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CONFEDERATE SOLDIER IN THE BRIG ASKS TO BE SET FREE TO FIGHT THE YANKEES: A fascinating Confedera...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER IN THE BRIG ASKS TO BE SET FREE TO FIGHT THE YANKEES: A fascinating Confedera...
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER IN THE BRIG ASKS TO BE SET FREE TO FIGHT THE YANKEES: A fascinating Confederate soldier's letter 1p. 4to. [n.p., n.d.] but the content clearly places the letter as having been written from a prison in Yorktown in April of 1862. In the first week of April McClellan had initiated a siege against Yorktown, and Confederate General Magruder was desperately seeking additional manpower to aid in the cities defense. In this letter William Lynch writes the provost marshal of Yorktown offering to help defend the city if released. His plea reads, in part: "...When I explain my crime I feel confident that you will not debar me of the present opportunity of taking a part with the rest of the prisoners in the enemy fight ...I ask as a man who feels sure that his services will more than suffice for any crime which I may have committed, which consists of going six days over my furlough ...attributed to my getting married lately to a lady near Yorktown...for which reason I so earnestly desire to fight them here...I hope you will not refuse me the privilege of hereafter saying that I helped to immortalize Yorktown ...William Lynch, 53rd Regt. Va. Vols, lately a member of Leut. Douglas's Company, Engineer's Core...". The skills of an engineer are in high demand during a siege, and it appears that Lynch was indeed released. However, If Lynch fulfilled the pledge to" immortalize Yorktown" he did so while serving with the Union, for on April 15, 1862, just days into the siege, the official record lists him as: "Deserted and is supposed to have gone to the enem". This highly interesting and unusual letter comes with a full transcription and is in very good condition. $200-300