639

(UNION SOLDIER'S LETTER)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
(UNION SOLDIER'S LETTER)
<b>639. UNION SOLDIER'S LETTER </b>An outstanding, very lengthy and detailed Union soldier's letter, 20pp. 8vo., New Brn, Mar. 12, 1863 in which First Sgt. Samuel H. Putnam of the 25th Mass. Infantry writes his brother. He opens by giving a detailed account of a night attack with cavalry upon a Confederate camp. In small part: <i>"...[We had to] take the outposts and surprise the camp...if the pickets fired upon us, the cavalry was to sail in and grab them...our cavalry boys caught the devils...the horsemen came on, our boys challenge them - Halt -...'You are our prisoners' say some boys, and grappled them...our left section was ordered to be deployed as skirmishers...my little line of skirmishers advanced...slowly the boys advanced, rifles cocked...there is no reserve for us...why don't they fire at us, it's good rifle distance...a single shot might tell the tale for any one of us...Sergeant, Sergeant - there is fire in the woods. Tents, Tents says another...we had discovered the Rebel camp. I concealed my men...ordered the skirmishers to advance and close in...found the camp deserted by a few moments before...the rebs fired one volley and skedaddled...ordered the camp and everything there burned...</i>". After leaving his post for a reconnaissance, Putnam describes reading the letters found in Confederate knapsacks: "<i>...Horrified at what she hears they have been doing to the Yankee dead, digging them up, standing them on their feet, pulling their eyes and mouths open and cursing them...</i>". The following day, he describes more action: "<i>...The Rebs were advancing in force...a sham breastwork had been thrown up by our lads and a quaker gun mounted on a big pair of wheels...couriers had been sent to town for artillery and infantry...soon had grape and canister flying over us...[Rebels] charged gallantly on our breastwork and quaker, which they took ha ha...we fell back towards New Bern...our lines were attacked at the same time in four or five places, and the rebs came down opposite the town...</i>". A vivid letter which reads like a novel, clearly-penned and in very good condition. <b> $800-1,200</b>