Sgt. Louis Ruppert and Pvt. Henry Steincamp with the 72nd Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh

 Louis Ruppert and nineteen-year-old Henry Steincamp were two young German farmers recruited from Woodville, Ohio by Andrew Nuhfer, Company D of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. They arrived in Paducah, Kentucky on the 24th of February. They saw their first action in the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing on April 6, 1862.

The following letter, by Sgt. Louis Ruppert, who served as a regimental saddler, was written on April 10th, 1862 to the father of Henry Steincamp. The following copy was translated from the German language by descendants.

Shiloh, April 10th, 1862

My Friend Steincamp:

I must write you instead your son Henry. Last Sunday morning 25,000 Rebels attacked our camp. Our regiment with a few others was called to the front. The battle lasted from Sunday 8 a.m. until Monday 4 p.m. Three regiments, the 48th, the 70th, and the 72nd which is ours, fought hard to keep the Rebels from the camp, but our force was too small. 

Now my dear friend what I want to write about is your dear son Henry.  We fought valiantly and also Captain Nuhfer's company fought with us like men. After the battle had lasted about one and a  half hours, Henry and I fought from behind a large tree. When Henry's gun was made useless by a Rebel bullet, he threw it away and ran to camp to get another.  He soon returned and stood with me behind the tree.

The Rebels had spotted our tree as a strategic point to be taken.  Henry loaded his gun and while aiming a Rebel bullet pierced his left lung. He cried out "O good Lord, I am wounded," 

Being able to run, he returned to the camp and layd (sp) in our tent.  When I arrived his clothes were red with his blood and he said  "See Louis, I am wounded,  please write to my parents." I promised and bandaged his wounds as good as I could, placed him on a blanket and brought him to the doctor who immediately attended to him. Then I helped him out of the turmoil to get to the steamer which was to take him to Savannah.

The bullet went through his chest and came out at his spine. I do not know how he is now as I did not see him since Sunday. I will try to find him and write you later; so, I cannot say whether he is living or dead. I have very little hope that he will survive.  He was wounded a valiant hero for his country who fought to the last minute.  

George Albert also is wounded under his left arm, but he is able to go about.  We won a glorious victory in that two day battle and fully destroyed the force of the Rebels.  I hope that it was the last battle as we have seen enough dead and wounded.  The last battle brought 24,000 dead and wounded in both armies.

George send greetings; he will write you soon.

Kind greetings from L. Ruppert, Saddler

Steincamp's military records show he was wounded at the battle on the 6th and 7th and died on the 10th of April. Sgt. Ruppert remained with the 72nd and survived the war. He lived many years in Holt, Michigan.  However he died in Quincy, Illinois in the "Old Peoples Home." He is buried in Quincy's Greenmount Cemetery

Sandusky County's 72nd Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh

 

72nd OVI Monument at Shiloh

Sandusky County, Ohio, like other northern communities, eagerly sent their sons to war with high expectations of courage and patriotic conduct.  In 1861, the county's population was approximately 22,000. It possessed 4,300 men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. By war's end, seventy percent of those of military age saw service in the Civil War.  In all, Sandusky Countians served in 120 regiments of infantry, seven regiments of cavalry, four of national guard, and several artillery batteries.  In the Navy, they served in the Mississippi Gulf Squadron, the North and South Atlantic blockade squadrons, and in the gunboat service on southern rivers. The single largest contribution to the war effort was the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Just over one thousand Sandusky Countians served under the command of Fremont, Ohio native General Ralph P. Buckland.

Ralph P. Buckland

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Portrait File

Sandusky County's contribution exceeded that of the state.  Sixty percent of Ohio's men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five served in the Union forces.  Ohio supplied 319,000 men to the armies, leading all northern states in proportion to its population.  Eleven percent never returned.

72nd Officers Civil War

Rutherford B. Hayes Library and Museums, Portrait File

After a patriotic send off on a cold January day in 1862, Buckland's green recruits, numbering eight hundred eighty, boarded a train for Columbus, Ohio. A short time later, the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Regiment clamored aboard the Baltic ultimately headed for Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River.  Their average age was 25 years.  Like other regiments, the 72nd included a large percentage of men in their early twenties and late teens.  While on board, each received his small pox vaccination given by regimental surgeon, Dr. John B. Rice.

