1863 – Letter from a soldier in the 25 Connecticut Volunteer Infantry written March 1863 during the Bayou Teche campaign as the unit skirmished its way from Port Hudson, Louisiana, to Brashear City at Berwick Bay in preparation for General Nathaniel Bank’s Overland Expedition into Texas later that fall
Donaldsonville, Louisiana: 1863. Envelope or Cover. This three-page letter from Private Edwin Thorne at Donaldsonville, Louisiana to his mother in Connecticut is dated “March 30 / 60”. It is enclosed in its original mailing envelope which bears a New Orleans arrival postmark dated April 6, 1863. Simultaneously, the envelope received an oval “Held for Postage” handstamp because when Thorne mailed it without a stamp, which was permitted, he neglected to write “Soldier’s Letter” on the front, and as a result it was delayed at the New Orleans post office until someone affixed a 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #65) in the upper left-hand corner. The letter then received a second New Orleans postmark dated June 4, 1863 and was sent on its way to Connecticut. The letter is in nice shape; the envelope has been opened on two sides and show some postal wear.
In the letter Thorne describes his regiment’s activity after it skirmished on the bank of Mississippi at Port Hudson. The letter reads in part:
“We left Baton Ruge Friday March 28th about sun down on board the Transport St Mary and . . . arived at this place about 9.o Clock the same night it rained most of the night and we had to tought it out on the ground but we got our tents up the next day. . ..it has ben very could indeed and most likely in a day or two it will be so dosed hot to rost a person. . .. Dolensonvill is about 40 miles from Baton Ruge and is on the Operset side it is a small place and is divided in the middle by a Byiu witch runs into the river thearse is also a small foart with mounts about 20 guns thear is about 10 Thousand Trupes heare and 3 or 4 Batterys and more coming we Expect to leave heare to night or tomorrow . . . bound fore Texas as fare as I can larn. we are now to march to Liberdor that is south east from here about 30 miles and from thear we are to go to Frazor {Brashear] City or Berbick [Berwick] Bay . . .. Thearse is a Railroad [the New Orleans Opelousas & Great Western Railroad] . . . to Berbick Bay and we may have a chance to ride part of the way any way we shall have . . . plenty of Rebals”
. Very good. Item #009937The overnight spent in the frigid rain on 28 March is referred to the regimental history as “Camp Misery,” and one of the unit’s quartermaster sergeants is credited with saving “many a man’s life” by riding through the nighttime storm to bring back coffee from Baton Rouge. From Donalsonville, the 25th fought its way through several more skirmishes until loading into boats that sailed through Atchafalaya bayou to Irish Bend where it drove “the enemy before us through the entire valley of the Tech from its mouth to its source. . .. Four engagements and 300 miles march in twenty days” during which time of its 350 soldiers, 96 were killed or wounded.
(For more information, see Bissell’s Brief History of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, from the pen of Colonel George P. Bissell, available online.)
A fine first-hand account, enclosed in its unusually-handled mailing envelope, of a seldom-remembered campaign that cleared rebel forces from Bayou Teche in south-central Louisiana in preparation for General Bank’s follow-on Overland Texas Expedition later that fall.
.Price: $400.00