2022-07 Raynors HCA Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/15/2022
A War Period 22 Page Journal written by Henry W. Camp who was commissioned into "I" Co. CT 10th Infantry as 2nd Lieutenant, Nov. 27, 1861, POW 7/19/1863 Morris Island, SC., Paroled 4/30/1864, Killed on 10/13/1864 at Darbytown Road, VA. The 16 page journal is tightly written in a very legible hand on loose legal pages. Extraordinary detail, written from Richland Jail. In part, “The possibility of escape was a subject of thought and conversation among us, quite early in our imprisonment ...scarcly a day of which I did not spend more than an hour thinking over the possibilities. ... There were four of us who intended to go..” . Two of his fellow conspirators left earlier, leaving him and his companion Captain Valentine B. Chamberlain of Company A of the 7th Connecticut Infantry to make their escape the next day on December 14, 1863. They avoided detection by Corporal Davison Addison, described as “a lubberly English clodhopper.” Camp writes that “our confidence that all would go well was based in great measure upon his stupidity.” Upon escape, Camp recollects his elation at their newfound freedom: “I wish I could describe the sensation of pleasure that thrilled through every fiber of our frames with an exhilaration like that of wine. After five months of confinement of constant and unavailing chafing under the galling consciousness of restraint and helplessness we could hardly realize that we were free...To be again masters of our own acts was like being endowed with a new faculty. We created deep and long. We could have shouted with the excitement of each free step upon solid earth. Each draught of free air under the open sky. That first hour of liberty would alone have paid for all the hardships that we were to encounter. I shall have pleasant memory of it as long as I live.” In the cover of night, the newly escaped men followed the railroad tracks and traveled towards the mountains. They endured cold weather, pained feet, and limited rations. About a week after their escape whenthey approached Pinckneyville in upstate South Carolina, they were approached and questioned by a man on a horse. Though he accepted their answers and left, they correctly assumed the worst: “We looked at one another in dismay. That he suspected us and would soon return we had no doubt.” When they came upon a village, they were greeted by the same man and others. Quickly realizing their perilous situation, Camp and Chamberlain gave themselves up and revealed their identity as the recently escaped Yankee officers. They were held captive, but in very fine quarters with Camp noting, “our host, for we were treated rather as guests than as prisoners, was an elder of the Methodist church, a man of much intelligence and good sense...they appreciated our desire for freedom and were by no means disposed to blame us for attempting escape.” Perhaps thanks to the warm beds and meals after their hard journey, Camp relates that it took some time for their misfortune of recapture to fully dawn upon them: “For what reason, I do not know, but it was not for some time after our capture, even after our return to Columbia, that the bitterness of disappointment came in its full force upon us.” They were promptly returned to Richland Jail where they were interrogated and held in seclusion for 8 days before being rejoined with their fellow officers. Camp concludes, “The whole affair though resulting in failure was one which I by no means regret.” Additionally included is the book “The Knightly Soldier, A Biography of Major Henry Ward Camp” written by Camp’s friend, Chaplain Henry Trumbull, VG.
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