1863 – Letter from a soldier in one of the most disgraced Union regiments of the Civil War reporting that it had been banished to Hilton Head Island as punishment for burning its barracks in Chicago and destroying a historic fence at Yorktown after it had been paroled following its ignominious surrender at Harper’s Ferry
Hilton Head, South Carolina. Envelope or Cover.
This four-page letter, sent by Jacob Brown to his father, is written on rather scarce patriotic stationery featuring a strutting rooster in red and blue, titled “Game Cock of Uncle Sam 1776 1862”. It is datelined “Head-quarters Hilton Reg’t Co. B. 115th regt / Hilton Head South Carolina Feb 6 1863”. It is enclosed in its original worn and soiled patriotic mailing envelope featuring a U.S. flag bearing a streamer reading “The Union Forever” with a legend that reads “Fast Colors. / Warranted Not to Run” that was once franked with three 1-cent blue Franklin stamps; two are now missing. It bears a double-circle Port Royal [South Carolina] postmark dated “Feb 7 1862”. A transcript will be provided.
The letter begins with a description of Hilton Head Island and a derogatory comment about African-Americans and President Lincoln’s recent Emancipation Proclamation.
“I take the Plesher once more to write a few lines to you to let you now that we moved again and that I am well yet as can be expetted for the change of Climate. . .. we haved had considerable of rain wile here and it rains two day witch makes it quite unplesent. . .. we are encamp on an Iland here with a large Fort and nearley surronded by gun Boats. . .. this Iland is a low marshey Country being as low as the tide of the Ochen . . . witch makes it unhelthey in warm weather and the soil is of a light sand and wen the wind blows it puts me in mind of a northern Snow Storm. . .. the water we have to drink flows through the marsh [which] is inhabited by them Butiful reptiles the Aligater. . .. last of all the niger witch feel quite aristeratic under Old master Abes Blackamation. . ..”
He then explains why his unit was reassigned to such an inhospitable place.
I am “confident of wat we was sent here for we was sent here under celled orders. . .. we was convicted and centenced by the secretary of war and sent here for Burning the Barracks and rase corse fense at Duglas Camp Chicago and our Pay stopt sinse we left yorktown the 22th of last month our Cornel is a going to Washington in a few day to have a reinstatement of the regiment. . .. it may go all wright yet eney way we will do the best of it. . ..”
. Very good. Item #010004On August 1862, the 115th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment broke camp at Fonda, New York and boarded train cars bound for Maryland to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and by 3 September had assumed defensive positions at Harper’s Ferry along with three other regiments. Their positions left much to be desired and failed to neutralize the surrounding high ground. General Lee’s Confederate Army was advancing up the Shenandoah Valley and elements of it surrounded Harper’s Ferry emplacing 50 cannons on Maryland Heights and beginning a fierce barrage into the town. Although the defenders knew that a relief column was on the way, before the Confederate attack began in earnest, the Union defenders surrendered in mass, over 12,400 men, although having only suffered 44 soldiers killed.
As part of the 115th parole agreement, it was sent to Chicago where it encamped at Camp Douglas and some nearby horse barns. There, quarters were poor, rations sparce and tainted, sickness common, and the soldiers sullen. By November, the troops refused to bear arms and conduct drill or perform guard duty. Regular army units brought in to control the mutiny were continuously pelted by stones and brickbats, eventually shooting at least one man who was trying to escape from camp.Eventually, the 115th and other mutinous units were summoned to Washington, and just before they boarded the departing trains, the soldiers torched their barracks. Arriving in Washington, the 115th encamped at Arlington Heights where its men were employed as laborers to strengthen defensive positions, before being shipped to Tidewater, Virginia to do the same. While there, members of the regiment destroyed a historic fence at the Cornwallis surrender sight, breaking it into small souvenirs that “are now in thousands of northern homes, preserved as relics.” Finally, the War Department had enough; all pay and allowances were stopped, and after the 115th was formally released from parole, preparations were made to ship it to the desolation of Hilton Head, where the men were plagued by poisonous snakes, swarms of mosquitos and sand fleas, and alligators while they awaited an even worse assignment.
On February 7th, the day after Broun wrote this letter, the 115th was in Jacksonville, Florida to begin a thankless and failed campaign to drive Confederates from Florida’s interiors. At the campaign’s climax, the defeat at the Battle of Olustee, the 115th performed well although its casualty rate of 50%. This apparently placated the War Department, and subsequently, the 115th was allowed to return to Virginia, where it performed well at the Battle of Petersburg and Broun was killed.
(For more information about New York’s 115th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, see Silo’s recent publication, The 115th New York in the Civil War: A Regimental History, and Clark’s hagiographic apologist history of his former unit, The Iron Hearted Regiment Being an Account of the Battles, Marches and Gallant Deeds Performed by the 115th Regiment N.Y. Vols. . ..) A very scarce first-hand account of life in one of the most discredited Union regiments of the Civil War. Nothing similar is for sale in the trade, and no similar accounts have appeared at auction per the Rare Book Hub. OCLC suggests that similar letters may be in a collection held by the Clements Library at the University of Michigan.
Price: $750.00