2023-03 HCA Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/7/2023
This Civil War soldier's 2pp. letter was written by Carey C. Wright (1834-1913) who enlisted as a corporal in Co. B, 47th Illinois Infantry at Peoria, Illinois, on 16 August 1861. Wright writes his brother. Datelined Memphis, Tennessee, September 15, 1864. In part, "The most important just now is the duty we have to perform is quite heavy, and the boys are complaining very much about it. Since the 1st & 3rd Divisions have left, it takes all the troops to do the necessary guard and fatigue duty in and around the city. The detail from our company this morning called for 16 privates & 3 non com officers. I could not fill the detail for privates & use those men I had on fatigue duty yesterday by 5 men, the balance of our men all being on duty. ... We had quite an explosion here a few mornings since in Fort Pickering. A pile of shell laying somewhere inside the fort exploded. A negro was fooling around somewhere near smoking when they exploded with a terrific noise, killing 4 or 5 persons who were somewhere near at the time. ... " The New York Times reported on 18 September 1864: "About nine o'clock on Tuesday morning last, the citizens of Memphis were startled by one of the most terrific explosions ever heard there; a shell house under the banks, in Fort Pickering, containing some two hundred and fifty shells, exploded killing two men, one a negro soldier and the other an Irish laborer, and wounding several negro soldiers. One died during the day of his wounds. It was found upon examination that 110 shells had exploded.
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