Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 129

Price Realized: $ 1,875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(CIVIL WAR--MASSACHUSETTS.) Wesley Blanchard. Letters of a soldier from the 24th Massachusetts, many describing occupied Richmond. 44 Autograph Letters Signed to future wife Eldora M. Webster of Kingfield, ME (12 dated from Richmond); plus 7 other items, all sleeved in one binder. Most 3 or 4 pages, octavo format; mailing folds, minimal wear, with an unusual combination of tidy handwriting and atrocious spelling. Most accompanied by the original stamped postmarked envelopes. Most with typed transcriptions. Various places, bulk 1864-1866
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Wesley Blanchard (1844-1908) was a grocer in Lewiston, ME when he enlisted as a private in the 24th Massachusetts Infantry in October 1861. These letters begin in June 1864, after Blanchard was wounded. 18 letters are written from Patterson Park Hospital in Baltimore, and Chester Hospital in Pennsylvania, through March 1865. Blanchard recovered just in time to accompany his regiment to Richmond, shortly after the Confederate evacuation, describing the devastation of the rebel capitol and the conditions of ex-rebel soldiers held in the former Libby Prison. By the end of his stay in Richmond, he was guarding Black civilian prisoners at Castle Thunder, administering brutal punishments similar to what had been practiced by the recently abolished slave-owning class.

The first of Blanchard's letters after leaving the hospital was on 4 April 1865 from City Point. At this point, as the war neared its end, huge numbers of Confederates were being captured but were not yet being paroled. Blanchard wrote: "Her I have bin for the last three days, waiting for them to send us to our reg't. Thair is over four thousands men her waiting for the same thing, and they ar ariving evry day. Lice ar in abundance. . . . They marched 15,000 prisners by her yesterday, and moast evry hour som others pass under gard."

The first of his 12 letters from Richmond, "the Citty of Rebeldum," is dated 12 April, nine days after the rapid evacuation of Jefferson Davis's government, and 3 days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The trip into the city presented unusual sights: "Thair wer torpeadoes lying along on the beach which our navy boys had fished out of the river, also the iron clads which they had blown up wer lying viserable in the river." In Richmond, "the smoaking from the reasent firs which the Rebs had kindled. . . . the prinsapal business part was burnt by orders of General commanding the city at the time of evackuation. . . . Liba Prison has been filled with Rebs for the last few days. They ar released as soon as they take the oath. Castle Thunder is used for a lockup to all unruley soldiers. . . . We find starvation on here a common thing. I have herd many a sad tale related from the mouths of some of the cittersons. . . . The capital and the grounds around it ar covered with dirt and rubish, windows ar broken and the wals are decaying." On 15 April, while marching prisoners through town, "one fair loocking lady used the expresion 'May God bless evry one of you. May you yet live to lick the Yanks.'" The prisoners "did not seam to like the idea of having to bord in that noted place called Libby, for moast all of them had seen what whar the results of our men who had bin confined thair." He describes at length Oakwood Cemetery where many of the deceased Union prisoners had been buried in crude plots.

On 22 April he describes the capture of former Libby Prison keeper Richard Turner: "The man who ust to treat our prisners so while confined thare has bin caught and is lying on one of the sels which he ust to have charge of. His name is Turner. He wil proberably receive his just dews befor long." On 26 June this character is discussed again: "We have recaptured our old friend Dick Turner, the former turnkey of Libby Prison who escaped from us. He was found at his own house. He had bin out of town and disguised himself so much that he was beyond being recognized by our soldiers, but he was mistakened, for detectives wer lirking around his hous for a long time before he made his appearance. He was armed with two revolvers. . . . He was confined in a cel whair he was fetered and chaned to the wall. He is alowed all the hard bread he wants with water, that is all." He added two weeks later: "I have a lock of Dick Turner's hair presented to me by a barber who cut it a few days agow" (hair sadly not included).

On the 4th of July Blanchard observed that "the collard inderviduals had a picnick outside after wich they marched to their church whair they had sirverses. Thair wer several excursons down river in which officers only wer alowed to pertake. Too of our men blowed their fingers of by the caless handling of powder." On 18 July he worried that poor sanitation made Richmond vulnerable to disease: "Many of the back yards and alleyways contain the dirt and filth which has bin accumerlating thair since the breaking out of the war. . . . I saw famerlies who considered themselves somebody living in as dirty condition as any Irish family north."

Blanchard was still in Richmond as winter approached, and still minding prisoners (civilian and military) at Libby. On 26 November, he admitted "thair is one thing which you would not aprove of, that is in using the lash wonce in a while when the Neagroes are susey [saucy]. We do that wonce in a while. This is the best remerdy we can find for their insulting tungs." On 1 January 1866 at Richmond's Castle Thunder, he boasted that the lieutenant "leaves me in charge of the so-called famous Castle. All of our white prisoners have bin removed to the Libby, leaving but Negroes to this place. . . . 101 Negroe men & 21 women constitute our small famerly who ar commited for nurmeros offenses. . . . A man shot a woman at the Union House, a place of ill fame, and managed to make his escape yesterday. . . . The prisner drew a revolver and shot the policeman, wounding him dangerously. . . . He was found consealed in a fead box in a shead covered with hay. . . . Such cases occur daly here while you people of the North lye reposing at night." Blanchard's final letter from Richmond describes his brutal techniques as prison warden: "I have tonight just got through with a Negrow who had rather a sausy toung, which neaded to be taken down a little. I tied them up by the rists on his toes for 1 1/4 hours which served to tame him a little. Also a femail was trained a few night agow. We have some quear works. If the niger lovers of the north should happen to see it, they would find some falt, I expect, but I am bound to controle what I have here, which is 77 men & 16 women. They will have to behave themselves or I will use the lash."

12 more letters were written to Eldora after his discharge, most while he was in Lewiston, ME from February 1866 through June 1867. Also included are 6 Maine teaching certificates issued to Eldora from 1863 to 1866; and an 1877 letter to Eldora from the Unitarian clergyman Minot Judson Savage regarding his publications, 1877. After the war, Wesley married Eldora and worked as a clerk and oil merchant in Lewiston, ME.