Binder containing approx. 100 handwritten letters, most from Elkanah Doolittle, some loose. There are typed transcripts of about 80 of the letters. There are large photograph portraits, possibly salt prints, of Elkanah and Triphenia, two each, plus a few other smaller photographs of family members. Also, in a shoebox, there are about 200 additional family letters, many with envelopes.

An important and historically valuable archive of letters from a Union Officer in the Civil War, and of an American family in the latter 19th century. The core of the archive is the approximately 80 wartime letters written by Elkanah Doolittle while serving as an officer in the Union Army – most of these are to his wife Triphenia, though there are others to his mother, father, sister and son. Most of these are in sleeves in the three-ring binder, with typed transcripts adjacent to them.  In addition, there are letters loose in the binder, from Triphenia Doolittle to her father and mother from before or during the early period of the war, also some from other relatives. 

In addition, there are about 200 loose, folded letters in a shoe box, many with envelopes, a number having the postage removed. These are from before and after the war, into the latter years of the 19th century, between various family members, including Elkanah, Triphenia, and (following Triphenia’s death in the latter 1860s and Elkanah’s subsequent remarriage) to Miranda Doolittle, nee Pangborn. These extend the story of a Civil War officer to include the life of an American family in the 19th century, from the Midwest to both coasts, as the nation regrouped following the Civil War, rebuilt and built anew the economic infrastructure, and laid the foundation for the American century that was to come.

 At the beginning of the Civil War Elkanah Doolittle and his wife Triphenia are living in Connecticut, apparently where her parents lived, and Elkanah is enthusiastic about joining the fight.

