Great Descriptive Battle of Jonesboro, Ga. Letter.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/30/2019

War-date Union soldier's battle letter, 4pp. legal size folio, written by Pvt. Harrison Gibble (Gipple in the CW database), Co. A, 79th Penn. Vols., Jonesboro, Ga., "23 miles south of Atlanta", Sept. 3, 1864, to his friend, Henry C. Gringrich, in small part: "…we left the front of Atlanta about 10 days ago..moved to the right by brigades…till 4 corps was on a move…march about 30 miles south west, then we turned south east and went towards the Montgomery railroad…crossed it 13 miles south of Atlanta…we…tore up the railroad over 12 miles and burned the ties and bend the rails as crochet as a meat hook…left and went in an easily direction and march 14 miles…came on the Macon road 23 S. of Atlanta. We hard…fighting all the way…the 16, 17, 18 Corps to our right…8 miles further south they had a hard fight, but licked the rebels badly . Next day, [Sept. 1st, and battle of Jonesboro] we came and the rebels was ready to…capture us all…that is our Corps, the 14th & 4th. We had very heavy skirmishing for about 6 or 8 miles…followed the road in 3 lines of battle…a heavy skirmish line in front…then we came to this rebel nest, or trap as the deserters and prisoners said that Gen. Hood called it…told his men…if they stick together they would killed and capture the most of our army…the fight commenced. Our brigade in advance…after we came to a range with their guns…they let loose on us…but over shot our first two lines. The 3rd line lost most at the first assault. Our lines then charged on their works and gained the first lines fro over three miles, but lost severely…the rear line took the front. By this time the 15 Corps came on the rebel flank and begun to make use of their artillery. The works was all in a roar …I thought everyone would be killed…the air was dark with smoke and [I]m could hardly draw one breath…from the smell of powder. The rebs , at some places running in our lines…the others commenced to retreat…left some cannons back and plowed up their caissons at some places. It got night on us and that saved them…from being all captured. The breastworks of the rebels was lined…[with] dead…in our front…on our right they laid much thicker. At one place I could count 51 dead at one place without moving. This fight was on the 1st inst….on the 2nd (yesterday) we moved from the field of battle and gathered our dead and buried them…it was an awful sight indeed to look on…our private boys…laying half way up on the rebel works…we have lost…8 wounded to 2 killed out of 10…we got about 12 hundred prisoners,,,the other 5 Corps caught a great many more…the 4th Corps brought in 8 hundred more…we have them cut in two…Gen. Hood intended to hold Atlanta with 1 corps and the state militia…now we cut them off…our 20th & 23rd Corps…are now pushing them this way…our men captured 4 trains with ammunition and a large amount of provisions…we got over 4000 head of sheep that our cavalry took from the rebs yesterday…the road is full of broken down wagons and horses…the rebels are so demoralized…they left their coats, plankets and cartridge boxes…in their works…I could pick up thousands of them…we took quite a number of the plankets and thawed them on the dead rebels when we buried them…since we are on the south side of Atlanta we are much more in an open country and can live like men or soldiers…we can forage…plenty…our rations has been reduced to 2/3 rations…it was done to make a little more money for our Damned, cheating officers…for we started with 20 day's full rations on the wagons…Jonesboro…contains about 50 to 75 houses. The depot and other buildings…the rebs had…when Gen. Kilpatrick made his raid 3 weeks ago are burned down…the railroad is now again burned. They had it fixed…since he burned it…our regiment lost about 40 killed and wounded, most slightly…H. Gibble." Light soigné and toning, else VG

Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).