To Cut The Rebel Forces Off From Mobile They Make A Tedious, Rain Soaked Slog.

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. C, 96th Ohio Battalion, "Encamp at Fish River, Alabama, March 24, 1865," reading, in part: "-we have had a very tedious trip since we left Fort Morgan-making 7 days-distance about fifty miles-we have been marching on a peninsula all the way threw the pine woods-it has been very heavy rains so it was impossible for anybody to get threw only sogers-we had to wade water a good deal of the way-one wagon went in so the fore end of the bed was in the mud, not much but quick sand-there is nothing but sand here-they had to take the mules off & we had the wagons to pull-it was all they could do to get the mules threw without any thing. One place we had to pull the whole train threw water hip deep, over one hundred wagons. We had to wade one stream-our division has made corduroy bridge half of the way. Whenever General Granger wants anything done he call[s] for the 96. He is our corps commander. One day our regt was making roads & the general's train [got] stuck in the mud & he sent for our regt to help them out. The brigade commander sent back that we were on detail. The general sent orders for us to be relieved so we-started back for the wagons train. Only a little while till we had them up-the general told our colonel [Brown] he had the flour of the army-we are hard to beat-General Steele has cut off 3 or 4 thousand from Mobile. If so they are between Steele & us. I hope it [is so] for we can pick them up easier than if they were in Mobile. We have seen some citizens that think that they wont stand a fight at Mobile but it will be better if they do-if they leave they will go out of the way of the gunboats-A. A. Thayer-". The original stamped transmittal cover is included. Thayer's phonetic spelling and loose grammar had been corrected. Soiling, with negligible paper loss at the top of the first page, else VG.

Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).