Dated “Morganzia La, July 18^th 1864. Addressed to brother Dempsey Kreps. 3 pp. in ink on lined paper, 5 x8.” Exhibits fold-marks and soiling of rear blank page. Else VG. In protective sleeve.

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

In this letter to brother Dempsey, Kreps writes of his loneliness and chides the youngster for never writing. He describes river levees and asks about his old “Copperhead pre-war friends at home Also about a cow. Excerpts as follow:

“I suppose you will be surprised when you receive this from me for you know you have never written to me. You have no idea how often I think of you. Do you ever think of me down here in the wilderness of Louisiana and have any idea of the lonesomeness I sometimes get and how glad I should be to receive a letter from you...

As for news I cannot promise any…this is a very low flat and unhealthy country being lower than the river is at high tide but is protected by levees 10 to 25 feet high although many of them have been washed out…What has become of Will Severn. I heard he has become a great Copperhead. What is Jim Hamilton and Dave Markle doing now. It’s a great wonder they never went to war. I suppose that heifer that you and I owned before I came to war is a cow now…”

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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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