Dated “Hd Qers 2^nd Corps A N. Va/ 16 miles below Winchester, July 20^th 63.” Addressed to wife Anne “Nannie” Godwin Figgatt.”  [4 pp., in ink, on unlined gray paper, 7.625 x 9.75”.  Exhibits fold-lines, slight soling, and slight chipping at the extremities. Else VG and entirely  legible.

Charles Miles Figgatt was a 26 year old bank clerk from Lexington, VA, who mustered as a private in Co. “C”, 1^st VA Cavalry, 9/20/1862. He was immediately detailed as a clerk to Gen. Jackson’s, and later to General Ewells’ Headquarters, serving through August 1864, NFR. Among the Figgatt  letters,  this one conveys the despondent  mood within the Army of Northern Virginia, following Lee’s successful escape across the Potomac, in the wake of Gettysburg. Especially significant are Figgatt’s estimates of Confederate Gettysburg casualties. As a 2^nd Corps Headquarters clerk, he was uniquely positioned to know that the army had suffered devastating loss. For this, he seeks consolation in religion, rendered in fulsome Victorian phraseology.

On the personal side, citing poor health, Figgatt apologizes for his tardy correspondence and tries to ease his wife’s mind concerning a captured brother, telling her  it seems almost certain that “Tom” hadn’t been hurt, when in reality,  her brother had not only been captured, but had lost an arm at “G”. Having already lost a sister to illness earlier in the year, and due to lose an infant of her own infant later in the fall, his wife “Nannie” needed all the reassurance he could give. Unfortunately, the most cheerful news he has to offer is that “Gen. [Sandy] Pendleton was not hurt, saw him yesterday, quite well.”

Text:

“My very dear wife….Though I hardly know how to begin or write a letter, yet I will not delay longer, for you might have received one a few days sooner had I been well, but which has been to the contrary for several days. I have not been very sick yet suffering a great deal, from foot to head, and do not know what has been the matter, but took a little medicine and now feel almost well, except my head, and being rather feeble, though much stronger tonight than I have been, and think by a good nights rest will be well by morning. The ground is not very inviting, and while it does very well in health it gets mighty hard where sick, and I have wished so much for my own comfortable room and soft bed, and the presence of my dear wife, which if it could been enjoyed would have made me well much sooner, but then it would haven with a regret because it would have to be given up so soon. But here I have consumed nearly a page writing about a little sickness, where there is so much suffering all around. I ought not to have thought it, but we are all selfish creatures to a greater or lesser  degree, and even amid the carnage and blood which surround us we can forget it all, and think that we are the great sufferers.

May I be spared another sight like that at G, where so many of our dear friends and brave soldiers are killed and wounded, and especially under the same circumstances, where so many have to be left behind and among them any so dear as at this place, not knowing certainly how he was left but the boys of Tom’s Co., are now almost certain from all they can gather that he was not hurt, but when aloud it was not because he was wounded, but some other reason. O that it may be so and as the probabilities are much in favor of this opinion we will trust that he was but little hurt if at all.

We have been at this camp now several days and the men have had quite a ret, and a considerable increase of numbers, and having rec’d near 6000 pairs of shoes we are pretty well prepared for the move which is on foot to night, as Hd Qrs is almost deserted all the Off[icers] having left late this evening, the troops moving before towards Martinsburg. Where a portion of the Corps has been engaged destroying the R.R. and which proceding the Yanks came over to prevent, and the move is intended if possible to flank and capture the party, said to be 10,000. May God in his mercy look upon us and by giving wisdom to our officers, and courage to our men give up success I nthis and all other  efforts to keep our soil clear of the foe.

