1862 LETTER WITH PRESENTATION OF SHOULDER STRAPS TO CAPT. SAMUEL B. SHERER OF JENKS’ CO. OF INDEPENDENT ILLINOIS CAVALRY, FROM FELLOW CAVALRYMEN

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Item Code: 1054-2315

2 pages, 8” x 12”, in ink. Dated Iuka, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, September 4, 1862.

Captain S. B. Sherer:

As you are about to leave us, we feel it is a privilege to present to you these Shoulder Straps; as a slight token of respect and esteem which we have conceived for you during the associations of the past year. Our hopes in you as an officer and soldier have been more than realized, and in the position which you have occupied you have been all that we could ask. We can speak no higher praise. Were it not for your promotion we should regret very much to have you leave the Company, but under the circumstances we rejoice in your success.  These Shoulder Straps are not for ornaments but are a sign to your fellow men that new duties and greater responsibilities now devolve upon you. The addition of a Bar finds you one step nearer the Star….Above all do not forget your duty to those brave volunteers who are under your charge….Let your future record be as bright as has been that of the past….Forget not the duty which you owe to your country in this the moment of her greatest danger, but with a stout heart and honest purpose go forth, brave the dangers which await you and indeed let traitors learn and feel your strength…if however you….shall find an early grave, remember that another name will be added to the list of the immortalized….Our best wishes follow you wherever you may go and we trust, let your position be what it may, that you will sometimes give a thought to those with whom you learned the A, B, C’s of a soldier’s life.”

The letter is signed by 8 individuals, all but one of which is legible.  In very good condition; light staining, some edge wear. Accompanied by an April 1863 newspaper clipping describing the ceremony in which Sherer was presented with a sabre.

Samuel B. Sherer, born in Susquehanna County, PA in 1838, was a resident of Aurora, IL when he enlisted on 8/20/61 as a 1st Lieut. and was commissioned into Jenks Company, Illinois Independent Cavalry. He was promoted to Captain on 7/9/62, for which the shoulder straps referred to in this letter were presented to him. On 12/15/62 he was transferred to Co. I, 15th Illinois Cavalry. Promoted to Major on 7/29/63, and mustered out on 8/25/64. Following the war he was prominent in GAR affairs, and was a General in the Illinois National Guard. Sherer died on July 16, 1892 at the age of 54 in Hot Springs, AR. He is buried in West Aurora Cemetery in Aurora, IL.

The soldiers who signed the letter are Albert Collins, Daniel Dynan, Fletcher J. Snow, Fred Otis White, Jerome B. Marlett, and Ike Rice.

Accompanied by typed transcription and a moderate amount of internet research material.  [ld]

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