The 72nd was led by one of Sandusky County's most respected citizens, the forty-nine year-old attorney and Ohio Congressman , Ralph P. Buckland. With him were a host of prominent young men who had seen action in the war's eastern theater. Dr. John B. Rice and Leroy Crockett had enlisted in the war during its opening months, leaving their school days far behind. Learning of the 72nd's formation, they resigned their commissions and joined their fellow townsmen. Buckland also brought his two nephews.  Twenty-one year-old Henry Buckland was joined by his younger brother Chester Buckland who had finally gained his parents' approval to leave Western Reserve College and enlist as a private in his brother's company.

Eight weeks later, Buckland's raw recruits received their baptism by fire at the Battle of Shiloh,  the first great bloody battle of the Civil War.  As part of General William T. Sherman's division,  Colonel Buckland took command of a brigade.  General Sherman located Buckland's Brigade at a strategic point.  Encamped near the Shiloh Church,  the 72nd represented a portion of the frontline. However, for the 72nd, the action began two days prior to the battle. On April 4th, Companies B and H returned fire of Rebel skirmishers near their camp.  Overwhelmed by ten-to-one odds, the companies sustained 24 casualties, including Gustavus Gessner, the regimental color bearer and son of a Sandusky County physician.

    

Shiloh Camps

Courtesy West Point

Anticipating the Confederate attack, Buckland ordered his brigade to sleep on its arms. The early morning assault of the front lines came directly at Buckland's Brigade.  Buckland held his troops in action for more than two hours despite the terror and ferocious attack.  Following victory on the 2nd day the 72nd surveyed its dead, wounded, and missing.  The Battle of Shiloh claimed more than 23,000 casualties, more than the combined total of all America's previous wars. The majority of the 72nd had fought courageously during its first and possibly it greatest test of warfare.  Sherman reserved high praise for Buckland as the only commander in his division to maintain regimental cohesion.

Assistant Surgeon William Caldwell attempted to describe the experience of battlefield slaughter, but words failed him.  

"It all seems like a shadowy vision.  To see hundreds of the dead lying around you with the groans of the wounded calling for water and for surgical attendance which was limited.  The road to the spot where the wounded were brought was crowded and half could not be brought in on the same day that they were wounded and some lay two days in the rain in the woods before they were found...Our Regt. lost in killed and wounded about hundred including the skirmish of Friday.  Dr. Rice is making out a list of the killed and wounded and you will probably see it as soon as this.  Mr. Buffington and Emanual Fink were severely wounded...I put them on the steamboat and saw them comfortably situated.  They will probably be sent to Cincinnati or Paducah all the wounded will be sent from here to some large cities.  The 72nd occupying the centre had been cut to pieces by the storm of iron and leaden hail that showered upon them by the dense columns of the Rebel host...."

 

Assistant Surgeon William Caldwell

Union soldiers fit for duty began the grisly task of burying the dead.  Unprepared for the magnitude of death, burial units could only gather the corpses together in rows.  Decomposition, hastened by the warm spring weather, had already begun to obliterate the identities of the dead. Moreover, the rotting corpses threatened to increase the staggering numbers of men suffering from dysentery and typhoid.  Lacking coffins and reserving blankets for the wounded and sick, soldiers buried Confederates and Federals in similar but separate trenches. Over 700 corpses were stacked seven deep in five Confederate trenches.  Morris E. Tyler of the 72nd reported seeing some 900 Confederates buried. They were placed in trenches fifteen to one hundred and fifty at a time. Two thirds of the Union dead were unidentified.  Captain Michael Wegstein of the 72nd was buried on the field. His body was found stripped of his sword and sidearm.  The dehumanizing aspects of mass burial trenches, hastily-dug graves,  and the stripping of rotting corpses stood in direct contrast to 19th century burial practices that focused on human identity and dignity.     

Confederate Trench at Shiloh, 2026

Courtesy Shiloh National Battlefield Park

Presidential Gifts: Sioux Boy's Beaded Shirt

 Sioux Boy's Beaded Shirt

Hayes Presidential Library and Museums 

 President Rutherford B, Hayes, like U.S. presidents before and after him, received hundreds of gifts during his years in office. Today, the most significant remains the Resolute Desk, which still is present in the White House and was recently refurbished by President Donald Trump. Unlike today, during Hayes' term, there were no rules regarding Presidential gifts.  Many, like this exquisite boy's shirt, are on display, featured in exhibits, or are carefully stored. Hayes even returned some gifts to the giver that he believed were too valuable.

