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Civil War and Reconstruction |
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Battling Mosquitoes and Confederates at the Mouth of Charleston Harbor
CHARLES BRANT,
Autograph Letter Signed, October 11, 1863, Folly Island, 3 pp. large 8vo.
“[I am] still alive and hearty although the mosquitoes have half eaten me. Charleston is not yet taken!!!”
Item #21265.28, $200
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Evacuating Elizabeth City and Leaving Nothing for the Rebels, to the Dismay of Freedpeople and Unionists
THOMAS BOURNE,
Autograph Letter Signed, April 18, 1863, Elizabeth City, [North Carolina]. 2 pp., 8vo.
“this place is to be evacuated all the troops and the gunboats leave with us there is a general move of the darkeys they all want to go with us they do not dare to stay here after we leave for fear of the guerrillas I believe we are to take every thing with us that can be of use to the rebs”
Item #21265.25, $300
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On the Lookout for Joseph Wheeler’s Johneys as Sherman Closes on Atlanta
WILLIAM HELSLEY,
Autograph Letter Signed, August 29, [1864], Chattanooga, Tennessee, 3 pp. 8vo.
“a scout came in and told us that old Wheeler had crossed the river above with three thousand and was comming down to burn the Bridge and we went to work and built some works to protect us and keep the devils at bay and hold them untill we got reinforced and then we put out pickets and I went out about one mile and was out all night and looked for the Johneys but we looked in vain”
Item #21265.24, $200
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God, Prayer, and Heavy Ordnance Will Help 10th Connecticut Take Charleston
BENJAMIN WRIGHT,
Autograph Letter Signed, to his wife Abbie, August 2, 1863, Morris Island, S.C., 4 pp.
“I think Charleston must fall this time but we need something beside men and heavy ordinance. we need the help of God if we go forth in his name and strength, he will lead us to victory.”
Item #21265.23, $275
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Union Soldier’s Letter to his Cousin from Embattled Washington
GEORGE BOWERS,
Autograph Letter Signed, September 10, 1861, Washington, D.C. 3 pp., on patriotic stationery; with partial patriotic cover from Birney’s Regiment.
Item #21265.21, $250
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One of Five Brothers in the Union Army Sees His Duty
AUSTIN LAMPREY,
Autograph Letter Signed, to his mother, Bridget P. Lamprey, December 16, 1864, McClellan Hospital, Hampton, Virginia. 4 pp., 8vo. with envelope.
“Some one has got to do this Work I might as Well do it as any one els but just as they think not as I care I Stood it two years in the feld most I gess I can Stand Nine months more…”
Item #21265.20, $250
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Unusual Caricatures of Southern Aristocrats by Union Soldier on Letter to Parents
SAMUEL HYDE,
Fragment of an Autograph Letter Signed, to his parents, no date [1861-1865], with his drawing of a “Suthern lady.” 2 pp.
“…the woods was ful of ded rebs”
Item #21265.17, $225
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Union Soldier Tells His Wife of the Rebel Attack on New Bern, North Carolina
HENRY PICKFORD,
Fragment of Autograph Letter Signed, to his wife Sarah Pickford, c. March 1863. 2 pp.
“we had quite an excitement in Newbern about a week ago the rebels made three or four attacks on the City and were finally repulsed we lost one man on board of one of the Gunboats that is all”
Item #21265.13, $140
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New York Soldier Tells His Sister They Plan to Finish the War Soon
RICHARD SLADE,
Autograph Letter Signed, to his sister Mary A. Slade, March 10, 1865, 3 pp.
“Those four legged Grey backs have about played out but there is a plenty of two legged ones here yet....We are going to try & Cleanse out these Johneys this summer & come home next winter”
Item #21265.11, $150
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Great Union Soldier’s Letter about Sherman’s “Retreat on Savannah”
JOHN B. COOPER,
Autograph Letter Signed, to his wife Mary Cooper. Fort Alexander Hays, VA, December 21, 1864, 3 pp.
Item #21265.02, $300
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A Late-War Draft in New Orleans
[NOTICE OF DRAFT],
Partially Printed Document Signed by G. W. Richardson as assistant commissary of musters. Notice of Draft to William S. G. Green. New Orleans, Louisiana, April 12, 1865. 1 p.; with envelope addressed to Green at 467 Tchoupitoulas Street.
Item #21264.11, $175
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At Petersburg, CT Volunteer Artillery 18th Corps Was Unequaled “in Artillery firing”
[WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH],
Official Copy of a Letter, Signed Secretarially by C. A. Truesdell, Lieut. 1st Connecticut Volunteer Artillery, to J. H. Burton, Capt. of the 18th Stonington, Connecticut, August 20, 1864. 2 pp.
Item #21263.02, $250
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Patriotic Appeal for Artillery Recruits at Beginning of Civil War
[CIVIL WAR],
Artillery Recruitment Broadside, Fifth Regiment, U.S. Army, ca. 1861. 1 p., 22½ x 31 in.
