Beschreibung:

32 items. A 20-year-old from Somerville, Me., Gardiner McDaniel was one of three McDaniels who served in Co. I of the 3rd Maine Infantry during the Civil War. Approximately half of this collection consists of letters from McDaniel during his time with the 3rd Maine, describing the rigors of service with the main body of the Army of the Potomac. No Steinbeck, not even particularly literate, McDaniel nevertheless writes an effective letter for conveying the confusion and pain of battle and the attitudes of the common soldier in the ranks. Mustering into the service in June 1861, McDaniel was still wet behind the ears when he was tossed into the maelstrom of the First Battle of Bull Run. On July 23, he did his best to record the dire outcome: We left our Camps and traveled three days and then stoped till Sunday morning at two oclock and then marched about 3 miles and then the officers put us threw about 4 miles as hard as we could run till we got to the Battle field whire I never saw such a horibile site in my days. The Battle Began at 12 o’clock on Saturday nite and lasted til 3 in the afternoon on Sunday. The 21 day of July which will till only remembered by this nation. There was about forty thousand of our troops against about 80 or nintey 000 of the rebels. The loss of our men it is judged that it is 5 thousand killed and wounded and the loss of the rebels is more than ours... His letter describing the equally disastrous fight at Fredericksburg has a similar tone: we have bin over a crost the raperhanock river since I wrote to you and had a brush with the rebs. We crost the rivver last Saturday on the pontoon bridges under the protection of our batteries and piched in and drove the rebs some distance acrost a large field into a piece of woods. It was a bloody engagement and it costed old Maine meny of her bold soldiers but I did not receive eny injury in the contest though I was under the enemes fire during the hottest of the conflict... Whatever McDaniel felt about his time in the 3rd Maine, it is clear that he was committed to the cause and in August 1864, he reenlisted in the 7th Maine Battery, leaving a trail of six letters to document his service. The collection also includes a series of letters from other relatives and friends in the service, including: One letter from Charles F. Blackinton (15th Maine Infantry) from New Orleans, 1864; two from John B. Brant (57th Massachusetts); one from Samuel McDaniel; One from William McDaniel (2nd Maine); Two from George W. McDaniel (3rd Maine) in Savannah, GA, April 23, 1865, looking forward to being home in time to seleprate the fourth of July think it would be the greatist tome that ever was name in Maine if the war should hapen to close...I tell you their was bout 7 hundred priserners from Gen Lee army the came in last thirsday on their way home...They can do as they like but my advice would be to them to come back but I should urge them to hard what do they think about Lee surrendering and also Abe Lincoln. Hard luck to the man that shot him.... One from R.R. Blackinton (possibly Signal Corps), Culpeper Court House, Nov. 4, 1863: We strip the Rebels houses to make tents with...if we want Bead clothes we take them. I of the Boy went in at to whare a old Negro Wench and was goin to take a quilt and she told him that he was goin to be confined and he left her. Want that Fun... Of special note in the collection are four exceptional sixth plate images, including three tintypes and one ambrotype of Civil War soldiers, apparently all depicting members of the 3rd Maine: Corporal seated with arms crossed in his lap; three soldiers in uniform, two of whom are remarkably wooly -- probably the McDaniel brothers; officer standing in uniform, wearing a Hardee hat (bearing an infantry device, Co. I); officer seated with Hardee hat in hand (infantry device, Co. I). McDaniel may not have been the most educated soldier in the Union army, and his spelling and punctuation might charitably be cal