This particular item was given to the president in December 1879 by Don't Braid His Hair, a Lakota Sioux who lived on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Fully beaded on an animal hide, the body was folded over with an opening for the neck.  The sleeves were also made of folded hide, beaded, and attached to the body.  Hide fringe, common among Plains Tribes, was featured at the shirt's bottom.

According to Sioux descendants and others who have studied the material culture of The Indigenous nations of the Great Plains, they believe women's skills in hide tanning, beadwork. and quill embroidery were deeply honored. Using trade in buffalo hides and treaty payments, women purchased the colorful glass beads imported from Belgium and Italy.

Lavishly decorated garments like this boy's shirt showed love for and pride in young children who were encouraged to participate in family and ceremonial events. Distinctive tribal styles developed after the 1850s.This particular shirt was most likely made by an older female relative who had mastered beadwork techniques.  Women's skills became a valuable commodity for the Plains culture that continues today.

 

Lt. Jonas M. Stanbery, 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. G, Civil War

Lt. Jonas M. Stanbery

Jonas M. Stanbery was born in Sandusky, Ohio, May 13, 1841, the eleventh of fourteen children of Joseph and Sarah (Beard) Stanbery.  He received his education in Erie County, Ohio. In 1855, he came to Toledo.  At the age of 18 years, he shipped aboard the two-masted schooner "John Weedon" and sailed the Great Lakes for about eight years.  He worked eleven years for the American and Union Express Company. Jonas lived on his dairy farm in west Toledo. 

Jonas M. Stanbery
Courtesy of
Portrait and Biographical Record of Toledo and Lucas and Wood Counties, Ohio, 1895

Jonas enlisted in the Civil War as a private in Company G, of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He fought with the 72nd at Shiloh, Corinth, Tupelo, Jackson, the siege of Vicksburg, Guntown, Nashville, and at Spanish Fort, Alabama.  On April 7th, 1865, he was struck in the right thigh by a minie ball at Spanish Fort. After six weeks of recuperation at a hospital in New Orleans, Jonas rejoined his regiment at Meridian, Mississippi.  He was discharged September 21st,  1865 with the rank of first lieutenant.  The following year, he  married Ann Bailey of Akron, Ohio. They were the parents of four children: William, Sanford , Clara C., and Alfred. The family lived in Toledo on Warren Street.  

He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and theToledo Republican Club. Jonas served variously as clerk of the township, chairman of the Republican Central Committee, and president of the school board.  He retired after 18 years in the dairy business.  Jonas died at the age of 74 on December 28th, 1915.  He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky, Ohio. 

Jonas M. Stanbery, Oakland Cemetery, Sandusky, Ohio

Courtesy of Find a Grave

 

Calling Etiquette During the Gilded Age

During the Gilded Age, the use of calling cards, also known as visitor cards, was universally observed and were an important part of society.  It served as a  passport into important social circles. Strict etiquette dictated on whom to call, when to call, and how to call. These lessons were necessary knowledge for gentlemen and ladies hoping to gain or maintain social status during the Gilded Age. 

A look into President Hayes' personal library reveals any number of guidebooks on correct etiquette and manuals on politeness.  As early as 1860, Hayes owned a manual of customs. It claimed the best English and French authorities not only gave instruction on proper calling, but also correct manners at the table, at evening parties, and even in the ballroom. Respectable dress, conversation, and correspondence were addressed as well.

                        

Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

Both Lucy and Rutherford were well schooled in proper social protocol during their upbringing and while attending college. As a rising young lawyer, military officer, congressman, and later governor of Ohio, navigating these Gilded Age niceties was essential. By the time the couple reached the White House they were well prepared for Washington society. 

 

Those who called on the President were job seekers, tourists, gift givers, policy makers, military men, and socialites extending  invitations to Washington gatherings. More than 18,000 calling cards received by the Hayeses during their years at the White House are today part of the collection.  You can read the names of these callers on the Hayes Presidential website. Nearly all are on white or cream paper and bear names and other information in elegant script. Some feature a black border, indicating the bearer was in mourning.

Etiquette, 1877

If the President or First Lady were unavailable, the caller left his personal card on a silver tray with the secretary, valet, or doorman. Sometimes callers jotted a short note on the reverse of their card.

Women carried their visiting cards in cases in their purses or handbags. A day of the week such as "Tuesdays" was often inscribed on the bottom of the card, indicating the day she was at home to receive calls from friends and acquaintances. Women could select from an array of styles in the latest fashions in calling cards displayed at stationery shops.

Upon Lucy’s arrival in Washington, society columnists commented on what changes she surely would make in her hair style, dress, and demeanor. But the First Lady remained unchanged - outwardly and inwardly. Her calling cards were simple but elegant.

