Sep 30, 2010 - Sale 2223

Sale 2223 - Lot 71

Price Realized: $ 600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(CIVIL WAR--MICHIGAN.) Letter from a soldier in the mutinous 3rd Michigan Cavalry under Custer. Autograph Letter Signed from "Will" to Alice. 9 pages, each 8 x 5 inches, on 3 leaves; excellent condition. San Antonio, TX, 3 January 1866
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Recounts an unpleasant incident which occurred just after the Civil War. The men of the volunteer 3rd Michigan Cavalry, like many other regiments, had been held in service after the conclusion of the Civil War. Stationed far from home in San Antonio, some of the men held a series of secret meetings and resolved to prefer "a dishonorable discharge rather than have none at all." When the conspirators appeared for review in comically mismatched uniforms, the Camp Guard refused to arrest them. The regulars from the 4th United States Cavalry were then brought in to make some arrests, but 200 of the Michigan men took up arms to resist them. During the ensuing standoff, our correspondent was threatened with death when "the mutineers then turned their attention to the officers and men of their own companies who had opposed their movements from the beginning." The Michigan regiment was eventually persuaded to turn in their weapons and submit to arrest.
The harsh disciplinarian who had command of these unhappy cavalry regiments, not mentioned by name in this letter, was a young general named George Armstrong Custer. See Van de Water, Glory-Hunter, pages 129-132.
with--unrelated papers of Private William H. Moyer of the 210th Pennsylvania: 2 photographs, discharge, and pension document.