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274

Group Of Rich Content Letters From Union Officer Joseph H. Prime, With Great Military And Political

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Books & Manuscripts Start Price:2,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,900.00 - 3,250.00 USD
Group Of Rich Content Letters From Union Officer Joseph H. Prime, With Great Military And Political
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Group consists of four war-date letters and the draft and final copies of two Memorials accomplished by Prime in 1897. (1) Autograph Letter Signed, “Joe.” Three pages, 7 3/4” x 9 3/4”. Office Provost Marshall 2nd Div. 25th A.C. March 26, 1863. The letter reads, in part: “ … We had another review today and this time big Uncle Abraham himself and such a crowd for a body guard you never saw. There was Lieut. General Grant - Maj. Generals Meade Warren and Weitzel and a dozen other Maj. Generals that I did not know about - forty (40) Brigadiers Generals any quantity of Colonels - Lieut. Colonels Majors, Captains and Lieutenants, a whole Battalion of Cavalry and last though by no means least Mrs. Lincoln and her youngest son a boy I should think about twelve or thirteen years old. Mrs. Lincoln was on horseback and is a first rate rider and looks well on horseback, in fact a great deal better than when walking. Lincoln was looking very pale and thin, much more so than I ever saw him looking before and I hear that he has been sick. Grant was looking as usual only he has shaved off his mustache. He wore that same old had all drooped down like a roosters tail in a shower. General Ord is a man about sixty-five (65) years old and his hair and whiskers are white as snow … While I had the chance of taking off my hat to the President today and would have liked very much to have had you here to have seen the military display as well as to have seen Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln but I would have given much more to have been at home with you where I could have had a quiet bath with you. We are to be in readiness to move at a moments warning with four days rations and the first Division is now holding the lines that our Division held yesterday … The Review did not occupy more than forty (40) minutes after Lincoln arrived although we had to ride the whole length of the line and then have the whole line pass us at the station of the reviewing Officers … Well I am hoping to get a letter from my darling tonight when the mail comes and I think I had ought to as this is the second one that I have written … ” Usual folds. A few hole at intersection of folds. Overall Very Good.. (2) Autograph Letter Signed, “Joe.” Four pages, 7 5/8” x 9 5/8”. Camp 13, N.H. Vols. Near Portsmouth Va. Tuesday morning half past nine o’clock. August 18, 1863. The letter reads, in part: “ … I thought I would try and write a few words to you to let you know how we are all getting along out here in the ‘Sunny South’ Well this is the coolest day so far that we have had since we got back fro that march up on the Peninsula … The doctor says that the present camping ground owing to the shade f these pine trees not allowing the sun to come in and dry the ground … Well it has been almost a whole year since I enlisted and it has been the longest year that I ever saw … If I was only as free as I was one eyar ago today when they caught me in the service of Uncle Sam they would have to draft me … Well we hear that hey have drafted in N.H. and we are very anxious to hear who are drafted in Barnstead and Strafford … I should like to know how they are getting along resisting the draft down in Strafford and I really hope they have not done it and still I don’t care much for if they have they have probably learned by this time how useless it is to resist the government, just let them remember that every citizens owes allegiance to the law and that the conscription act is a law … the man that resists it is nothing but a traitor and as such should be hung to the nearest tree and I could help do it … it would not make any difference for me who it was for I should not wish for any relationship to exist between me and a traitor … We hear that all that have been drafted are at Concord and that the 5th NH Vols. are guarding them … I am going to send you a pass that I had to go to Norfolk with the other day for you to see how many hands it had to go through before I could go a distance of perhaps three miles and a half … I hear this afternoon that instead of moving tomorrow we are to have a review of this division … Since the fight as Suffolk we have been called Getty’s Fighting Division although don’t see the fight in me and I am one of the Division I suppose. Well I suppose if Warren has been drafted he has paid his three hundred and got clear … I should like to see John Yasker Rufus Yap and a few others … but I suppose that would commit suicide before Rufus should so that by that means Rufus would be exempt as the only support of a widowed mother and I suppose Gil Yasker would do the same for John if he had not money enough to pay for his release from the drafting rolls … we shall have no soldiers to help us finish the war except those that don’t have their pockets lined with gold but then a heart can as well beat beneath coarse garments as fine ones … I have staid out here long enough and seen enough of the war to be heartily tired of it … ” A few splits at folds. Overall Fine. (3) Autograph Letter Signed, “Joe Prime.” Four pages, 5” x 8”. U.S. Genl. Hospital Point or Rocks Va. April 19, 1865. Accompanied by original envelope printed with an “illustrated history of the ‘Stars and Stripes’” The letter reads, in part: “ … While I sit here writing I can hear the rifles of the escort firing a volley over some poor fellow that has just been buried here far away from friends and home. We hear men say that ‘it matter not where a man dies or is buried’ yet I would rather die at home in the midst of friends - provided I have any … … although I claim no more friendship with Rebels as those that I doubt not will glory in the assassination at Washington as I doubt not many of my pretended Copperhead friends will yet - the man that does so is not better than the assassin that executed the damnable deed and as Shakespeare says ‘I’d let him stare in the midst of Desert land with lakes of pure water flowing around just out of his reach … there I’d let him die enduring all the pains of Hell” … We have still to hope that Andy Johnson will prove to be the right man in the right place and administer the affairs of government well as he has taken the initiatory course well and by his late speeches made since the death of the President has spoken sentiments which if adhered to will wipe out the stain of his first political acts of getting drunk at the day of his inauguration … ” Overall Very Fine. (4) Autograph Letter Signed, “ Joseph.” Two pages, 5” x 8” Dover NH. April 21, 1862. Accompanied by original envelope. The letter was written just prior to Joseph’s entry into the Army and contains lesser personal content. Fine. (5 &6) Accompanied by drafts and the final printed copy of two Memorials written by Prime as a member of the Committee on Resolution. The Memorials, dated April 1st and 3rd, 1897, honor Chaplin Charles H. Berry and Henry O. Huntress, respectively. Overall Fine. Joseph H. Prime enlisted in August of 1862 as a Corporal in the Union Army. The following month he mustered into F company of the NH 13th Infantry. In 1864, Prime applied for a commission as a Lieutenant in the 7th Regiment United States Colored Troops, which he was granted. Following the war, he returned home to his wife, Hannah, in New Hampshire. A nice lot with insightful military and political content, including great commentary on both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
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