online catalog

• What's New
• Reduced Price Items
• Artillery
• Books
• Bottles
• Buttons
• Confederate
• Contemporary Artist Prints
  • Framed Prints
  • Unframed Prints
• Currency, Bonds & Tokens
• Documents & Paper Goods
  • Art
  • Broadsides
  • Commissions
  • Discharges
  • Letters
  • Newspapers
  • Signatures
• Edged Weapons
  • Bayonets
  • Knives
  • Scabbards
  • Swords
• Firearms
  • Carbines
  • Cartridges & Gun Tools
  • Handguns
  • Holsters
  • Longarms
• Gettysburg Items
• Identified Items
  • Accoutrements
  • Edged Weapons
  • Firearms
  • Personal Items
  • Photography
  • Uniforms & Cloth
• Medical Items
• Military Accoutrements
  • Buckles/Plates
  • Canteens
  • Insignia & Badges
  • Leather
    • Belts
    • Cap & Cartridge Boxes
    • Haversacks / Knapsacks
    • Holsters
    • Scabbards
  • Spurs
• Personal Items
  • Amusements
  • Cooking
  • Jewelry
  • Personal Hygiene
  • Sewing
  • Smoking
  • Writing
• Photography
  • Albumens
  • Albums
  • Cabinet Cards
  • CDVs
    • Identified CDVs
    • Unidentified CDVs
  • Hard Images
    • Ambrotypes
    • Daguerreotypes
    • Tintypes
  • Stereoviews
• Relics
• Stock Items
  • Books
  • Clothing
  • Riker Cases
  • Shell Bases
  • Wood Display Cases
• Uniforms & Cloth
  • Flags
  • Headgear
  • Sashes & Hat Cords
  • Uniforms
• Veteran Memorabilia
  • GAR
  • UCV
• WWI / WWII
  • Equipment
  • Posters

UNION SOLDIER LETTER—CAPT. WILLIAM MILLS, FIELD & STAFF, 74TH OHIO INFANTRY

• 
• 

Dated “Camp Tod / Near Nashville May 11, 1862.” Addressed to “Col. Moody” [74^th Ohio commanding officer Granville Moody]. 4pp. in ink on unlined paper, 5” x 8. Exhibits fold-marks and an unobtrusive smudge here and there. Else VG & entirely legible.

William Mills was an elderly 48 year old who mustered and was commissioned as 1^st Lieutenant / Quartermaster into the Staff and Field of the 74^th Ohio Infantry. 10/1/1861. He was promoted to Captain of Co. “D”, 9/1/1862. He was listed as on detached duty on mustering out (date and place not given). Organized in March 1862, this unit was initially attached to the Army of the Ohio, and later the Army of the Cumberland, participating in the Battles of Stones River, Chickamaugua, Chattanooga and accompanying Sherman’s army during the Atlanta Campaign, the march to the Sea and through the Carolinas. Present at Bentonville and the Surrender of Johnston’s Army it was mustered out in Louisville in July 1865. During service it lost 53 men killed and wounded and 107 to disease for a total of 164.

In this letter to his Colonel, obviously written while on some sort of detached duty, Quartermaster Mill opens by saying….”You are undoubtedly already apprised of the condition of & locality of the 74^th Regt.--Willie says (Willie seemingly the Colonel’s son) he had written you often, but has recd no answer strange to say, for the first week after our arrival we got no letters from our friends—Mrs. Mills sent me no less than four, none of which have come….I learn this by subsequent letters, which now arrive regularly—the whole regt. have doubtless suffered in like manner…

We are pleasantly camped in a beautiful private park, one mile south of Nashville—we send one company daily into Nashville, to help guard the City. This together with our pickets & ordinary camp duties keep our soldiers all in active service. Colonel Campbells regt. Is about twenty miles distant…

Lt. Armstrong reached here yesterday with about twenty others—you perhaps know that Willie has not been well since he has been here & he and Lt. Telford are both boarding in the city where it is believed he will have more comforts than elsewhere… Both he and Telford have the jaundice—but think with care, will both be able to join the Regt. soon.

Mills then waxes pessimistic, feeling “much discouraged at the present state of affairs—I, unlike many others here  have little faith in the true situation here or anywhere in the south. They would all like the advantages of peace & trade, but demand the old Status of things—and the north to foot the bill for the war. This section would not be secure for a moment without northern troops.

This is a delightful region...everything around us in the way of natural scenery is charming...everything that indicates taste and wealth—”Man alone is vile”—with the peculiar institution [slavery] one thousand miles away this would be a fit place to put adam and eve on twenty plantations but I fear the same result would again happen / Respectfully yours / William Mills.”

A fascinating letter from a highly articulate Ohio Quartermaster sergeant. In protective sleeve, accompanied by documentation.    [jp][ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!