July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
A great Union soldier's battle of Antietam, 5pp. 8vo., letter written by Pvt. William Carr, Co. I, 12th Mass. Vols., "Camp near Sharpsburg, October 18, 1862", Carr was killed in action at Gettysburg and can be found buried today in plot MA C-13 in the Gettysburg National Cemetery, in part : "…it was a mistake about our Regt. going into the fight at Antietam under Col. Bates he was not with us at the time. I dont think he held a commission as Col at that time. We went into the fight on the morning of the 17th under the command of Major Burbank who was wounded in the early part of the fight, and after he was wounded and taken from the field we were commanded by one of our captains and it was not true about our going into the fight with 500 men. All we had when we went into the fight was 325 men, and out of that number we had 224 killed & wounded, and some missing. We were in the fight two hours and a half and then, were ordered to fall back and let a new Division take our place, which we did in good order. There was only thirty two of us, and 3 commissioned officers that left the field with the colors. We had in our company 38 men when we went into the fight and we had 8 killed & 24 wounded. Myself and orderly sergt were the only ones of our company to fall back with the colors. I had many narrow escapes that day, but came out all right. A shell exploded by my side and carried away a portion of the seat of my pants, a rifle ball passed through my haversack another struck my gun, but I came out of it safe and am ready if needed to meet the enemy again…". VG.
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