February 23rd, 2012
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/23/2012
War-date Autograph Letter Signed by 1st Lieutenant Selwyn Bickford, 6th Massachusetts Infantry, 8pp. quarto, with rare "C.B. WILDER CAPT & AQM Supt of Contrabands / Nov. 22 1863" stamp at top right It reads in part: "…there is one place in the army where I should like to see you...and that is, in a Judge Advocates situation. If I had known beforehand that Butler was to be ordered here, I would have pressed the matter upon your attention. It is an appointment upon the General Staff, with the rank and pay of Major of Cavalry. The duties are all legal; the present incumbent is a Major Bell of Boston I understand, and once the law partner of the late B.F. Hatlett. Gen. Foster's Judge Advocate was Major J. L. Stackpole...As yet Gen. Butler has made no stir in the department but seems to be inspecting his new charge very minutely. He has now gone to Newbern, NC. Gen. Foster was liked very much here, and balls and parties here and at Norfolk, were very numerous the last week of his stay. Butler is bringing up the discipline among the officers here, and they now go around as though they had some business to do. Since I last wrote I have visited Yorktown, and inspected, in a hurried manner, the fortifications there. I saw the house used for HdQrs by Cornwallis and Washington and also by McClellan. The whole town consists of hardly a dozen houses, and these are situated on a high bluff rising almost perpendicular from the river. To an uninstructed observer, the fortifications seem impregnable...I had not time to visit McClellan's works...His military, corduroy road is in good condition...A thirteen inch shell burst within six rods of this office the other day, and made things jingle. One piece of 70lbs flew over the ramparts into the fort and killed one man, very luckily no one else was injured..." Fine condition.
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