LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Oct: The Luhrs Collection #9675  / 

61063

Civil War Letter Lincoln Assassination Content

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
Civil War Letter Lincoln Assassination Content
<B>Civil War Letter With Lincoln Assassination Content.</B></I> Four pages, 5” x 8.25”, near Petersburg, Virginia, April 17, 1865. Written just two days after Lincoln's assassination, this letter from a Union soldier to his father captures the shock and sorrow undoubtedly common to all soldiers. The writer, “<I>James Henry</B></I>” was attached to the Headquarters of the 25th Army Corps camped near in a desolate area about five miles from Petersburg, Virginia. The letter reads in part: “<I>Yesterday morning we received the news of the assassination of Lincoln at Washington. It has filled us with gloom. He is a man whom we all love & will nigh worship. Perhaps the dastardly act may have been committed by one who was hired by the very people whom we have so lately fed and treated with such kindness he had just been stationed at Richmond …to think that a man whom the nation loved & honored above every other, should be murdered in a way which would have shamed even Malays or Hottentots! How can we show conciliation to people who make such returns. They come to us begging for bread and for protection and then whet their knives to take the lives of the noblest of their benefactors. It is well perhaps that I am not in Richmond or any where else to meet there sic cowardly beggars.</B></I>” From comments made by the writer it would appear that the army was making an attempt to suppress the details of the assassination: “<I>…very much has been suppressed, not even a newspaper has been suffered to reach us. All that we know about it is what a telegraph operator stole from the wires. Such news cannot be suppressed. It has spread like wild fire through the Army, and to let us know the whole truth at once is better than to leave us in mystery…I am afraid that I have said more than I ought…I have seen so much of these people during my two years & a half service, of their cowardice, treachery and of their entire want of honor that this last act makes my blood boil.</B></I>” A poignant letter that captures the mood of a nation. Displays the usual fold creases, else very good condition. <I>From the collection of Henry E. Luhrs.</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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