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![<b>Written by a soldier who was captured at Spotsylvania and confined in Point Lookout Prison where he died as a P.O.W.
Includes an excellent description of the execution of a Confederate soldier!</b>
2 pages, 4 7/8 x 8, in ink, written by Pleasant Ritchey.
<b><u>Camp of the 5[th] Reg., Sept. 21, 1863</b></u>
Dear Companion,
I seat myself this beautiful morning in order to drop you a few lines to inform you that I am well, and doing well as could be expected, and hoping when these few lines come to hand they may find you all well, doing well. I recd. your kind letter this morning and was truly glad to hear from you one time more and to hear that you was doing as well as what you was. We have been expecting a fight ever since last Monday. We have been lying in line of battle now for two or three days. We have thrown up breastworks. I don’t think there will be any fight here. If there are a fight it will be somewhere else, but I don’t think it will be here. My legs are nearly well as ever, only they are weak. You need not give yourself any trouble about my disease for there are something else worse than that to contend with. If my disease was all I would not mind it. You wrote you want to know how I enjoyed myself. I can tell you that I don’t enjoy myself at all for I don’t see but one bit of pleasure here. All the pleasure I see is in reading your letters. That is all the pleasure I see here, that is sure. You wrote you would like to see some of my cooking and baking of biscuits. We have had [baking] soda till now. It is out and we have had bad bread to eat. I can make up as nice dough as anybody. I hope that I will get to come home some time this winter. I saw one of the awful[est] sights last week that I ever saw. It was one poor soldier shot. He was tied to a stake with his hands on his back and his back to the stake, and he was placed on his knees with his face towards the men that was to shoot at him. He was then blindfolded and shot. There was some 18 men shot at him. There was some 8 balls went through his breast and the poor fellow died right away. Before he was shot there was a preacher prayed for him with one of his hands on the stake. The whole Division was marched out to see the awful sight with our guns. I would like to see you all the best in the world. I hope and trust in God that I will for he is able to shield poor soldiers from all harm and danger. You must not think hard of me for not writing oftener for my mind is always stirred up and when I do try to write there are so much fuss that I can’t hardly write at all. Since I have commenced writing we have moved back from the breastworks we have been working at to the woods. It is a nice place. Parker promised me when he was out here to make me a pocket book. I would like to have one for mine is just wore out. If he has made it get it and send it to me if you can for they sell for 6 and 8 dollars here. I have been writing a letter about every week for some time and I would like to know if you get them or not. I sent two with some to Father about the times there. I want to know if Bunn is old enough for the conscript act to take him or not, and I would like to hear how all the neighbors are a getting along. Tell Mary she must take care of her scissors and keep them nice and not loose them for they came from the Yankees. May the good Lord bless us all and keep us all from harm and danger. Write as often as you can.
Yours,
Pleasant Ritchey
Light age toning and wear. Very fine. Excellent description of the execution of a Confederate soldier!
Pleasant Ritchey, was a 31 year old farmer, from Stanly County, North Carolina, when he enlisted on August 8, 1862, as a private, and was mustered into Co. F, 5th North Carolina Infantry. He was wounded in action on October 11, 1863, at Brandy Station, Va., was hospitalized, and returned to active duty on December 28, 1863. He was captured on May 12, 1864, in the battle of Spotsylvania, Va., and confined at Point Lookout, Md. prison where he died in captivity on July 8, 1864.](http://www.tias.com/stores/war/thumbs/cl470a.jpg)
![3 pages, 4 1/2 x 7, in ink, written by Edgar B. Bennett, Co. K, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, to his future wife.
<b><u>Before Petersburg, Va., January 18/65</b></u>
My Dear Mary,
It is with true pleasure that I now seat myself to answer your kind and ever welcome letter of the 11th which I have just rec. and how glad to hear from you and to find you all well. I am well as usual. There is good news from Wilmington, it is reported that Fort Fisher has fallen and the city cannot hold on much longer. The news has not yet come into the papers, but the dispatches were read to us today, so I have no reason to doubt it and those Company’s of the 1st Arty. got great praise for what they have already done. There was a salute fired here today for the victory won there. About noon today there was heavy firing on the Bermuda [Hundred] line, but the cause of it we have not heard, but it is reported that three Rebel Brigades rebelled on account of their not getting rations enough to eat. We probably shall learn the particulars by tomorrow. Everything is quiet in the front today or rather tonight as it is 9 o’clock. I wish I could have been in Burlington to of gave to the donation with you. This is not going to last always as I think there will be something done in regard to peace. How glad I should be to be able to be with Father this spring...there may be something done yet, so we may be together next spring. I see a young man on the picket line today got one of his legs taken off by the explosion of a shell with which he was fooling with. There is a great many such accidents occur during a week. There is nothing more to write so I will close. Give my best wishes to all my friends. Love and kisses to you. I remain,
Your true and Loving friend,
Eddie B. Bennett
Very well written, excellent content.
