(MILITARY CIVIL WAR) Group of letters by a father and son s

Sale 2598 - Lot 324

Price Realized: $ 1,690

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Group of letters by a father and son supervising Black engineering regiments near Cincinnati. 3 Autograph Letters Signed to Ellen Gamble Paul, each 4 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches; moderate wear. Various places, 1862-64

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"They are by far the best workmen."

While fighting regiments like the 54th Massachusetts got all the glory, most regiments of Colored Troops worked on essential but thoroughly unglamorous engineering projects. These 3 letters offer a bit of insight into life in these regiments. Robert Spencer Paul writes from Cincinnati on 14 September 1862 about his brother Harrison Daniel Paul (1835-1906), a white civilian engineer supervising the construction of forts near Cincinnati: "Harry has the Black brigade under him now. Tom Peters has one half and Harry the other, giving each 600 Negroes. They are by far the best workmen. Harry and Tom Peters' works are by far the best constructed of any along the whole line. . . . Harry has had 2 forts to construct, while none of the others have more than one. Harry eats with the Black brigade, and the cooks of the Negro co that he messes with were getting $100 a month a piece as cooks before they went to the fortifications. They do get things up in good style. The white cooks in the camp around are too dirty to eat after. In Harry's division there are 300 to 500 Negroes chopping all the time, and they will chop more than 3 city white men. They are a good-natured jolly set, more than half mulattoes, pretty smart fellows."

Also included are two letters from their father Hosea Paul (1809-1870), a surveyor who supervised military road-building projects. On 2 January 1864 he wrote from Big Hill in Madison County in central Kentucky: "I suppose we shall have something over 100 impressed Negroes the first of next week." On 29 January he was 10 miles further south in Rockcastle County: "When I came here the military supt . . . promised the Negroes of Fayette, Montgomery, Madison & Nicholas Counties, probably 150 from each co., instead of which only 70 have come from Madison & none from any other county. The overseers . . . are undoubtedly selected because they are the most ignorant men on the subject of road making in the county. . . . I start in the morning & ride 1 1/2 miles to the first gang & then 2 1/2 miles further to the 2nd, where I get my dinner & return in season for supper."