Letter from Thomas Moses, Jr. (3)

to Ida Moses (53) in 1916

I, Thomas Moses, Jr. was born at Hull, Yorkshire, England on March 27, 1838. We were not rich but lived very comfortable. In 1849 my parents came to America. There were six children at that time. Four more were born in this country making ten in all, five of whom are living at this time, 1916. We came on the Old American Sailing Ship “Independence”. We were 45 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We had a bad storm and were driven considerable out of our course. We were in a dead calm for nearly a week. My father, my mother and the two oldest children were very seasick. But the younger children did not mind it and were as happy as could be. My parents had some acquaintances living in Silver Lake Township, Susquehanna County., Pennsylvania and they gave us such a glowing account of the country that we went there and bought 80 acres of land. The land was poor and stony and covered with very heavy timber. The timber was pine, hemlock, beech, birch and hard maple. There was no money in the timber. It had to be piled up and burned. Some years later the Tanneries came. Then we could sell the hemlock bark for tanning purposes. But the fine saw logs had to be burned. The saw mills would saw logs for $1.00 per thousand or on halves, and you could buy hemlock lumber for $2.00 per thousand. When I was 16 years old I did a man’s work for $8.00 per month. Wages for hoeing corn was 50 cents per day and haying and harvesting $1.00 per day. The highest wages before the Civil War was $13.00 per month in a saw mill. When the Civil War broke out, I enlisted in the 16^th Independent Battery, New York State Volunteers on December 13, 1861 to serve for 3 years or during the war. In 1863 all those who had served 18 months or more had the privilege of reenlisting to serve 3 years or more, and the government would settle up with them as tho they had served the 3 years. They would receive the $100.00 bounty (that was the bounty paid the first recruits). I reenlisted at this time and served to the end of the war which made 4 years and 7 months. Many blamed President Lincoln for not calling for a larger army in the first place. But the Government could not equip what troops it had. We were 8 months before we got our uniforms and longer time before we got our horses and cannon.

I enlisted as private and was promoted to all the non-commission officers, and to 2^nd Lieutenant and Captain when discharged. I do not claim that our Battery put down the rebellion but we obeyed orders. I cannot tell you in this short sketch of the suffering and deaths of our men in the fields and in hospital, but it was terrible. And at this time, 1916, there is but a few of us left. After the war I moved to Minnesota and with the exception of the winters I have spent in Seattle, I have lived there ever since. I have wintered in Seattle eleven years.

Thomas Moses, Jr.