TWO LETTERS W/COVERS 123RD PA DIED OF DISEASE

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TWO LETTERS W/COVERS 123RD PA DIED OF DISEASE:
$153.50

A wonderful pair of letters on patriotic stationery and with printed envelopes with stamps, one a scarce Burnside portrait, from Private Warren McWilliams, a 22 year-old farm boy, in Co. F, 123rd Pennsylvania, to his sister Lizzy back home in Natrona. Written in August and September, 1862, one from Fort Stanton and the other from Fort Worth, both in Virginia. He writes with a sense of wonder at his new life in the army; seeing Rebel prisoners, news of McClellan and Jackson, in the woods on picket, etc. But the most poignant passage would have to be when he tells his sister \"for 2 Nites We lay on the ground With out tents But I never enjoyet Better helth in my life. I hav not been sick since I come out.\" Within three months, on November 6, 1862, this young man would be dead of typhoid, and was among the first Union soldiers to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. All pieces are in great condition with just expected minor staining, and some tears to the covers.