Scope and Content Note
The papers of Gilbert Stanley Judd, a Union soldier who served in the 103rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, span the years 1856-1947 and consist of correspondence, writings, photographs of Judd, family history, and miscellaneous material. The collection consists primarily of letters written by Judd to his family during the Civil War. His letters describe major battles his regiment experienced during its three years of Civil War service as well as camp life of the regiment. Judd writes about the Battle of Resaca, Georgia fought during the Atlanta Campaign of 1863-1864, as well as the 1863 Battle of Blue Springs, one in a series of battles in East Tennessee that resulted in the siege and fall of Knoxville, Tennessee in November and December 1863. Apparent in Judd's letters is his deeply religious, anti-slavery background, which underlay his ability to focus on defeating the Confederacy and ending slavery all the while enduring the horrors of war. The papers also include two handwritten autobiographies that provide insight into the early years of his life from his birth in Massachusetts to his childhood in the wilderness of Wisconsin. Additional postwar writings by Judd include handwritten poems, sheet music, and several published writings.
The Judd papers also contain correspondence and writings of Judd's daughter Jessie Brewster Judd and historian John Perry Pritchett. Pritchett’s writings include an unpublished biography on Judd's life leading up to the Civil War entitled “For Freedom’s Sake: the Civil War Letters of Gilbert Stanley Judd” and transcripts of Judd's original Civil War letters. Each original letter is accompanied by a copy of Pritchett's transcript. However, three letters dated July 25, 1864, September 10, 1864, and June 23, 1865 are only represented in the collection by transcripts created by Pritchett. The remainder of Pritchett's material consists of correspondence and reference material relating to his research on Gilbert Stanley Judd.