Apr 12, 2018 - Sale 2473

Sale 2473 - Lot 66

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(CIVIL WAR--KENTUCKY.) Union soldier's letter describing the forced labor of secessionist civilians in occupied Kentucky. Autograph Letter Signed as "William" to sister Helen. 4 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; short separations at folds, generally clean and legible. Mayfield, KY, 1 September 1864
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Mayfield, KY was the scene of a controversial chapter in the Civil War. It was one of the most strongly secessionist towns in Kentucky. When it was occupied by forces led by Brigadier General Eleazer Paine in 1864, he ruled the area with strict military discipline. Was he a sadistic tyrant or an effective war-time leader? The question is still debated. This letter offers a Union soldier's perspective on the forced labor policy: "We have about 150 rebels here building fortifications. It makes some of them mad, but they can't help themselves. We send cavalry around the country & notify them & if they don't come we send a guard after them & make them work in the fort & pay them fifty dollars besides. . . . Out of 728 we have had to work in the fort, over 500 could not write." He also discusses the local bushwhackers: "There are plenty of guerillas around here. A few days ago one of the 3d Illinois Cavalry went just outside the pickets & was shot dead by one. . . . Gregory's Cavalry have killed two & captured two guerillas since we have been here. Those that were captured were shot. . . . Only last night about 12 miles east of here, a party of them met an inoffensive harmless old man about 60 years old going to mill, & deliberately shot him in cold blood & then cut his throat from ear to ear." The deceased soldier was from an Illinois regiment and was due to be mustered out in six days.