(CIVIL WAR MASSACHUSETTS) Circular letter accusing Colonel

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(CIVIL WAR--MASSACHUSETTS.) Circular letter accusing Colonel P.R. Guiney of cowardice. Letterpress broadside, 12 x 6 1/4 inches; folds, minor wear on bottom edge. Harrison's Landing, Va. [Boston, MA?], 31 July 1862

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Patrick Robert Guiney (1835-1877) is generally regarded as one of the Civil War heroes of Massachusetts, rising from private to the command of the mostly-Irish "Fighting Ninth" Massachusetts Infantry. Apparently, his meteoric rise rankled some of the junior officers of the regiment, 11 of which signed a letter to the governor of Massachusetts complaining of his cowardice in battle. During the Battle of Malvern Hill, they allege that the commanding officer "sent an officer to Lieutenant-Colonel Guiney, asking him, for God's sake, to relieve him, if only for two hours. Instead of doing which, however, he disappeared, and was not heard of again until the arrival of the regiment at Harrison's Landing, after the battle, where he made his appearance for a few moments." The undersigned officers protested his proposed promotion to command of the regiment. The original petition is published in "Commanding Boston's Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney," 119-120, which traces one copy of the printed broadside; we find none in OCLC. Provenance: from the papers of William Gaston (1820-1894), who during the war served as mayor of Roxbury, MA, and was later governor of Massachusetts.