Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 325

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Group of letters by a white Connecticut soldier hoping to bring his contraband servant back north with him. 4 Autograph Letters Signed by Lieutenant Theodore Vaill to various family members. 9 pages in total, various sizes; folds and minimal wear. One letter with original stamped envelope bearing Alexandria postmark. Various places, 1863-65
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Additional Details

The author of these letters, Theodore Frelinghuysen Vaill (1832-1875), was a white lieutenant in the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery from an affluent family. He served in various Virginia campaigns through the course of the war. He came into frequent contact with refugee "contrabands" who had escaped from slavery, and like many officers, hired one as his personal servant. These four letters all discuss his efforts to bring some of these refugees back north to Litchfield, CT, where they could find employment at his family's estate or with trusted neighbors.

The earliest letter offered here is dated 23 October 1863, where he writes: "Willie is doing very well. If you wanted a colored boy to raise, I could send you one, who would be worth 40 Irvings." The other three letters are from after the conclusion of fighting, while Vaill awaited discharge at Fort Ethan Allen near Arlington, VA. In 28 June 1865 letter to his brother Joe, he adds in a postscript "Has my colored boy arrived?" He wrote at greater length to his brother Charles on 8 July 1865: "To the folks at Litchfield, I have a first rate colored boy named Leander. He has been with me ever since I returned to the reg't & I know him to be a good boy, faithful & likely, about 16 or 17 yrs old. He wants me to take him home. Shall I do so, for you or some neighbor? Please write and let me know." Finally, on 27 July 1865, he wrote to his father: "I cannot send a boy to Mr. Dudley. . . . I don't want to promise to let him have my boy Leander, because I think he will be very valuable to keep at the manse. He is the embodiment of faithfulness, and he and Jack will be none too much help. Leander can wash & do any kind of indoor work, such as generally allotted to the women folks in New England, and which breaks them down & kills them. He can make his own bed, do his own (& other peoples') washing, &c &c. . . . I shan't look up any colored folks for Lewis Kilbourn & Amos Bissell unless they write me & let me know what they want." We do not know if Leander ever made it to Connecticut, but we can find no record of him in Connecticut in the 1870 census.