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Lot 327
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CT Soldiers Write Home During Civil War - 9 Letters Total, With Great Content!
CT Soldiers Write Home During Civil War - 9 Letters Total, With Great Content!
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Description:

Civil War
various, ca. 1854-1865
CT Soldiers Write Home During Civil War - 9 Letters Total, With Great Content!
Archive

[CIVIL WAR.] Archive of antebellum, Civil War, and immediate postwar letters, ca. 1854-1865. 1 document, 9 letters, 5 from the Civil War.

This family archive of letters contains three antebellum and six Civil War letters with rich content. One of the prewar letters discusses the manufacture of wire near Worcester, Massachusetts. The Civil War letters discuss army morale, camp life in Virginia and Louisiana, Connecticut politics, and the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln. The final letter, though fragmentary, seems to have been written after the war, but reflects on the sounds of the artillery during the war.

Contents and Excerpts

- Partially Printed Document Signed, Marriage Certificate of Edwin Minder and Ellen Rathbun, June 8, 1854, Mystic River, Connecticut. 1 p., 7.75" x 10". Cellophane tape repairs to verso with discolorations to recto. With Autograph Document, "Descendants of Griswold Rathbun." 1 p., 10.5" x 7.25".

- "Martha?" Unknown, Autograph Letter, to Husband, October 13, 1859, Waterloo, [NY?]. 3 pp., 5.25" x 8".
"Baby & I are alone in the house all having gone to the Fair."
"I do not wonder that you are homesick & feel very sorry for you & hope I may soon be well enough to go out there.

- "Martha?" Unknown, Autograph Letter, to Husband, November 6, 1859, Waterloo, [NY?]. 3 pp., 8" x 9.75".
"The two grandma's think you ought to have left me here this winter. It would have been so much cheaper, however you can do as you think best. If you can afford it I am ready to come, although it is a great trial for me to leave my mother, & worse for her to part with me, & also a great trial to be separated from you, so you see I am divided betwixt two."

- John A. Henriques, Autograph Letter Signed, to Mary Henriques, March 26, [1860?], Quinsigamond, Worcester, MA. 2 pp., 5" x 8". With stamped, postmarked envelope.
"times are improving in the wire manufacturing business we send off from the mill now daily from eight to ten tons of wire enough any one would think to supply the whole known world but there are many more manufactories of the same kind in this state."

- Thomas E. Miner, Autograph Letter signed, to William H. Potter, January 6, 1863, "Camp Opposite Fredericksburg," Virginia. 6 pp., 7.75" x 9.75".
"I wrote you before that had just been decently whipped and I had begun to feel a degree of despondency that I had not felt before and our whole corps seemed to feel the same I find from actual observation that the removal of McClellan had a great deal to do with it.... What discourages me most is the way our Generals are checkmated at Washington and I think if the Pontoon trains had been here as ordered when we arrived here the Rebs would have been as badly whipped here as we are now, if not a good deal worse. After we had been on forced marches all the way from Harpers Ferry driving them all of the way and arrived here expecting to find the Pontoon Bridges ready to put down before they had time to fortify but had to wait about one month before they came by that time the enemy were so strongly fortified that it was next to an impossibility to drive them out."
"There is another thing that tends to discourage our boys that is so many of our line Officers resigning nearly half of them that came out here with us have resigned or are intending to do so."

- Thomas E. Miner, Autograph Letter Signed, to William H. Potter, n.d., "Camp Opposite Fredericksburg, VA." 4 pp., 5" x 8".
"the army is a good deal demoralized, but I do not know as you can blame them so much for there are large numbers of this army have not been paid for some 6 or 7 months.... I heard to day that there had already been fourteen deserted from that Regt since they were paid they say that they will not stay out here and their families left to suffer and the Government take no measures to pay them off."

