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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC02414.216 |
| From Archive Folder | Collection of Eliakim P. Scammon, 23rd regiment, Ohio, infantry |
| Title | John C. Paxton to Eliakim P. Scammon concerning a hunt for bushwhackers |
| Date | 17 March 1863 |
| Author | Paxton, John C. (fl. 1863) |
| Recipient | Scammon, Eliakim P. |
| Document Type | Correspondence; Military document |
| Content Description | Telegram from Colonel Paxton to Brigadier General Scammon. Reports on men that are supposedly heading bushwhacking companies around Clay Court House in West Virginia. States that he divided his men and they went searching for them house to house but the men escaped to the woods. Says they returned to camp because the men and horses were tired. He has seven prisoners. Informs that on Monday the men will gather at Logan Court House to elect a Colonel. Writes, "...Union men selling salt to go to Dixie for 350 per bushel. The people are all hostile." On stationary of the U.S. Military Telegraph. |
| Subjects | Civil War Military History Union Forces Union General Guerrilla Warfare Confederate States of America Prisoner of War Election Merchants and Trade Commerce |
| People | Paxton, Elisha Franklin (1828-1863) Scammon, Eliakim Parker (1816-1894) |
| Place written | Gauley, West Virginia |
| Theme | The American Civil War; Merchants & Commerce |
| Sub-collection | Papers and Images of the American Civil War |
| Additional Information | Folder information: Eliakim Scammon (1816-1894), an original officer in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, fought in the Seminole Wars, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. Born in Maine, he entered West Point at the age of 16 and graduated ninth in the class of 1837, alongside more celebrated classmates Braxton Bragg, Joseph Hooker, and John Sedgwick. Scammon, an engineer, was asked to serve on Winfield Scott’s staff during his 1847 campaign in Mexico. He was dismissed from service in 1856, and moved to Ohio to teach mathematics, first at Mount Saint Mary’s, then at the Polytechnic College of the Catholic Institute. In 1861, Ohio governor William Dennison appointed him colonel of the 23rd Ohio Regiment, where he commanded two future presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. He served under McClellan and Rosecrans in the successful western Virginia campaign. Scammon’s regiment was then assigned to the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Ambrose Burnside, in 1862. After Antietam, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and given command of the District of Kanawha in October 1862. (In that position, Scammon frequently crossed horns with his subordinate, future president Rutherford B. Hayes.) In February 3, 1864, Scammon was captured by Confederate guerrillas while aboard a steamboat. Towards the end of the war he was exchanged, and briefly commanded the District of Florida. After the war, he was assigned duty in South Carolina and Florida on the Military Examining Board (deciding which officers remained in the army). He later resumed teaching mathematics at Seton Hall University. Documents in this collection largely pertain to the Civil War in West Virginia and consist of letters, telegrams, documents, drafts, and notes. The collection includes: three letters of future President Rutherford B. Hayes, and correspondence with him; Gettysburg-related material (Scammon was ordered to attack Lee's retreating forces); correspondence to and from Scammon; telegrams while in service (mostly in hand of telegrapher), and finally letters addressed to him as President of the Military Examining Board in Florida and South Carolina (1865) requesting to remain in service and providing brief biographies with records of service. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |
| Civil War: Recipient Relationship | Comrade |
| Civil War: Theater of War | Main Eastern Theater |
| Civil War: Unit | 23rd Ohio Infantry |