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Civil War Soldier's Letter with Second Battle of Fort Fisher Content by Amos Wells of the 142nd New York Infantry. ...
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Description
Civil War Soldier's Letter with Second Battle of Fort Fisher Content by Amos Wells of the 142nd New York Infantry. Four pages on blue paper removed from a ledger, 8" x 12.75"; "Fort Fisher, North Carolina;" January 20, 186[5] (Wells has mistakenly written in 1864). Wells enlisted as a 1st sergeant and mustered into company "C" of the 142nd New York Infantry on September 29, 1862. By the time he fights at Fort Fisher, he is a seasoned soldier having participated in multiple battles and sieges including the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Battle of the Crater. Writing to his aunt just days after the capture of Fort Fisher is completed, the letter offered here gives a complete accounting beginning with their initial landing on January 13. He writes (in pencil): "...Men were called for & volunteers to take axes & go up & down the stockade which surrounded the fort & the gun boats directed their fire so as to damage it as much as possible. Some 2000 men marines & seamen landed & formed on the beach digging small trenches in the sand to protect themselves... at about 3 pm everything being ready General [Newton Martin] Curtis jumped up & gave the word & we started for the fort. Then the fearful work began. Musketry grape & everything else flew like hail around us rendering many a brave soldier to his last home & wounding many more. I have been under musketry fire many times & where it was I think much heavier but never where it was delivered with such fearful accuracy as there the rebels being up very high on their work poured the shot down on us & consequently the wounds were as a general thing very severe. As I got about half way across the field I received a tap on the left side of skull from a bullet which stopped further operations on my part for the balance of the day. The bullet broke the hide & set the blood flowing quite freely but did not injure the skull... The men rushed up to the stockade, which was composed of timbers set on end in the sand & standing up some 8 feet high & went through the holes made in the stockade by the shells from the gun boats & the men with axes rushed up & commenced cutting it down to allow others to pass through. The men got a foot hold on the fort & then the desperate fighting commenced. There is some 16 or 18 high traverses under which the rebs had their bombproof the traverses are some 25 to 30 feet high in front & in the rear much higher. Our men would be on one side & the rebs on the other & whichever showed a head got it popped. Our men would make a rush over & drive the rebs off onto the next & then haul out a lot of rebs from the bomb proof under the traverse & then off to the next one... an occasional shell would go amongst our men killing & wounding them... About 9 o clock they surrendered after making a most desperate resistance..." He accounts for the men lost in battle and tells of the explosion of the fort's magazine that killed and wounded "some 300 mostly out of the 3d Brigade... it was a terrible affair & whether done by the Rebs or through the carelessness of our men it has been unable to ascertain yet though yesterday a wire was found running from the other side of the river." He then provides an assessment of what the loss of Ft. Fisher signifies for the Confederacy and concludes, "...the capture of this point is one of the hardest strokes that the Rebels have suffered from during this war & will affect them far more in every way than the fall of Richmond." He lists the artillery captured at the Fort, including "the celebrated Armstrong gun... presented to the Confederacy by admiring English friends..." The letter is accompanied by the original transmittal cover addressed to Mrs. Mary C. Gordon in New York.Wells remained with the 142nd New York and was promoted to captain on March 18, 1865. He mustered out on June 7, 1865.
Condition: Removed from a lined ledger book, the pages have rough edges where they have been torn from their binding. Wear and heavy toning along the folds, with tiny separations and loss of paper where the folds intersect. The cover has been neatly sliced along the right, with a small clean tear at top and several more along the edge. The stamp has been removed, and there is light soiling.
Auction Info
2023 September 21 Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction #6272 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
September, 2023
21st
Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 2
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