(CIVIL WAR PENNSYLVANIA) Swartz William H Archive of a sold

Sale 2344 - Lot 110

Price Realized: $ 2,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

"AS HARD A FIGHT AS EVER WAS FOUGHT' (CIVIL WAR--PENNSYLVANIA.) Swartz, William H. Archive of a soldier's letters home, describing Antietam and the death of his cousin. 26 Autograph Letters Signed, each about 8 x 5 inches, including 8 patriotic letter sheets, to parents and siblings in Point Pleasant, Bucks County; many with original envelopes, a few illustrated or stamped; various conditions. Vp, 1862-63

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William H. Swartz (1844-1926) and his cousin Henry B. Swartz (1842-1863) enlisted together in the nine-month 128th Pennsylvania Infantry in August 1862, and saw action in Antietam and other battles. While most of William's letters are well-preserved, the letter written 4 days after Antietam is worn and foxed. William explains: 'You must excuse my dirty paper, for I picked it up on the battle field and my pensyl is poor.' He adds that 'they say that it was as hard a fight as ever was fought' and 'our curnell was killed before we had hardly got in the fight.'
William's letters home suggest that cousin Henry's health was too poor to participate in the regiment's first march, and he was often in the hospital. In February 1863, William wrote that "The morning we started from the station, Henry said he did not feel well, so he went to the doctors and he gave him 2 pills, which he took and then started with us all day." After two days of marching, William returned to visit the hospital: "I went back to see Harry and the docter said he was wors and then I staid with him till about 8 o'clock when he died. . . . He did not say a word about home or his folks. He seemed to die very easy."