Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
For many years all Civil War collectors have heard of the "Dog River" sword factory. In fact, the Dog River Cotton Factory was a cotton mill located five miles southwest from Mobile, Alabama along the banks of the Dog River. The cotton mill/factory, consisting of a factory and small hollow square village for workers, was owned exclusively by Col. Garland Goode. The factory met with disaster in September 1861 when the factory's main building burned to the ground in an accidental fire. The factory's village was spared, though, and subsequently the remaining buildings were used as a recruitment camp for fresh Southern volunteers who flocked to the Confederate cause from Alabama. We are pleased to offer here a rare find for the Confederate collector and are certain that the new owner of this letter will be pleased to help dispel the long held belief that there was such a place known as the "Dog River" sword factory. Indeed, it was a Confederate recruitment camp known as Camp Goode and this letter shows that the comfortable quarters at the Dog River Factory would be sorrily missed by these new recruits. A great war-date Confederate soldier's letter(s) written to Martha J. Wideman of Gaston (Post Office), Sumter Co., Ala., Dog River factory, [Camp Goode], Mobile, Ala., July 18, 1862. The front of the letter was written by Pvt. Thomas Wideman, Co. A, 40th Alabama Vols., reads, in part: "Dear sister…yesterday was the first day I have drilled since I have been here. We are going to move from here two miles from Mobile. We will commence moving tomorrow. I had rather stay here for we have good houses here to stay [in] and when we leave here we will have to go in tents. There is some sickness here…there is about 40 sick in the hospital…Alexander Paterson [Pvt. James A. Patterson] died night before last. He requested the capt. before he died to send him [home] but he could not get him off…there was one of our regiment [who] shot two of his fingers off in order to try to get a discharge, but I think he will miss it. I do not like a soldier's life much nor do I…believe any on else does. Since we have got a new commissary we fare a good deal better in the way of provisions. We get plenty to eat…your Brother, Thomas Wideman. On the verso, Pvt. Edward G. Hammond writes, in part: "…we are a going to move from here tomorrow in two miles of Mobile. I am in the hospital a waten [waiting] on the sick…it is hard work seten up [setting up] so much, but I stand it fine…I hope I will stay in good health for it is the great blessing of God. It is through his goodness that it is so. I hear of fighting every day or two but not near here and I don't look for it…E. G. Hammond to M. J. Wideman." Hammond's phonetic spelling has been corrected. Also included is the original transmittal cover with a double pair of five-cent Jeff Davis stamps postmarked Mobile, Ala., July 19, 1862. Overall VG.
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