Daniel Carlisle, 17 Oct 1862

Buchanan Oct 17 1862
Dear Wife

I recived yours Dated Oct 10 yesterday We had Been
amxiously Looking for it for some days it takes
from five to ten days for your Letters to come
We are Well except that awfull Sore on my Thigh
Is not yet healed. but much Better than it was it is
now inflamed around it & quite Sore all the way
I keep around & doe any thing is By Wearing a
Plaster of fir Balsom it is So tender I cannot
Have any thing else touch it I Was Barely able to attend
Court At Berrien all Last Week I Saved five
Dollars Besides my Board & horse keeping and
Had to pay it put as soon as I got home for some
Thing to Live on except 1.25 I paid for apples
For five Bushels & pick them myself We had
all We wanted from our trees till then When
I got home Tamesen Was gone to the Prarie
and hill with J R came back With him on
Wednesday The girls have Cleaned House White
Washed & turned things upside down & end
for end put the Bureau into the Butrey &
there is no sickness Prevailing now quite healthy
Mary & Bell are going to shool

(page 2)
Mr Noah Merrill Died at Pipestone & Was
Buried here as soon as I got Able to ride I Went
To the marsh for my tools It gave me verry
unpleasnat feelings to see two thirds of the hay
Spoiled Which had made myself Sick in trying
To Save I Could not get it drawed Was disappointed
By two Who promised to see it I have But Little
Hay Was not able to save any Corn fodder What
I Am to doe I know not But mean to Let it
Trouble me as Little as posible We doe mostly
Without meat I Cannot Buy much I have a
Large Calf to kill soon I have not Been
able to get a hog or pig sinc you Left it is
Cheaper to Buy Pork than to Buy the hogs and
And corn to fat them my greatest trouble is
About Taxes Which are So high Besides the
Town & Corporation tax there is to Be a tax
For War expences I have Been once to Berrien to
County Convention & Last night Was Appointed
To go tomorrow to nominate A County ticket
So go With S G Littlefield H Hathaway L _ Fox
J Kelley Doct Roe Amos Clark A Sherwood
There is Some Sur & Feeling on the occasion

(page 3)
The Same delagates are toe Attend a District
Convention At this place to nominate a
Representative to the Legislature to Be held
At Posts on the 25 th the Reppublicans have put
up for State offices Almost the Same ones as
Two years Ago The demos knew they could not
Carry the State & have made a great noise
About uniting on one ticket Some of them the
Wire Workers of the Demo party & Some disappend
office Seekers of the Republicans have made a
State nomination half and half of each party
many of the egnorant on each Side are honest and
think it a real union But the real aim is to
To Break up the republican organisation and
Elect part of their own Party But they cannot
Decieve All We have nominated for Congress
Hon Charles Upson of Cold Water for this
District he is the present Attorney General of
the State a Splendid man I heared him Speak
At dowagiac in August the Republicans offer to
unite if the Democrats Will approve publickly
The Amancipation Proclimation but they Will
not they may carry Some Counties in the State

(page 4)
about your Staying there Longer you must
Act your own discretion my Advice is that you
Had Better Stay if you think proper times
Are hard here except With those that have
Raised enough to Live on & are out of debt
you can not earn Any thing here We get
Along Comfortally except Want of means
To Live on But you Could not remidy that
So Well to Be here As there We get Along
Comfortably With Bell She thinks everything
of Pa I Shall Be quite Comfortably Choathed
For Winter the girls have made my shirts
And are now repairing Socks Fannie
Wants Something for Winter Which I can
not get for Want of means our Sicknesss has
Has Set us back very much especally on my
Part I have not heard from Ashley Since
He Went to Louisville Tuesdays paper gave
An account of a hard Battle At Perryville
Stating the mich Cavelry Suffered in it __y
Badly Since that I can find no details of it
I must close or Lose the mail
D Carlisle

So while Hannah Glover Carlisle was very patriot we learn that another reason for her joining the army as a nurse was financial. Times were hard for the family and about to get worse. Note that the bureau has been moved to the buttery.

J.R was probably the John mentioned in the last letter. The prairie I think referred to White Pigeon Prairie in St Joseph County where the family had first settled when they arrived in Michigan.

H Hathaway may have been Homer Hathaway, born about 1833 NY, living in Buchanan, MI on the 1860 census.

J Kelley could have been either John Kelly / John Kelley or Joseph Kelly / Joseph Kelley.

Doct Roe = J M Roe

Amos H Clark, born about 1808 PA, living in Buchanan, MI on the 1860 census.

A Sherwood could refer to either Alonzo Sherwood or Asa Sherwood.

For more see: Carlisle Family Letters

Carlisle, Daniel. (Buchanan, MI) to “Dear Wife”
[Hannah Glover Carlisle]. Letter. 17 October 1862. Digital Images 1-4.
Privately held by Charlotte Grabowski, Orlando, Florida. 2012.
[Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1862,
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]