Raynor HCA 2014-04
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/1/2014
A rare war date Confederate soldier's letter, 3pp. 4to., written by Corp. William S. Walls, Co. E, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry, signed "W. S. W.", Richmond, Va., March 29, 1865 to his mother Clementina Wall of Cynthiana, Kentucky. Wall served in the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry under the command of Confederate General Basil Duke and was captured during John Hunt Morgan's raid into Ohio in July 1863. He was confined at Ohio State Penitentiary until just before the close of the war and provides us here a fascinating account of life in the Confederate capital just before the evacuation of the city written just two days after his release, in part: "…I have an oppor[tunity] of sending a letter through the lines by underground RR…I am still with Cousin Hamilton who treated me with the greatest kindness…on arriving here we received 12 months pay and a furlough of 30 days unless sooner exchanged. Some of the boys are remaining here, and some are going off…[to] their commands…I will leave here…for Alabama & Georgia…I will be able to get a horse there…Ed Boswelll of Paducah, left two horses with his brother in law and says that I can have one of them…Richmond is a gay place, and except in the high price of every thing, I can see but little difference between it and other cities. Every thing is plenty. The stores can furnish any article called for, and the streets are full of gaily dressed ladies. For gold, or silver, a man can live cheaper here than in New York, but for Confed. money it requires a small fortune a day. It used to be, that persons carried baskets to market to bring home their purchases, but now they find baskets necessary to carry the money required. I have, but a few minutes since, had a plate of very fine ice-cream in as fine and well furnished saloon, as can be found in Cincinnati, or Louisville. The bill was only $5.00 (cheap). There is no fighting, particularly going on, along our lines, now, nothing more serious than an occasional skirmish. In the little affair near Petersburg the other day, we trounced the Yankees finely. The day after the fight I saw 500 prisoners…carried down to Libby Prison. Yesterday there was near 500 of Sherman's men brought in. They were a miserable dirty looking set of fellows…I could not help feeling pity for them. Having just been delivered from Rock Island…I can appreciate…their condition and prospects. I have seen none of the dejection, and scare, among the citizens of Richmond, which Northern accounts led me to expect- on the contrary, business is just as brisk, and the people just as lively, as if Grant's Army was a hundred miles away. If there is any intention to evacuate Richmond, it requires some one better posted than I am…there are guns enough to fence in half of Harrison County and every arrangement for the defense of this place is got up on a stupendous scale. Sherman seems…to have run against an obstacle in his 'march of triumph'…of my trip from Prison…we were well treated … The guards…did treat us, or rather those of us who had a little money, better than we expected. The officer (a little, excitable Dutch lieutenant…) put us to all the discomfort he dared - closed car doors and windows…wherever we stopped…would not allow us to speak to citizens, and drove off all the peddlers…that came near us - frequently refused to allow us to have water, when the men were almost suffocating with thirst … It was almost as bad as remaining in Prison. The Yankees would not…allow us to buy bread & pies…from the pedlers, but would buy it themselves, and let us have it, at double…cost. At night, when we would lie down in the heat to sleep, they would steal the boys hats & blankest &c. and many poor boys came around bare headed… " Some toning along folds, else very good.
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