Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Franklin Patterson (1826-1888) span the years 1812-1937, with the bulk from 1851 to 1864. The collection contains correspondence, military records, sermons, writings, newspapers, and miscellaneous fragments and notes. It consists mainly of letters written during the Civil War from Patterson to his wife, Amelia Sophia Patterson, and of correspondence of Amelia Patterson’s father, Frederick Christian Schaeffer (1792-1831). Correspondence of other members of the Patterson and Schaeffer families is also included.
William F. Patterson, a civil engineer was captain and organizer of a volunteer company of independent infantry who, acting as pioneers and engineers, designed and constructed bridges, buildings, and roads for the Union Army. Patterson was under the command of General G. W. Morgan at Cumberland Gap in 1862 and Major General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg in 1863. These campaigns as well as others are described by Patterson to his wife in letters that he wrote throughout his enlistment from October 1861 to January 1865. In a notebook under the heading “Notebook and other writings relating to the Civil War,” Patterson writes of his time spent at Cumberland Gap.
Patterson was transferred in August 1863, and spent the remainder of the Civil War with the Department of the Gulf in Texas and Louisiana. A file of military records and correspondence documents this service.
Frederick Christian Schaeffer was a pastor to the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in the City of New York and at St. James Church in New York. The collection includes letters to his wife, Maria Wagner Schaeffer, and correspondence with other members of the Schaeffer family. Copies of sermons delivered by Schaeffer are also included.