Shenandoah Co. VA Letters (KELLAR, MILLER, BORUM, HATTON)
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Submitted by "S. K. Ratcliffe" <skrat@midohio.net>

Susan Kellar Ratcliffe
Delaware, Ohio
skrat@midohio.net

KELLAR, MILLER, BORUM, HATTON

Two letters written from Caldwell, OH, (from mother to son, a soldier
stationed in DC to serve as bodyguard to President Lincoln) referring to
Uncle Isaac Borum's capture as a confederate soldier and prisoner at Camp
Chase in Columbus, OH.  The KELLARS AND HATTONS of this family left
Shenandoah County in the 1820's for Ohio; the Jacob MILLERS and BORUMS
remained in Strasburg.  For more information see the home page at
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/r/a/t/Susan--K-Ratcliffe/

From Catherine Miller Kellar, the mother of John Francis Kellar, a member
of the Union Army's special group of the Ohio Light Guard chosen by the
governor of Ohio to guard President Lincoln in DC, a letter written to her
son from Noble Co., OH, on July 17, 1864: "Well John, As your Pap is so
busy that he can't take the time to fill this sheet, I guess that I will
try to write you a little .  But won't promise to fill the balance of this
sheet, for the baby is so cross and troublesome and I guess that you would
think so if you was home.  What will you think when I tell you that Uncle
Isaac Borum is a prisoner in Columbus. He wrote to you Pap and wanted him
to send him $5 and wanted him to come to see him as soon as he could.  He
said that he was taken prisoner, the 18th of May, and that he was ragged
and without a coat and he also said that he did not know what he was taken
for, and that his family did not know where he was, and that he did not
know how he would get home, without some friend that would help him.  Your
Pap has not answered his letter as yet, and I don't know what he will do.
What would you do?  I guess that you would let him stay a prisoner, would
you not?  But I can't help but feel bad for him, and feel as though I
would like for your Pap to help him, and see him, and if it was so that he
could.  He said that three of his neighbors was in the same fix that he
was.  That is in money matters, and that he had not a change of
clothes..."

   Letter dated August 23, 1864, also from Catherine Miller Kellar to son,
John Francis Kellar: "...John, do you know that Isaac Borum wrote to Dick
Hatton and said that he was a rebel and that his Pap was a rebel, and that
he gloried in it, and he was in that raid into Maryland and that Bush was
prisoner in Maryland, and he wanted Dick to find out where his Pap was and
to get anything for him.  Your Pap has not received his letter and I guess
he don't mean to either, but said that his Pap went over the river to get
potato plants and that someone reported him as a bushwacker and spy and
had him taken.  Don't you think that he is becoming very humble when he
wants help?"

From Betty Jo Tilly, dated May 23, 1997:  "...Grandfather Isaac was in
Camp Chase, Ohio, (a prison of Confederate soldiers in Columbus, OH) from
May 22, to Sept. 9, 1864.  Isaac Borum was the PM (postmaster) in
Strasburg for about ten years.  His son, George Michael was also a PM for
two years in the 1850's.  Grandfather, Bushrod Borum and his three
brothers were all POW's.  Grandfather was captured just outside of
Vicksburg.  I have a picture of him in his Confederate uniform and he was
a handsome man."