Remarkable Civil War-dated ALS in pencil by Pvt. Edwin Simmons, a musician in Co. C, Maryland 1st Infantry (Federal), four pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.25 x 8, July 4, 1863. From a "Battlefield near Gettysburg Hospital, 12th Army Corps," Simmons reports on the gruesome scene to his cousin Willie. In part: "When our regiment were drawn up in line of Battle yesterday morning, we were going on the field with them when a surgeon rode up to the Col. and asked him to let us go to the hospital to take care of the wounded…while our duties were not so dangerous, it was quite as laborious as those of the fighting men. Our regiment went into the fight with a yell and fought bravely all day. They met the 1st Md. Reb. reg—and killed or wounded nearly all of them. Among the killed on their side is ex Capt. Jno. Henry, once Capt. of Co. A of our regiment. The roar of battle has been terrible all day…Sometimes a shell would come over the hill and burst very near the hospital…your letters are the greatest source of pleasure I have…I read them over a dozen times a day just to make them seem longer…Our march from Baltimore was a rather dangerous one. Several times we were within a mile of Stuart's large cavalry force, the one that committed so many depredations near the city. Once indeed he attacked our pickets (and we captured one of his) but he was afraid to come closer…a cavalry company came to our relief which he mistook for Sedgwick's 6th Corps. Once or twice we passed just in the rear of the rebs…Our duties here are to attend the wounded, bring them water, assist the surgeons, take the wounded from the ambulances…Even while I write I can hear the cry of the wounded around. Just here on my left is a pile of amputated limbs some twenty or thirty in number. To the right are about a dozen ghastly mutilated corpses, while in front is a lot of men some with one arm gone, some with none. It is indeed a fearful sight…Our boys are still on the field, but the fight is over. The enemy are whip'd badly and are retreating leaving their dead and wounded on the field for us to take care of. The field is filled with their dead. Whole crowds of men are at work burying them…One or two such sanguinary fights as this will sweep the whole South. We have hundreds of wounded prisoners at the hospital, and they are yet coming in…Oh Willie! You have seen nothing of soldiering, nothing of the horrors of war. It is not only the labors of marching and fight, of the privation of hunger and thirst and of the exposure to rain and storm, but of the nerves also. The horrid sights that meet the eye almost freeze the blood in one's veins…Sometimes the moon peeps through the broken clouds to look on the pale lifeless corpse, and anon the thunder crashes through the sky and the rain comes down in torrents…Won't say any more about it. We are ordered to move from the Hospital…We leave in the morning." In very good condition, with archival tape repairs to separated folds, scattered creases, and the last several lines re-traced in ink.
This historic letter documents the brother-versus-brother nature of the Civil War, alluding to the fight between Maryland's divided populace—more than 3,000 Marylanders fought on both sides at Gettysburg, most notably at Culp's Hill on the second day. This bloody event is also represented in the lot by a bullet embedded in a section of wood removed from a tree near Culp's Hill: the piece measures 10″ long, and is identified by a tag annotated: "Bullet in wood found near Culp's Hill, one of 72 found in one tree!" Housed together in a Riker box, the letter and relic form a poignant Battle of Gettysburg display.
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