Raynors HCA 2018-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2018
A great war-date Union soldier's letter, 2pp. 4to., written, on colorful "Death of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth" martyr song sheet stationery, by Corp. Jonathan H. Wells, Co. G, 98th New York Vols. (died of typhoid fever, 12/20/1862), [n. p., but near Yorktown, Va.], April 6, 1862, reading, in small part: "…we moved yesterday about a mile. We was stationed on a low piece of clay ground & it was rather nasty…we are within 6 miles of Yorktown & there is a constant naming of cannon & has been for the last 30 hours…we have heard a number of stories about the battle…one story was that there was 4,000 killed on [one] side yesterday &…that we had taken the city by point of bayonet…Yorktown is in a northwest direction & there is a heavy smoke rising in the S. W. as though there was a city burning…3rd Brigade, Casey's Division, 98 Regt. N. Y. S. V., Co. G, J. H. W." The original attached patriotic stationery remembers the North's first martyr with a poetic song composed by James D. Gay of the Ringgold Artillery and then by a printed version of Ellsworth's last letter written a day before his death. Light toning with minor folds, else VG
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