2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
War-date Confederate Autograph Letter Signed “T.I. West Jr.” 4p. octavo, Richmond, Virginia, September 5, 1864, and reads in part: “...We have just heard of the downfall of Atlanta, how sad to think of the Yankees getting so far into the interior of our country though it may be drawing them so far away from their supports as to render their condition any thing but an agreeable one, yet it is bringing so much trouble uon a large number of our people...I don’t know of any thing that would give me more pleasure than to visit you, but you see the impossibility of my doing so at present, besides you know I am in the army and it is very hard to get a furlough...” Fine. Thomas Ira West Jr. enlisted on May 9, 1861, at Lewisburg, in what is now West Virginia, and was mustered into the 27th Virginia Infantry. The 27th Virginia Infantry was organized on May 30, 1861 as the 6th Virginia Infantry but was redesignated the 27th Virginia Infantry the following day. The unit was transferred to Confederate control on July 1, 1861 and served as such until the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Colonel William W. Gordon provided initial leadership for the unit. Other officers of the unit included John W. Carpenter, (lieutenant colonel); John Echols (lieutenant colonel, colonel); James K. Edmondson (lieutenant colonel, colonel); Philip F. Frazer (major); Andrew J. Grigsby (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel); Elisha F. Paxton (major); Daniel M. Shriver (major, lieutenant colonel). The 27th Virginia Infantry, along with the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments were organized into a brigade at the outset of the war under the command of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, and won accolades at 1st Manassas, and became the Stonewall Brigade. The 27th Virginia Infantry, although decimated toward the end of the war, remained in this organization until the end of the conflict.
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