Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 97

Price Realized: $ 344
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) [Eluctius W. Treadwell.] An Alabama soldier discusses recent battles and the future of the Confederacy. Autograph Letter to wife Martha Clark "Mattie" Treadwell. 6 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on 3 sheets; minor foxing. With complete transcript. Corinth, MS, 18 March 1862
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Eluctius William Treadwell Sr. (circa 1836-1865) served in the 19th Alabama Infantry. From the Army of Mississippi's large encampment at Corinth, he describes the results of three nearby battles and reflects on the future struggles for a Confederate victory in the war.

First he describes an unnamed skirmish: "We have had some fighting not far from this place and killed from what they say some 40 Yankees and captured 6. . . . Our men drove them into their boats, though they tried to stop our men by retreating and drawing them in until they could with their infantry cut our men off. . . . The Yankees landed at a place called Eastport and have quite a number of men and gunboats. It is said they are 50,000 strong and are building a road to bring their artilery to this point. . . . Beauregard is cutting off the gunboats that are up this river, I mean Tennessee River. If we can do that I will be pretty well satisfied." Two weeks later, the Confederate Army of Mississippi would launch a surprise attack from its Corinth base in what became the Battle of Shiloh.

Treadwell also offers what he has heard about the recent Battle of Pea Ridge: "We got the best of it. . . . At last acct Price had cut off the enemy's baggage and was on one side with his army, and Pike on the other with 6,000 Indians and surrounded on another side by an impenetrable wilderness." On the Battle of Fort Donelson, "I have seen men that was in that fight, and they say we was not whipt at all, but was surrendered without our consent or knowledge. . . . Some cried like children, while others would tear down the white flag evry time they put it up for 3 successive times."

Finally, Treadwell makes predictions about the future course of the war: "I am sorry to know that some of our people are becoming faint at our recent reverses. As for my part, I expected such things and we will suffer more than this before our independence is won. . . . I expect this war will last for years. After some few months from this time, Lincoln will offer us some kind of wrights, which I hope we will not except unless it be to let us alone to enjoy our freedom just as we see fit. After he finds we will except nothing, he will then in my opinion rally all the force he has and come against us, and there will be the greatest battles of the world."

This letter is unsigned, apparently because the author ran out of space and time--he concludes with a hasty line of cross-writing on the first page, suggesting an imminent attack: "We are throwing up breastworks." Another signed letter by Treadwell written a week later was found on line (copy included).