1861 UNION SOLDIER LETTER – UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF CO. B, 8TH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY

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Item Code: L14532

Dated “Camp Stoneman / Washington, DC / Oct. 9, 1861. Four penciled pages on patriotic stationery w/”Flag of the Union” motif, measuring 7.75 x 10.25”. Thin strip of archival tape along center fold. Else VG plus, & easily readable.

Text: “Honored Mother / And Sister…….I wrote you before we left Camp Ruff [Camden, NJ] and sent it home with Michael Curtz…..I am very anxious to hear from you and I suppose you are anxious to hear from me……Well, on Thursday the 3rd at 10 ¼ oclock we were ordered to strike out tents and at five oclock we were on our march for Philadelphia and half past eleven we were underway for Baltimore…We arrived at Baltimore at 8 oclock and at 10 we started for Washington and arrived there at six in the morning….Our captain passed the word along the lines that we were under Martial Law and any man leaving the ranks is liable to be shot. I though how changed things are since we left Nice –Town

We were then marched to what is called soldier rest where we got our supper and stayed all night……at about one oclock the cars came in very fast and whistled very shrill which started most of the men and such a stir of scared fellows you never saw. I was roused about as quick as ever I was.  I ran with the rest but only to escape being run over by the rest…..

Sarcastically---“…I bet it will do them [ “the rebbles”] good when they get Washington,  you can’t look any way but what you can see camps and they are not small ones either. There is no one knows how many men there are in Washington. We have to go two miles to water our horses and on the way there is five camps, and very large ones too….”

“Now I can tell you Washington is a gay old place although I have not seen one forth of it. The government buildings are splendid but they are not finished and very likely never will be. I will now give you the names of the boys in our mess.  William Harlin, Grant Keyser, Lem Jones, James Price, Thom Robison, Newton Missimer. [all Co. “B”, 8th PA Cavalry]…..I got my likeness takin the day before we left Nice Town and sent it home with Joseph Antes”

The 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized at Philadelphia August-October 1861. The unit participated in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and all the  major campaigns and cavalry actions of the Army of the Potomac from then on,  through Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. During service the regiment lost 60 men killed and mortally wounded and 128 by disease for a total of 188.

Although anonymous, a superb soldier letter by a trooper of the 8th PA Cavalry. Invites further research

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