Compassionate, cheerful, gracious, and possessed of a quiet confidence, Lucy showered kindness on visitors, family, friends, children, and the sick. She remained steadfast in her decision to avoid liquor at social functions. The Hayeses entertained African Americans at the White house. And Lucy was the first First Lady to attend an African American fundraising event. It would be 13 years before another First Lady did so.

When President Hayes returned to Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio, he continued the social tradition of calling. On the first of January in 1886, he visited nearby neighbors and friends. He wrote in his diary about their infirmities, temperament, and shared memories. When he visited General Buckland, he noted that all these years later, Buckland still took pride in his actions at Shiloh during the Civil War. It was a "chatty" time with Auntie Grant (widow of George Grant, who was an early partner of Hayes' uncle) and her daughter Sarah. When Mr. Van Doren arrived, they discussed the booming oil wells near Findlay, Ohio.  A visit with Mrs. Thompson brought back memories of boarding at her establishment "40 years ago."  He found old Dr. Rawson still fit and with a sharp mind.  

It seems this Gilded Age tradition was a firmly entrenched social custom of President Hayes. Even after Lucy's death, he continued to record his New Year's Day calls.

Lt. Alfred H. Rice: 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War

Lt. Alfred H. Rice

Rutherford B Hayes Library and Museums

 Alfred H. Rice, son of Robert S. Rice and Elisa Caldwell was born in Fremont, Ohio in 1840.  He enlisted in the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry with his older brother Dr. John B. Rice. He rose to the rank of lieutenant. He became ill when with the regiment during the siege of Vicksburg, His illness led to seizures.  His brother, surgeon of the 72nd, requested a medical discharge. After regaining his health, Lt. Rice returned to the regiment. However, only a short time later he once again developed seizures.

Permanently discharged after more than two years of service, Rice returned to Fremont and studied law.  He married Mary James in 1864, daughter of Isaac James. They had one daughter, Edith, born 1872. During the following years, Rice acquired a significant amount of property in and around Sandusky County. 

The couple later moved to Los Angeles. Alfred was admitted to the Los Angeles Soldiers' Home in October 1913 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He died the following month; November 3, 1913 at the age of 74. Alfred was buried in the National Cemetery located on the grounds of the Los Angeles Soldiers' Home. Mary lived with her daughter Edith and her husband Richard Mansfield in Glendale, California.

Alfred H. Rice Grave, Los Angeles National Cemetery 

Courtesy Find a Grave

  

Davis' Boat Works, Sandusky, Ohio

 Adelbert Davis was born in 1857, the son of Sandusky, Ohio businessman Ira T. Davis. At the age of six, he became deaf after one term in public school. He attended and graduated from the Ohio School for the Deaf in Columbus, Ohio.  Following graduation, he worked as a printer, clerk, quarryman and other occupations until he discovered his skills as a draftsman and carpenter.  He married Lucy Cook, who also attended the Ohio School for the Deaf, graduating in 1878.  The couple had two children; both employed at the Boat Works. He opened the Davis Boat Works around 1890, located in Sandusky at the foot of Sycamore St.  

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Davis Boat Works

Charles E. Frohman Collection

In an issue of the "Silent Worker," Mr. Davis stated that experience and brains were built into his boats.  He claimed that skilled labor, good materials, and ample shop facilities made the boat works a success. His business grew so much that orders came in from as far away as Texas, California, Maine, and Wisconsin.  

Davis agents took orders for the company for dingeys, motor boats, launches, yachts, and pleasure boats; one from St. Petersburg, Russia and another from Alexandria, Egypt.  Among his most famous yachts were the "Companion," a 55-foot power cruiser and the "L. E. R. Jr., a 65-foot power boat built entirely of mahogany.

Weldon B. Cooke

Charles E.Frohman Collection

When California aviator, Weldon B. Cooke, settled in Sandusky to create his aeroplanes, he became interested in developing hydroplanes.  It was the Davis Boat Works who converted his hulls. The "flying boats" were constructed in sections so they could be disassembled, shipped by rail, and reassembled. While Cooke's "Irene" flying boat became a local sensation, she never achieved flight.

Irene, Hydroplane

Courtesy Sandusky History Blog

Davis' Boat Works continued in business until about 1920, providing many of the boats that sailed and raced on Lake Erie. Adelbert  Davis died of pneumonia in 1937 at the age of 80 in Columbus, Ohio