2022-11 Raynors HCA Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/18/2022
War-date Union soldier's letter, 4pp. 8vo., written by Pvt. Alfred A. Thayer, Co. B, 96th Ohio Vols., "3 miles of Vicksburg the battlefield, Mississippi, June 3, 1863," reading, in part: "-it is with pleasure that I am permitted to rite again-a little about Vicksburg. Our cannon is still playing on them all the time-our gun boats & mortar boats. There is several thousand. I don't no how many they didn't get to fire only once in a while. They cant get to load there cannon for our pickets. Ever[y] time they try they give them a volley that makes them draw back-if they do get one shot they get 5 or 6 shell poked rite i the port hole. That makes them dodge. Our pickets are within 30 yards of the fort. One of our pickets went from the breastwork & climbed up on the fort-shot rite in the fort & run back to his post-they did not shoot at him. They are so close together that they lay behind their breastworks & talk together. I expect will have to go to nite. We have been hear 4 nites. I have been on duty 2 nites. This is a pretty scary place. We are a maken such poor headway that I am afraid we will have to make another charge. We had one man [Corporal William W. Reed] shot today. He used to belong to our Reg. & was detailed in the 17th Ohio Battery. He was looking through the port hole. They spied him & let drive. It hit him on the arm & glanced. [It] went threw his mouth, threw one cheek & threw another check bone. I guess it will kill him [Reed survived, died 1891 in Mount Gilead, Ohio]-I was on detail the other nite. We were a laying on the bank & the first thing we new the shot fell around like hail-we hustled in the rifle pits. None of our relief got hurt, but the relief we were aging to relieve got shot rite in the breast. Before they could get-to him with a pair of stretchers to carry him off he died & three got wounded. They kept up fire for about one hour. Cannon played on them fast-this is the roughest country I ever seen. It is bluff after bluff & very poor water. The rebels are deserting all the time & say if they wasn't a friend of our pickets that there would be lots come over to our rank-we expect to have Vicksburg before long. They offered to surrender if we would let three of their generals go, but-they will fite awhile first-it is a hard place to take-it is fort after fort. There was a very nice fire witnessed the other nite, but I don't no what it was. I wish the whole place was burnt-your true husband til death A. A. to Mrs. A. Thayer-". The original stamped transmittal cover is included. Thayer's phonetic spelling and loose grammar had been corrected. Light toning, else VG.
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