Raynors HCA 2015-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/3/2015
Confederate officer's letter, 2pp. 8vo., written by Lt. Alexander Porter Morse, CSA Ordnance Department, "The Haunted House, Shelbyville, [Tenn.], Feb. 20, 1863, to his parents, in part: "I am sitting before a cheerful fire, in an old house which is…150 ids from the headquarters of the O. L. H. Our mess…occupy a comfortable room…our mess cook a very fine one…who has been cooking for Nathan's mess at Jackson, Mississippi is just now engaged in roasting a fine leg of mutton…on my birth day I came very near "going up" as we say it in the army; a James shell threw dirt all over me. We had quite a lively time of it in the 7 days…gentle passage of arms. It will take 3 months to tell all I have seen during the past year. The pleasures, the pains, the incidents, the anecdotes, the jokes & experiences…I got to Catoosa Springs where I spent one month dancing, riding…on my own horse with young ladies. Miss. G. Dillon of Savannah was there. Nath spent the last week there with me. The springs are just 24 miles from Chattanooga. I found it hard to part from him. I have written you several letters and 2 to Frank. I was so sorry that he died perhaps thinking I forgot him. When the news…reached me…the salt water welled up into my eyes…one letter…was written while I was on a flag of truce [boat]…my sorrel horse Sky-rocket, a purchase made at Chattanooga proved himself at Bardstown on the racetrack to be the fastest horse for a mule in the company…I have more money now than I had when I left made, of course, in a gentlemanly way…I say a short prayer every night for all of us and for poor Frank…I should like this roving, rollicking, joking adventurous life above all. There is just enough danger to make it exciting…having gone through such a dance as the one at Perryville, Murfreesboro…we soldiers never dreamt till we were entirely deprived of it, the inestimable value of refined Ladies society [that] there will be a fearful epidemic of matrimony as soon as Peace is declared…". Unsigned, but we feel it is complete. VG
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