2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
War-date Union Soldier Autograph Letter Signed “Mitchel S. Balcom” 110th New York Infantry, 2p. octavo, Fort Jefferson, Florida, August 13, 1864, with fine “300,000 Strong” cover, with “Fort Jefferson FLA.” cds, it reads in part: “...I am still in the land of the living...there is some pretty good news here from the Army of the Potomac, they say that General Sherman is giving the rebels fits there near Atlanta. I hope that they will soon get them whipped out there in Virginia but this I don’t know as they ever will...I have not got strength enough hardly to set up long enough to write and I have had to stop two or three times to rest in scratching of what I have now and I am getting pretty tired again now...What is the matter with me is the chronic diarrea and what is called the bone fever...” Fine. The 110th New York Infantry was an Oswego county regiment, organized at Oswego, and there mustered into the U. S. service for three years, Aug. 25, 1862. It left the state on the 29th, proceeding to Baltimore, where it was stationed until Nov., 1862, when it was ordered to New Orleans, and early in 1863 was assigned to Emory's division of the 19th corps. Its first experience under fire was at Fort Bisland, and at Franklin it had 12 killed and wounded. It took part in the long siege of Port Hudson and shared in the grand assault of June 14. The total loss of the regiment during the siege was 37 killed, wounded and missing. Its last battle was at Vermillion bayou, La., in Nov. 1863, where it lost 6 killed and wounded. In Feb., 1864, it was ordered to Fort Jefferson, Fla. The regiment was mustered out at Albany, under Col. Hamilton, Aug. 28, 1865. It lost during service 2 officers and 14 men killed and mortally wounded; 3 officers and 192 men died of disease and other causes-total deaths, 211. The high percentage of loss by disease was due to the long service of the regiment in the extreme South.
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