Beschreibung:

BRAGG, BRAXTON, General, C.S.A. . Autograph letter signed in full to Henry Jackson Hunt (later Brigadier General, U.S.Army), [Fort San Carlos de] Barrancas [Florida], Saturday Evening" [21 April l86l]. 3 pages, 4to, two small tears at fold intersections of each leaf, with the original yellow envelope addressed by Bragg and signed in upper corner "B. Bragg," and with four small newpaper clippings (apparently from a Pensacola newspaper, "The Secession of Virginia," "North Carolina with the South," etc. AS CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT, TWO OLD COMRADES RALLY TO DIFFERENT FLAGS An exceptional pair of letters, written a week after the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, poignantly illustrating the painful rift between friends caused by the outbreak of hostilities between North and South. "How strange are the mutations of life that we should be in hostile array against each other. A few short months since [we were] companions in arms, and almost brothers in friendship, it is hard to realize the fact that we are in hectic array against each other. But so it is, and tho' I would have taken a oath that my old friend Hunt could never be an instrument of oppression in the hands of a Black Republic.....Each one of us of course will follow the dictates of his own conscience. But for fear you may rest under a misapprehension in regard to this move in the South [secession and the outbreak of hostilities], I will give you a few facts....The people en mass, are the leaders - and every man is now united in the cause. You may destroy us but cannot conquer - every class is represented in the ranks [of the Confederate army] - many of my privates are men of income....I do not say this my dear old friend to influence you.....We feel we canot live with the North in peace and we desire to be left alone to pursue the even tenor of our way. We submitted until we could submit no longer, and we decided to quit, and now we merely ask to be let alone. "We have asked for peace, but we shall not decline war. You President [Lincoln] has decided upon war. His orders to you are to get you into position and war is inevitable. His policy is at last declared - to 'subjugate us'; and the result is that Virginia has at once seceded by an almost unanimous vote, and taken the Navy yard & vessels at Norfolk, and report says, Harpers Ferry. North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas have followed, and are pouring about troops by the thousand to defend themselves. Maryland has forbidden Northern troops to her borders, and every avenue to Washington is closed. Hundreds of officers from these states are resigning daily, and the whole country is on the eve of a long and bloody civil war....Fort Sumpter has surrendered to a 'military necessity' - would to God the whole question could be submitted to three plain sensible men to settle justly. There is room enough in this world for us all to live in peace and why should we not do so? I enclose you a few slips of news [newspaper clippings], and only wish I would see you and my other old friends at the social board. For friends I still believe them, tho I think them mistaken in their course...." [ with ] HUNT, HENRY JACKSON, General, U.S. Army. Autograph letter signed ("H. Hunt") TO BRAXTON BRAGG, Fort Pickens, [South Carolina], 23 April l861. 3 pages, 4to, small tears at fold intersections, enclosed in a contemporary envelope marked "Major Nichols" (one of Hunt's aides). "My Dear Bragg....I do not doubt the nature of your feelings for I judge of them by my own. How strange it is! We have been united in our views of almost all subjects....We still have, I trust, a private regard for each other, which will continue, whatever course our sense of duty may dictate, yet in one short year after exchanging at your house assurances of friendship, here we are face to face, with every prospect of a bloody collision....All of [my family] have fought in the North, the battles of the South, and now find they are left to bear t