Raynors HCA 2015-02
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/19/2015
War-date Union soldier's letter, 5pp. 8vo., written by William H. Hibbard [DOD at Baton Rouge, 6/25/63], Co. B, 160th New York Vols., Key West, [Fl.], Dec. 21, 1862, in part: "…[we] expect to go about 500 miles farther to Ship Island…I don't know how long we shall stay on the Island. General Banks is a goin to make a strike sum whare…Key West is a very nice place. It is very warm…trees look green, grass looks green, roads dusty. Jim & I went out this morning & picked all the lemons & oranges…the trees do look with such nice fruit on [them]…I…went to bed a good many nights with a few pieces of raw pork & a cracker. If the rebels live worse then we…they will soon die. We wont have to shoot them. We had a pretty rough time a coming from New York. The old ship stood on the end once & a while. The engine broke, some of the sailing poles broke & rope flew all away & we run on a sand bank…the colonel [Charles C. Wright]…was so scared…I wish the buger wode go into a fit & never come out of it. There ant a boy on the ship that likes him. He will get shot in the neck if he don't look out. I donut like the captain [Henry P. Underhill] as well as I did. He don't hardly speak to the boys. Lieut. [Lorenzo] Wheelock is a man. He will do anything that he can to please the boys…I expect that Banks is a going to try to take Mobile…it will be a tough job. The rebels are pretty strong…if I ever enlist to fight for slaves again it will be when I am crazy. I never saw a niger until I came down south. Some of the damnest looking blacks here I ever saw. They don't look like human beings. They look like some beast that was never heard of…direct to New Orleans, Company B,160 reg. N. Y. S. V…". Unsigned but complete. Also included is the original stamped transmittal cover.
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