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Civil War Archive of Medal of Honor Recipient Dewitt Clinton Lewis of the 97th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. . ...
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Civil War Archive of Medal of Honor Recipient Dewitt Clinton Lewis of the 97th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.An extensive archive of approximately one hundred and twenty letters from DeWitt Clinton Lewis of the 97th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. The letters are addressed to his wife, Sarah, and mother in West Chester, Pennsylvania. They date from November 19, 1861 to August 22, 1864, and range from two to four pages. The majority are written in ink, with a few examples in pencil. Also included are DeWitt and Sarah's 1847 marriage certificate, typed transcriptions of each letter, copies of his official military and pension records, two books, and two pins.
DeWitt Clinton Lewis was born July 30, 1822, at West Chester, Pennsylvania. He enlisted on October 3, 1861 at the age of 39 as a captain. That same day he mustered into Company F of the 97th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The 97th was primarily located in South Carolina and Florida during 1862 and 1863, with camps at Beaufort, Hilton Head Island, Edisto Island, James Island, Fernandina, and Jacksonville. In 1864 they were transferred to Virginia, where the 97th took part in the aggressive fighting around Petersburg. He saw action at the Battles of Secessionville, Ware Bottom Church, Cold Harbor, and the Crater. Lewis received his Medal of Honor for his efforts at the Battle of Secessionville in June 1862 and was later wounded while carrying a man off the field at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church during the Bermuda Hundred campaign in May 1864.
His letters discuss his opinion of Confederate soldiers, who he refers to as "Secesh," in frank detail while recounting battles and skirmishes. He also wrote extensively and disparagingly about the freed slaves living nearby in South Carolina. Additionally, Lewis references his unfavorable view of abolitionists, the humid southern weather, and the diversity of insects and snakes encountered by the 97th. Given the swampy nature of coastal South Carolina, mosquito-borne illnesses were commonplace amongst the camp, and Lewis often remarks on the health of his men.
By late spring of 1862, the Union forces were attempting to make their way to Charleston, capturing Edisto and John Island as they went. Lewis was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Secessionville on June 16, 1862. His citation reads: "While retiring with his men before a heavy fire of canister shot at short range, returned in the face of the enemy's fire and rescued an exhausted private of his company who but for this timely action would have lost his life by drowning in the morass through which the troops were retiring." On June 17th, he recounted the fight in a letter to Sarah, though he did not mention his own heroic actions:
"We have just passed through another battle. Yesterday morning at two o'clock we were aroused by our Col. going around to...prepare to march on the Enemy immediately...our advance had hardly got one mile from Camp before the firing commenced and the Enemy retired Before it and fell back behind their fort which had been all the while pouring in a shower of shell...The 97th headed by our Col. and a braver man does not live still steadily advancing to the front with hardly a waver in their lines and amidst a perfect shower of ball and shell till we came to a morass that appeared to be impassable. But nothing daunted the officers dashed in and the men followed with a cheer and formed line of Battle of the other side...while we were standing an order came for us to move up and support the one hundredth Pennsylvania regt which had been suffering terribly...we moved up in good style to within one hundred and fifty yds of the fort where we were ordered to stay... At this time we were ordered up to the left of the regiments that were engaged at the word the noble fellows sprang forward with the Col still at their head and plunged into morass up to their armpits...waded through and led on the men to a field where he formed line of battle and sent Company A sharpshooters into a wood on our left also part of Companies B & C. About this time fire was opened by our gunboats which fell into our lines with fearful effect our regt being exposed to a fire from four different points...the loss on our side was very heavy..."
The following letter in the collection is from June 25, 1862. He wrote, "...loss of our forces in the battle of the Sixteenth in killed wounded and missing was near 700...we are building a line of batteries across the island and hardly expect to make any advance for sometime. I think the principle now is slow and sure..." This letter proved quite prophetic for the 97th. Except for their winter encampment at Fernandina, they spent the rest of 1862 and 1863 in South Carolina, taking part in the Assault on Fort Wagner and the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor.
On July 12, 1863 he wrote about the fighting that had occurred on James Island. "...We are operating against Charleston and now occupy our old battle ground on James Island. The fighting commenced on the 9th and has been going on ever since. We have or at least our forces have captured three batteries on Morris Island and expect to have the other in a day or two. As soon as it is taken Fort Sumter must fall...The firing is terrible the loss on our side has not been very heavy..." He wrote again on July 21st, following the Second Battle of Fort Wagner. "...thanks to a kind Providence I am still alive. We are still gradually advancing towards Charleston and have been in two engagements since the fifteenth of this month and the last was on the eighteenth &...a charge on Fort Wagner in which we lost about fifteen hundred men it was a terrible fight our Batteries are up within shelling distance of Fort Sumpter and I soon hope to have the pleasure of sending news of its fall..." There is a gap in the archive after this letter until November 5, 1863.
