Raynors HCA 2019-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/21/2019
War-date Union soldier Autograph Letter Signed by John G. Rowley, 7th Connecticut Infantry, 6pp. octavo, June 17, 1862, James Island, South Carolina, and reads in part: “...At 10am one in six were killed, wounded or missing on average. Says nothing of the 8th Mich. Regt. which I think lost more than the 7th C.V. These two Regiments suffered more than others being in advance of the Brigade (Col.) acting Brigadier General Fenton...It appears that on the strength of some of the officers and aids about the rank of Lieut. and Captain that went up near the Rebel battery on a reconnoitering expedition on Sunday and were allowed to go very near without being fired upon by the pickets that the Rebels were almost harmless and that to take their battery would require but little exertion. Accordingly Monday morning at 10 o’clock Fenton’s & Stevens Brigades were ordered to march and at 2 1/2 moved forward. We knew not where. At daylight we drove in the Rebel pickets about 3/4 of a mile from the battery. They killed and wounded three or four of our men. We marched on through a cornfield (all silked out) and into an open field where there battery was immediately forming in battle line, were ordered not to fire, made a charge. Their rifle pits were filled with Rebels that fired and mowed down our men like sheep. Immediately they shot grape & cannister during still greater execution from their battery. Regiment after regt. of the two Brigades came up and were mowed down by grape and canister. The shells bursting all about us at the same time. It was a time of peril. I saw neither looked at anything bu the place I stepped and watched the flash of the enemies cannon. we were all broke up and formed again on the colors in good order. Soon Wright’s Genl. Brigade assisted by Hamilton’s battery marched to help us but to no avail. They came up only to be slaughtered for it was a well contrived plan. They were strongly entrenched and had other batteries to fire into that one if we succeeded in taking it. We built a battery to the right of theirs had it in working order...” Much more. Fine condition. The Battle of Secessionville (or the First Battle of James Island) was fought on June 16, 1862, during the American Civil War. Confederate forces defeated the Union's only attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, by land.
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