July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union letter unsigned but most likely by Chaplain Horace Winslow, 5th Connecticut Infantry, 7pp. octavo, pencil, Hartford Post, June 7, 1862, with cover addressed “5 Regt Conn. Vol. Hartford Post” and reads with good content “...We have as yet seen no detailed account of the operations of the 5th in the recent battle at Winchester, and therefore present to our readers, with great pleasure, the following extract from a letter, written to a gentleman of this city by one of the officers of the Regt: ‘On Saturday, the 25th of May, the regiment started about sunrise...for Winchester. The Regiment marched all day, with brief halts, and arrived at Winchester 24 miles about 8PM. The train having been attacked on the road from Strasburg the men were ordered to leave their knapsacks by the road under a small guard, and proceed to the threatened point. These knapsacks were subsequently captured and when at Winchester the regiment were without blankets and the ordinary conveniences which the men take with them; and they would have been supperless had they not been provided from the train by the thoughtfulness of Col. Chapman....About 5 o’clock in the morning the firing from the enemy began, and the shells fell upon the brigade and upon all sides of the 5th which occupied the center. As the fire of the enemy began we the officers were at their post and the regiment was at once put in position so this first brigade of only three regiments there were nine opposed by the enemy, but there was no retreat of the ground for three hours, and not then till an order to retreat came from Genl. Banks. In this fierce fight with vastly superior odds, the 5th Connecticut were, in the bearing of the men and officers, all that could be asked or desired. Thought they escaped with comparatively slight loss, it were not so with the enemy that opposed them. At one time a North Carolina regiment came down upon them, bold with the consciousness of superior numbers and when within a few rods the boys poured in a volley which tumbled them to the ground like sheep. At this time, had they received an order they would have charged the enemy with the bayonet...the 5th came off in perfect order, and though followed by the enemy’s batteries for miles and fired on by the citizens they kept their ranks and with the 28th New York which vied with them in noble deeds they marched about 40 miles...No Union forces have fought such superior odds as this Army of Genl. Banks in this late battle at Winchester...” Fine condition.
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