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Civil War-era ALS from Charles Henry Thayer, signed “C. H. Thayer,” one page both sides, 7.75 x 9.75, no date. Handwritten letter from Thayer to his parents, in part: "Gov. Sprague, Col. Sayles, Major Anthony and one of our Troops went to the Battle field of Bull Run to obtain the bodies of Col. Slocum, Maj. Ballou & Capt. Tower. They found them. They were buried face down. They took Maj. Ballou's body up and they cut off the head and burnt the body. They thought it was the Col." In fine condition.
In July 1861, Sullivan Ballou, a 32-year-old Union officer and devoted husband, sat down in his tent to write to his wife, Sarah. The American Civil War had just begun, but a part of Ballou sensed that he would not survive to reunite with his wife. What he left behind was not strategy or commands—but one of the most haunting and beautiful letters ever written. He wrote, in part: ‘I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night… but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafting of angel wings—that I shall never see you again.’ Ballous was right—a week later, he was killed at the First Battle of Bull Run.
Ballou's now-famous letter to his beloved 24-year-old wife was featured prominently in Ken Burns' 1990 award-winning documentary The Civil War, where an abridged version was read by Paul Roebling in a pairing with Jay Ungar's musical piece ‘Ashokan Farewell.’
Rhode Island Governor William Sprague and his accompanying party had departed Washington City on the morning of March 19, 1862, for the old Bull Run battlefield, with the intent of retrieving the bodies of several 2nd Rhode Island officers left behind the previous summer after the Civil War’s first major fight.
When they arrived, however, the remains of Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry were nowhere to be found. Upon further investigation, Sprague discovered that Ballou’s remains had been exhumed and desecrated by Confederate soldiers that winter; they had dug up Ballou, severed his head from his body, and burned the mutilated corpse in an attempt to remove the flesh and procure the bones and skull as trophies. The morbid incident launched a congressional investigation and remains a controversy shrouded in mystery. Ballou's body was never recovered.
Charles H. Thayer (1840-1903) enlisted in Col. Ambrose Burnside’s 1st Rhode Island Infantry, Co. D, and was sent along with the other soldiers in his regiment to fight at Bull Run—the first major battle of the Civil War. Thayer mustered out of the 1st Rhode Island in August 1861 and reenlisted in the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry. After changing regiments, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and then placed in charge of the recruiting station in Cranston, Rhode Island. He was moved back into combat at the end of 1862 and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. He was transferred to the Army of the Potomac in 1863 and elevated to the rank of Captain in Co. C. His regiment fought in Kelly’s Ford, where Thayer was wounded and taken prisoner to Richmond. He was finally released from Libby Prison and exchanged in December of 1864. He was honorably discharged on December 31, 1864.
The Collection of Dr. Joseph Matheu.
