CIVIL WAR 1864 SOLDIER LETTER NATCHEZ MISSISSIPPI VERY SAD DEATH OF SOLDIER

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CIVIL WAR 1864 SOLDIER LETTER NATCHEZ MISSISSIPPI VERY SAD DEATH OF SOLDIER:
$125.50

This is avery sad and condemningAugust 24, 1864 Civil War letter from Abram Bigelow of the 7th Massachussetts Light Artillery to his mother back home in Feltonville, Ma. It is datelined Morganza, Mississippi with a mourning cover (Black outlines) posted from Natchez, Miss. Abram writes to his mother to inform her of the death of Heywood (apparently a fellow soldier and dear friend from his hometown of Feltonville, Mass.). \"He went on the boat July 3 and died the 8th so he could not have lived more than two days after he reached the hospital. The Capt. received a line today from the Surgeon in charge of the hospital. There was one went at the same time from our Battery. He died also.\"

\"They wrote nothing as to what he said or whether he said anything before he died or not\" (according to historians, it was very common during this time period for family members to desire knowledge of their loved ones last words). \"I do not think he was so near his end. He said but little, did say once he should not see Mass (Massachusetts) again.\"

\"He died with the Typhoid Fever. If he must have his lot to die, I should rather he would have been killed by the ball. He desired me to burn all his old letters.\" He was \"just in the prime of life.\"

\"His home is not the only one made sad nor the only fireside lonely nor the only children made fatherless and woman made a widow. Thousands in our once happy land are now mourning over the death of friends and relatives caused by this mean and still meanly carried on War. I am utterly disgusted with the treatment of our sick by some of the Surgeons and some Officers. Thousands are sacrificed every year by ill treatment and neglect on the part of Officers and those in charge.\"

\"The Officers want to get along as easy as they can so let them (soldiers) take their chance and they soon get sick and Down They Go To The Grave. Then some of the Surgeons will not send a man to the hospital until he is so far gone that there is no help for him. How long it is (the War) to continue I know not but I hope not for another four years.\" This CW letter is one of the most poignant and damning letters I have ever come across. He is so upset he cannot bear to write to the widow and asks his mother to tell her. This letter is very direct in placing the blame on the high death rates on the Surgeons and Officers, especially when it comes to dealing with illness. This would make a great addition to any CW letter collection. I have other Civil War letters from the Bigelow and Bartlett family with many written by the men (soldiers) from their military campsites all over the South. These will be listed in the coming weeks so check back frequently. The4page ink letter and cover arein very good condition with some small splits along the folds. Check out all4 photos to get better idea of condition and description. Use the mouse and zoom features to get the finer detail. Please ask questions before offerding. Also, take a look at my other Civil War letter listings . Combined shipping available.

Morganza was the site of a Union Army encampment during the American Civil War. The largest battle in Pointe Coupee Parish was fought at nearby Sterling Plantation, on September 29, 1863. Sixteen Federal troops were killed, 45 were wounded, and 462 were taken prisoner. The Confederate losses included 26 dead, 85 wounded, and 10 missing. Although the Battle of Sterling Plantation was a Confederate victory, the Union troops burned the town of Morganza to the ground on October 1, 1863.

In May 1864, Federal troops arrivedin Morganza under General Nathaniel P. Banks, recently defeated in the Battle of Mansfield in De Soto Parish and abandoning the Red River Campaign. The unbearable heat drove the men to construct arbors and bowers to shield themselves from the sun. In a short time an orderly city of tents and company streets stretched along the banks of the river between the water and the levee. Early in the morning and in the late evening the troops were called out for drill periods and gymnastic sports, but most of the day they were free. They spent much of this time lounging in their tents and in the shade, wearing as little clothing as regulations would allow. Some of the men braved the sun and went fishing, or swimming, or visited the sutlers\' tents. For more than a month the sweating troops lazed away the long, hot summer days with only an occasional review or alarm to break the monotony. The heat and the excessive rainfall began to tell upon the troops & epidemics of scurvy, chronic diarrhea, swamp fever, and smallpox began to take an appalling toll. Many times a day the death march sounded, and new victims were carried to their graves along the river bank.

Hudson is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Before its incorporation as a town in 1866, Hudson was a suburb of the neighboring Marlborough, Massachusetts, and was known as Feltonville. And before that Eastborough. From around 1850 until the last shoe factory burned down, Hudson was known as a \"shoe town.\" At one point, the town had 17 shoe factories, many of them powered by the Assabet River, which runs through town.