151st New York Letter Group

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/27/2020

Union solider correspondence group of eighteen letters written by Reuben Pierce, 151st New York Infantry, who enlisted in August 1862, and died of disease at Harper's Ferry in August of 1863 many on nice illustrated patriotic lettersheets, and includes letter of condolence penned by his company captain to his widow after his passing. With typical soldier content, they read in small part: "...[10/8/62] I was down to the Washington Monument yesterday paid their ten cents to go up on the top of it. It is a splendid sight can see all of the city. It is one hundred and sixty feet high around it is built of stone the steps are in a circle on the inards …[11/22/62]I think Bradshaw that old infidel has hoisted the black flag in good earnest. I think he had better make one more move and then join Jeff Davis…[12/7/62]we have just got through with the inspection...there is a quite a number of the boys sick...there is four in our company that have got the measles...some of the captains have resigned. Captain Clark, Captain Wiles have resigned and Captain Hutchinson talks of resigning also and some of Hutchinson's men say that if he resigns they shall take care of themselves. There is a general dissatisfaction in our company. We are visited everyday by a brigade officer of the day….[12/12/62] there has been as high as six thousand troops pass through the city for Washington a majority of them are drafted men. They are putting the drafted men right into the fields, some to fill up old regiments and the rest in new regiments. The news here today is that Burnsides has taken Fredericksburg with only the loss of fifty men…[12/21/62] there was somebody took to stone the guards...the guard they throwed stones at shot his gun at them but did not hit anybody...saw a man among the trees and chased him and shot at him he ran and jumped into a yard or a lot of brush...they did not hit him...somebody shot at one of the guards the ball passed through his cartridge box about an inch from his body...the news from the seat of war is not very encouraging. The slaughter there at Fredericksburg was awful...Burnsides lost about twelve thousand men in that battle while the rebels lost only 2500. It was the hardest battle that has been fought since the war commenced….General Wool has been superceded and General Schenck has taken his place in Baltimore...General Schenck and the city police...are at Barnhams hotel the largest and the best in the city it is in the secesh part of the city…[12/30/62] Marion Greely is very sick, the doctors have given him up to die. Wallace telegraphed his folks last night to come forthwith if they wanted to see him alive but I think they will not get here in time…[1/8/63] George Seay is fiddling they dance most of the time from seven till nine...the colonel came into the company quarters and told the boys of the company that they must either buy the cartridge box and bayonet for the gun that we now have…[2/1/63] in regards to the small pox do not worry about that...it has now been two weeks since we were all exposed and there is no symptoms of it in the company…[5/2/63]we got to Grafton and had to wait two hours for the railroad company to build or finish a bridge that the Rebels burnt last Sunday. They make a raid into Maryland with fifteen hundred cavalry and burnt some bridges and other property that belonged to the railroad. They burnt an engine house and one or two watertanks when we stopped at Grafton the brigadier general that has command of the brigade that we are in said that he should go as far as he could with the cars so we started on and run slow about six miles when we found that the rebels had burnt a bridge in the morning….they took all the horses they could find and they took two companys of a New York regiment prisoner. They took one boy from the next place east of us because he would not enlist in the rebel army. They took him prisoner…[5/10/63] the rail road is cut off on both sides of us so that they mail cannot get here from either way. The rebels burnt a bridge east of us three days ago so it stopped the cars...report was yesterday that the rebels were retreating back that some of our men had captured some ninety head of cattle that they took of the union inhabitants. In this part of the state the citizens that came into the town from the surrounding county for protection are leaving town for their homes again. Today the Rebels have left and so they are a going home again…[5/15/63] half of the inhabitants are secesh and the other half are union...we are in the command of General Roberts…[5/18/63]we are in a small place called Buchannon...it is a place that was evacuated by General Roberts...the citizens and soldiers both say that he could have held the place against the rebels easy if he had tried but he burnt his own camp tents and all the ammunition he had and destroyed four bridges in the town…[6/3/1863]we have got back into Maryland...It is reported tonight that the Rebs are crossing back into Virginia. It is reported by teh lookout from Maryland Heights that they have seen the rebs...I do not think they will try to attack us here at the Ferry…"...plus; Autograph Letter Signed by Captain Bowen to the widow of Reuben Pierce, August 15, 1863, 2pp. Quarto, "Camp in the Field" and reads in part: "...It becomes my duty to inform you that yesterday I recd the sad & painful intelligence of the death of your husband. He died in the hospital at Harpers Ferry of Typhoid Fever on the 10th inst. I know little of the particulars except that the fell out of the ranks with Rebun Plummer and were left behind in company with many others from the Regt. They were overtaken by Rebel cavalry & taken prisoner & their guns taken from them & they paroled. They then made their way to the hospital…" Most letters in very good condition. A nice archive.

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