How I Found the Letters

The Baby With No Name - Not Yet Posted

Corporal William Browning of Winfield, Iowa - Dec 1, 2003
Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence

The Story of Pomp - the Ten Year-Old Run-Away Slave

Ghost Stories

Over time I will begin to collect and post the many and various ghost stories, both pre and post publication of Love and Valor.

How I Found the Letters

Of course I always felt the warmth of Jacob looking over my shoulder, providing assurance that I was on the right track, and that my hours, days, months and years of research would eventually come to fruition. Emeline was a missing piece for most of this period. I started with carbon copies of Jacob's war time letters typed by my grandmother's sister in the 1930s, but I had no correspondence from Emeline, only correspondence addressed to her.  

My father kept advising me that without Jacob's original letters, I was working on an unsubstantiated story. We both knew it was a true story, but how would you convince the world without producing the original letters? He suspected that the originals might have been with his long lost cousin Martha Lou, whom he hadn't seen in over 50 years. His clues for finding Martha Lou were “she married a man named Bugbee, and lives on a turkey farm in North Dakota. At least she did 25 or 30 years ago.” Jacob counseled me to pursue those clues, and I found Martha Lou with relative ease. This may not count as a religious conversion, but my father was so shocked when I actually found Martha Lou that he kept repeating “I believe in the Tooth Fairy, I believe in the Easter Bunny.”

Martha Lou had just moved into a senior citizen home with her husband Steve Bugbee, and under her bed were family Civil War letters and a picture album. She sent me those pictures and letters, which turned out to be a second set of letters - correspondence from Jacob before and after the war (including the romantic letter Jacob wrote in 1851, just before they were married) and other family correspondence throughout the war.

But I was still without the originals of Jacob's war time letters. Eventually, following clues that my grandmother's sister specifically left for me in the 1930s (I was born in 1953), I found those letters in Iowa City, in a building two blocks away from my college apartment in the mid 1970s. During my last two years at the University of Iowa, I walked past Jacob's letters everyday on my way to class.

While I lived in Iowa City I frequently went to visit the grave of Jacob's daughter and my great grandmother, Eulalie (Lulie) Ritner Chase, who was married to a University of Iowa professor, and is buried near the famous Black Angel. All those spiritual visits to Lulie paid off in a big way.

While doing research in Savannah, I wanted to find an ancestor of Alfred Haywood, the wealthy ice merchant, with whom Jacob had Christmas dinner at the end of Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864. Unfortunately there are no Haywoods in the Savannah phone book today. While at Fort Jackson, just outside Savannah, I had a brief discussion with a man dressed in a Confederate private's uniform, who was providing information to tourists at the fort. When I first told him I was a descendant of a Union soldier who participated in Sherman's March to the Sea, he immediately became flushed with anger, but he composed himself and asked me about my research. I mentioned Christmas dinner with Alfred Haywood, and the Johnny (Scott Smith) responded “you mean the ice merchant?” When I asked Smith how he knew about Alfred Haywood, Smith responded that his brother-in-law was Haywood Nichols, great grandson of Alfred Haywood. Eventually I met Haywood Nichols, who is now a famous Savannah wood sculptor. (The person guiding me on this Savannah expedition was Margaret Wayt DeBolt, author of Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales, who may have had her first actual spectral experience with the ghost of Alfred Haywood, who was obviously directing me to a meeting with his great grandson, Haywood Nichols.)

But I was still without Emeline's letters, which I thought no longer existed. In September 1998 I took a trip to Mt. Pleasant to see the Old Thresher's Reunion. On the way I stopped off in Danville, Iowa, to see if I could find the grave of Jacob's father, Henry Ritner. Eventually I found Henry's grave, but was startled to find another grave - that of Evangeline Ritner, Jacob and Emeline's first child who died in 1853, just before her first birthday. While in the cemetery, I spent a lot of time thinking about Emeline, and how sad it would have been for a mother to bury her first child out in the frontier. Before then, I had never really connected with Emeline the way I had with Jacob, but I really began to sense her sorrow of that situation. The longer I stayed, the stronger that sensation became. Eventually I left and drove to Mt. Pleasant and the Thresher's Reunion, but the spirit of Emeline stayed with me. That was on a Saturday, and by Tuesday morning Emeline's letters had found me.

