Beschreibung:

Lot of 76 war-date letters, most with original covers, spanning October 26, 1861, through April 18, 1865. Majority of letters written by Union Private John W. Pitridge (1842-1925) to his family. Outstanding content – colorful, evocative, detailed, and always genuine - from a soldier who served nearly the entirety of the Civil War in a regiment which engaged in multiple critical Union Army Campaigns. John W. Pitridge enlisted on September 4, 1861, as a Private then on September 16, 1861, mustered with “H” Company 5th Regiment of the Vermont Volunteer Infantry for three years service. He re-enlisted on December 15, 1863, and ultimately mustered out on June 29, 1865. During the course of his enlistment he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner enduring a brief confinement as a POW. Pitridge witnessed many of the major battles of the war, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania. His regiment bears the undesirable distinction of being one of just forty-five infantry regiments out of the entire Union Army that suffered losses of more than 200 men killed or mortally wounded during the course of the conflict. Little information can be ascertained about the early years of John Pitridge’s life beyond the fact that his father died while he was still young. His mother, Hannah Reynolds Pitridge remarried Jarvis Phelps of Vermont and went on to have three more children, Charles, Franklin, and Amanda – often referred to affectionately in Pitridge’s letters as “Charley,” “Frank,” and “Mandy.” The family was raised in Rutland County, Vermont, and Pitridge’s letters home seem to indicate a close-knit, loving family. Pitridge’s early letters reflect the initial excitement often exhibited by young soldiers, as on November 8, 1861, when he writes to his mother from Camp Griffin in Virginia shortly after enlistment: “I woodent come home for to dolars for hear is the plase for me For I can see 12 Bras Bands Every day and 8 or 10 thousand men to hear guns and cannons to Every day to. And who woodent Bea a Soldier…?” While at Camp Griffin, Pitridge’s regiment participated “in one of the most splended sights that you ever will see in your life,” the Grand Review of the troops by General McClellan, President Lincoln, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, and “all the other great men of the United States of America.” After wintering at Camp Griffin, the 5th Vermont headed to Fort Monroe in the spring of 1862 to participate in the Peninsular Campaign. It was during this Campaign that Pitridge finally began to engage in combat operations. On June 29, 1862, John Pitridge’s parents sent him a letter detailing news from home, meanwhile that same day their son was fighting for his life on one of the deadliest days of his enlistment. The Battle of Savage’s Station was the fourth of the Seven Days Battles in which Union forces led by McClellan were forced to retreat ending the Peninsular Campaign. Both sides suffered large numbers of casualties at Savage’s Station, but Pitridge’s regiment, part of the famed “Vermont Brigade,” suffered a particularly brutal cost. The 5th Vermont Regiment suffered the greatest loss, killed and wounded, of any Vermont regiment in any one engagement and lost nearly half of its men. Pitridge himself took a bullet, and for a time his fate remained unknown to his family and even to those with whom he served. On July 4th, 1862, Pitridge’s friend Seth Partlow wrote to Jarvis and Hannah Phelps: “I write in the plase of your Son John W Pitridge and with his request – Last Sunday nite June 30th [incorrect date] we had a fight with the enemy and drove them back with a great loss on both sides…. Johney was shot through the left Brest – he stood besid me when he fell but with the help of Some Body got off the field 10 rods. After the order Retreat came and we left the field I went back to where Joney lay and found a live. He asked ho it was. I told him ho it was and he wanted my hand. I gave it to him. And he said Oh Seth I have g