Sheffield Ill

                                                                                                              Mch 28 ‘85

Capt Pointer,

                     Yours received this morning, and was pleased to hear from you. I herewith enclose

your commission. It has been a little over 24 years since you have seen it. I passed by your tent

on the morning of the surrender and noticed some papers scattered around on the ground and

among them was your commission. That was all I secured. I noticed then in the tent a leather

trunk, but I passed on and do not know of them since. I often think of that engagement and of

the bad roads and weather. Never during the whole war did I suffer so much as there, and my

experience was varied I assure you. From there to Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka, Tuscumbia, Pulaski,

Chattanooga, Atlanta and through to the sea. We are all growing old together now. I would be

pleased to hear from you again.

                                                                                                              Yours Respectfully,

                                                                                                               Wm Wilson

                                                                                                                                        Lt & Adjt 66^th Ill Vols

Notes;        The “engagement” is the fighting leading up to the surrender of Fort Donelson on

16 Feb 1862.

                   24 years refers to the date of the commission, 1861, not the date it was found.

                   There was a  Lieutenant William Wilson in the 66^th Ill and he was also an

adjutant. The regiment was originally the 14^th Missouri and had men in it from several states.

They were used as sharpshooters and skirmishers.

                   Captain Pointer was captain of E company 3^rd Tennessee Infantry (Brown’s/

Clack’s). He spent some months at Johnson’s Island Sandusky Ohio, a prison camp for officers.

Exchanged in Sept 1862, he then became a volunteer aide-de-camp to Nathan B. Forrest and

was paroled at Gainesville AL 10 May 1865. He took the Oath to the US at the  courthouse

in Nashville on 15 July 1865. He owned a farm in Spring Hill where he raised horses. He

married Virginia “Jennie” Brown on 27 March 1873, and she was his second wife. She filed

a widow’s pension claim in 1929, but died two months later. The letter was in her claim which

was incorrectly indexed as widow of Henry C. Pointer(W9412).        Terry Baker

Terry Baker contributed this transcription and original copy of the letter to MAURY CO. TNGENWEB

THANKS TERRY!