BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR, VA. - WRITTEN RIGHT ON THE BATTLEFIELD!

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/26/2023

The 4pp. pencil letter is datelined, Battlefield in the Woods Near Gaines Hill June 4th, 64. In part, "You will see by the date of this that we are back upon our old grounds. I AM SO TIRED AND WORN OUT THAT I CAN HARDLY SIT UP TO WRITE. WE ARE FIGHTING NIGHT AND DAY OR WHEN WE ARE NOT FIGHTING WE ARE ENTRENCHING... LAST NIGHT I HAD COMMAND OF THE 121ST REGT. WITH MY OWN. WE HAD BEEN ENTRENCHING THE FIRST PART OF THE EVENING AND AT TEN O'CLOCK THE REBELS ATTACKED US IN OUR PITS. ... BUT AS IT WAS DARK THEY WERE SHOT AND AS OUR MEN WERE IN THE WORK, NOT ONE WAS HURT. I CAN ASSURE YOU THE BOYS DONE WELL. I LOST ONE ON THURSDAY & FIVE YESTERDAY & COL. MILLETT GOT A SLIGHT WOUND IN THE LEFT ARM TODAY. ... THEY WERE SITTING IN A RIFLE PIT AT THE TIME HE WAS SHOT. I WAS EATING MY DINNER & HE WAS READING A LETTER. THE SHELL EXPLODED QUITE HIGH IN THE AIR. THE PIECE JUST GRAZED ME & TOOK HIS ARM. IT WILL TAKE HIM OUT OF THE SHOW FOR THIS CAMPAIGN. ... MAJ. DAGGETT WAS KNOCKED DOWN LAST EVENING BY A TWELVE-POUND SHELL WHICH DID NOT EXPLODE, A VERY RARE OCCURRENCE. HE IS BUT SLIGHTLY INJURED SO TO BE UPON DUTY TODAY. LT. PARADIS WAS WOUNDED QUITE BADLY THROUGH THE LEGS, BUT I THINK THE BONE IS NOT BROKEN. ... IF THE THING GOES ON MUCH LONGER, I SHALL NOT HAVE AN OFFICER LEFT. THE COMPANIES ARE MOSTLY UNDER SERGTS. AT THIS TIME. ... I AM NOW WRITING UNDER FIRE. THE MINNIES ARE FLYING THICK AROUND ME BUT STILL MY NERVE IS STRONG, AND I THINK I WILL COME OUT ALL RIGHT. ... WE HAD A HARD FIGHT AT THIS PLACE WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND DROVE THE REBELS FROM THEIR PIT & TOOK MANY PRISONERS. THURSDAY MORNING WE ADVANCED AGAIN, AND IN TAKING CARE OF THE WOUNDED, I FOUND LT. COL. MURCHISON (JOHN REID MURCHISON) OF THE 8TH N. C., A BROTHER OF THE COL. MURCHISON (KENNETH MCKENZIE MURCHISON, 54TH N. C. INFANTRY) WHO SURRENDERED TO ME AT RAPPAHANNOCK STATION. I HAD HIS WOUNDS PROPERLY TAKEN CARE OF AND SENT HIM BACK TO OUR DIV. HOSPITAL OF WHICH HE WAS VERY THANKFUL TO ME FOR. ... WHERE I NOW AM WRITING THE DEAD REBELS LAY THICK. I HAD MANY OF THEM COVERED OVER WITH A THIN SPRINKLING OF EARTH AS THE STENCH IS AWFUL TO STAND & A SHORT DISTANCE FROM ME. ... Upon the other side of the pit lies some hundred of our Conn. fellows who belonged to our Brig., the heavy artillery who I think I wrote you about in one of my last. ..."

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