July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union soldier Autograph Letter Signed by John W Parker 45th Illinois, 4pp. octavo, Camp Douglass, Washburns Lead Mine Regiment, Company G, Chicago, December 3, 1861, with patriotic cover franked “Soldier’s Letter M[elancthon]. Smith Major 45th Il. [Died of Wounds]” it reads in part: “...When we came here our barracks was not ready so that we had to camp in the Republican wigwam. This is where the Republican convention was held...The second regiment of the Douglass brigade leaves here tomorrow...they are bound for St. Louis. The cavalry have got their horses and bridles and saddles. They all admire our arms very much. I suppose you know that we have got, the Enfield rifles with saber bayonet. We have got all our equipment and forty thousand rounds of cartridges. Our regiment has got seven hundred in all and are as well drilled as any on the ground...One of the boys that belonged to Company D of the Douglas regiment stole $50. He was drummed out of camp, the fellow was taken out of the guard house and two men with guns placed before him, one on each side and two behind him at a charge bayonet, the band behind him the regiment formed in two lines, then the band played the rogues march and marched out of the camp.. They cut all of the buttons of his uniform and cut a piece of the front of his cap, they marked him with a T made on his face, the cross across his forehead and the stem down over the nose and chin. When they marched him along he trembled so that his cap would not stay on his head....” Fine.
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