Beschreibung:

Lot of 13 letters, penned by 2nd Lieut. Thomas Bell "H" Co., 30th Tennessee Infantry, ca 1861-1864, including six letters written from the Johnson's Island prison camp on Lake Erie in the summer of 1862. The first letter, dated Dec. 16, 1861, gives a fine introduction to the character and commitment of the young soldier. He describes to his brother, at home in Springfield, Tennessee, the hard work he has been doing measuring and cutting over 300 logs a day, for which he is soon noticed and rewarded. ...The best of all Sunday morning I was [appointed] Leut of the guard and I went up to mounting of the guard. The Sargant Mager said Leut Bell you are Leut of the guard... The new lieutenant's first action was to request two friends join his command, and permission was promptly granted. Although some of his peers did not possess the work ethic of Lt. Bell (he tried to organize help hauling wood on Sunday, when extra wagons were available, but ...would you think that they recollect the Sabbath they did and I only got 9...), he says ...the boys all like me very well or the bigest portion of them say so because I work and brass buttons don't make a fool of me... A letter from Fort Donelson dated Feb 4, 1862 shows Bell still sporting a fine attitude, reporting his Jan. 19 march to Ft. Henry to whip the Yankeys, an encounter with a Union gunboat (...we fired 1 shot at her some say it hit her but I don't know but she is a-feared to come back...), and some happy hunting (...me and all boys of the Com. that was well we had a fine time of it we caught 6 squirels I reckon...), but his next letter, of June 11, 1862, finds him in vastly different spirits. Dear Father & Mother, I may never be permitted to see you again, he begins in the first of six weekly letters from the prison camp on Johnson's Island. These contain most of the usual content of such letters, including health updates (...I think that by the next time I wright that I can use the word 'well'..., death notices, and rumors of prisoner exchanges (I have come to the conclusion not to believe any thing I hear). In response to questions from his father, he gives interesting reports on prison economics and the ongoing inflation of Confederate currency: You wanted to know what Tenn money is worth. It is worth from .50 to .25 of Dollar, Confederate from .20 to .25 of Dollar with Prisoners. At one point he even begs his family to send money express via the next friend or neighbor who happens to be passing through Nashville. However, Lt. Bell eventually settles in to his surroundings, passing his time crafting shell and gutta percha jewelry, like so many of his fellow prisoners (...1 Prisoner here made a watch fob that he has bin offered fifty Dollars for in Confederate money.), and encloses the crafts in his letters (including his first piece, a ring for his mother) for distribution to family, friends, and neighborhood girls back at home. He proudly states that all prisoners have been offered the right to return home by taking the oath but no one wishes to bite, and closes his final letter from the camp: Mother as a child of yores I intend to do as near my duty as I can. Father as a son of yours I feel it my duty to do my duty to all my Contry. I hope in a few months or years we will be permited to see each other. When he was exchanged is unclear, but we next hear from Lt. Bell in an undated letter from Camp Red Springs, placing him back with his regiment sometime in early 1863. Reinvigorated, he gushes about ...the best secesion women in the world (they baked our bread Fryed our meat anything we asked them to do they would do it...) and describes berating a declared neutral man with shouts of coward! and kill him!, to his comrades' delight. This would be his last letter until one sent from Camp near Atlanta, Georgia on July 16, 1864, where he assures his family that he has not gone wild out here and is their affectionate son until death, despite having no contact with them for 17 month