Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
A great war-date Union brother's battle letter, written on "Prisoners of War" adversity stationery, 4pp. folio, by Pvt. A. A. Rudder and his brother Sergeant Robert P. Rudder, both of the 6th Tenn. (Union) Vols., Atlanta, Ga., July 30, 1864. A. A. Rudder's letter, reads, in small part: "…I am still with [1st Lt. & Quartermaster] Lut. H[enry] H. Wiley. He cant do without me. I expect to stay with him till my time is out and that will be next April…we are killing time mighty fast…I am now driving the wagons and doing the blacksmithin…we are now laying in sight of the town booming away on the rebs day and knight…the sound of the cannon has become as common to me as the sound of hammer in the shop…we commenced on the rebs the 10th of May and we have been in the hearing of the cannon…most of the time…they make us lay pretty low…we never notice them without the nock down five or six horses and a man or two. Then we being to hunt our holes…I go out every day and get forage of all kinds for the mules…I am getting pretty well acquainted round Atlanta…most of the folks are gone and left all they had in the house…I have been in some houses where the beds was all torn up and the feather was knee deep…we are not in possession of Atlanta yet…we will have the town in a few days. We are nearly all round the town but the rebs can get out if they want…I don't know whether our men want to surround them or let them go out. I believe our men wants them to go out…I would like to go as far as Charleston, South Carolina before my time is out…we have lost about one hundred since we came in Georgia…I expect to serve my time out if I live. There is nothing in the world would get me to go into another such war…I think too much of my family…the rebs begun it [and] I what them to have their rights and they are getting them fast. Their was ten thousand of them got their rights…yesterday. They tried to charge threw our lines but they did not get up to our works. Our men more then killed them. We lost about too thousand killed and wounded. We drove them out of their works. We now occupy them. We hold all the ground. The war is going on to please me but three years is long enough…if I live to get home to live a sober life and quiet life…it is hard business to be a private soldier…a old man…have seen a heap of up and down but I am not thirty years old…you think you have saw sights but you never…A. A. Rudder. Next Sergeant Robert P. Rudder's letter, reads in part: "…we have stirring times down here even now…they [are] fighting pretty heavy on the South side of town. I can hear six cannon fire just as fast as they can…boom, boom, boom, boom…then about two minutes intervals & they turn loos again. It has been going this way for about one hour…there is no moment day nor night but either guns or cannon may be heard. We are on the east or northeast side of the town…our forces extend round to the opposite side…I think all the Rail Road are destroyed so the Rebs cannot get provisions…they are getting 'hard up'…Gen. Sherman is about to surround them…the fight of the 18th. A great many Rebs were killed…& not many of ours. This was…in rear and on the right. They fight just as bravely as our men, but we have too many for them. This is the only reason why we whip them. They are brave…as ever lived or died. I see..in the papers that we are in Atlanta; this is a mistake….we are very close on three sides, so close we can throw shell entirely over…could burn it up if we wanted to. You wanted to know what we do with the negroes. I don't know, but I guess most of them are sent to the rear…they are worthless creatures in the army. I can hear of them fighting way off somewhere but I have not seen it yet…I wish they were all in Africa where…they ought to be. I cannot tell when the 23rd Corps will come back…when we get Atlanta the campaign will end for a while, then…we will come to our own beloved East Tennessee where springs never failing flow with pure limestone water…Your Bro., R. P. Rudder." Archival repairs at splits, else other fold splits, otherwise VG.
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