Raynors HCA 2017-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/7/2017
War-date Union soldier's letter, 4pp. 8vo., written by Pvt. Daniel D. Barrows, Co. E, 9th Maine Vols., [later Signal Corps], Fortress Monroe, Oct. 26, 1861, in part: "…our expedition leaves tonight…we shall see some hard fighting. We shall…have to take and man a number of forts on our way south and form a junction with Fremont at New Orleans. There is about 200 sail in the fleet and 75,000 men…Fortress Monroe…is the greatest work I ever saw. It is a beautiful place and I wish it might have been our luck to have stopped here…to perfect our drill as we are rather green…the steamer we are aboard is the Goatsacoalcos. A regular jaw breaker. Today we go ashore to bury one of our number. He died with the typhoid fever. He is the 10th we have lost. A man that gets in the clutches of that d-d old butcher…surgeon might as well make his will…I have got Willie Sloman under my charge and shall keep him all right…if you hear of any that talks of enlisting tell them for god's sake to stay at home if they want to escape starvation…what we do get stinks. Tell George to be careful of old Star & Bright smut…they have been giving the 9th fits ever since we left…it is a damned shame to set a green regiment scaling forts…but we have pluck to stand it and I'll have a pop at some of them before I turn tail or die trying. I have got into it and will fight my [way] out of it…my health is good except…my stomach feels as though an elephant had stepped on it…there where we of us put on guard over the commissary's department. We found a barrel of whisky and tapped it with a bayonet and drawer about 16 gallons…there was some fun aboard for a few hours. We are bound to steal every thing we can get hold on aboard this old cookie…D. D. Barrows". Light soiling, else VG
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