Lewis Daulton volunteered for the 8th Kentucky Infantry (Union) prior to Jan. 1862. The bulk of this collection consists of barely literate letters written by Daulton home to his wife Phoebe (nee Sparks, b. 1835). He mustered in at Camp Lebanon, Marian Co., Ky., and served successively at War Trace, Tenn. (letters of May-June, 1862), near Nashville (Dec. 1862), and at Murfreesboro, Tenn. (April-May, 1863). Daulton's first military action came in a rout of rebel forces at McMinnville and Pikesville, Tenn., in late 1862 ('With out the fir of A gun'), and was followed by several fairly small skirmishes near Nashville (Nov. 1862), and Murfreesboro (April 1863). An incomplete narrative of the battle at Stone's River (1863 Jan. 1-2) is included. Daulton was wounded in the arm in Jan. 1863, though no account is provided, and he was placed on the sick list in April, 1863.

The correspondence between Daulton and his wife suggests that their relationship was not on the best of terms. He complains often of Phoebe's failure to correspond, and he reacts strongly to Pheobe's suggestion that he might never return (1863 May 2).His own correspondence is sporadic as well. Phoebe is the author of one letter in this accession, dated 1903, in which she requests an increase in pension pay, and records that her father was a combatant in both the Revolution and War of 1812.

M-2412

Stone's River, Battle of, 1862-1863
Pensions, Military--United States--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States. Army--Kentucky Infantry Regiment, 8th (1861-1865)

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