Dated  “Hospital 14, Nashville Mar 25 [1863]. Addressed to father and mother. 4 pp. in ink on lined paper, 6.75 x 8.25”. Exhibits fold-marks, & few spots of heavy foxing. Else good and 75 percent legible.  In protective sleeve. Accompanied by documentation.

Note: Adam Kreps served in three regiments, first mustering as private in Co. “F”, 15^th PA Cavalry, 8/22/1862, then transferred with Lieutenant’s commission into Co. “A”, 67^th Regt. U.S.C.T., 2/24/1864, then transferred again into Co. “E”, 92^nd Regt. U.S.C.T., 7/12/1865, mustering out of service, 12/31/1865. He served exclusively in the western theater and with the two U.S.C.T. regiments mostly in Louisiana. His correspondence consists of letters to family, primarily to his father.

In this hospital letter Adam Kreps writes of the reorganization of the 15^th PA Cavalry and his dislike of the “Catholics” that staff and run the hospital to the chagrin of protestants such as himself. Excerpts as follow:

“I have not heard from Frank or John or from Charley since he left…They [the 15^th PA Cav} are making an entirely new organization of the Regt. There is now 12 companies instead of 10 and there is not more than 500 men in all. The men have to draw a paper out of a box and whatever company is marked is the one he gets…

There is one thing in this hospital I do not like. The surgeon in charge is Catholic and a for a time they excluded all Protestant matrons. Now they have 10 of the “Charity” and 8 of the “Mercy.” I think it is all wrong for the great majority of patients are Protestant and would rather have Protestant women to minister to them.”

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Born in 1806 in Lebanon, PA, J.F. Kreps established himself in Greencastle as an enterprising farmer and businessman, moving to West Newton/ Rostraver Township. An ardent Union patriot, Kreps raised troops and money, and served as a civilian Pennsylvania regimental commissioner, spending two months in that capacity visiting PA regiments serving with Gen. Rosecrans’ army at Stones River, TN, in late spring/early summer 1863; also visiting PA Army of the Potomac units in 1864.

He also contributed five sons to the Union army—John, Francis, Adam, William and David Dempsey (with John, Francis and Adam serving as officers), in five different regiments, all of whom would survive, though son John would be severely wounded at Liberty Gap, TN, and son Frank, captured at Chickamauga, would spend 14 months in various Confederate prisons before making an heroic and hair-raising escape from Columbia, S.C., in 1864.

The bulk of the letters in this first family grouping (27 letters dating from August 7, 1861 to July 1864) are from J.F. Kreps to son Adam (15^th PA Cavalry, 67^th Regt. U.S.C.T., 92^nd Regt. U.S.C.T. Also letters to son Frank (77^th PA Infy) and son George, and six to wife Eliza, most of which were written during J.F. Kreps tour of General Rosecrans’ army. Subsequent groups contain letters home from sons Adam, William, John and David Dempsey. Taken as a whole, the Kreps letters present a valuable and fascinating picture of the coming and goings of an American family at war.   [JP]  [ph:L]

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