2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
Extremely historic Autograph Letter Signed, “Jno. K. Connally Col. 55th Regt. NC Troops” 1p. quarto, Yadkin Co. North Carolina, March 20, 1865, addressed to Colonel Walter H. Taylor of General Robert E. Lee’s staff, reads in full “I hae the honor to state that the within statment relative to the number of deserters and disloyalty of the people are not only true but are as regards the people the best of the facts. In this & the adjoining counties there are at least twelve or fifteen hundred deserters and with but few exceptions the people harbor and encourage them. The deserters are so numerous & on such good terms with the citizens that they reamain at their houses attend church and the county courts....Capt Wilson is the only officer who has been in this county who has done his duty & I would respectfully recommend that he be left in this section of the state for at least six or eight weeks...” with the statement referred to on verso, dated March 20, 1865, penned by D.C. Pearson, who had previous service with the 6th North Carolina Infantry, and reads “ I would respectfully state that the facts setforth in the enclosed petition [not present, though a copy is] are not in the least exagerated and deserve the immediate attention of deserters now in this county. I am satisfied that they are being armed, and organizing themselves, under the direction of Yankee Officers. All the arm’s of the loyal citizens have been seized and appropriated for this purpose. The Home Guard have almost entirely been disarmed. A very natural question arises, why cannot the Home Guard do this work, simply because there are but very few in the county that are not in every respect as bad as the deserters. I urge and insist that this Batt. be allowed to remain at least for a short time...” VG. John Kerr Connally (1839-1904) attended the U. S. Naval Academy. He lived in Yadkin County, North Carolina when the war started. Connally was elected captain of Company B, 21st North Carolina on May 12, 1861. Promoted to colonel of the 55th North Carolina on May 19, 1862, Connally led his regiment at Gettysburg, where he was wounded, in the left arm and had to have it amputated, he was then captured at Cashtown on July 5, 1863. He was exchanged in March 1864, and eventually paroled on May 30, 1865 at Richmond, Virginia. On July 1st the 55th was one of the first on the field at Gettysburg, and the regiment's youthful leader Colonel John Kerr Connally wanted his men to prove themsevles to their brigade (which except for the 55th NC were all unit's from Mississippi under the command of President Davis's nephew Joesph R. Davis) As his men moved forward their color bearer was shot and Connally, wanted to motivate his men, picked up the regimental standard and charged only to be shot several times and severally wounded. When asked if he needed help the brave colonel's response was to instruct his men to keep going and not to let "the mississippians get ahead of you." The 55th would again face death at Gettysburg on the third day when they participated in the famous charge, and several officers from the unit would be credited with going farther than any other. Again during the Overland campaign the 55th would find themselves in desperate figthing throughout the summer and fall of 1864, and finally to surrender, all 83 left of more than 1000 when the regiment was formed in May 1862, with Lee at Appomattox.
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