Tag Archives: casualties

18 September 1863: “I received your most welcome letter… it is the first intimation I have that I have been heard from at home.”

Item Description: Letter, 18 September 1863, From Julius S. Joyner to his mother Julia Joyner, updating her about himself and his fellow prisoners. During the Gettysburg campaign, Captain Joyner was captured and sent to Johnson’s Island near Sandusky, Ohio. Captain Joyner … Continue reading

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3 September 1863: “In the Battle of Gettysburg I lost two of my best friends, Conl. Avery & Capt. Burns. I know the loss of your son has been a soar and bitter trial to you, and not only to you, but all your family.”

Item description: Letter, dated 3 September 1863, from John A. McPherson to Isaac Thomas Avery, father of Isaac Erwin Avery, colonel of the 6th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, describing the circumstances surrounding his son’s death at the Battle of Gettysburg. More about … Continue reading

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6 August 1863: “I want some peaches very much but cannot get them. W.G. Parker is dead. He was shot in the head and died at Winchester.”

Item description: Letter, dated 6 August 1863, from Francis W. Bird to his sister, discussing casualties, recent campaigns, and the accuracy of newspaper accounts. Bird enlisted in the Confederate Army on 1 May 1861 in Bertie County, N.C., as a Second Lieutenant. … Continue reading

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18 July 1863: “You may have the satisfaction to know that he fell where we would all wish to fall (if it be God will) with his face to the enemy.”

Item description: John Caldwell served in Co. E, 33rd Regiment, North Carolina Troops. View an earlier letter, dated 22 June 1863, in which Jonny tells his father about his unit’s movement through Virginia, here.  In the letter that follows, dated … Continue reading

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17 July 1863: “A telegram…announces the death of our dear Johnston which occurred this morning”

  Item Description: Letter, 17 July 1863, From Mary W. Bryan to her daughter, informing her of General James Johnston Pettigrew’s death. On July 14th, 1863, a telegram had  been delivered to a Reverend Pringle asking him to write to … Continue reading

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11 July 1863: “we think that we have got old leigh in a box trap.”

Item Description: Letter, dated 11 July 1863, from Eldridge B. Platt to his family, updating them on the injury he sustained at the Battle of Gettysburg and sharing his thoughts on the war. Click here for an earlier description of his injury … Continue reading

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7 July 1863: “Our sky seems to me now to be brighter than it has ever been heretofore.”

Item Description: Letter, 7 July 1863, from James Augustus Graham to his mother located in Hillsborough, N.C. in which Graham describes, among other things, the losses suffered by the Confederates at Gettysburg. [Item transcription available below images.] Item Citation: From Folder … Continue reading

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6 July 1863: “just as we got limburd up and started before a shell came over and struck right squar down by my feet and drove the dirt clean threw the skin”

Item Description: Letter, 6 July 1863, describing Eldridge B. Platt’s involvement in the battle of Gettysburg, where he was blinded for two days from a near miss by an exploding shell. Platt (b. 1847) enlisted as a drummer in the 2nd Connecticut … Continue reading

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30 May 1863: “The ‘Chattahoochee’ is no more! and I am truly thankful that I was not present to witness the horrible scene on board. But I am anticipating the ship exploded her boiler on the 27th, inst., 7 miles below Alum Bluff, causing the death of 16 persons instantly, and two more will not recover.”

Item description: Letter, 30 May 1863, from George Washington Gift to his fiancee Ellen Augusta Shackelford, concerning the explosion that destroyed the gunboat C.S.S. Chattahoochee on 27 May 1863. George Washington Gift (b. 1833) was raised in Tennessee, and went to California some … Continue reading

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13 May 1863: “If you had known Ives you would be better able to understand the regret which we feel at his loss.”

Item description: Letter, 13 May 1863, from E.A. Evertson to Kate deRosset Meares. Evertson and Meares both served, at one time, on the faculty at St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, N.C. Evertson writes to deliver the news of the death … Continue reading

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