Raynors HCA 2018-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2018
Union soldier's letter, 4pp. 8vo., written by Pvt. Altus H. Jewel [WIA Fredericksburg, Va., May 3, 1863], Co. E, 77th New York Vols., "Virginia, July 28, 1863," in part: "…we are now encamped some four…miles west of Warrenton. We reached here ;sat Saturday…we have not got a regular standing picket but we have got men around in squads on the road to prevent rebel cavalry from dashing in on us…myself and two or three more of our company are at a house where there is a black woman and a small child…her name is Aunt Sally. She cooks for us and she made us take off our shirts and have them washed. She thinks everything of the Union soldiers. She says that as long as our army is here she feels at home. When we are not here she cant get anything…she can buy of the secesh but they ask such prices that she wont buy them. The last flour that she got she paid $17…sugar is 85 cents a pound, molasses four dollars a gallon…she is a free Negro. We are gong to have green beans & young potatoes for dinner…we are forty miles from Fredericksburg…the Rappahannock is…quite small up here to what it is at Fredericksburg…if I return home…I can return home the same as I acme out and if I don't return home others wont have it to say that I spent my time in the Army gambling. I lost my money honest & I got it honest. As for stealing, I wont steal from no man, but when we are on the march, if we get scant of rations and I run onto a hen, hog…I will take them from these old rebel farmers and so would anyone else [who were] up in Pennsylvania and seen what they destroyed…A. H. Jewel." With fully detailed transcription. Light soiling, else VG
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