Scope and Content Note
The papers of Benjamin Franklin Whitten (born circa 1836) span the years 1848-1945, with the bulk of the material dating from 1861 to 1883. The collection contains correspondence, family papers, military records, financial and legal records, and miscellaneous items relating to the Civil War service of Whitten, who enlisted with the Ninth Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861, and his family and friends. The papers contain a comprehensive archive of wartime letters written by Whitten from the field and in camp and as many return letters from his mother, father, sisters, and other family members and friends from home. In particular, Whitten's letters provide vivid descriptions of the military campaign against Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, in the summer of 1863, as well as other actions and encampments along the southeast Atlantic coast in 1862 and 1863. Whitten describes community life among former slaves in the South, commenting on music, education, and the recruitment and performance of black soldiers, including his observations of the heroism of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the first black military units organized in the Civil War, during the siege of Fort Wagner. Whitten saw further action at Bermuda Hundred and Cold Harbor, Virginia, where he was taken captive as a prisoner of war, June 1, 1864.
In addition to Whitten's battlefield letters, the papers also contain military and post-war records pertaining to his army service including regimental orders, ordnance and clothing returns, invoices, and related documents. Letters exchanged with his wife, Abigail, and other correspondence continue Whitten's personal story through the last decades of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth, including his several unsuccessful attempts at homesteading in Nebraska. Letters and documents pertaining to other family members and their descendents as well as other correspondents date from 1848 to 1945 and include letters from American servicemen from both of the twentieth century's world wars.