Edgar B. Bennett, was a resident of Burlington, Conn., when he enlisted on May 23, 1861, as a corporal, and was mustered into the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. He was promoted to Q.M. Sergeant, May 28, 1864, and mustered out of service, on Sept. 25, 1865.](http://www.tias.com/stores/war/thumbs/ul1706a.jpg)
![<b>U.S. Secretary of State</b>
(1801-72) Lawyer and Whig politician. Governor of New York 1839-42. He later served in the Senate, vigorously opposed slavery and joined the Republican party in 1856. Twice passed over for president (1856 and 1860) he became Abraham Lincoln's very able Secretary of State. He was savagely attacked in his bed on the night of the Lincoln assassination by fellow conspirator Lewis Payne. He recovered from his wounds and served in the same post under President Andrew Johnson. Perhaps his most important act was the purchase of Alaksa, then called "Seward's Folly," in 1867 from Russia.
Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. No backmark. Outdoor group shot taken in upstate New York, of U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, posing with a group of foreign diplomats, with a waterfall in the background.
The diplomats in the view are as follows:
1. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State
2. Baron De Stpeckel, Russian Minister
3. M. Molena, Nicaaraguan Minister
4. Lord Lyon, British Minister
5. M. Mercier, French Minister
6. M. Schleiden, Hanseatic Minister
7. M. Bertenatti, Italian Minister
8. Count Piper, Swedish Minister
9. M. Bodisco, Sec. Russian Legation
10. Mr. Sheffield, Attache [to] British Minister
11. Mr. Donaldson, Mess[enger], [of] State Dept. U.S.
The man standing second from the left is unidentified.
Light age toning and wear. Very fine.
This exact image is published in Miller's, The Photographic History of the Civil War. It has a very lengthy caption which reads in part:
LEADERS OF DIPLOMACY IN 1863
Secretary Seward and nine Foreign Diplomats at the time when Confederate Cruisers abroad were an International problem.
No military picture of moving troops, no group of distinguished generals, could possibly hold the interest for students of the history of the Civil War that this photograph possesses. It is the summer of 1863. Gathered at the foot of this beautiful waterfall, as if at the end of a day's outing for pleasure, are men of mark and great importance. Here are William H. Seward, American Secretary of State, standing bareheaded to the right. With him, numbered so that the reader can easily identify them are [it goes on to list all of the diplomats by name and title as the above key does, so I won't repeat it here]. These were ticklish times in diplomatic circles. Outwardly polite to one another, and on an occasion such as this probably lowering the bars of prescribed convention, many of these men would have liked to know what was going on in the brains of their associates, for diplomacy is but a game of mental hide and seek. More than any one else, would Mr. Seward have desired at this moment to be gifted in the art of mind reading. He would have liked to hear from Lord Lyons exactly what stand the British Government was going to take in relation to the Confederate cruisers that had been outfitted in Great Britain. He would have liked to hear also from Minister Mercier more on the subject of the vessels building in France that he had been in correspondence with John Bigelow about, and he would have liked to know exactly what Napoleon III was trying to do in Mexico, in the ambitious game of which Maximilian was a pawn. The Nicaraguan Minister would have appreciated a word himself on the latter subject; and Lord Lyons, in view of the presence of the Russian fleet, would have liked to pick the brain of Baron De Stoeckel, whose royal master, the Czar, had made such firm offers of friendship to the United States at just this hour. Mr. Schleiden, in view of what was to happen in the next few years, would have welcomed an outburst of confidence from M. Mercier, and for that matter, so would M. Bertenatti. But here they are, sinking all questions of statecraft and posing for the photographer as if the game of diplomacy was far from their minds and they were ordinary "trippers" seeing the sights.](http://www.tias.com/stores/war/thumbs/cdv7366a.jpg)
![<b>War Date Document Signed
General McClellan appoints future Union Generals' Averill, Gregg and Duffie to a military board</b>
<u>Samuel Breck</u>: (1834-1918) Graduated in the West Point class of 1855. Served in the 1st U.S. Artillery. During the Civil War he served as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Irvin McDowell, and was Assistant Adjutant General in the Adjutant General's Office. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general in March 1865.
7 3/4 x 10, in ink.
Head Quarters Army of the Potomac
Washington, Feby. 12th, 1862
Special Orders
No. 42
A Military Board to consist of Colonel William W. Averill, 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry, Colonel David McM. Gregg, 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and Major [A.N.] Duffie, 2nd New York Cavalry, will assemble at the Camp of McDowell's Division at ten o'clock A.M. on Friday the 14th inst. or as soon thereafter as practicable, to examine into the capacity and qualifications of Thomas B. Thornett, late a Captain in the 2nd New York Cavalry. The Board will also test his knowledge of tactics by requiring him to drill a Cavalry Company in such exercises as they may designate. The junior Member will record the proceedings.
By Command of Major Genl. McClellan
S. Williams
Asst. Adjt. Genl.
Official
Saml. Breck
A.G.
Light age toning and wear. Very fine. This document comes from the personal war time papers of General Alfred N. Duffie.](http://www.tias.com/stores/war/thumbs/auto3461a.jpg)