Ken Smith, a Civil War collector who lives in Utah, found my name next to Jacob's on an Internet web site for Iowa soldiers of the Civil War. Ken had obtained copies of Emeline's letters in the 1980s, through contacts his mother had made at a garage sale in New Mexico. After a brief flurry of emails, Ken sent me copies of Emeline's letters. After some more investigation and clues from Ken, I was able to find and acquire Emeline's original letters, which had made their way to Reno, Nevada.

Corporal William Browning of Winfield, Iowa - December 1, 2003
Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence

Some Family Tree Information to help with the following story:

Henry Payne 1783-1863
  - Early pioneer to Henry County, Iowa;
  - He owned a farm next to Samuel Bereman (Emeline's father)
  - Henry had 18 children by two wives, including
      -Charles Wilson "Wils" Payne born 1 June 1840 died 4 July 1926
          - Became Sgt in Co B, 25th Iowa Infantry; (Jacob Ritner was the Captain of Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry)
          - Wils is frequently mentioned in Love and Valor
      - Rebecca Payne Gardner;
           - Wife of Joshua Garner
           - Friend and neighbor of Emeline
           - Both Rebecca and Joshua are mentioned several times in Love and Valor                     
      - Martha Payne Roads
           - Wife of Lindley Roads, the brother of Addison Roads (mentioned in Love and Valor)
           - Friend and neighbor of Emeline
           - Mentioned in Love and Valor

      - Henry N Payne 1836-1908 (Brother to Charles Wilson "Wils" Payne, Beck Gardner and Martha Roads)
          -Florence Payne 1858-1948 (She was a Payne and married John D Payne, no relation)
               -Roy Payne 1888-1971
                     -Dorothy Payne 1913-1982 (Married Thomas Edward Earnest)
                          -Carol Earnest Liechty Klopfenstein

Carol and her husband Bill Klopfenstein live in Winfield, Iowa, located north and east of Mt. Pleasant about 17 miles. They are good friends of mine and have helped me a great deal
with my research of Henry County, including the cemeteries of Henry County.

William Browning, who is featured in the story below, was also from Winfield, Iowa. William also served in Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry.

About a year ago, Bill's nephew Brian portrayed William Browning while giving a presentation about the Civil War to a school in Winfield. Brian chose William Browning because he was a soldier from Winfield. Bill and Carol had supplied Brian with William's obituary, which is where Brian got most of his information.

The ghost story below connects William Browning with Wils Payne, and provides a lot more strange information.


Hi to all,
 

The latest Love and Valor ghost story comes from my good friends, Bill and Carol Klopfenstein of Winfield, Iowa, which is located about 17 miles northeast of Mt. Pleasant. Bill is a retired farmer, and Carol used to work in a bank in Mt. Pleasant. They married about eight years ago, a second marriage for both. Bill and Carol have both been big supporters of Love and Valor, and they both did a tremendous amount of work in locating the cemeteries and graves in “The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa” which I recently published.

Several of Carol's relatives are mentioned in Love and Valor, including Wils Payne, and his sisters Rebecca Payne Gardner, and Martha Payne Roads. It turns out that the Paynes had a farm right next to Emeline's parents, Samuel and Eleanor Bereman.

The person that Jacob Ritner most admired and appreciated in Company B of the 25th Iowa, was Carol's relative Wils Payne:

Napoleon, Arkansas

January 15, 1863

Dear Emeline,

Wils Payne volunteered to carry the National colors in the fight, and is praised by everyone for his bravery. He is one of the best men we have, and does more for me than any other man I have. When we march he always carries our coffee pot and frying pan and cooks for us. I don't see how we could do without him.

Your own, Jake

Emeline was good friends with his sisters Beck Gardner and Martha Roads, and mentions them both a few times in her letters.

