Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 20

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(ABOLITION.) Letter describing two refugee women being violently removed from a Washington Civil War camp. Autograph Letter Signed from William Schouler to an unidentified major. 7 pages on 4 sheets, 10 x 8 inches; mailing folds, detached on left edge. Washington, 24 October [1864]
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This letter was written by William Schouler (1814-1872), who as Massachusetts adjutant general was in charge of recruitment for all state troops during the war. On a visit to Washington to inspect the state regiments, he describes a disturbing scene while crossing a bridge over the Anacostia River near the Washington Navy Yard:

"It was two colored women about 30 years of age handcuffed together and a rope tied to the handcuffs and then fastened to the saddle of a cavalry soldier, and he was on a large horse and going across the bridge at a smart trot so that the women had to run very hard to prevent themselves from being dragged down. Behind the women was another cavalry soldier on horseback driving them on. I hope never to see such a sight again. At the end of the bridge, I asked the guard what the women had been doing, and was told that they had been loafing about the camp for two or three days. That was their crime. Poor black women! We haven't a free country here yet. This evening I had a pleasant visit from Colonel Ingraham, who is the Provost Marshal here and I told him the circumstances and he was shocked also and promised me he would have the matter investigated."

Colonel Timothy Ingraham, who promised to investigate, had been commander of the 38th Massachusetts Infantry, and was appointed the city's provost marshal in February 1864.

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