2025-01 Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/25/2025
Union soldier’s pp. letter written by Jacob Frederick Mader, Jr., enlisted at Circleville in Co. H, 61st Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was mustered in as fourth duty sergeant. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 9 October 1862, and on 28 October 1863, he was transferred to Co. B which he commanded in the absence of its captain until 29 April 1864 when he was promoted to captain of the company and served as such until he was mustered out of service at Goldsboro North Carolina. He was slightly wounded at the second battle of Bull Run and also at Peach Tree Creek. He was engaged in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Freeman’s Ford, White Sulphur Springs, Waterloo Bridge, second Bull Run, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Knoxville, those of his regiment were in the Atlanta campaign, March to the Sea, and the Campaign of the Carolinas. Datelined: In trenches near Atlanta, Georgia, August 7th 1864, in part “ I think it is necessary for me to make an explanation & clear the matter up as best as I can, or my carefully studied love making for the last six years might accidentally or providentially meet with disaster, which might become irreparable so as forever to cut the cord that binds us and separate us for ever, of which I have but little desire. In the first place, to clear up this matter you should have given the name of the lady to whom I have been accused of corresponding to. In the second place, you should have stated whether you seen the photograph or not & if it was mine, for as it is now, you only have the sensationist’s word for it & neither you or I are convinced that the photograph is mine. So as the thing now stands, I am not the guilty one & have no forgiveness to ask. But when it is proven that I have deceived, or tried to deceive you, then I will most sorrowfully ask your pardon. ... ou say that your confidence in me is shaken—that it had been laboring in a great mistake. Now I don’t think that you have as yet any reason to make such a remark. You have had no substantial evidence that I am corresponding with a lady in Lebanon, Ohio, & have sent her my photograph with the intention of making love to her. ... I see by your last letter that you are not yet aware of the death of Paul but ere this reaches you I have no doubt that you will know all. We are shelled by the enemy & in return shell the enemy every day. They throw over sometimes sixty-four pounder shells about the size of a gallon jug thirteen inches long, six inches in diameter 18 inches in circumference. It has powder in them the grains of which is the size of a hazel nut. One of these shells exploded near the trenches of the 14th Corps killing & wounding fourteen men....”
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