Memorial Quilt for an Ohio Soldier

The Ohio quilt project documented a memorial quilt from

1869 with two mourning blocks lamenting the death

of Lewis A. Hulse.

"Lewis. A. Hulse. 

Member Co A 69th Reg O.V.I. 

Died Feb 16th 1863, at Nashville Ten 

From a wound received at the Battle 

of Stone River Age'ed 18 years"

Lewis's older sister Loretta Emeline Hulse Ayers, known as Emme, is said to have pieced and inked the family record quilt. It seems she copied the text from his tombstone in Rose Hill Cemetery in Mason, Ohio.

"Lewis Albert

Eldest son of

David & Ernestine Hulse

Member Co A 69th Reg O.V.I. 

Died at Nashville Tenn

 Feb 16th 1863, 

From a wound received at

The Battle of Stone River 

Aged 

18 years & 4 D's"

The quilt is discussed on pages 118 and 119 in the book

Quilts in Community: Ohio's Traditions

The Hulse family lived in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, Ohio on a farm near Pisgah.

A local history tells us about Lewis who was "born Feb 12, 1845. Energetic and patriotic, he enlisted Sep 1862, in the 69th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Stone River, the first battle he had an opportunity to be in, he was acting as a scout. On the morning of Dec 31 he was shot down, although living until Feb 16, 1863."

The Battle of Stones River [the current Tennessee spelling] is also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro and took place between December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863.

Lewis appears to have been wounded in his leg, probably cared for in a makeshift hospital like this one pictured in a postcard from about 1910.

"During the late war, Pisgah furnished a score of men for the army, out of which a full dozen either were killed outright, died in hospital, or from the effects of the hardships and exposures of camp life soon after returning home. Lewis A. HULSE, son of David HULSE, was a mere lad when he shouldered his musket for the army. He was wounded at the battle of Stone River, and died in camp."

Loretta Emeline Hulse was born September 7, 1842. She is buried in the same graveyard (with a misspelled record on Find-A-Grave.) She married James Ayers and had at least one son, dying at 51 years old in 1893. Her quilt is a memorial to her and her brother.