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Sale 2
Lot 225
[CIVIL WAR]. D. LAFAYETTE THOMAS, Union soldier. Fifteen (15) Autograph Letters Signed ("Lafayette," "DLT," "D.L. Thomas," "L"), several with envelopes, some with decorative covers, letters are variously sized from octavo through quarto to folio, 66 pages total. Condition fine throughout. Not much is known about D.L. (for LAFAYETTE, the name he preferred to be known by) Thomas of Co. D, 68th Indiana (Volunteer) Regiment at this point save what we can glean from these hand-written letters he left behind, dated between 3 February 1863 and 17 May 1865.
Thomas's epistolary narrative (the "silent medium of the pen," as Thomas calls it) - generally addressed to "Will & Mary" (sometimes referred to as Marie), his brother and sister-in-law, residing at Rushville, Indiana, begins in Camp Mitchell in Nashville, Tennessee. We first learn on 3 February 1863, that the weather oscilates between "spitting snow" and pleasant, with rain in between; that Thomas's health as a result is poor, that the preceding night he was Corporal of the Guard; that today his company is "on picket." His friend, Newton, comes from Murfreesboro with a supply train to visit. Newton says his troop "had never been paid off & had been out of money a long time, also that gloves were very scarce and half of the Reg. had been without all winter…"
This was the winter of Grant's discontent in Kentucky. Forrest's devastating raids continually struck the railroad between Grant's base at Columbus, Kentucky and his army in Northern Mississippi, destroying bridges and stations en route, capturing stores valued at almost a million dollars. In desperation, Grant sent Wm. ("Bull") Nelson to waylay Forrest at Murfreesboro.
On February 23rd, Thomas writes that his company is still "busy … going on picket, drilling etc…" The soldiers are apparently busy running away, as well. "The Col. Has made the Captains send in a list of absentees from their respective Co's. stating who are absent without leave & who are not. The Cap.t is going to … write to his men absent without leave to report immediately - they are marked now as deserters."
Thomas is still at Camp Mitchell (Nashville) on 17 March 1863, but next day "at midnight we were waked up with two days rations in our haversacks then went to the R.R. & at day light got aboard the train with the 14th Mich. 52nd Ohio, 60th & 85th Ill. Reg'ts … [and] arrived at Franklin at 10 o'clock a.m. 18 miles south of here - near where the 33rd & 85th Ind. Reg'ts … were defeated a few days ago under Van Dorn. It has been a matter of controversy with newspaper correspondents as to whether Van Dorn had negros or Indians under him at that defeat. But I am fully satisfied from the information I gained that they were negroes. Anyhow we went there with the full expectation of attacking him whether he commanded negroes or Indians had not he 'skedaddled.'
On Monday one brigade marched out coming up with [Van Dorn's] rear & driving him across Duck River capturing 150 prisoners & drowning about 300 of the last crossing the river…"
A subsequent investigation eventually vindicated Van Dorn of any blame for the battle or his retreat, but he was nevertheless transferred to another command.
By Sunday, April 5th, Thomas's regiment was camped at Murfreesboro, a place Thomas describes as a "magnificent hole." He also discovers his regiment has hooked up with "Renold's [sic: Joseph Jones Reynolds commanded the 5th Div., XIV, from 9 January to 8 June 1863] Division, the same Div. that the 19th Ind. Bat. & 72nd [and] 75th Ind. Regs. are in," allowing Thomas to visit with some of his old friends "almost every day." "Yesterday," he tells us, "we moved our camp out on the pike … in the edge of the woods close to plenty of water … [and] conducive to the health of … the army." The new location is not, however, conducive to the health of the rebels - "…a rebel Lieutenant was captured," we learn, and the Union commanding officer "is going to take him to Lebanon today and make a public example of him by hanging him in the town…"
Thomas is still in Murfreesboro on May 22nd. He learns of the death of Stonewall Jackson and thinks it "an irreparable loss to the C.S.A." Meanwhile, some 70 rebel cavalry prisoners have just been brought into camp. From what he can learn, Thomas sums up, "Bragg is moving his forces while Rosecrans is awaiting a demonstration so he will no [sic] where to strike. He is not going to be decoyed by Bragg."
By August 2, Thomas has been moved south and east to Jasper, Tennessee, "within a mile & a half of the Tenn. River & only six (6) miles from the corners of Georgia & Alabama & 25 miles from Chattanooga. That looks like we are getting pretty well into the enemies [sic] country."
