Scope and Content Note
The papers of Alvah H. Granniss (1843-1909) span the years 1861-1907, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1864. The papers are in English and are arranged by type of material.
The majority of the collection consists of letters from Granniss to his family documenting his daily life as a Union soldier with the First Connecticut Cavalry Regiment, Company B, during the Civil War from 1861 to 1864. The bulk of the letters are written to his sister, Mary Ann Tuttle, and his parents, Henry H. Granniss and Louisa Granniss. The letters include descriptions of camp life, his stints carrying dispatches and mail, bounties and financial matters, and his occasional observations about the war. In his letters of April 1862, Granniss mentions several encounters with bushwhackers around Moorefield, Virginia, and interactions with Southern civilians, particularly the women who he describes as “the worst you ever see” and “surly as blazes.” Also documented is the First Connecticut’s activities in the Shenandoah Valley, where they fought against Turner Ashby and Stonewall Jackson. In a letter to his father, 17 June 1862, Granniss refers to Jackson as one of the Confederacy's smartest generals. Also represented are Granniss's account of his activities while stationed around Baltimore, Maryland, from late 1862 to early 1864 and his description of a skirmish with Confederate troops outside of Winchester, Virginia, in August 1864.
The papers also contain letters from other soldiers in the Union Army, including Granniss's cousin, Samuel H. Grannis. Samuel, who served in Company B of the Twelfth Connecticut Regiment, describes his experiences in Opelousas and New Orleans, Louisiana. A letter of 26 April 1863, from a friend provides an account of the siege of Suffolk, Va. Also included in this collection are family correspondence, typescripts of the letters, a memoranda by Granniss about his Civil War service, poems and a song, envelopes, printed matter, and artifacts. The artifacts consist of a pocket watch that contains a note inside the case, two winding keys, a metal piece with a screw end, three buttons (one United States, one with the state seal of Virginia, and one with the seal of Connecticut), and a leather memorandum wallet with a notation on the flap that it belonged to Freeman R. Granniss.