August 2013 Auction Ends Thursday, August 29th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/29/2013
Civil War letter lot from Union solider Solomon F. Wood of the 80th Illinois, B Company. Lot includes 22 Civil War-dated autograph letters signed, with content including Wood's account of the Battle of Milton at Vaught's Hill, fought on 20 March 1863. That letter, dated 25 March 1863 from Murfreesboro, Tennessee also mentions the Battle of Perryville fought the previous October. Reads in part, ''...We have been in another battle which was about as hot as perryvill. We fought the Rebels at Milton from 9 o'clock until about 1 or to o'clock they had about 3 men to our one but we whipped them bad...'' On 3 November 1863, following the Battle of Wauhatchie, Wood writes, ''...We are camped 5 miles from Chatinooga we are in plain view of the inamy's camp. They are on look out mountain and we are camped on the north of it. They occupy one mountain top and we occupy the other...they have been throwing shells for 3 or 4 days trying to shell our camp...'' Further highlights come from a letter written from Tantalon Station, Tennessee, on 11 October 1863, reading, ''...Old Whealer as you have heard I suppose has got in our rear and plaid old scratch. He has had several fights and cut the R.R. in several places...Thursday the Rebs tried to brake our line last Thursday but was driven back with considerable loss there has been no fighting since...'' A letter datelined Lookout Valley Tennessee 14 November 1863 immediately preceding the Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign and a handful of battles including Orchard Knob reads, ''...There was one week that we did not get more than one days ration & the poor animals had to do intirely without. But it was not because we did not have it it was because we could not get it out hear. I know this is so because men has diserted the Rebel army and told me so themselves. They average from 40 to 50 diserters per day...'' From White Sides Station, a letter dated 30 December 1863 reads, ''...the 80th was in [the battle] - nearly all the time. They lost 10 men wounded but none killed...we was under General Hooker we was detached to the II Corps at Bridgport during the Battle...'' He comments, ''...of all things that is disgusting an army with plenty of whisky is the most disgusting. Mollie you always called me wild but I have bin entirely ashamed of some characters that I have seen since I have been in the Army...'' In early 1964 he reports: ''...We are camped at preasant on the Chattanooga and Knoxville R.R. about 5 miles from Cleveland Tenn. We are stationed hear in a gap to prevent the enemy from coming through and destroying the road...I believe the main cause of this war was that the people had got so wicked that it was the will of the good Lord to punish them...'' From the same camp at White Sides, Tennessee he writes, ''...When we come hear the boys burned some of the rails and old Gen. Grose has made them make and hall our rails and put up the fince again...'' On the value of the dollar he says, ''...Uncle Tomma Harris was offered at St. Louis for two steers $255 but he would not take it. He was offered $1 apiece in gold for them. That shoes the difference between gold and greenbacks...Nancy has been teaching school...She taught 10 weeks and made 42 dollars clear money. That is more per month then you get for fighting Rebs...I am not very well I am now taking medicines for my lungs...my tong has bin bleeding at times for 3 weeks...'' In a letter datelined near Dallas, Georgia 8 June 1864, Wood discusses casualties from the recent battles in that area, ''...There has bin two of the boys killed and two wounded since we started from Dalton. Jim Wood of Bethalto was killed and Ned Starky of Bethalto was killed...they say Billey Jones is dead but I don't know wheather he is or not he was wounded in the arm and had his arm taken off we heard he was dead but don't know...'' From Jeffersonville Indiana on 15 July 1864 Wood reports, ''...John McCalley. He is not wounded he has got the scurvy...'' Accompanied by six letters from other senders, mostly to Mollie. An additional letter from Solomon is included dated long after the war. Letters run one to four pages on plain stationery. Expected toning, creasing and scattered areas of separation to folds, with the occasional ink notation by Wood's descendants, else near fine.
80th Illinois Civil War Letter Lot -- ''...We have been in another battle...We fought the Rebels at Milton...they had about 3 men to our one but we whipped them bad...'' -- Vaught's Hill
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