The 97th was active throughout the Bermuda Hundred and Siege of Petersburg campaigns and saw action in several key battles. According to official records, Lewis was wounded on May 20, 1864, at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church when he returned to the field to rescue and injured soldier. However, the letter following this engagement was written on June 1, 1864, and he denied any severe wound. "...I wrote you the particulars of our bloody fight of the twentieth and have very little time to write any news now except that I am for the present an inmate of Chesapeake Hospital not wounded except a slightly bruised foot which is getting better nor very sick but completely worn out..."
On June 6th, his friend and fellow company F soldier, John Wainwright, wrote to reassure Sarah, who had not yet heard from Lewis. "...Your husband is safe. He and Lt. [Thomas] Cosgriff remained consealed in a ditch on the battlefield about fifty yds from the enemy's ranks until dark when they both together with some forty others made their escape and succeeded in making our lines uninjured, he had been complaining od indisposition for some days as was not well when he went up on the charge, and has not been since..." [John Wainwright was also a Medal of Honor recipient. He was awarded it for meritorious conduct at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865.]
The last four letters in the collection cover the siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond in July and August of 1864. On the 16th of the July, a now recovered Lewis informed Sarah that the regiment had seen heavy fighting with numerous casualties. The opposing forces were entrenched closely enough to exchange insults.
"...Our Regt. is losing very heavily in killed and wounded...Co. A. had one killed his name was Vernon Yarnall a fine young man and the son of an old friend of mine. He was struck and died almost instantly. We are in the front and the Regt has been for the last month. The firing is kept up constantly. Still with no definite results on either sides...they are so close that they can talk to each other from the Rifle Pits. But woe be unto the unfortunate individual on either side that shows his head above the rifle pit. He is a dead man...Our boys have a good bit of fun along the Picket lines with the Johnnies in the way of Impudence. Yesterday one of our fellows asked why they did not wear better clothes and got for an answer that they did not put on their best when they went to butcher hogs! Pretty sharp for that Johnny..."
The final letter in the collection is from August 22, 1864, where a despondent Lewis wrote of his desire to resign. "We are back again to the place we left on Saturday night week after eight days hard work and some hard fighting the Regt was under fire for near four days in the front and on last Wednesday was marched to Deep Bottom...There has been heavy fighting going on around Petersburg for the last three days and nights what the result is I am unable to state & expect you will get the news through the papers before we will...I think I will resign and come home and let things take their course and then an anxiety to fill the full term makes me hold on..."
Lewis mustered out on October 3, 1864 and returned home to West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was promoted by brevet to Major and later Lt. Colonel in 1865 and was elected sheriff of Chester county for three years in 1869 before he returned to work as a carpenter. Lewis formally received the Medal of Honor on April 23, 1896, from President Grover Cleveland, over thirty years after the Battle of Secessionville. He died June 28, 1899 and is buried in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Two books are included with the archive: 1) History of the Ninety-Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, During the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 by Isaiah Price. Philadelphia: Published by the author for the subscribers, 1875. Small quarto. 608 pages. Frontispiece. Pebbled burnt orange leather boards with gilt-stamped spine and front board. [Together with]: 2) Deeds of Valor: How America's Heroes Won the Medal of Honor. Volume I. Edited by W. F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel. Detroit's: The Perrien-Keydel Company, 1905. Small quarto. 558 pages. Frontispiece. Publisher's blue-green cloth boards with gilt-stamped spine and front board. Lewis is mentioned extensively in both books. Also included are two pins, one of which reads, "Post 31 West Chester" with "D. W. C. Lewis" inscribed on the verso. From The Collection Of Don Limpert.
Condition: Two letters silked, all others encapsulated. Rubbed with minor to moderate soiling. A few letters have some loss along the integral fold. Boards of both books are lightly rubbed and soiled. History with four areas of dampstaining to front and rear boards and extending through front and rear endpapers. Deeds front hinge split with rear hinge just holding.
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2021 December 12 Arms & Armor, Civil War & Militaria Signature® Auction #6245 (go to Auction Home page)
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