some of the men lost their lives.
One interesting incident about the Beevers. Some of the wounded soldiers were sent home & their families got smallpox. My grandmother fed the Beevers by putting food everyday by a stump part way [to] their house & vaccinated herself & my father with a piece of scab they got some way."
The "awful fight on Sunday" was the April 2nd assault on Ft.
Gregg, during the battle called Petersburg III. The attack was
repulsed, but with such heavy Confederate losses, including the death
of Gen. A. P. Hill, that Lee retreated. "O. Babcock" was probably Sgt.
Oliver P. Babcock, of Co. H. "Watson" may have referred to Pvt.
Lawrence Watson, of Co. H. "Beever" probably referred to his neighbor,
Lewis (or Louis) Beiver/Beaver who was married to Eliza Lugg, 1st
cousin of Phoebe and daughter of Charles
Byron Lugg. - wbt]
Dear Phoeb,
We had an awful fight on Sunday and lost a great many of our
Men. Watson is gone we don't know whether he was killed or taken
prisoner. O. Babcock was wounded in the arm. The rest of our boys in
our company that you know are all right. We have taken Petersburg and I
was in the city Monday.
We are on our way to Lynchburg Write if you get the money and
the box. I sent you more this time.