John Brown, Jr., wrote these letters to his wife Wealthy Brown during the early years of the Civil War. He enlisted and served as a Captain of Company K, 1st Kansas Cavalry (later the 7th Kansas Cavalry). Colonel Charles Jennison headed this regiment. It appears his wife and son John were living in Ohio, probably Ashtabula. The letters start while Brown is on a recruiting trip in Canada and Michigan. Many of the letters in January 1862 are written from Camp Jackson and Camp Johnson near Morristown, Cass County, Missouri. Brown's letters from February and March 1862 were written from Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas. Brown writes from Camp Wendell Phillips near Lawrence from most of April and May 1862. The last few letters are written from Madison, Indiana, on his way home to Ohio. The letters are very descriptive of camp life and names of many of the men in his company are mentioned. Several letters mention associates of his father's such as William Partridge and Richard Hinton. Almost every letter mentions how much he misses his family. Native American scouts are also mentioned by Brown as valuable to the war effort. Brown discusses the problems of determining local residents' loyalty in the war on the Kansas Missouri border in his letter written January 21, 1862. In the letter dated January 26, 1862, and continued on the 27th, Brown writes that he sent ten black soldiers to save a slave mother and children whose owner was planning to take them further south. In his letter dated March 9, 1862, Brown describes the execution of a soldier named Driscol from Company H who stabbed another soldier, was court martialed, and shot. Brown sent a letter of resignation, because of his continued poor health, to Gen. James Blunt in May 1862. NOTES ABOUT THE IMAGES: Brown frequently made notes in the margins. To make it easier to read these images, the pages with these notes are included twice--first with the original orientation and then again rotated ninety degrees to aid in reading the note. A letter from Hannibal, Missouri, is dated December 7, 1861, but the content of this latter and subsequent letters makes it apparent that this letter was written sometime in January 1862 but before the letter dated January 11, 1862. The images for this letter are placed in the correct order for content but will seem out of order chronologically based on date. The last letter in the group is missing its first page however the content, about primarily family matters, makes it apparent it was written in late 1861 or early 1862. The text version is one file that presents the letters in chronological order, except for the the exceptions noted above. It is necessary to scroll to the appropriate date. SEVERAL PAGES IN VARIOUS LETTERS ARE WRITTEN IN A NUMERIC CODE. This code, between John Brown, Jr. and his wife, encrypt private messages between the couple. A key to the code and transcriptions of those letters can be found filed with the original letters. The code key and transcriptions are available in the repository upon request. Access is restricted to these particular letters; researchers under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, or provide written permission from same, to see those transcriptions.

Creator: Brown, John, 1821-1895
Date: February 14, 1861-November 29, 1863