Samuel Reed served with Company E, 5th Iowa Vols. Infantry, and served for five years. At the battle of Champion Hills, his skull was fractured and he was thought dead, and thus being removed with the dead for burial when his consciousness returned. When he had sufficiently recovered, he was made a First Lieutenant in a colored regiment, a position he held for about a year. War-dated ALS signed “Saml. A. Reed,” one page both sides, 7.75 x 9.75, March 29, 1865. Letter to his friend Kelly, undoubtedly a comrade in arms, mentioning General Fremont, Jefferson Davis, John Bell's platform, Lincoln's Emancipation and colonization policy, and West Virginia's hatred for Eastern Virginia. In part: “One of the fellows in the battle of Winchester from here is to be buried to day. Genl. Fremont & staff reached Wheeling his head quarters on yesterday. l shall cross over & see the 'Pathfinder' to day if 'see-able' and l can get by his guards. l spent a couple days in Dixie at my father in law’s. Western Virginia are all favorable so far as I have seen to Lincoln’s Emancipation & colonization policy and the people have a more intense hatred towards Eastern Virginia than even the Southereners [sic] for the Yankees. A nephew of mine just returned from Nashville where he has been with the army says there are scarcely any Union men about Nashville-they chin and talk openly on their streets in favor of Jeff Davis & the Southern Confederacy. He thinks a little hemp [a whipping] to three or four hundred might convince the residue that the Union was not a mere rope of sand. l am rather impressed with the belief that Jno. Bell’s platform would be a good one to adopt & practice in the South. lf you have time drop me a line & give me the news from Iowa. Every one talks of the Valour of our Iowa Boys.” Intersecting folds and scattered toning, otherwise fine condition. War-dated soldiers' letters with Iowa association are very scarce. RR Auction COA.
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