Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 67

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR--OHIO.) Joseph W. Scott. A group of letters from an Ohio soldier at Mill Springs and Tennessee. 4 Autograph Letters Signed to friends Rufus and Win, each 3 or 4 pages, about 8 x 5 inches on folding sheets with 4 different illustrated patriotic letterheads; 3 1/2-inch tape repair on one letter, otherwise minimal wear. Vp, January to August 1862
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Additional Details

Joseph W. Scott (born circa 1843) served as a private in the 38th Ohio Infantry. The first letter was written in Somerset, KY during the Battle of Mill Springs, 19 January 1862, in which the 38th Ohio was held in reserve. Scott apparently did not yet know that the Confederate general Felix Zollicoffer was killed by wandering into Union lines during the battle: "During the night Zolly's force advanced on our men, and this morning they opened fire on our men and they have kept it up until the present time, now being 11 o'clock. . . . Here comes a messenger on a full run. There is some kind of orders sure. I will have to close. I will write again after the battle if God will spare me."
Scott's 18 February letter reports on the nearby Battle of Fort Donelson: "Have you heard the news? Fort Donelson is taken, 15,000 prisiner and Buckner, Johnson and Buregard. Don't you think the war in Ky is most over?" Next is a 27 April letter written from Camp Triune, TN, including a very rough sketch and description of the Triune Earthworks (now on the National Register). It consists mostly of 11 humorous commandments in biblical style describing his regiment's depredations on the local countryside: "His tent is filled with potatoes and cabage sutch as not abound in the comisary department, yet of a truth it must be said . . . that they take nothing that they cannot reach." A final 6 August letter is from camp in Winchester, TN, and describes a guerrilla depot in Decatur: "We searcht the houses and found 100 rifles. The citizens would take them at night and fire at the pickets."