Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 113

Unsold
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
"WE ARE READY ANY TIME AT ALL FOR JACKSON" (CIVIL WAR--PENNSYLVANIA.) Andrew L. McFarland. Letter by a clueless Union private boasting of victory in the Shenandoah. Autograph Letter Signed to Robert D. McFarland. 5 pages, 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches, on 2 sheets; offsetting, minimal wear. With addressed patriotic cover featuring the portrait of Colonel Schlaudecker of the 109th Pennsylvania, bearing inked "DUE 3" postmark and quartermaster's franking signature. Winchester, VA, 13 June [1862]
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This Union private, who had mustered into the 109th Pennsylvania Infantry just 10 weeks before, presents a glowing account of the string of victories the Union army has inflicted on Stonewall Jackson's cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley--quite contrary to the judgement of history: "We are under General Seigles [Sigel]. He is a little man and sandy complected but you had better believe he understands his business. We had a little fight at Charles Town a few days before we left Harper's Ferry. . . . we lossed only about 10 men. They retreated first and we chased them through the town. We halted just before the steam printing office whare they printed Rebel papers . . . and we got lots of military books that they had taken from our men, and then we burnt the printing office down. . . . The next day they advanced on us and began fireing on us, but by that time we was reinforced with a great many artilery. . . . General Fremont is on the rear of them, and us at the front, and they will have to fight thare way through some how or be taken prisoners. . . . General Jackson is the old rascal we are fighting with. He has about thirty thousand rebels. . . . We are ready any time at all for Jackson. We are under Seigler, and as soon as he undertakes Fremont, Seigle will come in on the rear of him. If he only new it, he is in a pretty bad fix." Private McFarland still had full confidence in President Lincoln's months-old plan to catch Jackson's cavalry between a hammer and the anvil of Frémont's Mountain Department. However, by this point the fighting had ended, Frémont was already in withdrawal, and Stonewall Jackson was soon to march eastward unencumbered toward the Virginia coast.

The letter also includes an intriguing line which we have been unable to corroborate: at the skirmish in Charles Town, WV, "we took the old rascal prisoner that hung John Brown. He is locked up in Harper's Ferry." Brown's hangman was John Avis, who did indeed serve the Confederacy in the 5th Virginia, but by June 1862 he was provost marshal of Staunton, VA, and we find no mention that he was ever captured. By all accounts, he treated Brown with decency during the prisoner's final days.