Dec 01, 2011 - Sale 2263

Sale 2263 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 1,440
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
"HE WAS A FINE LOOKING GENTLEMAN . . . I WOULD SEE HIS DEAD CORPS BEFORE NIGHT" (CIVIL WAR--RHODE ISLAND.) Patterson, David B. A corporal's long letter describing the Battle of Ball's Bluff. Autograph Letter Signed to mother, 10 pages on 2 1/2 sheets, complete and generally very legible except for two pages in faint ink. Opposite Harrison Island, MD, 23 October 1861
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David B. Patterson (born circa 1843) enlisted as a corporal in Battery B of the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, which became one of the most renowned artillery units of the war. Their first engagement was at Ball's Bluff. Just before the battle, Patterson saw Col. Edward Dickinson Baker of the California Brigade, the only sitting senator to die in battle: "Col. Baker came along, and as he passed he said Is this a part of the Rhode Island Battery. He was a fine looking gentleman, and I did not then think that I would see his dead corps before night." A detachment from Patterson's battery was sent to provide artillery cover on the Virginia side of the river, but they were overrun; most were wounded or captured. Patterson was stationed near the hospital on the Maryland side: "The doctors used this house for the ones that was the most wounded, and as they came along I see some of the most pitiful sights that I ever saw in my life." He listened anxiously as the artillery fire from his comrades came to a halt: "At about 5 1/2 they ceased firing and I guess by that time there was not many of our troops over on that side that had their arms with them. . . . Two of the six men swam the river about 11 oclock that night and escaped, the other four men have not been heard from since."
Patterson broke both legs during a retreat the following year and was subsequently captured, but survived the war and lived in Worcester, MA until at least 1890.