Now on to Bill and his nephew Brian Hayman. About a year ago Brian gave a speech to the high school in Winfield about the Civil War. In giving this presentation, he did a re-enactment, and the soldier he chose was from Winfield, a man named William Browning, who coincidentally was also in Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry. Bill and Carol had found an obituary of Wm Browning and had given it to Brian. [Wm Browning's grave is included in the cemetery book.]

The obituary mentioned a publication of Wm Browning, entitled “Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence.” Bill and Carol were curious to find a copy of this, to see what Wm Browning said about Winfield, and about Company B of the 25th Iowa Infantry, since that is the company featured in Love and Valor. They went to the Winfield library to find a copy, but to no avail. Then they started asking the older people in Winfield to see if anyone had a copy, and again they turned up empty handed. This was a year or two ago.

The ghost story continues.

About a week ago the Winfield Library had a book sale - they were getting new books and they had to weed out some of their older books. They had a section of books for sale that had been published in the 1930s, and Bill picked out the one that was in the best condition and bought it. When he took it home to look at the book, he opened it up, and there, folded inside, was a sheet of newspaper with one long story, printed on both sides. It was “Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence” by William Browning, printed (reprinted?) by the Winfield Beacon in 1926.

This was amazing.

Then they started to read Wm Browning's life story, and it got even more amazing.

It turns out that during the Civil War, Wm Browning's tent mate was none other than Wils Payne, Carol's relative, and the person in the regiment that Jacob Ritner most appreciated.  And Wm Browning and Wils Payne remained friends all their lives, and they both lived very long lives. Wm Browning lived until age 92, and Wils Payne lived to his upper 80s.

Somewhere along the line, Wils Payne had moved to Chicago, and when Wm was 83 and Wils Payne was 85, William's son took him to Chicago so that he could see Wils Payne one more time.

Wm Browning wrote:

“Here I wish to say something in memory of my bunk-mate, C. W. Payne. We were bunk-mates during our entire service, and ties of friendship were formed that have remained unbroken these many years.

“There was no better soldier in our regiment than he; none more courageous and true to his country and friends. He carried the flag of our regiment through many battles and sieges. The flag was pierced with many bullets as he held it in his hand. All tattered and torn, he carried from Vicksburg to Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge and Ringgold, and then the ladies of Iowa sent us a new flag and the old flag was sent to Des Moines, where it now reposes with other battle flags in the State Historical Building.

“Last August, in company with my son, I visited him in Chicago, where he has resided for several years. He was eighty-five years of age and feeling well and we fought over the old battles and sieges and had a very joyful visit. As Miles O'Riley has said:

“We have shared our tents and blankets together,

And marched and fought in all kinds of weather,

And tired and hungry we have been,

Had days of marching and days of rest,

But the memory I cling to and love the best,

We drank from the same canteen.”

“Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence” also includes several references to Jacob Ritner, and to other soldiers mentioned in Love and Valor.

 “I enlisted in the summer of 1862 in a company then being formed in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Later we were assigned to the Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Iowa Volunteers. My company was designated as “Company B,” and was under the command of Captain Allison Smith, and was made up of a good class of young men who lived in Mount Pleasant and vicinity. J.B. Ritner was First Lieutenant; S. L. Steel, Second Lieutenant, and B.H. Crane Orderly Sergeant.”

Then

“Our Captain, Allison Smith resigned and Lieutenant Ritner succeeded him. Several promotions were made in our company and I was made Corporal. The only advantage in my promotion was that I received more pay and did not have to do guard duty.”
 

Then, when describing the Battle of Ringgold, just south of Chattanooga:
 

"Here we had another fight and lost several of our regiment. Our Captain Ritner was severely wounded. The enemy finally retreated into Georgia."
 

Then, at the end of the war, when they had returned to Iowa and marched into Mt. Pleasant:

“We took a boat at Davenport for Burlington. Three companies left us at Burlington, that being their home, and we continued on to Mt. Pleasant. We marched up the street at Mount Pleasant to the Brazelton House, where our Captain [Captain Jacob Ritner], with tears in his eyes bid us goodbye, and Company B, Twenty-Fifth Iowa Volunteers disbanded forever. Of my company, eight were killed in battle, fifteen died of disease, and ten were discharged because of wounds.”

