(CIVIL WAR WEST VIRGINIA) Alexander S Sayres Pair of letter

Sale 2546 - Lot 76

Price Realized: $ 625

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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(CIVIL WAR--WEST VIRGINIA.) Alexander S. Sayres. Pair of letters from a soldier from the northern West Virginia panhandle. Autograph Letters Signed to wife Jane Shrodes Sayles, each 4 8vo pages, one on patriotic letterhead; moderate wear and foxing. Virginia, 1862-63

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Before the war, Alexander Swaney Sayre (1834-1906) was a tailor in Moundsville in what would soon become the northern panhandle of West Virginia. Circa 1861, he relocated his family to Marietta, OH and enlisted in Union army with the 3rd West Virginia Infantry. His first letter is dated Camp McDowell [Highland County, VA], 30 April 1862, and refers to Brigadier General Robert H. Milroy, who commanded several West Virginia regiments: "The secesh captured twenty-six of our waggens and a hunderd and forty horses down the vally below here. . . . They burnt the waggens and took the horses. They got the eleven of the wagners prisners and killed three and wounded two or three. . . . The hole force was out and mustered today and reviewed by General Melroy and he sayed publickly that the 3rd Va. Ridgement was the best ridgement he had in his briggade, and it is generally believed by all the officers that Co. I is the best co in the ridgement." His second letter is dated from Winchester, VA, on 22 April 1863, and describes a skirmish near Strasburg, VA on 20 April: "Wee captured 25 or thirty prisners up above Straussburgh and sent them of today. Our men had quite a scurmish with the rebs. Wee had one man killed and one mortally wounded but he is still alive yet. The rebels had to killed and five wounded and wee captured 21 prisners and a number of horses and armes. We got fore 20 pound rifel steel siege guns from Harpers Ferry last week and I think we will go up the vally and clear out the rebels up there."