We
have written about my great great great uncle Daniel Mott several times;
---Daniel Mott, Missing in Action during the Civil
War by Pat Kinsella Herdeg (http://taylorbakercousins.blogspot.com/2011/04/daniel-mott-missing-in-action-during.html)
---Daniel Mott in the Civil War--One of his Last Written Letters By Pat Kinsella Herdeg (http://taylorbakercousins.blogspot.com/2016/08/)
Daniel Mott died fighting in the Civil War. Younger brother of our Diadamia Mott, who married William Youngs and whose daughter Kate married Byron Baker, Daniel was a farmer in Virgil, NY.
He enlisted in the 76th NY Regiment,
and by all accounts went missing in action on August 28th, 1862 during the
Battle of Brawner’s Farm, in the Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the
Second Manassas.
Earlier this summer, another letter written by our Daniel was found, thanks to this blogsite! I was contacted by Kenneth Higham, who had a letter written by Daniel to his sister Sarah Jane, handed down to him through his grandmother. He graciously sent me a copy of Daniel’s letter. Written six months before his death, it is heartbreaking, on many levels.
Sarah Jane Mott--MUCH older than when she received this letter as a 25 year old!
Camp Casey, Meridian Hill
February
23rd, 1862
To
Sarah J. Mott
Dear
Sister,
Once
more I seat myself to pen a few lines to let you know that I am enjoying
tolerable good health hoping this will find you all well. I was on guard last
night and it was very rainy so you must not expect much news in this note for I
am very sleepy and do not feel much like writing.
William
B. Potter one of our Co died last Wednesday the 19th by taking too
much morphine. He had been complaining some time with a severe cold and could
not sleep much nights. Last Tuesday night he went to the Dr to see if he could
not get something to make him sleep better. The Dr. gave him such a large dose
of morphine that he went to sleep and slept that sleep that knows no waking. He
died the next day at 3 o clock PM and Friday his uncle Chancey Potter in our CO
also started with the corpse for Taylor, Cortland County where his friends
live. He was 22 years old and leaves a young widow that he married since he enlisted
to mourn his loss. If it should be my lot to fall a prey with disease, it would
be my desire to be sent home to repose on my native soil.
There
are a great many sick in the regt caused by catching hard colds when we first
camped out in tents. I caught a very severe cold at first but have nearly got
over it.
I
think the hardest fighting we’ll have to do will be against disease for the
union troops have been so victorious of late in taking fort after fort and have
so completely routed the rebels in so many places that I think they will soon
get all they want and more too, and will lay down their arms and sue for peace
and I should not be surprised if those of us that live would spend the 4 of
July at home.
I
will name the letters that I have wrote since we have been here and those that
I have rec.
I
rec a letter from Nancy and ans one from Cate and ans it and sent it enclosed
in one that I wrote to Sam, one from Minor and Emeline and ans them. I have
also rec two from Billy (Lilly??) have not ans the last one but will shortly
then I have wrote Dama one.
I
have been particular so if any have missed you may know it. It is about time
that I rec answer to those letters as it is some time since I wrote them.
Now
Sal (Pal??) when you rec this letter, I want you to answer it right away for I
wrote you a letter when at Albany that I have never rec an ans to.
Write
most anything and be sure and write how Father and Mother, and Grandmother’s
health is. I have not lost your likeness yet. Be sure and write soon.
Direct
to Camp Casey Co of 76th Regt. NY, S.V. Washington, DC.
Goodby
for the present. My love to you all.
This from your Soldier Brother,
Daniel
Mott
Sarah
Jane, Daniel’s sister, was two years younger than Daniel, and notice that it is
her picture that he carries with him into battle. Our Diadamia—my great great
grandmother—or ‘Dama’ is only three years older, so Sarah Jane and Diadamia are
the two closest in age to their brother.
Daniel
is very interested in who is writing letters to him and who still needs to
write more. We saw this in Arthur Borthwick’s Civil War journals also;
Arthur Austin Borthwick Diaries—Life in Freetown NY and during the Civil War By Pat Kinsella Herdeg, (http://taylorbakercousins.blogspot.com/2015/11/arthur-austin-borthwick-diarieslife-in.html)
In his diaries, Arthur kept careful count of how many letters he sent to each family member, and how many letters they in return sent to him. So, it seems likely that receiving mail from home was a very important part of the Civil War soldier’s life in the field.
When Daniel writes: ‘I think the hardest fighting we’ll have to do will be against disease’, it is hard to read as we know the end of this story, and the Union soldiers will not be home by the 4th of July. In fact, they fight for another three years.
Daniel
begins the letter by telling his little sister about the death of a fellow
soldier in camp. William Potter’s body is taken home to New York State by his
uncle. Hardest of all to read is what he pens at the end of that paragraph: ‘If
it should be my lot to fall a prey with disease, it would be my desire to be
sent home to repose on my native soil.’
As
I ended the last part of the blog story on Daniel Mott who was MIA at the
Second Manassas:
“Our Daniel is most likely buried in
Arlington under the Tomb of the Unknown of the Civil War. This granite tomb,
shaped like a casket, holds the remains of 2,111 Civil War soldiers, most of
them from the Bull Run Battlefields.
So, when you next visit Arlington
Cemetery, stop in at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watch the changing of
the guard, but then, search out the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers of the Civil
War and stop and think of our Daniel.”
Our Daniel never did get to ‘repose
on his native soil’. Today, we thank him and all of the veterans who so proudly
and bravely have defended our great country. We owe them all a tremendous debt.
Thank you.
