War-dated ALS in pencil, signed “Silas Doolittle,” four pages, lightly-lined on two adjoining sheets, 7.5 x 9.5, July 16, 1863. Doolitte writes to his brother, in part: “When I wrote home last we were busily engaged with Port Hudson, but Port Hudson is now among the things that were…The land around here is nothing but knolls & ravines & the Confeds had fallen timber all across it, so you can judge what kind of a place we had to charge over, but our fellows did charge over it. Drove the flying ‘rebs’ into their main works. Our fellows then began throwing up rifle pits & breastworks right under their very eyes & at last got works nearly as strong as theirs & completely hemming them in from every quarter. Our batteries were then planted in rear of the infantry & began shelling the discomfited ‘rebs’…They would sometimes in the night get a big gun in ‘posish’ & we were awakened in the morning with that peculiar ugly rattle of a charge of grape & canister, but a company of the 21st Ind. with a rifled Parrot gun would dismount it in from one to three shots…the 75th took the right of Gen. Augur’s Division & was one of the first to enter the Rebel works. The pieces of our shells lay thick all over the ground & their broken and dismounted guns & the many fresh graves told more plainly than words of the sad havoc of our shells & balls…We are now at Donaldsonville waiting for troops to get in the rear and then attack them & thus effectually clear Louisiana…This sheet of paper I found in an old trunk in one of the Rebel batteries…” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, a small tape repair to one of the folds, light creasing and toning, expected wear, and a small area of paper loss to the top left corner. The second battle at Donaldsonville was ignited on June 28, 1863, when Confederate forces sought to regain the town from the Union occupation. Striking in the middle of the night, the Confederates were not aware of a ditch too wide for passage; this nature obstacle would help secure the Union stronghold upon that point in Mississippi, an area the Confederates would unsuccessfully try to regain throughout the remainder of the war. RRAuction COA.
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