CHANCELLORSVILLE: LETTER FROM THE ORDNANCE RESERVE, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, TO JUDGE GIDEON D. CAMDEN, DESCRIBING THE DEATH, EXHUMATION AND RETURN HOME OF LT. COL. SAMUEL T. WALKER, 10TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY

CHANCELLORSVILLE: LETTER FROM THE ORDNANCE RESERVE, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, TO JUDGE GIDEON D. CAMDEN, DESCRIBING THE DEATH, EXHUMATION AND RETURN HOME OF LT. COL. SAMUEL T. WALKER, 10TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY

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Item Code: 557-291

Three-page autograph letter signed, "S. M. Sommers," on a large sheet of blue-ruled letter paper. It is headed "Ord. Res. Dept. A. N. Va. / May 14th 1863" and was written from the Ordnance Reserve Department of the Army of Northern Virginia eleven days after the close of the fighting at Chancellorsville. The sheet is folded to form its own cover, without an envelope. The outer panel is addressed to "Judge G. D. Camden, Brownsburg, Rockbridge Co., Va." A small torn remnant of a blue Confederate adhesive survives at upper right, and the panel bears period docketing reading "14 & 15 May 1863 / S. M. Sommers." Approximately 8 x 10 inches unfolded.

The heart of the letter is a first-hand account of the recovery of Lt. Col. Samuel T. Walker of the 10th Virginia Infantry, who was killed in the battle. Sommers ordered "a metalic burial case" from Richmond and visited Walker's grave on Monday. He removed the body and forwarded it to Walker's friends in New Market, and the remains passed through Staunton on Wednesday. Sommers found the body "in an excellent state of preservation and quite decently buried in a smooth pine box in Mrs Sims garden about five miles from Chancellorsville." He also reports how Walker died: "He was shot over the left breast with a solid cannon ball which killed him instantly."

Samuel T. Walker was commissioned major of the 10th Virginia Infantry, a Shenandoah Valley regiment, on July 1, 1861. He was promoted lieutenant colonel on May 8, 1862, and was wounded at Second Manassas in August 1862. He was killed at Chancellorsville in early May 1863. He is buried in the Lutheran Reformation Cemetery at New Market, Virginia, which is where this letter traces his remains. Walker had married Mary Regina Sommers. The writer took personal charge of the recovery and replies to the family's condolences, so he appears to have been a kinsman by marriage.

S. M. Sommers served in Company C, 31st Virginia Infantry, a regiment raised largely in the northwestern counties of the state. The 31st fought at Chancellorsville in Early's division. Sommers was carried as a private. He appears in the record as a prisoner of war and was exchanged at Aiken's Landing, Virginia, on September 21, 1862. At the time of this letter he was serving with the army's Ordnance Reserve. On November 15, 1863, he transferred to the 19th Virginia Cavalry, Col. William L. Jackson's command, as captain and assistant quartermaster.

That later assignment adds interest to one passage in the letter. Sommers reports that "John" had applied for transfer "to the command of Col. Jackson," whose new cavalry regiment was then being raised. Six months later Sommers himself made the same move.

Judge Gideon Draper Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, was a lawyer and Democratic politician. He sat in the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851 and served as circuit judge for a group of northwestern counties. He opposed secession, but when Virginia left the Union he went with his state and was named one of its commissioners to the Confederate Congress at Montgomery. He left the northwest for the duration of the war and lived at Brownsburg in Rockbridge County. A letter addressed to him there in February 1865 survives among his papers at West Virginia University. After the war he returned to Clarksburg and later served in the West Virginia state senate.

On the final page Sommers gives his assessment of the campaign: "Our victory was complete but apparently fruitless or barren of any particular good except the retrograde movement of the Enemy." His figures:

- The Confederates captured five more pieces of artillery than they lost.

- More than 20,000 stand of small arms were gathered from the field, more than half of them left by the Yankees.

- Confederate killed and wounded he estimates at about 7,000, plus 1,000 prisoners.

- He expects the Federal loss to exceed 20,000, including over 8,000 prisoners.

These are contemporary estimates written within two weeks of the battle. They make an interesting comparison with the figures later established.

 

The rest of the letter concerns the effort to have John detailed to Sommers's department from his company two miles away. John believed his captain disliked him and would refuse. Sommers asks the Judge to come down and see the captain in person, bringing Martha and Sallie, and offers comfortable quarters near his own camp. He proposes they leave Brownsburg Tuesday, and he will meet them at Hamilton's Crossing Thursday morning. On the way they can find Mr. Moffett at Hanover Junction, who will take them overnight to Mrs. Dejarnette's, where he boards. It is a vivid picture of civilians visiting the army's camps along the Rappahannock in the quiet weeks after Chancellorsville.

CONDITIONUsual folds, with separations and small losses where folds meet. Chipping and marginal loss along the right edge of the final page, touching but not obscuring text. General toning, with soiling and a small stain on the address panel. Ink strong and fully legible throughout.

 

A fine, content-rich Chancellorsville letter. It documents the death and homecoming of a field officer of a Valley regiment, written by the man who brought him home, to a prominent displaced northwestern Virginia jurist.   [ss][ph:L]

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