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Bone Letter, December 15, 1861

Bone Letter, December 15, 1861 - page 1

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Title	Bone Letter, December 15, 1861
Subject	Correspondence Military life Medicine Health Civil War
Description	No place given, Dr. Bone to Minerva: heard a Presbyterian sermon, contrast of morals of soldiers, differences of army practice and common practice of medicine, advice on raising the children.
Date	December 15, 1861
Collection	Bone Family Papers
Collection Identifer	A9, Box 1, Folder 6
Collection Link	http://library.sfasu.edu/findingaids/?p=collections/controlcard&id=17
Biographical Note	Robert Donnell Bone (1832-1892) was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, and came to Nacogdoches County in 1841 with his mother and stepfather. He and his brothers and sister moved in with his older sister when she married John Winstead Paine in 1846. After a serious illness of pneumonia, R. D. Bone rode horseback to Tennessee and entered the University at Nashville Medical School (which later became Vanderbilt University) in 1854 and returned to Douglass, Texas, to practice medicine after graduating in 1858. That same year he married Griselda Minerva Burk (1841-1912) who was also from Tennessee and had moved to Nacogdoches County, Texas, with her family in 1848. On November 25, 1861, Dr. Bone was appointed to serve as Assistant Surgeon of the 12th Texas Volunteer Infantry, Col. Overton Young's Regiment at Camp Hebert, Hempstead, Austin County, Texas. He felt it was his duty to serve the cause of the Confederacy and eagerly attended his post. As revealed in the following letters exchanged with his wife while on active duty in the Civil War, it soon became clear that he would have to contend with inadequate provisions, boring camp routine and confusing orders. "The Fever", dysentery, measles and exposure were Dr. Bone's patients' main medical problems; his regiment was not involved in any serious fighting. When he resigned his commission on March 7, 1863, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he went back to Douglass, Texas, to practice medicine. Dr. Bone also bought cotton and cattle and took them to New Orleans each fall to be sold. Minerva was Post Mistress in Douglass from 1866-1867. Only six of the Bone's 12 children reached adulthood, and two of their sons graduated from the University at Nashville Medical School exactly 50 years after Dr. Bone did. At least eight of his descendants have followed him in serving the medical profession. (Aiken, Roy L. (Pete). "Bone Family." In Nacogdoches County Families, 172. Dallas, Tx.: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985.)
Scope and Content Note	Included in the collection of letters between Dr. Bone and Minerva are letters to the Bones from family and friends, report forms from the post office at Douglass, and two poems (probably written by Dr. Bone). Typescripts for most of the papers in the collection are in a booklet in Box 2. Several 19th century newspapers belonging to Dr. Bone are cataloged and shelved with the newspaper bundles.
Associated Dates	1860-1869
Type	Correspondence
Repository	East Texas Research Center
Repository Link	http://library.sfasu.edu/etrc/
Rights	This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is available for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the East Texas Research Center at asketrc@sfasu.edu.

Title	Bone Letter, December 15, 1861 - page 1
Collection Identifer	A9, Box 1, Folder 6
Repository	East Texas Research Center
Transcript	Mrs. G.M.Bone Dec 15th 1861 Dear wife not withstanding I have written to you last and am quietly looking for a letter I will take advantage of Frances’ letter and write to you again, today is Sunday and all is idleness in camp. We had a very good sermon here to day by the Rev Mr Boone of this vicinity, he is of the Old School Presbyterian persuasion and read his sermons. We have prayers in our camp night and morning and the the [sic] absent parents wives children and relatives are the especial objects of solicitation before a thrown of Grace. We have a motley crew here in a moral point of view. Some sing and pray while fiddling and dancing is going on close at hand, and while the preacher is portraying the beauties of holiness others are blaspheming at his elbow, but all are common soldiers and on the drill ground are equal. There are many things calculated to create feelings of disgust in the mind of moral soldier and yet he loves to be with the boys and fortake with him the hardships common to all. You will recollect perhaps all I told you concerning the physical wear and tear of the body in a campaign.

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Home Bone Letter, December 15, 1861 - page 1

Bone Letter, December 15, 1861

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