Horace B. Jewell Papers (c.00146)

This collection includes Horace B. Jewell's Civil War letters to his family in Michigan, written while serving with the 52nd Ohio Infantry. Horace Benjamin Jewell was born November 12, 1833 in New Hampshire to Charles Adolphus and Lydia Ann Jewell. He enlisted in the 52nd Ohio Regiment in June of 1862. Jewell saw action in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. Captured by the Confederates in 1863 and imprisoned in Virginia, Jewell describes in dramatic detail his daring escape to Union lines. One letter (October 6, 1862) tells of the regimental surgeon giving opium to soldiers before a battle to increase their endurance. He died July 19, 1864 at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia.