Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 120

Price Realized: $ 3,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
LINCOLN "LOOKED CAREWORN WITH RESPONSIBILITY AS WELL HE MIGHT." (CIVIL WAR--OHIO.) Wright, Albert. An Ohio soldier's letters describing Fort Stevens and an encounter with President Lincoln. 16 Autograph Letters Signed to father William Wheeler Wright of Oberlin, OH and other family members; most 8vo, many of them several pages long, condition generally strong, most accompanied by stamped envelopes. Vp, 10 May to 27 July 1864
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Albert Allen Wright (1846-1905) enlisted in the 150th Ohio National Guard, a three-month regiment, but had more excitement than a typical three-monther. He participated in several battles, including the Battle of Fort Stevens, which was notable for President Lincoln's attendance: "Our fort has been attacked, and we have had some regular fighting to drive the enemy off. One man from our company has been killed" (14 July). He elaborated on his role on 24 July: "Your boy was temporarily promoted to gunner, an officer's position. . . . The president and part of his cabinet were in the fort. . . . The bullets came over the fort so fast that we did not look on very much, but kept our heads low." Wright personally helped destroy a "large new house about a thousand yards in front of the fort" where Confederates were sheltered.
Wright also describes an encounter with the president on 6 July: "As the carriage passed, we raised our caps and gazed upon Abraham Lincoln. He took his hat clear off while he passed (they were going slow then) and gazed at each one separately. I was the last one, and I looked in to his clear eye until the cedars came between. He looked careworn with responsibility as well he might."
Wright was a bit of an artist, including several small maps and plans in his letters: two of the fortifications near Washington (29 May), and two small sketches of artillery pieces (16 June). He was impressed by his conversations with several Confederate prisoners on 19 July: "There is five times as much personal morality among them as among their captors. One fellow said there were only three men in his regiment who swore. They are Stonewall Jackson's men." However, he was hardly a Confederate sympathizer: "We are talking of establishing schools among the ex-slaves around here. They are anxious to have us do so" (29 May).