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Lot 326
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CT Soldier Describes Serving Alongside Black Soldiers & Emancipation Proclamation!!! Unique & Fantastic
CT Soldier Describes Serving Alongside Black Soldiers & Emancipation Proclamation!!! Unique & Fantastic
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Description:

Civil War
Camp Parapet, LA, February 5, 1863
CT Soldier Describes Serving Alongside Black Soldiers & Emancipation Proclamation!!! Unique & Fantastic
ALS

[CIVIL WAR.] Samuel G. Rathbun, Autograph Letter Signed, to William H. Potter, February 5, 1863, Camp Parapet, [Louisiana]. 6 pp., 7.25" x 9.25", 5" x 8". Repaired separations on folds; general toning; on patriotic stationery; includes envelope postmarked in New Orleans.

The "negros...are very handy & most of them quite intelligent, seeming to understand their present condition in regard to their masters & the Presidents proclamation a great deal better than most of the whites."

This excellent and lengthy letter by a Connecticut volunteer near New Orleans to his uncle in Mystic River, Connecticut, describes Camp Parapet, an earthworks fort a mile upriver (west) from New Orleans that extended from the Mississippi River on the south to Lake Pontchartrain on the north. The letter includes details about African American contrabands who were arriving by steamer to work on the levee and the fortifications; President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; the volunteer's assessment of several generals; other war news; his health; and the fate of several soldiers in his Company K of the 26th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He also expresses his appreciation for issues of the "New York Tribune" that his uncle had sent, a publication that would have been quite unwelcome in Louisiana a year or two earlier.

Complete Transcript

"Camp Parapet Feb 6 1863

Mr William H. Potter

Dear Sir

I received yours of Jan 20th yesterday and I was glad to hear of yours & Aunt B. improved health, as well as my folks being pretty well. I am quite well at present, & have been helping cook for the Officers Mess. for a few days back. The officers have fixed up a tent with a large stove & all the equipments & we cook whatever they want or the market affords which is not of as much a variety as we get at the north. But we live first rate to what the privates do. For Breakfast we get or have fried flippers & Coffee with meat &c. But they are not hardly as good as those which Aunt B used to cook. We have Oysters sometimes Mackerel, Pork & Beef Hams, &c. but as for Fresh meat we have not been able to get any as yet. The work is not very hard as the Officers servants which are principly negros does the washing up of dishes, bringing water, cutting wood &c. They are very handy & most of them quite intelligent, seeming to understand their present condition in regard to their masters & the Presidents proclamation

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a great deal better than most of the whites. The contrabands continue to arrive most every day, in steamers from up the river and are landed here to work on the fortifications & levee in government employ. They are going to build a new fort to the north east of us, and there will be over 7,000 darkeys to work on them when they all get here. There was a steamer load arrived this morning & they are now landing on the Levee. The troops continue to arrive & depart most every day. 4 companies of the 50th Mass, which had been here for a few days, left for up the river day before yesterday & the 6th Michigan took their place. They are a 3 years Regt & have been out here for some time. The 162nd New York have gone away. We are brigaded with the 15th N.H the 162nd N.Y & the 50th Mass & 1 other Regt which is here, but I think that is only for the time being. As Gen Neal Dow has been assigned the command of the troops on the line of the Parapet, Gen Dow was up here the other day & reviewed the brigade. He is quite a small man with long grey hair & lean face but with a keen eye which looked as if he could look right through you. Whether the old fellow is as great a tactitian as he was a preacher I supose remains to be seen. I hear that Gen Grant is preparing for another attack on Vicksburg. I hope he will prove sucessful this time. Of the operations of the forces of Gen Banks & the fleet of Com Faragut

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I have heard nothing of late. The rumor that Vicksburg was taken which I wrote to you in my last probably arose from the Capture of Arkansas Post which proves to have been a brilliant affair. The canal which was dug last year up to Vicksburg has been deepened so by the high rise of the water that there has been one or more steamers pass through. It will probably be so in a little while that the largest vessels can go through. I am of the impression that it will be the best policy to surround and starve them out for it will be quite an easy matter to cut the Rail Road on Both sides of the river. But it is bound to fall & I think that the Stars & Stripes will wave over it before long. Gen Rosencrantz seems to be menaced by a large army under Gen. Longstreet. I hope that he has been reinforced at least as much as the rebels have. He is undobtaly one of our best generals. I am glad to hear of Bob Clifts safety & his position as adjutant. I read Wm Browns address and thought it first rate. It seems that a large number of your pupils are in the army & navy. I supose some of them are in the Rebel army for I think that some of your Brandon pupils are in the rebel army. I am sorry to hear

