Summer 1862.
President Abraham Lincoln has called for 300,000 new
volunteers to suppress the year-old rebellion of eleven
southern states; the town of Newburgh, Indiana, has been
captured by a band of the Rebel soldiers; and Kentucky has
been invaded by the Confederate Army. These events compel
an unassuming Hoosier farmer, along with many of his
relatives and neighbors from Pike County, Indiana, to
enlist in the Union Army.
For the next
three years, Albert Pancake serves in Company H of the 80th
Indiana Infantry Regiment and grapples against the elements
and the enemy in the American Civil War. His regiment
experiences near destruction at the battle of Perryville,
Kentucky; participates in the capture of East Tennessee; is
part of Sherman's campaign on Atlanta; plays a pivotal role
in the gruesome slaughter at Franklin and Nashville,
Tennessee; and is part of the successful Carolina campaign
in 1865. Every step of the way, Albert faithfully writes
home about his experiences as a 19th century combat soldier
fighting for American Union and human emancipation.
Albert Pancake, a
20-year-old country farmer of modest education, writes the
first letters of his life to his father, brother, and
sweetheart while fighting his way through the battlefields
of Dixie. With plain-spoken humor and straight-forward
practicality, Albert shares his combat experiences, his
homesick longing for family, the rumor-filled politics and
banality of camp life, and even the death of his cousin.
I will be
publishing some of these letters on this website in advance
of my upcoming book on the letters of Sergeant Albert
Pancake.
If you have a
family member that served with the 80th Indiana Infantry
and you wish to share a picture or a document for inclusion
in this upcoming book please contact me here.
I would like to
express my sincere gratitude to the Pancake family for
sharing these rare and treasured letters with me. They have
agreed to share these letters with me so that I may share
them with you. I would like to thank Tad Berlin, Silva
Jones, Godfrey Collins, Terry Pancake, Aasta Carver, and
others for this privilege.