Chaplain William L. Hyde of the 112th New York Infantry Autograph Letter Signed on Gettysburg POWs. ...

Description

"The cruelty our prisoners suffer has never been exaggerated. They suffer for food more than for anything else."

Chaplain William L. Hyde of the 112th New York Infantry Autograph Letter Signed on Gettysburg POWs. Four pages of a bifolium, 7.75" x 9.875", Wilmington, North Carolina; March 3, 1865. Chaplain William H. Hyde of the 112th New York Infantry mustered into service with the regiment on September 11, 1862. While engaged in the Carolina Campaign at Wilmington in early 1865, a group of recently released POWs returned to camp. In this letter to his wife, Elizabeth, Hyde describes their experiences in Confederate POW camps, including Libby Prison and makes special note of Captain Casler, who was captured at Gettysburg. It reads, in part:

"Yesterday our eyes were gladdened by the sight of some of our returned officers and men, among others Adjt [Samuel P.] Hedges. He is in good health and looks well. We had him and a Capt. Casler, 154th N.Y., at our quarters all night. The story of their experiences is very rich and racy. Being Officers, they had privileges which privates do not enjoy. Hedges has had two quite serious spells of sickness, but got through them safely. They were subjected to every sort of indignity and insult at times. When Hedges was captured in May, he was taken to Libby Prison... his sword, belt, &c were taken from him before he left the ground where he was captured... Captain Casler...was a prisoner 20 months having been taken at Gettysburg... When he got here, he was rather dilapidated. We fixed him up in shape, and the Col. & Capt. Durham lent him money to go on his way rejoicing. The cruelty our prisoners suffer has never been exaggerated. They suffer for food more than for anything else. Though they are not half clad..."

This letter was published in Jim Quinlan's Armed Only with Faith, a compilation of Chaplain Hyde's correspondence and journals.

Condition: Smoothed folds. Light toning.

More Information: William Lyman Hyde (1819-1896) was born in Bath, Sagadahoc County, Maine, to Henry and Maria (Hyde) Hyde (third cousin to Henry). After attending public schools in Bath, Hyde taught for three years at a military and classical school in Ellsworth, Maine, before entering a program of theological study at Bangor Seminary, graduating in 1848. The following year, Hyde began a seven-year tenure as a minister at Gardner, Maine, and later was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Dunkirk, New York, for a number of years. On May 4, 1852 he wed Elizabeth Rice, daughter of Warren and Mary Webster of Wiscasset, Maine. Hyde resigned his ministry in 1862 to serve as Chaplain of the 112th New York Infantry, a position he held until the end of the Civil War. The regiment was organized at Jamestown, New York, and mustered in for three years-service on September 11, 1862. They participated in sixteen battles, including Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Chaffin's Farm, Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road, Fort Fisher, and the Carolinas Campaign. The 112th New York Infantry mustered out of service June 13, 1865. After the war, Hyde served as a pastor in Ripley and in Sherman, New York, until 1874, when he became principal of the Ovid (New York) Academy and Union School. In 1884, Hyde moved to Jamestown, New York, where he was associated with the Jamestown Journal, of which his son was an editor. In 1866, Hyde published a book, History of the One Hundred and Twelfth Regiment N.Y. Volunteers which remains the only regimental history concerning the 112th Infantry. Jim Quinlan edited and published a collection of his correspondence and journals in 2015 in Armed Only with Faith.