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of Elishas secesh sentiments but I am inclined to think that he does not mean as bad as he writes or that they have been hardly dealt with by some officers which should be no excuse for denouncing the Government for they (that is) the President & Congress mean to do as well by the soldier as is in their power but with so many to look out for there is of necessity a great many that are overlooked or are cheated out of their just due by Government officials & speculators. But the cause for what we are fighting for remains the same. There is a great many there who blame the Government for every privation that they undergo say that they did not enlist to fight an abolition war &c. To be sure the difference between the Officers and privates is great but I doubt very much if they take any more comfort than the privates. It is just 2 months to day since we left New York. The time seems to pass very quickly & if nothing happens it will be but a short time really before our time is out. The health of Co K. remains pretty good as yet. They have 2 at the Hospital one by the name of Pruscius Bailey who is sick with the acute Rheumatism & one by the name of Thomas Shirley sick with the fever & he is very low. and the Doctor has given him up. He has been sick some time & was not of a very strong constitution. His father used to live on Grandfather Rathbun's place that he sold to Mr Prentice. He has a brother in the Co. Quite a number of the Boys are off of duty on account of being rather unwell. There has another load of
Contrabands just arrived from up the river. There is a considerable number of them to work on the Levee which needs repairing very much. The river is now about 16 feet higher than it was when we came. It is about the only water we get to drink, but it is rendered quite clear by

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putting alum into it. I have enjoyed pretty good health of late & I now weigh more than I ever did before. I supose that the rations make some difference for it is hard growing fat on Salt rations. It must be quite healthy to Mystic now for I do not see many deaths in the paper. I will close
for to night & finish in the morning.

Saturday Morning Feb 7

I have just finished a letter to my Parents & I will try & send this by the same mail. Poor Thomas Shirley died last night about 9 OClock. He was a fine fellow and a faithful Soldier & the Co will feel his loss very much

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His funeral will take place at 4 o'clock this afternoon. His body will be sent home at the expense of the Co, which will probably be over $100.00 as they will get a metallic coffin. He has a brother here in the Co & a mother & 2 sisters at home. It will probably be a great consolation to them to have the body sent home, and it is the intention of the Co to send home all the bodys if there is any more of those who die if it is in our Power. Poor Chauncey Wilcoxs death was quite unexpected to me as when he left Mystic he was the very picture of health. But death seems to know but little difference between the weak & the Strong. I shall write more next time. And now I will close by hoping that this will find you all well. I shall write to Kittie in a few days. I Remain your Aff Nephew

S G. R

[Marginal postscript:] I am much obliged to you for those Tribunes which one is not afraid to have here at the present time. Quite a contrast with a year or two ago. Love to Aunt B. and all the folks. S G Rathbun."

Samuel Griswold Rathbun (1821-1903) was born in Connecticut. He moved to Mystic as a young man and became a ship fastener in several shipyards. In 1840, he married Clarissa B. Dewey (1823-1893), and they had at least three children. He enlisted as a private in Company K of the 26th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in September 1862 and was mustered in on November 10. On December 4, 1862, the regiment left Brooklyn for New Orleans, where it arrived on December 16. The regiment disembarked at Camp Parapet, a large enclosure between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. In May 1863, the regiment moved to Baton Rouge and from there to Port Hudson, where it participated in the siege and capture of that Confederate stronghold on July 8. The regiment returned to Connecticut, and Rathbun was mustered out on August 17, 1863, with his regiment. In the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses, Rathbun is listed as a fisherman in Groton.

William H. Potter (1816-1887) briefly attended Yale College and became a school teacher and insurance agent. In 1842, he married Bridget Rathbun (1824-1899), and they had at least two children. He taught school for many years in Mystic River (part of Groton), Connecticut. From 1851 to 1855, he was head of the Brandon Female Academy in Brandon, Mississippi. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church in Mystic, Connecticut, for forty years. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him as an assistant assessor of internal revenue, a position he held for four years. He later served in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1869-) and the Connecticut Senate. He died in Mystic.

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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  • Dimensions: 7.25" x 9.25", 5" x 8"
  • Medium: ALS

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