I am glad to say to our loss will it is thought add up much less than at first supposed (not over 12  or 13,000, figures as below, and the circumstances of which, I know, to be true, as I was in easy range all the time) nothing like as heavy as Chancellorsville, for out of about the same number, I do not remember correctly but only a few thousand more in our Corps. We left 8000 killed and wounded & hurt 4,00 and while the other Corps may have lost more captured, they had no harder fighting to do, for all the 2^nd Corps were engaged from first to last and lost heavily the first day, and on which day we gained a great victory, though on that day the final …[?] was lost because of the want of energy and cooperation, and definite and fixed plans of battle which could in the opinion of many and some not low in Off[icer rank] have been carried out and made the end quite different. But God’s ways art not as ours and he it was that ruled it all and in Him it is our duty to trust and doing that which we feel to be right leave the result in his hands for sure He that doeth all things, hath all wisdom and knoweth what is best, and shall we instruct the Almighty and contemn the Most h8IGH [?].  No may this sin not be added to our many others, but may we forsake and turn from our Sins, that God may have mercy upon us and save us ere we be utterly consumed. O that all the people might give themselves to prayer that this sorrow and desolation may cease, and that peace may again bless our land.

We move our camp in the morning to near Winchester where if one does not come in the mail to night , I hope a letter from you allways to welcome & highly prized may be received. No doubt my dear you have been much annoyed and disappointed in not hearing from me oftener and more regularly, but you and any one else can have the least conception of the difficulties under which we were placed, and the impossibility of getting letters off when in Penn; and if I should attempt to give some of the obstacles, you would tire when I had written 20 cents  worth of postage and then been only on the first verse of the first chapter, and I know will take the simple statement as enough, and not think that it was from any want of diligence or neglect on my part, for were so far in advance of every body else for so long that when I had time at Carlisle to write the letter could have been gotten off, and now we are here I fear it is equally as hard, on account of the enormous mail which goes off after a battle.

To illustrate; after the battle Chancellorsville there was sent to Richmond 30 bushels of letters, and what do you suppose a little concern 90 miles from a R.R. can do with that amt. of matter; for myself I cannot tell and cannot see how the letter go in any reasonable unless sent to Staunton and Richmond for distribution. Both of the  bundles about which I have written to you have been sent to Staunton, what further disposition has been made of them am not able to say., but hope you ma6y have heard from them if not rec’d them, and as it takes so many days for a letter from here to L[exington] and back, you will please write to Mr. W. about them, as I sent the last one to M. Hamman to be sent to him, and ask to send them to Capt. W. & not by stage if possible for that hotel is a very uncertain place; hope you may get them soon and be pleased their contents; though the figure of your dress running round wi8ll not increase your appearance in height.

When we go back I will try and get you some shoes; and there has more marvelous things happened than that mentioned.

You cannot imagine, my dear, what great relief you letter gave me about that which I had spoken, and if I appeared over concerned, and grieved, it was on your own account, and if I had have loved my darling wife less, I would have felt less.

I hope you having a pleasant visit in C, and may have a safe return home. Much love to Wm. & Mollie & Mr. E’s family, and remember me to any acquaintances.

At the conclusion of hostilities, Charles Figgatt returned home to become a trusted cashier of the  Bank of Lexington. Unfortunately, thirty years later, in Feb. 1895, he absconded with $180,000 in bank funds, disgracing both himself and his wife’s family

Fleeing undetected to Lockett, Colorado, Figgatt lived quietly under the assumed name of Charles Miles until his death in 1899, at age 63. Meanwhile, back in Lexington, following his disappearance, bank teller Robert K. Godwin was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison, though later pardoned by Virginia Governor Tyler after serving 32 months. Bank teller Godwin was the brother of Cashier Figgatt’s wife, Ann Godwin Figgatt, and a letter that the Cashier left behind absolving the teller failed to stave off his brother-in-law’s conviction.

One hundred twenty years later, the fate of the missing bank funds remains a mystery. Figgatt’s assets at death consisted of twenty dollars and ten cents. At death his Virginia antecedents were discovered by Colorado authorities and his remains were returned to be buried in the Slicer- Godwin Cemetery, Fincastle, VA. His wife, who lived til 1919, is buried beside him.

In all, a remarkable letter from the Confederate side of the Gettysburg Campaign, by a Virginian with an equally remarkable post-war scandal attached to his name. On both counts, the correspondence of Pvt. Charles Miles Figgart to his “Nannie” make for superb collectibles. In protective sleeve. Accompanied by “Dear Nannie: The Civil War Letters of Fincastle’s Charles Figgat and Ann Godwin”, Roanoke [VA] Times, Dec. 10, 2011. Superb collectible.

Includes a copy of his military records as well as internet research material. Additional research is certainly a possibility.  [jp]

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