Lot 373
Gettysburg Letter By A Confederate In the 1st Maryland Battalion. Daniel A. Fenton, a sergeant in Co. G, 1st Maryland Battalion of Infantry, Steuart's 3rd Brigade, Johnson's Div., Ewell's 2nd Corps, writes a letter to his mother and father, 2 pp (1 sheet), 12"x8" in dark brow ink, Headquarters, Army Northern Virginia, Camp 1st Md. Battalion…July 19th 1863. In part: "Well, we are all safe on the south side of Potomac, minus about eight thousand which will cover our loss entire. It was the first great battle I have been engaged in and I don't care about being in such another one….Our Army was not whipped in that last fight by any means. On the first day our boys, only two divisions of them, drove Reynolds and another Corps over four miles. On the second day Longstreet and A.P. Hill attacked their left and centre and badly whipped them taking near seven thousand prisoners. On the third day our Left attacked their right. In this fight I was a actor. Ewell commanded us. We took their first line of breastworks. About 10 o'clock A.M. of the 3rd of July a charge on another line was ordered. We charged and as we went over a hill that shut them from our view up rode the Yankees behind four lines deep of brestworks. We broke their first line but not being supported had to fall back, this was the only place where they held us in check….out of four hundred and eighty seven men our Battalion took into the fight we lost about two hundred….This army is going to do something in a few days that will astonish the King Abe…."
The 1st Maryland Battalion fought among the bitterest and bloodiest engagements along the southeastern slopes of Culp's Hill at Gettysburg. Fenton enlisted on April 1, 1863 and was captured in the fighting on the Weldon Railroad in Virginia in August 1864. He was exchanged from Point Lookout, Maryland on Jan. 19, 1865; he returned to his regiment and fought in the closing battles of the war. He was one of 68 men who surrendered with his unit at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865. Accompanied by the consignor's research on this unit.
Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000.
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| Realized $2,185 |
