Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
War-date Union soldier's letter, 15pp. 8vo., written by Sgt. Gustavus B. Williams (signed Gustavus), Co. K, 51st Mass. Vols., New Bern, N. C., Jan. 24, 1863, in very small part: "…the expedition was not a failure…'only' one or two cavalry [men] were killed and wounded and a few score disabled or utterly broken down by hardship…a bridge was destroyed at Trenton also a sawmill and other buildings and a large quantity of cotton…some deserted houses burned and pulled down at Polksville… a few score of guerrillas routed at Young's Cross Roads…three of them taken prisoners and several sabers captured and a bridge or two out that way burned…and 130 contrabands brought safely to Newbern and I trust permanent freedom. My scribble at Polksville told you that we 51st did not operate except Cos A & E at Trenton and the five Cos…having the advance…being in the front some 50 rods under Lieut. Thayer. We marched…about eight miles under orders to halt at Young's Cross Roads but Col. Sprague was ignorant of the country and asked Lieut. Thayer's servant when he had…reached the spot if that was not the place. The negro professed to know the road and said we must go on and when Thayer reached a bridge a half mile beyond…a rebel picket of the guerrillas party…fired on his little squad. The ball[s] hummed over his head. The Col. who was near wheeled his horse instantly and returned to the column. [He] halted [it] and formed it in line of battle in silence…for we were only about 300…and neither cavalry or artillery to help us…we retreated to Young's Cross Roads waited awhile [?] ourselves in line of battle…no enemy appearing we formed…near a house. One company being sent on picket and Lieut. T. with his platoon looking for a bridge the Col. expected to find…next came the order to our little band to lie on our arms without fire[s.] This if carried out would have killed many of us, all sweaty with marching, but after I had wrapped myself in my blankets…the cavalry…came clattering up and resto change. A hundred fires sprung up as by magic…next day…the rest of the brigade came up…the 51st was sent forward …on the left of the defile which might of been our grave…we found two rifled cannon planted commanding the bridge and were to support them while the cavalry went on and scoured the country…it rained [the] next day…about 8 1/2 o'clock we saw the contrabands, a motley crew, who had taken all the 'Widder Laundress'" property they could in her carts and on the backs of her mules and oxen…and chattels themselves and started for freedom. As they filed along in charge of Higginson's Co. how the men cheered and shouted. My heart was too full to shout. Poor creatures! Little children like ours were there in rags and dirt and many ten or twelve…plodding along barefoot, all with the silent patient look of a slave which I never realized before…free blacks around here don't have that look. They grow as our men say impudent. Thank God for that. I like to hear a black man or woman speak up, even threateningly sometimes…we must recognize negro's right to do what white men do even if it be the right to swear…anything but the cringe of an ox or a thousand times worse…a man's slave. I hope you'll never see it. I felt more heart in the fight that morning than ever before and trust the war will be yet 'for the nigger' what so many dread…we who were the rear guard…marched near them all day in a cold northeasterly rain. The road and water were awful, knee deep and the mud thick…all ice cold. We made a tremendous march clear to Newbern, 23 miles and the blacks…did the same. I have not seen…them since but suppose them in the negro quarters well fed and clothed as…all the blacks are though as us they get no money of Uncle Sam…". VG
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