LOT #47143 |
Current Bid: $1,200
Civil War Soldier's Letter with Battle of Dranesville Content by John McDonald Smith of the Pennsylvania 38th Infantry.
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Description
A seventeen page account of the Battle of Dranesville
Civil War Soldier's Letter with Battle of Dranesville Content by
John McDonald Smith of the Pennsylvania 38th Infantry. 17 pages
on 4 bifolia and one sheet, 5 x 8 inches; "Camp Pierpoint;"
December 21, 1861. On the very next day after one of the first
clear Union successes of the war, Corporal John M. Smith writes a
long and richly detailed account of the engagement, beginning with
the preparations made on the evening of the 19th. The morning of
the 20th begins at 6:30 for the "Bucktails" and General Ord
instructs them, "Now men, don't make any noise, no cheering, if
we have anything to do, we want to come down on them like the wild
cat of the mountains." His account of the advance of the Union
line through wooded terrain places all the different companies that
results in a near fatal friendly fire event:"I called to Beattie to halt his 'flying Rifles' & from them under the protection of there obstacles, be he called halt! but conclude we had better go on & form in the road another 100 yds off. This we did & in a few minutes 19 of the 28 files were in their places. Shell & grape on our troops in the road & a regt of ours coming down the road at right angles to the pike, fortunately the guns were sighted for high & the Grape hissed thru the air over our heads & the shells burst in the field behind us. The regt on the pike proved to be the 12th & that coming down the road the 6th, ours we found was about 1/4 or 1/2 a mile further or at the church when the battery of two rifled 6s & two 12# Howitzers was also stationed. Half way to the church the battery met us. It was coming up at full gallop, each gun followed by its caisson: *Genl Ord galloping alongside, as soon as he saw us, he asked if that was Co A of the 9th & on learning that it was he pointed to our regt coming a field towards the woods out of which we had just come & tolds us to join it, this we did at double quick & reached the head of the column pretty much out of breath just after they entered the wood on the enemies left flank. We marched down until we got opposite his extreme left, when we were thrown into line of battle & reached a forward until we got close to him, when we made a half wheel & halted. Here there was a good deal of delay; the wood &brush was thick & our officers took it into their heads that the troops we were about to fire on were our own & not the enemy, calling out that it was the Bucktail regt. This cry the rascals took up & called out 'don't fire we are Bucktails.'"
After all the companies identify themselves and their places, the battle begins in earnest: "In an inst. our old 9th took up the fire and along the whole line was one blaze, & rattle of musketry: the Rifles were spread out on the right of the regt. & at right angles to it so that the fire of the enemy where it [?] the regt. flew harmlessly thru our ranks besides this we were down close to the bottom of the small ravine which separated our column from that of the Secesh & partially concealed from sight by some small bushes which grew out of the water. Just on the edge of the bank of this gully & at the foot of a small chesnit tree about 4 inches through, I bent on a knee & took steady & deliberate aim at some particular man & fired. Beattie sat or knelt behind me & kept calling to the fellows to 'give it to them' & encouraging them all he could. On the first or second fire Capt. Dick of the next co. to ours (C F) went down, shot thru the thigh, & about the same time Capt Galway of the next co C D) followed shot thro the calf both were taken from the field & companies left in command of the orderlies as none of the officers were out. The fire on both sides was tremendous, the constant rattle of musketry & rapid discharge of our thin field pieces to which was added the 'whish' of grape & bursting of shells...Genl Ord (who is an old artillerist) it is said sighted the first gun himself so as to give the fellows the exact range..."
Smith continues for seven more pages in this fashion, and finishes his account by listing the dead and wounded. During his year in service with the Pennsylvania 38th, the regiment was rarely idle and often placed in forward or exposed positions, as he describes in this letter. The month of June 1862 brought sustained and high-intensity combat during the Seven Days Battle. Smith was killed in action on June 30 at the Battle of Glendale.
Letter includes the original transmittal cover.
Condition: With occasional spots of foxing, and slight separations along the folds at the margins. Light soiling to the cover.
Auction Info
2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction #6328 (go to Auction Home page)
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