Personal Stories of the Civil War: Letters from the Patterson Brothers

The Wright State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives in collaboration with The Patterson Memorial Center present “Personal Stories of the Civil War: Letters from the Patterson Brothers” on exhibit now through July 25, 2012, at the Patterson Homestead, 1815 Brown Street, Dayton. Admission is free and open to the public during operating hours. A special lecture, free and open to the public, on the Patterson brothers and their Civil War experiences will begin at 7:00 pm Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the Patterson Homestead Meeting Room, by WSU Archivist John Armstrong. The story of the Patterson brothers is special as their mother, Juliana, saved nearly every letter she received from her four sons. These letters give four unique perspectives on the Civil War and are preserved in the Wright State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives. Following the fall of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 men to fight against the South. Within four days, 450 men from Dayton and Montgomery County enlisted, including two brothers from a farm family living just south of Dayton. Their grandfather, Colonel Robert Patterson, was a Revolutionary War hero and early Dayton settler, while their father, Jefferson Patterson, was a farmer, businessman, and local politician. The two oldest sons, Robert and William, were 28 and 22 and enlisted in Ohio volunteer units as soon as possible. When their brother Stephen turned 20 in 1862, he joined an Ohio volunteer unit; John did the same when he turned 20 in 1864. Many American families made the sacrifice of sending their men off to war. A second lecture will take place 7 pm Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, also at the Patterson Homestead. The entire exhibit will move to Wright State’s Paul Laurence Dunbar Library August 1 through November 30, 2012. Lectures will be held to accompany the exhibit while at WSU. For additional information, please contact PattersonBrothers4@yahoo.com or (937) 222-9724 (The Patterson Homestead).