CIVIL WAR - UNION - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 09/28/1864 - HFSID 217013

CIVIL WAR: SOLDIER'S LETTER. ALS: "George", 4p, 5x8, front and verso. Camp 84th Reg. Penna Vol on the Weldon Railroad, 1864 September 28-29. To his mother. With a 5½x3, stamped envelope addressed by him to: "Mrs. Mary A. Boyles/Williamsburg/Blair Co./Penna", postmarked Washington, January 6. Heavily soiled. Torn at left edge where letter was removed. In part: "On the evening of the 25th we received marching orders. We were then laying in the front line. After dark we were relieved by the Colored Div of the 9th Corps and marched about one mile to the right & one half mile to the rear where we encamped for the night. On the morning of the 16th the regiment laid out a camp and there was seven men detailed out of Comp E for fatigue. I being in the number to work on Fort Sedgwick...Fort Sedgwick is situated only a short distance from the enemy lines & the Rebel sharpshooters watch it very close. A man cannot show himself at one of the embrasures without being shot at & they generally shoot so close that no one feels inclined to try their skill./Sept 29th 1864/...yesterday afternoon we heard heavy firing in the direction of the Danville Railroad...I do not wish to go to military school until I go to the academy a few years. Your writing to the President would be of no avail. A citizen must be recommended to Congress by the Senator from the district where he resides...Joseph Everheart is missing. We do not know whether he is killed, wounded or a prisoner...." The 19th and 23rd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops Infantry were attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from April to September, 1864. They saw action at the Mine Explosion, in Petersburg, July 30, 1864, at Weldon Railroad August 18-21, and Fort Sedgwick on September 28, 1864 and were at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. Creased. Toned at edges. Folds. Minor stains. Two items.