Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 359

Price Realized: $ 715
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(RECONSTRUCTION.) Truman F. Maxim. A Union soldier reports on the freedmen's first Fourth of July celebration in Raleigh, NC. Autograph Letter Signed to "parents and friends." 4 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original envelope bearing New Bern postmark and inked "Due 3" stamp. Raleigh, NC, 3 and 5 July 1865
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On the 4th of July, the Black community of Raleigh, NC celebrated their first Independence Day as freedmen (just weeks after the original Juneteenth in Texas). About 3,000 marched with banners. As the New York Times reported on 14 July 1865, "the disenthralled slaves enjoyed a celebration of this glorious day, following a programme of their own making, and listening to speakers of their own selection." The Union soldiers who had remained to enforce the peace were asked to stay in camp, to avoid disturbing the celebration. The idea of free Blacks enjoying the holiday while he was stuck in camp was deeply offensive to this particular white Union soldier, who contemplated armed resistance:

"I will tell you about the 4 of July. It was salurbrated mostly by the Negrows. The streets were blacker than a thundercloud. They had such a time as you might supose that the Negrows get up, with the exceptions of a little fire works just to please the Negrows. . . . You will think I am coming down on the Negrows prety hard but I can't help that. You know that I'm a one of these kind that speaks just what I think, and when a General will issue an order not to allow an inlisted man in town without a pass signed by a brigade commander, I think it is time to talk, and if that is not enough, it is time to shoot."

Truman Francis Maxim (1845-1934) had enlisted in October 1864 as a hired substitute in the 9th Maine Infantry. His regiment mustered out and was sent home on 13 July 1865, just eight days after he wrote this remarkably entitled letter.