Krieg-Campbell Family Documents

John Fletcher Montgomery 1864

Introduction

by Robert Norman Drake

These letters were written by John Fletcher Montgomery who was born in Madison Township, Licking County, Ohio, in 1827. He was the beloved grandfather of my grandfather, Laurence Montgomery Krieg.

Montgomery farm
"Chestnut Hill"
Madison Township, Licking County, Ohio

In the spring of 1864 he was a 36-year-old farmer, with a wife, Mary Wickham Montgomery, and two children, Cary, age 8, and Etta, age 4. At the end of April he became a “hundred day man,” serving as a corporal in Company E of the 135 th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Philip Wickham
in about 1862, age 16
from a Wickham family photo-portrait

We have 20 complete and two partial letters which he wrote home during his service. We also have two of the letters which his wife, Mary, wrote to him. They were preserved by one of his granddaughters, Esther Phillips, who passed the originals on to my wife Nancy and me in the early 1970s. All of the letters from John are in pencil, and many were written on pages from a spiral notebook. After we received them, I read the letters to Nancy, who typed them. We did our best to preserve in typing them both his grammar and his spelling, which were no better or worse than that of many other mid-19th-century Ohio farmers.

The Civil War was a business often undertaken by families and neighbors. Two of John’s brothers-in-law also served in the 135th O. V. I. Mary’s younger brother John Wickham, was at age 23 the Quarter Master Sergeant on the regimental staff and was part of the regiment from the beginning. John Wickham was married to the girl next door, Mary Thomas, who had grown up on the adjacent farm. John Wickham’s brother-in-law, David Thomas, was the major, or second in command, of the 135th. Mary Wickham Montgomery’s youngest brother, Philip Wickham, age 18, caught up with the regiment on June 2nd and, according to John Montgomery, “He is going to stay. The Colonel says he can get him mustered in. He can draw pay then.”

A summary of the service of the regiment from the Official Roster of Soldiers of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion sets many of John Montgomery’s letters in context.

"This regiment was organized at Camp Chase, Ohio, May 11, 1864 to serve one hundred days. It was composed of the Fifth Ohio National Guard, from Licking County, and the 32nd Battalion, Ohio National Guard, from Hardin County. The Regiment started on the day of its organization for Cumberland, Maryland. It was soon ordered to Martinsburg, and the companies were distributed along the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at Kearnysville, North Mountain, Van Clevesville, and Opequan Station, with headquarters at Martinsburg. [On July 3, 1864] The companies at North Mountain were surrounded by the enemy, and after about three hours of hard fighting were compelled to surrender. The Regiment encamped near Maryland Heights until the 6th day of July, when it moved to John Brown’s School-house, at which place it was engaged in a skirmish. After this the Regiment was placed on the Heights, to guard the artillery, and remained on duty there until it was ordered to be mustered out. It arrived at Camp Chase, Ohio, on the 28th day of August and was mustered out September 1, 1864, on expiration of term of service."

These letters are the story and observations of a common soldier, called from his home and family to defend his country.

Postscript

by Robert Norman Drake

John Wickham
in about 1862, age 21
from a Wickham family photo-portrait

Montgomery farm house
"Chestnut Hill"
Madison Township, Licking County, Ohio
Possibly built in the 1820s

John Montgomery returned to his farm in Madison Township and lived there for the rest of his life. He and Mary had another child after the war, Bertha, and it was Bertha’s daughter, Esther Phillips, who preserved the letters. John died in 1892 at the age of 64. Mary died in 1900. They are buried side by side at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Newark. Cary returned to the home farm after a career in agricultural research and operated an apple orchard there until his death in 1948, days short of his 94th birthday. He had no children. Etta married John Krieg in 1883 and had five children, the oldest of whom was my grandfather. She died in 1932.

Mary’s brother, John Wickham, did not return from the War. He was captured at North Mountain, along with his brother-in-law, Maj. David Thomas. John Wickham died a prisoner at age 23 in Lynchburg, Virginia, while he and his companions were being transported to the Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. His body was brought back to Newark and he is buried in the Wickham family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery, beside his parents. The Wickham plot is a short walk from the Montgomery family plot where John and Mary Wickham Montgomery are buried.

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