General Thomas Ruger War-date Letter

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2018

War-date Union general Autograph Letter Signed by General Thomas Ruger, 8pp. octavo, Camp Near Stafford Court House, Virginia, May 9, 1863, and reads in part: “...My brigade drove the Rebels with out trouble, but they kept bringing up fresh troops, and we were retired after all our ammunition was exhausted. There seemed to be no generalship on our side. I think there is but one opinion among intelligent officers and that is that we could have gained a decisive victory if the forces had been properly handled...This way of making a small portion of the army fight till the last point of endurance is reached when there are plenty of fresh troops will, I hope, come to an end. I believe that we would have gained a great victory if McClellan had commanded, for he has the very qualities that were necessary on that field. Although we were out generaled, or rather lost the battle for want of ordinary generalship...I think the Rebels must have lost many more in killed & wounded than we did. Our loss in killed & wounded was not large for the whole army, but was heavy for the numbers actually in the hard fighting...” Fine condition. RUGER, Thomas Howard (1833-1907) was an American soldier and lawyer who served as a Union general in the American Civil War. After the war, he was a superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

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