CIVIL WAR SOLDIER'S LETTER — CAMP DICKINSON, ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C., MAY 4, 1862 — 89th NEW YORK INFANTRY, COMRADE OF THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION WRITES OF SOUTH MILLS, COMPANY DEATHS, AND HIS WAR-WEARY CONVICTIONS

CIVIL WAR SOLDIER'S LETTER — CAMP DICKINSON, ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C., MAY 4, 1862 — 89th NEW YORK INFANTRY, COMRADE OF THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION WRITES OF SOUTH MILLS, COMPANY DEATHS, AND HIS WAR-WEARY CONVICTIONS

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Item Code: 2026-1190

A content-rich, fully identified Civil War soldier's letter, four pages, written on a colorful patriotic lettersheet headed "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," the vignette depicting a Union sailor before a furled national flag, spread-winged eagle, and ship's rigging, with an embossed blind-stamp at upper left. Datelined "Camp Dickinson May 4th /62" and addressed "Dear Sister Suke," the letter is signed in full by the writer, George W. Draper, Company G, 89th New York Volunteer Infantry ("Dickinson Guard").

Draper writes from Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where the 89th New York established Camp Dickinson after joining General Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina Expedition in early 1862. The letter is alive with first-hand campaign content. Of his first taste of combat — the Battle of South Mills (Camden), April 19, 1862 — he tells his sister: "I have been in a battle since I wrote to you before and Oh Lordy how the balls whistled purred and sang around my ears but thank fortune I got off without a scratch but may not get off so well next time." He looks ahead to further operations: "we are going to join Gen Burnside ... so we shall have a little more fighting before long well no matter I enlisted to fight and I mean to do my share of it."

The letter carries a striking note of war-weariness and conviction unusual for so early in the conflict: "But I hope this war will close before long for enough lives have been lost already more than the whole of Jeffdom is worth ..." (the passage continues with a period racial epithet, present as written — characteristic candid soldier content reflecting attitudes of the day toward the Confederacy and the cause of the war).

Most poignantly, Draper reports the recent deaths of two men of his own company in the hospital, naming them: "their names were Hamilton Piper & Warren Welton ... tis sad for us to go to the funeral of one of our number with the band playing the death march." Asked by his sister whether a comrade ("Hervy") was "prepared to die," he answers with affecting humility, declining to judge another man's soul: "I will say this he was a good boy and we all miss him very much for we are all brothers here together, brothers in the cause of Liberty." He closes with camp news, thanks for stamps sent from home, and signs "From your Brother, George W. Draper."

A rare instance of a letter that can be fully corroborated against the official record. Per the New York Adjutant-General's reports: George W. Draper enlisted at Windsor, N.Y., age 22, mustering into Co. G, 89th N.Y. on October 16, 1861; he was promoted Corporal in 1863, re-enlisted as a veteran in 1864, and died of wounds July 15, 1865. The two men he mourns served alongside him in Co. G — Hampton L. (here "Hamilton") Piper, who died of typhoid at Roanoke Island on April 21, 1862, and Warren Welton, who died of consumption at Hatteras Inlet on April 9, 1862. The 89th New York went on to hard service at South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and through to Appomattox.

Condition: Very good. Original mailing folds, light toning and a few small spots of foxing, scattered handling wear; entirely legible in a clear period hand throughout. A desirable, well-documented Roanoke Island / Burnside Expedition soldier's letter with excellent battle and mortality content, on an attractive patriotic lettersheet.  [ss][ph:L]

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