- Samuel G. Rathbun, Autograph Letter Signed, to Bridget Potter, March 13, 1863, Camp Parapet, Louisiana. 12 pp., 5" x 8". On patriotic stationery; expected folds; general toning.
"We yet remain where we first encamped when we first landed. It is now about 3 months since we landed here & I do not know but we shall spend the rest of our time here. I had some hoped that we should have been allowed to have took a part in the capture of Port Hudson & Vicksburg which by the looks of things now will soon be commenced or at least they will be attacked but with what success time alone will tell. Commodore Farragut went up the river the other day with his fleet. The Gunboat Essex went up the river last Sunday. She is iron clad being one of those which were built at the west at the commencement of the war and was Com Porters Flag Ship and aided very materialy in the capture of Fort Donelson & Henry, and has inspired the Rebels on the river with terror at the mention of her name."
"All though our duty staying here is not as dangerous as it would be in the advance Yet it is none the less important on that account. For it is left to our brigade to prevent any approach to New Orleans & vicinity of the Rebels who might take it into their heads to try & recapture that place with all the vast government stores ammunition in it. The darkeys are still at work building a new parapet to the north of us & strengthening the fortifications around our camp which effectually prevents any approach by the Rebels."
"The question about the expiration of our time is still a question of debate yet. Some contending that our time will expire in 9 months from the 25th of June the day that we were first sworn in to the U.S. service, while some still more hopeful argue that our time commenced the day that we went into Camp or the day that the draft was ordered to go into effect. But I have come to the conclusion that we shall have to serve 9 months from the 10th of November the day that we were first mustered in allthough at that time we took no oath the mustering officer only calling our names. But time will solve the question."
"I did not imagine that the democrats would go against their interest so much as to put that copperhead Tom Seymour up for Governor of a State which so far may feel proud of her efforts in aiding the government in putting down this rebellion. Why is it that they are trying to discourage her sons that are battling for the union in different parts of it. Could they feel or see the sentiment of those which have been the longest in the service I imagine that they would think differently. I find that all the 3 years men of the old Regts that I have seen and talked with go in for fighting it out."
"I send you a N. O. Era of today in which you will see the resolutions of the 12th Conn to the people of Connecticut. This states the sentiments of the army better than I can tell it. I hope that you will give it a good circulation and show it to some of the Copperheads that you see. I have but little aprehension that the Copperheads will succeed in Connecticut. If they do my faith will be considerably shaken in the loyalty of that state.... there is not much of what might be called Politics at the present day. It is either loyalty or treason.

- "Ephraim," Autograph Letter Signed, to William H. Potter, March 19, 1864, n.p. 4 pp., 5.5" x 9". Expected folds; small separation at intersection of folds; includes stamped, postmarked envelope.
"There goes the Banjo & some of the boys are singing songs which makes my pen dance along on this sheet as if it was magical & i cannot vouch how the penmanship will be as long as they keep that plague thing still. Now they have gone after the fiddlers and i guess it will be pleasant to try & collect my thoughts after they get that fiddle in tune...."
"My Bunk Mate is nothing but a boy he is not over 17 yrs he belongs to Fall River & ranaway & enlisted his father i think is pretty well off for he has been petted a great deal.... i think we can make a soldier of him, his father talks of getting him out as a minor he is one of the new recruits but he is pretty good boy."
"Lets go in for the suppression of this Rebellion & then we can talk of taking comfort but while this is progressing i could not set down & see my country wrenched from us & i know there is not but one of me but my country has the use of my right arm in what ever capacity she requires it."

- Thomas E. Miner, Autograph Letter Signed, to William H. Potter, December 5, 1864, Near Chapin's Bluff, Virginia. 4 pp., 5" x 7.75". Separated on fold; includes stamped, postmarked envelope.
"Dear Uncle, I received your kind favor of Nov 29th and intended answering it sooner but could not on acct of ill health I have had the chills & fever for some time or rather I was taken with them some six or eight weeks ago, and it run into an intermittent fever like and has run me down pretty well.... I cannot steady my hand to write."
"You say that the reelection of Mr Lincoln was a glorious victory But you can hardly realize it seems to me how great a victory it was for before McLellan's letter of acceptance came out I did realy fear that the verry large majority of the soldiers would vote for him and a great many well meaning men at that But when his letter of acceptance cam out and the rebs cheering for Mc so strong and wanting him elected so bad I tell you it made soldiers open their eyes and form that time till they voted I was surprized to see the change in their sentiments and men that I surely thought till the last moment almost would go for Mc voted for Lincoln. I got a chance to vote in two or three days after I wrote you that letter and afterwards received a letter from Gov Buckingham in his own hand writing in regard to it hoping I would get a chance to vote."
"At present things look some more like a moove but which way I have not any idea you know soldiers are supposed to be know nothings and I claim to be one But there is one thing I do know that it is not much use trying to find out when or where there is to be a moove made and I for one have given up trying."

- Thomas E. Miner, Fragment of Autograph Letter Signed, to [William H. Potter?], n.d. [ca. 1865], n.p. [Connecticut?]. 2 pp., 5.25" x 8".
"ladies to have a smell of powder when they are practicing out there and hear how some of these 100 pounder rifled guns can speak and what music the shells make as they go screeching through the air, so that they can say they have heard them. They wish to hear them but I think after they have stood by and heard one or two of those large parrot guns fired they will be for backing out and hear them more at a distance for they make a little to much music when one gets verry near them."

Thomas Edwin Miner (1832-1887) was born in Connecticut. In June 1854, he married Ellen Rathbun (1836-1923) in Mystic River, Connecticut, and they had at least six children. He was mustered in as a private in Company C of the 21st Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in September 1862. He mustered out with his regiment on June 16, 1865. By 1870, he lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was a coal shipper. In 1880, he was back in Connecticut, living in Groton and working in iron manufacturing.

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) was born in Rhode Island, briefly attended Yale College in 1836, 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 (1872). In 1872, the legislature elected him as a member of the State Board of Education and trustee of the State Normal School, and he was reelected in 1876. From 1876 until his death, he served as a probate judge in the Groton district. 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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