Printed by Ringwalt & Brown in Philadelphia, this recruitment poster sought men between ages 18 and 35 to enlist in twelve mounted batteries of light artillery. Touted as the “only Regiment of its kind in the service, and the last chance for those who wish to join the flying artillery,” the field officers “are men of experience in the Regular Army,” so enlistees could be certain of “doing the duty of Soldiers, under the command of Soldiers.”
Item #24672, $7,500
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Scarce “Third Day of the Battle of Gettysburg” Magnus Hand Colored View
[GETTYSBURG]. CHARLES MAGNUS,
“Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 3rd 1863. The Third Day,” color print. New York: Charles Magnus, 1863. 23 x 17 ½ in.
Item #24699, $2,500
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Diary of Massachusetts Soldier Twice Captured—at Second Bull Run and at Gettysburg
[UNION ARMY—GETTYSBURG] CALVIN H. CONANT,
Manuscript Diary, August 1862-December 1863. Standard format leatherette pocket diary written in both pen and pencil. 142 pp., 3 x 4¾ in.
“marched to Gettisburg 10 miles...about 1 ’clock in afternoon went in to the fight. It was a hard one & was taken Prisoner as was 40% of my reg and the rest was either killed or wounded.”
Shoemaker Calvin Conant was a private in Company G of the 13th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry when he was taken prisoner at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862. For the next three months, he was at home in Massachusetts waiting to be “exchanged” for Confederate a prisoner. He rejoined his regiment in December, after missing the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. He participated in the Mud March and the Battle of Chancellorsville but was taken prisoner on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, soon after joining the battle. He spent the next six weeks in a parole camp outside of Philadelphia before rejoining his regiment in mid-August 1863.
Item #24007, $5,500
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Hand-Made Union Patriotic and Religious Song Book
[CIVIL WAR],
Manuscript Pen and Ink Folk Art Song Book, ca. 1864. 24 pp., 6⅝ x 8 in.
This hand-sewn booklet contains eight songs popular during the Civil War era, with music and lyrics in calligraphy. Songs include “On a Green Grassy Noll” by J. D. Canning, with music by Ira Odell; “The Old Mountain Tree” by James G. Clark; “Harmonian Waltz”; “Year of Jubilee, or Kingdom has Come!”; “Squire Jones’s Daughter”; “The Sweet Birds Are Singing”; “Lament of the Irish Emigrant”; and “Soon and For Ever,” by J. B. Monsell. The last page of the booklet is dated February 21, 1864.
Item #24826, $4,500
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Clothing the 1st Vermont Cavalry in the Civil War
COMPANY D, 1st VERMONT CAVALRY. [CIVIL WAR],
Manuscript Document Signed, June 1862: List of clothing distributed to 54 men, including 25 caps, 24 blouses, 50 trousers, 66 flannel shirts, 15 drawers, 19 bootees, 69 stockings, and 3 blankets. Each row signed by the soldier who received the items. 1 p., 15½ x 23¾ in.
Item #23879.02, $750
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Giving South Carolina’s Governor Authority to Conduct Foreign Affairs
[SECESSION]. SOUTH CAROLINA COMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION,
Printed Document, “An Ordinance To amend the Constitution of the State of South Carolina, in respect to the Executive Department,” Charleston, South Carolina, [ca December 24, 1860]. 2 pp., 8¼ x 13¾ in.
Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860, secessionists in South Carolina demanded a convention to remove the state from the United States. South Carolina’s secession convention assembled in Columbia on December 17, 1860, but fearing an outbreak of smallpox there, they reassembled in Charleston from December 18 to January 5, 1861. On December 20, they passed a secession ordinance.
Item #24671.01, $2,000
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South Carolina Reclaims Judicial and Legislative Power from the Federal Government
[SECESSION]. SOUTH CAROLINA COMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION,
Printed Document, “An Ordinance Concerning Judicial Powers” and “An Ordinance Concerning powers lately vested in the Congress of the United States,” Charleston, South Carolina, [ca. December 26, 1860]. 3 pp., 8¼ x 13¾ in.
Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860, secessionists in South Carolina demanded a convention to remove the state from the United States. South Carolina’s secession convention assembled in Columbia on December 17, 1860, but fearing an outbreak of smallpox there, they reassembled in Charleston from December 18 to January 5, 1861. On December 20, they passed a secession ordinance.
Item #24671.02, $1,500
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South Carolina Governor’s Draft Proclamation Urging Civilians to Evacuate Charleston
MILLEDGE L. BONHAM,
Manuscript Document Signed, Charleston, South Carolina, August 17, 1863. 4 pp. on lined blue paper, watermarked F A Gordon 1862, 8 x 12½ in.
“Whereas the convention on the 8th Jany 1862 expressed “as the sense of the people of South Carolina … that Charleston should be defended at any cost of life or property … I, Milledge L. Bonham Commander-in-chief in & over the State of South Carolina do recommend to, and enjoin upon, all good citizens the removal from Charleston, as early as practicable, of all non-combatants....”
Item #24671.05, $4,500
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