Fighting with the 141st New York at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/31/2006

A nice war-date Union soldier's, 4pp. 8vo., battle-letter written in ink by Pvt. Albert J. Whitley, Co. C, 141st New York Vols., "In the field two miles Southwest of Marietta, Georgia, June 24, 1864" to his sister concerning the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, reading, in part: "…we commenced active operations the 15th, & moved upon the Rebel Works. Their line of works extended from Lost Mountain on our right to Kennesaw Mountain on our left. The 23rd Corps was on the right & then the 20th next the 4th then the 14th, 17th, 16th and 15th. After some hard fighting, we drove the Rebs from their first line of works, on our right. It was the night of the 17th that they retreated and the 18th we moved forward again & found that their right still rested near the Kennesaw, & the mountain in their possession while their left was drove back 10 miles. Here they had another line of works…they were forced to leave the 19th. Since then, we have advanced our line some more, and now occupy a good position. [On] the 22nd we advanced our line some more and were throwing up breastworks when the rebels drove in our pickets. We formed our line of battle in as short a time as possible…the rebels came on in three lines of battle. The artillery and musketry was awful. The 141 N. Y., 46 PA, 5 Conn., 123rd NY, & one Regt on our right did the work. We shot over 60 rounds & the rebels broke…in perfect confusion. We allowed them to remove…their killed & wounded. We picked up 500 guns on the field. Our loss was one killed and two wounded in the 141[st]. We took over 50 or 60 prisoners…the troops we fought were from Hood's Corps, Stevenson's Division, they…lost 1000 killed, wounded, and prisoners. This is the Division we fought at Resaca, & the Corps is the same that we fought at Dallas. We have been under fire often since the 15th…Johnson is making a hard fight for this place…the ground in front of the 20th Corps is nearly all cleared…the rebel skirmishers are in sight of our breastworks…we are only 19 or 20 miles from Atlanta, the rest of the army is farther off…". Whitley enlisted in August 1862 servicing in southern Virginia, in the Atlanta Campaign until he was wounded at Resaca, Ga. on May 15, 1864, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Before being discharged he was promoted to sergeant. Some soiling, else very good.

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