Part of what strikes me about the above quote as so special is that William Browning remembered the story of Jacob having tears in his eyes more than 60 years after it happened.

But the real strange story is how Bill Klopfenstein, after unsuccessfully searching for “Eighty Three Years of Reminiscence” found it reprinted on a newspaper, folded up in a book that he purchased in a book sale, and then that his wife Carol's relative was a tent-mate and life-long friend of William Browning of Winfield, Iowa, the author of “Eighty Three Years.”

For those of you with copies of The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa, William Browning is buried in Winfield Cemetery and his good friend C.W. "Wils" Payne is buried in Finley Chapel Cemetery.
 

The Story of Pomp - the Ten Year-Old Run-Away Slave

Note: the following letter serves as one of my “ghost” stories. About two years after Love and Valor was published I found a copy of the diary of the chaplain of the 25th Iowa Infantry. He told the same story as Jacob, but he spent a lot more time with the young run-away slave who helped trigger these events. I have included Reverand Corkhill's diary entries following this letter.

Part of the strange element of this story is how I obtained the copy of Reverend Corkhill's diary. I grew up in Sioux City, Iowa - located at the opposite end of Iowa as Mt. Pleasant - about 350 miles away. When I was in high school, there was a kid named Jimmy Corkhill who lived right next door to one of my best friends. It turned out that Reverend Corkhill of the 25th Iowa Infantry was Jimmy's great great great grandfather. And not only that, but Jimmy had transcribed copy of this great great great grandfather's Civil War diary.
 

Camp Near Helena, Arkansas

December 2, 1862

Dear Emeline,

You will not see “Joe,” poor fellow; he took sick one night while we were gone, and died the next morning. That is while Steele and I were gone on the expedition. He was a good honest fellow and I was sorry to lose him. But Steele and I brought one home along with us to take his place. He has a wife and five children; we brought the whole family along, and they have built a real “Uncle Tom's Cabin” close to our tent and they are going to cook and wash for us. She is a good washerwoman and he is a real smart, intelligent man, and a good cook. He is half white, has blue eyes and his name is “Jim.” He is clean, and a rouser to work. Now I will tell you how and where we got him and his family.

We camped one night about dark on the way back from the Tallahatchie, on a cotton plantation. The owner was there, but no Negroes or mules, but after dark one of the Company B found a little “darkie” about ten years old out in the cotton field. We brought him in, and he told us that he was nearly starved and frozen. He said his master had chained two of his Negro men out in the cane break to keep them from going off with us, and that the mules were tied out the same place. He said that he and the other Negroes, mostly women and children, 25 in number, had been driven out into a swamp about two miles, and made to stay there for fear we would take them along. We determined to investigate the matter. A squad went to each place.

  We found the two men handcuffed and tied with a log chain, in the cane break, and the other lot in a swamp where the water was half-knee deep in the shallow places. They had been in this condition for forty-eight hours without fire or food. They were the most miserable looking lot I ever saw. They had scarcely any clothing at all, ragged, dirty and bare-footed; it had snowed that morning and that night it froze hard. So I think you will not blame us for taking pity on them. I wouldn't see a dog treated so. It made an abolitionist out of Wils Payne and several other Democrats. We brought the whole lot along, and the mules and wagon too, and burned the cotton gin, and would have shot the owner if we had been allowed. “Jim” is one of the men who was chained. He is going to put a shingle roof on the “addition” and put the fly back on the other tent.

 Your own, Jake

From the diary of Reverend Thomas Corkhill, the Chaplain of the 25th Iowa Infantry:

        Captain Spearman has a young contraband whom he captured in the cold water expedition. He says his name is “Pomp,” he is about eleven or twelve years old, says he has been sold four times. He was sold separate from his mother about two years ago in Memphis since which time he knows nothing of her. At that time he was bought (as he has it) by a “traden han.” I understand this that he was bought by a speculator or one who traded in field hands or slaves generally. Pomp is peculiarly shrewd and sharp. He has changed hands so often and has been carried from place to place so long that he is perfectly posted in all the details of the slave traffic and it is perfectly surprising to hear his recitals.