• J.D. Willicomb(?), Adjutant General of the State of Connecticut, to Elkanah Doolittle, July 11th, 1862: “Sir, I hand you orders authorizing you to recruit a company for one of our volunteer regiments…” Two orders follow, all three documents on letterhead of General Headquarters State of Connecticut and signed by Willicomb.
• Triphenia Doolittle to her parents, August 1st, 1862: “…You may be surprised to hear that Elkanah has volunteered and is already sworn in. He has been working day and night to raise a Company and they have only forty. There are young men enough to go without any married men going now if they would, but they have no ambition, no patriotism, no go-ahead… I will be terribly lonely when they are all gone… If Elkanah had not been so good and kind to me all these years, the parting would not be so hard. I know he has his faults, but I do believe his good qualities will more than balance the bad ones… he has been a kind, indulgent husband to me.”
• Elkanah Doolittle to Triphenia Doolittle, dated Washington, D.C., Sunday, Sept. 13, 1862: “Dear Triphenia, Here we are at last at the seat of war. We hear cannon firing now at intervals, and it is reported that a battle is being fought about 8 miles down the river. We have had a very tedious & uncomfortable journey and had it not been for other provisions put into our haversacks before starting, we should have suffered from hunger. Verily our public functionaries should be held to a strict accountability for the way in which our poor fellows are treated… The rebels are getting very daring, two companies of cavalry were captured on Chain Bridge but a few miles above here yesterday. And two cavalry officers were caught right here in the city the day before dressed as Union officers. The fact of their passing our pickets shows how very loosely our men are disciplined...”
• Elkanah Doolittle to Triphenia Doolittle, dated Camp Chase, Va., Monday Sept. 29, 1862: “Dear Triphenia, At 12 o’clock last night, we received orders to wake up our cook and have two days' rations cooked immediately and be ready to march at 8 o’clock this A.M. Rumor says and the authority seems good that we proceed to Fredericksburgh to intercept Stonewall Jackson. …if we go… we are approaching the heart of the enemy’s country and if you should fail to hear from me for some time, you need not be alarmed…”
• Elkanah Doolittle to Triphenia Doolittle, dated “Camp at Lyris Ford on Banks of Shenandoah 6 miles from Harpers Ferry, Oct., 1862”: “The whole country about Harpers Ferry and on this side of the Shenandoah is mountainous & rocky, and although the scenery is beautiful, the land is very worthless… But, notwithstanding all the newspaper reports of the triumphant advance of the Union Army, [it] is still in possession of the enemy to within 3 miles of Harpers Ferry. Our pickets and those of the enemy are within pistol shot distance of one another on either bank of the river and within a few rods from where I am writing this. Our boys talk to the enemy daily and their cavalry show themselves boldly on the open ground opposite us daily…”
• Elkanah Doolittle to Triphenia Doolittle, dated “Camp near Sandy Hook, Maryland, October 19th, 1862”: “…We have at last received all of our Barrells, Boxes, etc. They came in tolerable, good order. Nothing was broken, but the green fruit was rotten and some jellies had melted and run out causing some of the things to mould. The beef & sausages were quite mouldy, but by washing and scraping off and drying in the sun, we managed to make them very nice. My peaches were a little rotted, but still very good. The cookies, pickles, corn & beans were excellent and in good order…. Our boys are very poorly fed. We get no vegetables and but little fresh meat. Their food has been chiefly poor, hard bread & corned beef so hard that a man can scarcely chew it and occasionally beans so old that they cannot be cooked soft. The hard bread is filled with bugs and the boys actually have to lay their crackers on the stove to roast the bugs out…”
• On Christmas Day, 1862, from Camp near Fairfax Station, Elkanah writes a particularly long letter to Triphenia, relating in part “We have again set to work putting up winter quarters and the general says we shall probably remain here until March, which would seem to indicate… that operations in Virginia are to cease for the winter. We are located in the most miserable place we have yet been…” He goes on the relate in detail some recent actions, among them: “On Monday morning, we start from here and from here on the roads are indescribable, there is no bottom to the mud. We go slow to help the teams & guard them for the rebel Cavalry are in the vicinity. General George’s Brigade takes the lead with a Battery and in the afternoon on our crossing the Occquan, the enemy appear skirmishing with our advance. Then we hear cannon fire as George shells the woods as we advance and continues to do so all the way as far as we go and also on our return for the enemy Regiment is hovering about us hoping to pick up stragglers or unguarded Baggage wagons…  Nobody was hurt on either side that I know of except a rebel sutter who had broken down his wagon in crossing the Occoquan and had no time to get away. His wagon was unloaded for him in a shorter time than it takes me to write it. Some of the boys got quite a feast of apples, cakes, tobacco, whiskey, etc….”
• On April 24th, 1863, at “Camp near Stafford Court House, Virginia,” Elkanah writes to Triphenia, “With the exception of our Corps, the whole army has moved to the front, and portions of it, are I suppose, penetrating the enemy’s territory, for some of it has gone somewhere, but where, we do not know.  All we do know is that distant firing is heard every day, showing that something is going on. In the meantime, the rest of the army, ourselves included, are held in readiness to march at the shortest notice. Wagons are kept loaded, knapsacks and haversacks packed and every inch of spare room stuffed with hard tack… If our Corps is left here, we shall probably have as hard a time of it as those who are marching, for I suppose it will be our duty to guard the different landings on Acquia Creek and to keep open the communications with the army at the front.…”
• On May 4th, 1864, “In the woods, one mile from United States Forces on the Rapahannock… Dear Triphenia, You have probably heard that we are having a terrible battle. It has now lasted three days and there is no knowing how soon it may end. There are probably no less than 100,000 engaged on each side. And the Rebs, as usual, outnumber us. We are, as far, as near as I can judge, getting the worst of it. The battle extends over a large extent of territory and constantly shifting. For the first two days, we did not get in range of musketry, but had the shell bursting all around us. Yesterday, we were in the thickest of the fight, and God forbid that I should ever again see such slaughter or such awful sights again. I have not yet a scratch but have had many narrow escapes… You will see by the diagram below what a fire we were subjected to. You will see that Company A & F had to stand the worst of it. The fire to rake the 102nd N.Y. had to pass through those two companies and a portion of the Regiment to the right of A were in a hollow, but were a fair mark for the rascals. While their batteries were playing on us, their infantry twice charged on our works, but, were handsomely repulsed, leaving many dead and wounded on the field…” This is followed by the sketch diagram of the troop positions.
• On May 8, 1963, at Stafford Court House, Virginia, Elkanah writes to his Mother, “I suppose by this time you have got full reports through the papers of our severe fight & masterly retreat. Our generals seem to have a particular genius for getting into tight places, and when liberated by what would seem to be a direct interposition of Providence, claiming all the praise themselves. There is not a shadow of a doubt but that we rushed into a trap that was deliberately set for us. And it is only by the mercy of God that we were not all slaughtered like sheep, or the whole army captured… Our men fought well, nobly, but to no purpose. We were ignorant of the country, of the position & number of the enemy, and they had and were concentrating men from all portions of their army, while our armies at other points were lazing idle…”