Collection of 17th Connecticut Letters.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/21/2015

Collection of Union Civil War soldier eleven (11) military service letters written by Private then Sergeant Willis MacDonald, Co. F, 17th Connecticut Volunteers. The 17th Connecticut was organized in lower Fairfield County, Connecticut in late summer 1862 and were heavily engaged at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg before being shipped to the deep south serving in South Carolina and Florida for the remainder of the war. These letters date from November 1862 at the beginning of the regiment's service in field until mid 1864 while they were stationed at St. Augustine, Florida. Content the usual military content includes marching over the Bull Run battlefield and seeing the half buried bodies of the dead, being ordered to the front to during the battle of Fredericksburg, the death of a Connecticut colonel during the battle, the hard campaigning he experienced following the battle of Gettysburg and preparing for raids into Florida's rebel held countryside. All this plus the chance meeting of a fellow Nutmeger (and neighbor of his back home) who had recently married a Florida judge's daughter. All the original (mostly stamped) transmittal cover, plus two extra empty covers are included along with several dried flower relics. Overall VG. MAY 4, 2015: We have been asked to provide dates for this collection. the dates are as follows; 11/7/62 Gainesville VA, 2/19/62 Stafford Ct Hse, 1/4/63 Stafford Ct hse, 1/4/63 np Sabbath Eve, 2/22/63 Brookes Station, nd Thursday night Brookes Station, 4/2/63 Brookes Station, 7/22 Montville VA, 10/7/63 Alexander VA, nd but 5/3064 post mark St. Augustine, 7/26/64 St. Augustine, nd but post mark Augustine 11/64.Also a pencil letter, nd, np.

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