The Mississippi Valley was clear and Lee driven deep into Virginia. The North was growing more optimistic and confident now, but still worried that Bragg could keep Rosecrans out of Chattanooga and the deep South.
Thomas writes that "Last night Col. King & staff … fired a few rounds of artillery at a rebel train across the river running between Bridgeport & Chatt; but did not halt it so some of them crossed over & burned a bridge…"
The next day, August 3, 1863, Thomas's camp is moved about 10 miles a little south and east of his former camp, into the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, where a great southern university site had been contemplated and a cornerstone already layed. Now, Thomas tells us, that cornerstone, which reportedly cost $30,000, is being "worked … into trophies such as breast-pins, finger rings" and the like by soldiers. "Even granite has to give way before their ingenuity," Thomas writes.
By December 23rd, Thomas is writing from Evansville, Indiana. He contemplates coming home for Christmas, but allows as how the trip would be too costly.
January 3rd, 1864, finds Thomas still in Evansville, in Hospital No. 1, Ward 3, albeit he reports a "reasonable amount of health and vigor…" [and] is as "yet a spared monument of God's mercy…" Later, he says "We have had no new cases of small pox for a few days … the patients are mostly vaccinated … I eat too much now when I should live on a very low diet … The citizens say it is the coldest weather they have had here for years…"
A chilling feeling has gripped the South too. Dreams of a Northern collapse, foreign intervention, lifting the blockade, dramatic victories have provided no warmth. The armies in Virginia, near Chattanooga and elsewhere, were still.
Two months later, still stationed in Hospital No. 1, Ward 3, in Evansville, Indiana, on 28 February, Thomas reveals that his "eyes have almost entirely ceased to hurt but are as dim as ever." That's the first time in this batch of letters that we learn Thomas has actually been hospitalized because of a problem with his eyesight. "Soldiering," he adds, "will make a man patient enough to be contented in most any way or condition." He adds that he "would like it very much if [he] could be at home especially while I am of no use to the Government…"
Four months later, on 15 June, Thomas is back in Chattanooga. His eyes trouble him now only when he loses sleep. The war front has shifted 128 miles east to Atlanta. Crises actually loom on two fronts - the Union forces have plunged deeper than ever into Georgia and are now threatening Richmond, and Sherman is about to pounce on Atlanta. The week before, Lincoln had been nominated for a second term. Thomas writes of skirmishes at "Big Shanty," "28 miles this side of Atlanta & 10 miles from here" and hungers to join the battle, but only "If I knew no body would get hurt."
Soldiering, Thomas tells his brother, is an education like no other. "Now we … know more by one-hundred fold about slavery since we have uncapped it and looked in at the hydra-headed monster … and seen its secret & hidden workings…"
The ill-fated and bumbled Federal assault on Petersburg dragged on through June. The courageous Southern defense saved the back door to Richmond and undoubtedly stretched the war by several months. An emboldened Jubal Early moved north through the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Washington.
On the 25th of July, the date of Thomas's next letter, Grant decided to throw the Second Corps and a couple of cavalry divisions into the battle for Richmond. "I was down at the depot in A.M.," Thomas writes his brother Will, "seen plenty of prisoners on their way to Yankee land … Rumor says we have taken 11,000 prisoners … It must be that old 'Billy' Sherman is going in heavy…" There is more. Thomas tells how Southern prisoners are being forced into women's clothing and shipped North in skirts.
Thomas notes in the Official Record the death of one of his chums. "He was a school-mate of mine at college. We were in classes together … and belonged to the same literary societies…"
So, now we know that Thomas matriculated through college and had a literary bent. His letters home certainly bear witness to his noble spirit, his oneness with nature, his ability to press words into the service of his feelings.
Here, then, is a transfigured arc of impressions - of still waters and running brooks; of the dreamlike beauty of the land, snowy, clouded and now stained with death; of concerns about the rhythm of life back home, the pulse of politics, and the fate of national leaders; of conversations at midnight with dislocated farmers and bewildered tradesmen, of Southerners who have lost everything; of wounded men and dying comrades, awash in rivers of mingled blood.
Here, then, is a portrait of a young man who has learned to lay his head upon a rock and gather strength from the earth that holds him and the sky that shelters him.
Here, then, is a war that grew a boy into a man.
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,500.
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| Realized $978 |
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