Trowbridge, George Martin, 1833-1885

Papers, 1863 October 9-1865 June 22
238 items; 0.75 lin. feet

Trowbridge, George Martin, 1833-1885
Rank:	Assistant Surgeon
Regiment:	19th Michigan Infantry Regiment (1862-1865)
Service:	1863 January-1865 June

Background note:

George M. Trowbridge was born April 6, 1833, at Martinsburg, Lewis County, N.Y. In 1836, he moved with his parents to Delta, Ohio, a small town near Toledo that even half a century later, could still boast of only 900 residents. The Trowbridge's continued to live at Delta at the time of the Civil War, but by then, George had moved on to other scenes. At the age of sixteen he entered school in Perrysburg, Ohio, and prepared for entrance into Kalamazoo College in Michigan, from which he graduated in 1859. George continued his education at the medical school of the University of Michigan, receiving his M.D. in March, 1862. On May 17 of that year he married Lesbia E. Fox (b. Nov. 26, 1837) the daughter of Daniel T. Fox of Kalamazoo.

After graduation, Trowbridge began his medical practice in partnership with Dr. John Bennett (later Dean of the Cleveland Medical College) in Centreville, Mich., but both men soon quit their civilian practice to respond to the call for volunteers to fight the war of rebellion. Trowbridge entered the service as a Contract Surgeon in January, 1863, and was commissioned in August as Assistant Surgeon of the 19th Michigan Infantry, remaining with the regiment through the end of the war. In the absence of a regimental chaplain, Trowbridge also unofficially filled this post for several months.

Trowbridge joined the 19th Michigan while they were stationed in east Tennessee, performing the essential, but frustrating task of an army of occupation. In the Spring of 1864, however, the comparative calm of occupation duty was shattered when the regiment were ordered into the Atlanta Campaign. At Resaca, the regiment suffered heavily, losing their Colonel, Henry C. Gilbert (q.v.), but the regiment continued under Sherman's command throughout the campaign, through the March to the Sea and the March through the Carolina's. Gilbert, the physician and caretaker, was deeply affected by the carnage and destruction of Sherman's campaigns, but like many soldiers, argued that military necessity compelled their course of action. After the Battle of Goldsboro in March, 1865, the regiment took part in the G Grand Review in Washington, and a few weeks later, Trowbridge returned to civilian life to pick up where he had left off.

The war having interrupted his infant medical practice, Trowbridge had free rein to speculate on a suitable area to establish himself. Lebbie Trowbridge's bout with typhoid fever in early 1864 had led her to move in with her parents at Maple Grove and later Mattowan, Mich., and thus the Trowbridges had no home of their own upon George's return from the service. They settled first in Three Rivers, Mich., but did not remain long, returning to Centreville early in 1867, where George spent the rest of his life.

Trowbridge was confirmed in the Methodist church as a youth but in college studied the doctrine of baptism, and was converted to the Baptist faith. He became a deacon in the Baptist Church at Centreville and also served as its Sabbath School superintendant. Among his hobbies were botany and cabinetry. George Trowbridge died in Centreville February 7, 1885, at the age of fifty-one, reportedly from an illness contracted during the war, an illness which receives little if any note in his correspondence. He and Mrs. Trowbridge were the parents of six children, including May (b. July 14, 1863), Lena (1866-January 15, 1882), D. Hector (November 18, 1873-April 28, 1950), and Hugh M. (died in childhood, December 21, 1880). Hector was an 1898 graduate of the University of Michigan who went on to a career as a chemist. He married Mary Muns of Jackson, Mich., with whom he had two children: Mrs. Hayden R. Mills and Mrs. Blair W. (Virginia) Thomas of Denver, Colo. Scope and Contents:

The George Martin Trowbridge Papers contain 191 letters from George to Lebbie, 42 from Lebbie to George, and 5 from other people to George. Dr. Trowbridge's surviving correspondence forms an unbroken daily record of his experiences during the Civil War. He apparently intended his wife to preserve these letters for posterity, and the resultant 1,089 pages of letters provides an exceptionally detailed account of the latter part of the war.

Trowbridge was considerably anguished at being separated from his wife, and his long answers to her letters include attempts to govern his household from several hundred miles' distance, and are filled with his unequivocal support of the "best government the sun ever shone upon." An evangelical Christian, Trowbridge's interest in the spiritual life of his soldiers is evident, as he organizes prayer meetings and participates in theological debates. The military's secular treatment of the Sabbath is a constant source of sorrow to him. Trowbridge was never without reading material -- professional and pleasure -- and he often sent his literary commentaries home.

Trowbridge's letters are surprisingly scant in their reporting of medical work, espeically after battles, and he typically chose to focus more on the social side of army life than military engagements. Trowbridge's 36 page account of the March to the Sea and 56 page magnum opus covering the March through the Carolinas are significant for their reflection of the soldiers' attitude toward the infamous, occasionally wanton destruction of southern heart of the Confederacy. Even more revealing in these letters is the window they offer into the soul of George Trowbridge, who is an excellent example of Victorian values and mores as held by a serious Christian man in early middle years. For him, "America" is a term used to define the northern states, and ironically he sees the Confederacy as a foreign country. On the topic of African Americans and the end of slavery, Trowbridge equivocates, arguing for freedom with separate-but-equal status, but his opinion of African Americans in general declines after he goes south. Politically, he felt unable to support either Lincoln or McClellan in 1864, and was left aghast when the worst possible choice -- Andrew Johnson -- actually became President.

Trowbridge's relationship with his wife emerges with great complexity in these letters. His repeated discussions of headship in the home, a woman's "place," and proper parenting suggest something of the insecurity he must have felt, and he appears to have harbored a nagging suspicion during the first several months of his service that his wife might possibly (if improbably) be unfaithful. His frequent condemnation of adultery (in general) and his pointed comments that infidelity on the part of soldiers' wives is adultery most foul, and that he would personally drop a wife who was guilty of that sin, eventually brought Lebbie to exasperated protests that perhaps he was the guilty party. Happily, the real cause of Trowbridge's mental gymnastics seems to have been frustration and boredom with McMinnville, Tenn., where for five months the 19th Michgian sat with no fighting, no marching, and in short, nothing to do. Once the regiment began to move, and his attention was drawn away to a myriad of other events, Trowbridge says nothing more about infidelity.

Toward the end of the war when stationery got scarce, Trowbridge began interlining his letters on letters which Lebbie and others had written to him. Thus over 40 of her letters are preserved. Lebbie's correspondence weaves a story of homefront anxiety when not hearing from soldiers -- especially in the aftermath of battles -- and of the interminable banality of small-town midwestern life, particularly in winter. Both George and Lebbie comment upon the failed love life of Lebbie's sister, Gertrude A. Fox (b. 1843) who, for a time was engaged to her first cousin. It is important to note that notices that Gertie has returned to "the Asylum" after her engagement ended, omit the fact that she was an employee, rather than a resident.

Provenance:

The Trowbridge Papers were donated to the Clements Library in April, 1984, by Dr. Trowbridge's granddaughter, Virginia Trowbridge Thomas.

M-2139

Link to subject index to the George Martin Trowbridge Papers

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