   While our army were out on the Cold water expedition, Pomp's Master hearing of their approach, took between 30 and 40 men women and children into a cane break, and with hand cuffs and chains secured the older ones, but left the small fry loose, knowing that they would not wander far away. Here the darkies remained for about forty eight hours without shelter or fire, although it rained most furiously most of the time, and many of the children were entirely naked. Any part of the time it was cold enough to freeze ice.

    But our philanthropic soldiers released them and took their very humane master a prisoner of war  and brought all together into camp.

   The darkies are the most wretched looking mortals that I have ever seen.
 

After the above entry in Reverend Corkhill's diary, the 25th Iowa Infantry left Helena and traveled approximately 170 miles by steamboat down to Vicksburg, where they participated in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou on December 29, 1862, which was Sherman's first independent command of battle.

A few days later, Reverend Corhill had the following entry in his diary, about a month after his first entry about Pomp:

Steamer Continental:

Milliken's Bend [Louisiana]

Jan. 3rd, 1863

        While lying here I was very much surprised to fine the negro boy “Pomp” to whom I referred some time since.

    Captain Spearman had arranged  to leave him in Helena when we left, but after we had been out a day or two I chanced to meet Pomp, or rather I found him wrapped up in a shelter tent and crouched down behind a smoke stack. I immediately informed Captain S and when immediately to examine into the matter for the captain thought he had left him behind. The interview revealed the fact that Pomp, young as he was had learned the difference between freedom and slavery. When we found him in Tennessee, he wore nothing but a piece of coarse linen garment. I say a piece, for the front part was entirely gone, and he had nothing else. This one garment more than half of which was missing was his entire suit. Now however he had a comfortable suit consisting of hat, shirt, coat, pants, stocking and shoes, an amount such as he never had seen in all his life before. He therefore had little inclination to return to the kind hearted Christian master, who hat clothed him with nakedness, fed him with hunger, and caressed him with catoninetails.

    Pomp was really now engaged in a campaign against the slave oligarchy. But the Captain thought him a little too raw to be of much Service and rather sharply reminded him of his disobedience.

    Slave as he had been, and few as were his years, his noble spirit strengthened by the invigorating air of freedom determined if need be to die in the struggle rather than return to his bondage.

    We left him for a while, but on returning to see him he was gone. What had become of him we could not tell. Did he leave the boat when we stopped to wood or had he taken refuge on some other transport, we could not tell. Several days passed by and Thomas came and told us he had found Pomp - I went to see where he was and saw at once a change. What is the matter with you I asked. I don't know he said. When had you anything to eat?

Don't know Sir.

    The truth was he had feared that we would put him ashore and thus place him again in the hands of Masters, and he chose rather to starve than go back into slavery.

    I furnished him some food and after eating it he disappeared again, and I saw him no more until I found him one day lying upon the grounds of the boat emaciated and almost dying.

    I lifted him up and asked him what was the matter, he said he did not know. I again asked him when he had anything to eat, for I thought I knew the cause of his illness. He again replied I don't know. Have you anything to eat since I gave you some, some days ago. No sir was his reply. I then called upon Dr. Bond of Keokuk, Iowa who happened then to be on board our boat, on coming to Pomp and looking upon his skeleton frame with greatly swollen hands and feet, and an indescribable wildness in his look he turned and asked where has this boy been for he is dying of starvation.

    When I counted back as near as I could recollect it was about eight or ten days since that he had spent with but one single meal. All this he endured rather than to be returned (as he supposed he would) to the tender mercies of Slavery. We took him into custody this time put him under medical treatment and an officer on board proposed hereafter to take care of him and so I dismissed him from my list of claimants.

    I should not be at all surprised at some future day to hear of a second Fred. Douglass or even a greater arising in the person of Pomp.

--

Later that month (January 1863) Reverend Corkhill became very ill, and in February he returned to Iowa.

[top of page]