GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD LETTER DATED "JULY 1ST 2ND AND 3RD" — CAPT. EMLEN N. CARPENTER, 6TH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY, ACTING ON MEADE'S STAFF, REPORTING HIS BROTHER MISSING WITH THE BUCKTAIL BRIGADE

GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD LETTER DATED

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This is a pencil autograph letter signed, four small numbered pages written in the folded panels of a single sheet approx. 4 x 6 1/2 in., headed "Gettysburg / July 1st 2nd and 3rd." It is signed "Emlen N Carpenter" and addressed to "Mr Wm C. Henszey Esqr, No. 737 Market St, Phila Pa." The original cover, approx. 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 in., accompanies it. The dateline covers all three days of the battle, and the letter was written while the fighting was still under way. Emlen Newbold Carpenter (1845–1891) of Germantown was then eighteen and a captain of Company E, 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, "Rush's Lancers." He writes, "I am acting on Meade's staff and am well although I have had 3 horses shot."

His purpose is to spare his widowed mother. He asks Henszey to prepare her for bad news about his older brother, Lt. John Quincy Carpenter, Company E, 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers. The 150th served in Col. Roy Stone's "Bucktail Brigade" of the First Corps. Quincy had not been heard from "since the afternoon of the 1st — when his brigade was in a desperate position — In short he is 'missing.'" Carpenter suggests Henszey "feel the way by insinuating that the bucktails were cut to pieces." He also advises against saying anything has happened until it is confirmed, "as he may turn up — be recaptured you know — or in some of the hospitals." He closes with a soldier's view of the fighting around him: "We have had a most desperate fight and still going on — Pennsylvania will be fertilized — I guess they can hear the cannonading in Harrisburg — The Rebs are desperate — so are we — It is annihilation for one side or the other — Lee versus Meade."

The brothers were sons of George W. Carpenter (1802–1860), a wealthy Philadelphia wholesale druggist whose Germantown estate was Phil-Ellena. The recipient was evidently connected with the family's drug house, which later traded as Geo. W. Carpenter, Henszey & Co.

Carpenter was short of paper in the field. The sheet he used was a letter he had received from his younger sister Fanny, and he wrote his four pages on its blank portions, adding his closing across the head of her letter. Her letter is dated from Phil-Ellena, May 1863. In it she reports cork furniture being made for Liddie's play-house and Jenny the donkey coming for the summer. She also says she will turn ten on the twenty-second of May and is getting along nicely with her French and music.

The rest of the story is remarkable. Quincy had in fact been captured on July 1. Emlen was himself captured at Todd's Tavern on May 7, 1864, and met his brother as a fellow prisoner at Macon. In October 1864 the two jumped from a prison train near Orangeburg, S.C., but were recaptured. Both eventually escaped at Columbia in February 1865 and reached Sherman's army. Emlen then served as an aide to Gen. O.O. Howard through the Carolinas and was brevetted major and lieutenant colonel. Reference printouts of both brothers' Find a Grave memorials and Historical Data Systems service records are included.

CONDITION

The pencil is legible throughout, though light in places. There are small losses at the fold intersections. One loss runs through the underlined word "fertilized" on page four but does not affect the reading, and another touches a few words of the sister's letter. The sheet shows toning and light soiling. The cover is stampless, with a partially struck blue circular handstamp at right, the upper right corner torn away, and soiling.

TRANSCRIPTION

[Page 1]

Gettysburg

July 1st 2nd and 3rd

 

My dear Mr Henszey

I dont know if [this] will reach you — I hope it will — We have had a desperate fight — Mr Henszey I have a favor to ask that you will prepare Mother for the possibility of bad news

 

[Page 2]

about Quincy so that when she learns it — it may not come all at once — you can feel the way by insinuating that the bucktails were cut to pieces you know — It amounts to this

 

[Page 3]

Quincy has not been heard from since the afternoon of the 1st — when his brigade was in a desperate position — In short he is "missing" — this may be good or bad he may be only a prisoner — as we know nothing to the contrary it wont be well

 

[Page 4]

to entertain that idea — I will do my best to find out what I can — Meanwhile I think it would be well not to say that anything has happened to him until this is confirmed as he may turn up — be recaptured you know — or in some of the hospitals &c — I write to inform you of the possibility of the worst having happened — We have had a most desperate fight and still going on — Pennsylvania will be fertilized — I guess they can hear the cannonading in Harrisburg — The Rebs are desperate — so are we — It is annihilation for one side or the other — Lee versus Meade

 

[Written in pencil across the head of his sister's letter] I am acting on Meade's staff and am well although I have had 3 horses shot Very truly yours Emlen N Carpenter My kind remembrances to the ladies

 

[Sister's letter, ink, on the same sheet] Phil-Ellena May [7?] 1863 My dear Brother I have had a very headache and tooth ache I [hope?] your tooth-ache is better I have wrote you a letter but I suppose you had not time to answere it We are making some cork furniture for Liddie's play-house [hole: I w?]ish I had something to interres[t] you My birthday will soon be here it comes on the twenty second of May and I will be ten years old I hope you will get my letter and answere it when you have time We are going to have Jenny the donkey all summer I hope you will get home again very soon it is getting warm now I am getting along very nicely with my french and my music I must now come to a close your ever loveing sister Fanny

 

[Cover]

Mr Wm C. Henszey Esqr

No. 737 Market St

Phila Pa

[ss][ph:L]

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