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Lot of 46 Civil War letters by Benjamin F. Higbee, a color guard with the 61st Illinois Infantry, Co. A, written from March 1862 through August 1863, less than two weeks before Higbee passed away. Though details of Higbee's death aren't present, in his last letter to his parents he states that he was well, so he might have been killed in an accident. Higbee was a young man of 18 when he enlisted, and over the course of two years matured into a principled soldier who respected bravery and discipline. He fought at Shiloh almost immediately after enlisting, and was also part of the Siege of Vicksburg.
In a letter to his parents dated 22 June 1863, Higbee writes about the Siege, ''We have moved in about 5 miles from Vicksburg and can hear the canonading much plainer. There was very heavy canonading yesterday. The Rebs tried to cut out yesterday morning, but Grant was ready for them and kept them back. We took about 3000 prisoners and the fort they occupied. Our men gives them their breakfast and supper every day with our atrtilery in the morning. We give them a round or two to wake them up and at night we give them another round for them to go to bed on. Yesterday the rebs turned out a lot of their horses and mules and then followed after them. They thought by burning out their stock it would confuse our men and they would come out without any trouble, but we was not asleep and met them half way and stopped them. They have tried the same thing once or twice before, but did not get out. We are very strongly fortified here at this place. We have been expecting an atact for the last week, by Gen'l Johnson, but we understand that he has turned and went back and it is fool for him if it is so for he would get badly whiped if he had come...Johny Wilson was dead. He got drounded in the Hatchee 2 or 3 days before I got back to the regt...Benjamin Higbee''.
In another letter dated 13 January 1863, Higbee recounts the Battle of Jackson fought 19 December 1862 when the 61st Illinois famously took position in Salem Cemetery, repulsing superior Confederate forces with only three pieces of artillery. He writes to his sister, ''...I forgot to tell in Pa's letter all of the 43rd [Illinois] boys call us the Grave Yard Boys because we laid in a grave yard when the rebels come up on us the 19th and we fired on them and drove them back. We did not leave the grave yard till we all fell back and that is the reason they call us the grave yard boys and when ever we meet one of the 43rd boys and they ask us what reg't we belong to we tell them that we belong to the 61st. They will hollor out bully for the 61st, they are the grave yard boys. The 43rd Regt is almost all dutch and it is a good regt to. When we fired on the rebels they turned and run and the 43rd holored at them to come on your mules and our regt holored grab a root. The way we got the phrase grab a root was when any of the boys fell down we would tell them to grab a root to keep them from hurting them selves and to keep them from falling and we could see the rebels fall from their horses...''
Writing to his father on 8 November 1862, Higbee describes Union Colonel Fielding Hurst, still infamous in west Tennessee for setting fire to local secessionist estates, and even murdering Confederate men in retribution. Although a slaveowner himself before the war, Hurst strongly opposed secession as his ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. Letter reads in part, ''...There is a Tennessee Regt made up around here and Jackson and Bethel. It is a cavalry regt. Mr. Fielding Hearse is the Colonel. It is called the first Tenn Cavelry [actually 6th] and they wake the secesh up when they go out. Mr. Hearse was raised here and he knows the country. He knows every road and leaves a mark where ever he goes. He is in ahead of our army at Hollow Springs and he burns every thing he comes across. Our Generals are talking about arresting him but he says they may arrest if they want but he has lived here among them and knows what they are and it is the only way to end the war and he is going to burn every thing he comes across. He came to us at Pittsburg and was a spy for us. He was told that if he would make up a regt, he could be Col, so he went to work and I think he is doing rite, don't you? The secesh says that if they wer get hold of Col. Hearse they will kill him...Benjamin Higbee''.
In other letters, Higbee writes about skirmishing and local camp life, mentioning in one letter that he and his friends like to watch the Negroes dance, ''They will sing and pat and dance all together. It is fun to see them. Sometimes we give them 5 cents or 10 cents and they will dance all night.'' He also writes, ''If a Negro comes in camp with any thing to sell we buy it and pay him the money for it, but if a White man brings any thing in to sell we steal it all from him before he knows it.'' He also writes about how the wrong men get promoted in the army, ''if a man does a brave thing, he aint any body, but if a man that runs or does anything mean, why he is the man they will promote him and not say a word to the man that stood his ground and acted like a soldier. There was two men in our company that was promoted to sargent and one of them run at the Battle of Shilo and hid behind the hill at the river. The other two was at home sick. The two that was at home was Ed Washington and Wm Garrison. The one that run was Mr. Crabtree, has since deserted. I stood and carried the flag all the time of the battle and that is all that is said about it...'' In later letters, hardened by skirmishes, Higbee tells his parents that war has caused him to ''fear nothing''. He writes, ''We have had a pretty hard times since we left here but we have got back again all write and as fat, ragged, and sausy as any body. We dont care for any body nor any thing. It is singular how a man will get so that they dont care for nothing. They would just as soon meet the secesh as not. Well you might say they fear nothing...''
With much more content about accidents in camp, skirmishing, pretty girls of the south and how they don't mind Yankees but hate abolitionists, and above all patriotism: He writes on 22 February 1863, ''...I will stay in it until my time is out or until my time is out or untill this rebelion is stoped before I quit it. I will fight the rebels as long as god will let me for the restoration of the Union and its laws. I was 18 years old when I enlisted into the service and now I am 21 years old and a man of my own...''
Letters are nicely penned, some on patriotic stationery, and some in covers. Overall very good condition. With near full transcriptions.
46 Civil War Letters by a 61st Illinois Color Guard -- ''...the 43rd boys call us the Grave Yard Boys because we laid in a grave yard when the rebels come up...we fired on them and drove them...
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