Jun 05, 2008 - Sale 2148

Sale 2148 - Lot 115

Price Realized: $ 270
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
"IT WAS FIGHT FOR DEAR LIFE YOU CAN BET" (CIVIL WAR--NEW YORK.) [Bostwick], George H. Autograph Letter Signed to his brother Orramell T. Bostwick. 4 pages on 1 leaf; minor wear at folds. Hazel River, VA, 29 September 1863

Additional Details

a graphic account of the battle of liberty mills. The Bostwick brothers both served in the 2nd New York Cavalry for the bulk of the war. George (1836-1913) was a private, and his brother Orramell (1840-1922) became a sergeant. After the war, both returned in their home town of Stillwater, Saratoga County, NY. George wrote this letter while Orramell was recovering from wounds received at Culpeper Court House on September 13, and updates him in great detail on the regiment's recent action at Liberty Mills. In part: "It was hand to hand part of the time. A. Laugholm shot a captain in neck, he drop dead as a stone. I was hit with a sabre, but it did not mont to eney thing . . . It was fight for dear life you can bet." On the brothers, see Henry A. Bostwick, Genealogy of the Bostwick Family (New York, 1901), 335 and 601.