Description:

3 Union Soldiers' Letters During Lead Up to the 1864 Presidential Election

A group of three letters from Private Alfred A. Thayer, Co. C, 96th Ohio Battalion, to his wife Annie. Dating from August 31-November 9, 1864, the letters cover the lead-up to the presidential election of 1864, including Lincoln's run against John C. Fremont. All have retained their original transmittal covers. All with mail folds and varying degrees of toning and soiling. Some contemporary ink smudges. Please refer to the photographs for further condition information.

Includes the following (with Thayer's phonetic spelling and grammatical errors corrected):
1. August 31, 1864, New Orleans. 4pp: "…was very sorry to hear of John's sickness…&also to hear of Morris & Wash Hyatt for they were both very fine men & also of Mr. Davis being sick. I think if he has done his share in the war not to do any more if the war lasts 5 years. I think sometimes it will last a long time yet although some parts are going very favorably now…if the plague rebels at home were all cleaned out it would be better for us & I like the job of helping do it. I think the presidential election will have a great deal to do with it. Some think old Abe is the man, others think John C. Fremont is the one. Give me the man that will put the war through double quick. Don't you say so for we are losing good men everyday & I think we have lost plenty now. I hope Joseph Jacob will have good luck in recruiting enough to get a conscript. It is a good time to recruit for this climate for it will soon get cool…the recruits have died off pretty fast this summer the most in the hospitals is new recruits…"

2. September 16, 1864, Morganza Bend, Louisiana. 4pp: "…we have a very nice camp & splendid spring water in the bank of the river which you hardly ever see in our regt..the troops are camp 4 or 5 miles along the river & not a spring so we are lucky once we have our camp fix up very nice tents set up from the ground & board all round. Every fellow a good bunk up from the ground…when the soldiers get home they can all build their own houses. You would laugh to go through the camp & see the different fixes that we have. Hardly two alike but all very nice…I would rather sleep with a woman every time then a man Annie. How is the excitement about the election. I think I can go old Abe again but there is some McClellan men here, but I don't believe in electing a peace man so we will lose all we have and tt is better to fight a little longer while we are at it. Give old Abe a little time & he will do it all right…"

3. November 9, 1864, Arkansas. 6pp:"…It was reported there was a gang of rebels so the colonel took of our regt. & the 83 Ohio & started out left the other three of our brigade on the boat but we got to the plantation where they was &
they were gone. The people on the plantation said they had been gone 2 hours so we started after them and marched till dark & started back & sent word for the boats to come up where were so as to save 4 miles on march but it got so dark & rained very hard so they could not see so we went in to nigers quarters for the night without a blanket & if ever you see boys enjoy them selves we did for there was plenty of every thing cattle, hogs, chickens, honey, cornmeal pork beef so we cook & eat all night & carried between 2 & 3 hundred onto the boat beside sweet potatoes & fresh pork & beef…we went on the boat down the river 12 or 15 miles to a town call Newpolen. It is a little town only 5 men live there so we went to work…There was a large & very fine hospital there but no patients but a family lived in it to take care of it…After we got through voting [in the presidential election] & it rained very hard & it was a perfect mud hole worse than a barn yard…I got them papers. They are good papers, but the election our regt polled 264 votes & only 20 for Mack. Bully for old Abe. He will be elected by large majority [if] ever a president was…"

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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