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"...Saw the shell descend among about 30 negroes...."

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:125.00 USD Estimated At:250.00 - 325.00 USD
 ...Saw the shell descend among about 30 negroes....
Vividly descriptive, lengthy letter of Philadelphia soldier Robert Stewart, including two mentions of sharpshooters, and much more. "3/4 of a mile from the Rebel works in the woods, Camp Winfield Scott, near Yorktown, Va.," Apr. 22, 1862, 7 1/2 x 9 3/4, 4 very full pp. To his brother. "Calling this a camp (re)minds me of walking on the pavement to imagine its raining only in the middle of the street. After waiting patiently for 2 weeks for a Battle we are just about as near to it as the day we came here...We keep up a Shelling them & our Sharp Shooters keep picking them off & they return the compliment by killing about a dozen of our men every day. I believe that they have killed more of our troops by this way than if we had charged them. Batteries you cannot hear anything hardly, but 'Bang Bang' all the time & we have laid here in the woods 2 weeks supporting Rickett's Regular Battery & the 3rd Rhode Island alternately. I tell you it's fun to stand behind a tree & watch a shell come down among them. Yesterday, Sun., we were throwing up earth works & the rain was falling fast...when I heard a Lieut. of the R.I. say 'by God I have got a splendid shot' & we all took a peep from behind our earth works & saw the shell descend among about 30 negroes who were at work mounting a heavy gun on the Rebels works. Bang went the shell & up went the niggers. When the smoke cleared, not one was to be seen...One day last week one of the Vermont Regt. charged on a Battery but...the Rebels was waiting for them with grape & cannister & laid about 100 of the brave Yankee Regt. out & wounded about as many. Its fun although a great many can't see it, but our boys & in fact the whole line of our army...about 130,000 men, are wishing for the ball to open right, for here we are with dam little to eat & of course dam little sleep & no shelter but the trees. So you see that all hands think the sooner it comes to a close the better. We see a great many amusing sights here. Last Sun. when we was at work, the boys would sing out every minute or so, 'come boys, knock off & get your egg nog,' when we had not even coffee & crackers. We sometimes work all night clearing trees...The Rebels tried 3 times in one night to drive us back...but we gave them plenty of grape & cannister mixed with minnie Rifle Balls, & we soon gave them to understand that we are looking out for them at midnight...Mid day this morning one of the Regts. of our Div. had been blazing away at them pretty freely when all at once they let a volley come into them, killing 11 & wounding some more. It is known as the Tammany Regt. 42nd New York. One of the dead men was just in the act of lighting his pipe, the Ball going through his hand & mouth. It is laughable to hear some of the boys talk about the Rebels. Some will talk of leniency towards them, others will say, 'well the first that comes into my hands I will pay him up for such a day's march...shortness of rations...losing a night's sleep & getting wet'...This afternoon a flag of truce came in saying if we did not take our Sharp Shooters away, they would give us no quarter in Battle. Well I guess we won't take them in & as for quarter by God we expect none...It's like starving a tiger & then letting him out...They can't haul enough government stores in the wagons & you may bet they will not trouble themselves about Boxes. If you sent me any tobacco I never got it...A sutler charges 50C/ for a pie 2 or 3 weeks old, 25C/ for 6C/ worth of chewing tobacco & he sells papers for smoking tobacco for 25C/ that the tobacco stores throw out in Phila...Our Brigade so far has been very lucky. The only loss we have had yet has been 6 or 7 of Owens' 69th Reg. A couple got outside of the pickets & were taken, I guess the others shot while on picket. Our Reg. is to(o) damd hard to get hurt. They are all anxious for a big fight. I hope by the time I get an answer to this I will be able to give you the details of the Battle of Yorktown...." The writer was likely Sgt. in the 72nd Penna. Infantry, which "suffered much from sickness at the siege of Yorktown, as its camp was in an unhealthful location and the constant rains and exposure in the trenches bore heavily on the command..."--Official Records: Series I, Vol. 27, Part I (modern copy accompanies). At Gettysburg, the 72nd suffered "grievously on the third (day), both during the great artillery duel, and in Pickett's historic charge," fighting "immediately behind the 69th," mentioned in this letter. Dust-toning and moderate wear at p. 1 folds, else darkly penned and very good.