(CIVIL WAR MASSACHUSETTS) Pratt Charles S Letters of a sold

Sale 2432 - Lot 125

Price Realized: $ 688

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(CIVIL WAR--MASSACHUSETTS.) Pratt, Charles S. Letters of a soldier in the 13th Massachusetts Infantry. 5 Autograph Letters Signed to his father and sister, various sizes, moderate dampstaining and wear. Vp, 1861-64

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Charles Sumner Pratt (1843-1912), a shoemaker from Reading, MA, enlisted in the early months of the war as a private in the 13th Massachusetts Infantry. The longest of these 5 letters home was written during the occupation of Winchester, VA, 17 March [1862]. On a scouting expedition there, they "came across a large party of rebel cavalry, and our artillery shelled them out. It was quite laughable as they didn't know we had any cannon with us. They were drawn up in a line on a hill, and they scattered some when our shells came in amongst them." On the second anniversary of the regiment's departure, 29 July 1863, he recalled how "we left old Boston town and the last that I saw of father was in front of Faneuil Hall when he asked me how I stood it with my knapsack on. I told him first rate, at the same time it was half killing me, but of course I wouldn't own any such thing." Pratt re-enlisted in the 1st Regiment of United States Frontier Cavalry in December 1864, and survived through the end of the war, mustering out as a corporal. with--a civilian petition (apparently captured) for a Mr. John Poston to be furloughed to make shoes for the people of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 9 September 1861 and 4 related service documents including an 1861 rations receipt, Pratt's 1864 and 1865 discharges, and his widow's 1907 pension certificate.