Nov 18, 2008 - Sale 2163

Sale 2163 - Lot 88

Price Realized: $ 1,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
YANKEES HAVE OCCUPIED MY KITCHEN (CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Hall, Winchester and Ruth. 17 autograph letters to Frances Polk. Various sizes and conditions, generally strong; Mrs. Hall's letter worn at folds and slightly soiled. Vp, 1863-1866 and undated
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Additional Details

Winchester Hall (1819-1909) served as a major of the 26th Louisiana Infantry in the Confederate army. After the war, he wrote his regiment's history. These letters were written to family friend Frances Polk (1835-1884), daughter of Gen. Polk. 16 of the letters are signed Winchester Hall or appear to be in his hand. Highlights include 2 consolation letters written on the death of Leonidas Polk ("The Church mourns a bishop, the state a general, society a gentleman"); and a poignant 1865 letter reflecting on the future of the Southern race ("The Jews have overrun the earth, yet holding no spot in it as a people, have in dignified quiet preserved their nationality . . . Let it be so with us").
Most interesting is an unusual 8-page letter from Hall's wife Ruth (1828-1915), a spirited account of the Union invasion of Louisiana from October 27 to early November 1863. It describes a desperate Confederate retreat through the bayou town of Thibodeaux, followed by an account of a slave uprising: "The negroes commenced on many places Monday night (the day of the battle) singing, halloing and hurraing that they could be heard for miles; and on Tuesday night all in the immediate neighborhood were in the Yankee camp, taking with them mules, carts and anything they wanted . . . Mrs. John Collins and Ms. Fulford had to send for the Yankees to protect them, and with all their beating and whipping and knocking they could scarcely keep them out of home and yard. They were wild, crazed entirely." She describes returning home to find that Yankees had "been all over the house, took what they wanted and were in the kitchen eating." She shamed them into asking permission before allowing them to leave with their booty.