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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Chapin, E. Letter on dubious methods used to recruit men for the United States Colored Troops. Autograph Letter Signed to father. 8 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on 2 folding sheets; separations at folds, otherwise minor wear. Hilton Head, SC, 31 August 1864
Private Earl Chapin of the white 157th New York Infantry writes home regarding a disturbing scene at the major United States Army base at Hilton Head: "There are quite a number of agents here from the north recruiting Negroes, and the course some of them take to get recruits is shamefull, especially the Mass. agents, and they are getting most of them. They actually force them in. I saw one of the agents go up to a Negro in the street and tell him he was drafted, and showed him an old letter which he said was the paper for him, and marched him right off to the Provost Marshal, and the poor Negro thought there was no help for him, so he took the bounty. . . . The Mass. agents have handbills posted on every building offering large bountys and stating in large letters that the noble Gov. of Mass. has declared that all men are free. It is nothing more or less than conscription. They take every Negro they can find." Chapin later served as a lieutenant in the 103rd United States Colored Troops.
