Beschreibung:

Approx. 25+ items. John Franklin Godfrey (1839-1885), son of noted Judge John Edwards Godfrey of Bangor, ME, lived the life of an adventurer. Taking to sea at the age of 16, he later became a sheep rancher in Argentina with his brother. Returning home to enlist in the Union Army, he was commissioned on December 18, 1861, as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battery, 1st Maine Mounted Artillery. The regiment was part of General Benjamin Butler’s force to occupy New Orleans in May, 1862. Being short of cavalry troops and his forces suffering from mounted bushwhacker attacks, General Butler put out a call for volunteers to form independent cavalry companies from Union soldiers and local loyalists. Tiring of garrison life, Godfrey leapt at the chance for action, and opened a recruiting station in New Orleans. He soon had a motley collection of civilians, Union infantrymen, Mexicans, Spaniards, and Confederate deserters that he whipped into a force that earned a name for itself on both sides of the conflict. After the independent cavalry companies were consolidated, Godfrey’s company was designated Company “C,” 1st Louisiana Cavalry (Union), but each company largely continued independent operations. Godfrey’s men ranged far and wide on scouting missions, disruption of Rebel supply lines, and anti-guerrilla activities. Their most common foe was the local Rebel cavalry company near Baton Rouge, commanded by Capt. John B. Cage. Originally known as the “Plains Store Rangers,” they were later designated Company “C,” 14th Confederate Cavalry. Cage was later promoted to Lt. Colonel of the 14th Cavalry. Godfrey also rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel later in the war. He was appointed Lt. Colonel of the 2nd Maine Cavalry on December 18, 1863, but resigned for health reasons on May 4, 1864. After the war, he convinced his brother to leave Buenos Aires and join him on a farm in Iowa. In 1865, he left the farm to his brother, and set off to find his fortune out West. He joined the Powder River expedition of 1865 and became an Indian fighter out of necessity, before finally settling down to practice law. Godfrey was City Attorney for Los Angeles from 1876 to 1880. GAR Post # 93 in Pasadena, CA, was named for Godfrey shortly after his death in 1885. This large archive consists of war-date letters from Godfrey to his father, including his “sort-of journals,” where he writes long, first-hand accounts of campaigns in Louisiana. Many of these letters are accompanied by typewritten transcripts, which are apparently rough drafts for the book of his correspondence published by his granddaughters in 1993. In an archive that reads like a real-life Errol Flynn movie, Godfrey’s adventurous spirit and drive shines through. In the first letter, dated June 19, 1862, from New Orleans, Lt. Godfrey tells his parents that he wishes the regiment had been sent to the Army of the Potomac: I do not like this life we are leading here, for it is not an active soldier’s life, but a mere show. The letter of November 7, 1862, is Godfrey’s first as a cavalry officer in this lot. Writing from near Thibodaux, on Butler’s La Fourche campaign, the Yankee cavalier was loving life, not only as a cavalryman, but as a Captain with an independent command. Godfrey remarks on the ever-growing flood of slaves abandoning the nearby plantations, and following the Union Army: On our march from Donaldsonville to here, the greater proportion of the Negroes followed us. It was the funniest sight I ever saw. The whole country as far as the eye could reach in our rear on both sides of the bayou, was full of carts filled to overflowing with wooly heads, little and big, men and women. Hundreds more were walking on the levy, all blessing the pretty Yankees, and in perfect rapture of joy and excitement. The consequences is that all the plantations are left without hands, and millions of dollars worth of sugar cane are going to ruin… there are several very intelligent ones here, and appear to appreciate ful