Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
A great war-date Union soldier's letter, 4pp. 4to., written by Pvt. Marquis L. Holt (signed M. L. Holt), Co. E, 3rd New Hampshire Vols., Hilton Head, South Carolina, Feb. 8, 1862, in part: "…quite a number of the regiments left the island…General Viele has been gone from here…the N. Y. 48th went and he has gone with them…when he is here we have aground review every Sunday…every man of common sense can see that the only way to settle this war is to make a move…had John Brown command of the army…we would start at Washington and march to Texas and wipe out every rebel as he goes…in the space of 2 months…look and see how the government is managing…they are trying to cause England and all of the foreign powers to take up arms against us…it makes me almost mad to think how things are carried on…we boast of the best army…yet with all these advantages…we lay down and let them trample over us…let the troops have their own way and in one month…there would not be a rebel in the United States…today this division could have had Savannah and Charleston…if they had only moved as soon as we had landed…while the Southerners were most frightened…now if we take them we shall have to fight for it…you cannot think what a great sight it is to see a white lady. Where ever the boys…they will stop and look as though they never saw a woman before…white women are very scarce down here and we don't see one [but] only in a great while. There are 2 or 3 lidys that live down to the wharf and some in the regiments …that is a small proportion to the men. We see negroe women enough…they come in and bring in stuff to sell most very day…they carry all their burdens on their heads. They will carry as much…as we can on our shoulders. Women here are (negro women) [?] the same as men. You would not think they were women…General Sherman has stopped the mail…the reason he stopped it was because they was making an attack on Fort Pulaski and he didn't want any account of it get[ting] north…".
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