Asa Mather

May 1, 2022

Although the Civil War is now long past, it is fitting to recognize Perry County, Pennsylvania, boys who marched away to battlefields. Many returned. Some did not. Let’s give our respect to all.

This month’s soldier is Asa Mather, a Vermonter who moved to Perry County a few years after the war and here remained for fifty years. Remarkably, surviving letters from Asa and his father give us insights into a difficult circumstance late in the war. Perry Countian Nancy Mohler shared these letters.

Asa Mather got into the Civil War in September of 1862, more than a year after its start in Battery C of the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery [originally named 11th Vermont Infantry until December 10, 1862]. For eighteen months, the regiment was stationed in forts in defense of Washington D. C.

A year later, Asa’s older brother Warren entered the war in Company I of the Vermont 6th Regiment. In the spring of 1864, Warren and Asa were camped close together in Virginia, fighting in the same battles.

Unfortunately, Warren’s left leg was injured in the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, and surgeons had to amputate his leg to his thigh. His father George traveled to the Baltimore hospital to help care for him. On November 25, 1864, George wrote to Warren’s wife Nellie, “There is a good deal of braggin’ by the nurses about Warren’s leg. It is a doing so well…I worked about half an hour last [night] to fix his [16 of 17] pilloes so that he could rest.”

A week later George wrote: “[Warren] looks a great deel better…but oh how weak…I haven’t been to my meals in 6 days…They have brought my grub to me…This bed is an India rubber, thick and filled with water so that he lies perfectly easy.”

Sadly, Warren died on December 15, 1864, and George returned with his body to Vermont. Asa was still on the battlefield.

In February 8, 1865, Asa wrote to Nellie, “I seen him [Warren] the night before he was wounded. He was well…He was wounded very early in the morning and our fighting was so hard that I could not get a chance to look for him through the day…When I found that he…had his limb amputated, I tried to get a furlough but we was under marching orders and I could not get one.

When the war ended two months later, Asa returned home, and the family would have sorrowed together.