Raynors 2012-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/27/2012
A great war-date Union officer's battle letter, 4pp. 8vo, written by Lieut. William H. Mickle, as an officer on Hooker's staff, "Office of Chief Commissary, 20th Army Corps" stationery "June 23, 1864", to his wife describing the death of his friend artillery Capt. Wheeler and the battle of Kolb's Farm, in part: "…I have the sad news of the death of my esteemed friend Capt. Wheeler…he was shot through the heart, yesterday while planting his battery to check a charge that the Rebs were making on our Corps. He was a gallant young officer & his death is lamented by all the rank & file…from Genl. Hooker down to the…private. We had his body embalmed and tomorrow a. m. start his remains in charge of a man of his battery for Chattanooga where a metallic coffin will be procured & he sent to his sorrowing friends. He has mother two lovely sisters & a brother- a captain also in the hands of the Rebs as a prisoner of war…we have campaigned without rest for nearly sixty days. Yesterday the enemy massed against our Corps but we repulsed them with great slaughter it was the most sublime & exciting fights I ever beheld. We knocked their lines into such confusion with our battery that an entire corps was mixed into a confused mass & ran like sheep. It cost us but few men but the Rebs lost terribly!! If I don't write often you must not feel alarmed as I have a great deal to do especially on fighting days…I shall be careful not to rush into danger. How I would like to have had you seen that Rebel charge…it was…splendidly repulsed. There was no special danger on a certain hill where you could have seen the whole affair…we are slowly gaining on them & as soon as Grant crushes Lee we will endeavor to give Johnston his last blow…". Also included is the original stamped transmittal envelope. Raising to the rank of captain, Mickle served faithfully throughout the remainder of the war, was wounded at Gettysburg, and serving as a staff officer for Generals Howard, Hooker, and Sherman. Near fine
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