IMPORTANT LETTER DETAILING "COLORED CITIZENS'" CELEBRATION OF EMANCIPATION IN NORTH CAROLINA 

Autograph letter signed by John Knight Dustin (1843-1909), Co. C, 23rd Massachusetts Infantry, to his father. Beaufort, North Carolina, 6 January 1864. 4 pages, 8vo. With original cover with Beaufort cancel and red three-cent stamp.

Working as a clerk at the outbreak of the Civil War, Dustin enlisted on September 20, 1861, as a private and mustered into Co. C of the Massachusetts 23rd Infantry. He stayed with this regiment for the entirety of this three years of service and mustered out on September 26, 1864. 

Here, Dustin writes to his father in January of 1864 from Hammond General Hospital, formerly the Atlantic Hotel, a tony resort repurposed by the Union army in 1862. Dustin acts as hospital's Officer of the Guard, and the "nice coal fire" in the ward room is a welcome respite from his usual regimental guard duty.

Still, Dustin shares that his place is with his fellow soldiers, explaining that he does not "feel any greater man than when in the regiment." Indeed, after inquiring after the holidays and family health, his letter turns quickly to wartime news, informing the elder Dustin that General Ambrose Burnside's return to command in North Carolina would be welcome, given the "rumors of an increase of force and an advance."

At present, though, Beaufort is quiet, and Dustin summarizes the New Year's Day Emancipation celebration of 1864, marked by the "Colored Citizens" by holding a "grand dinner, free to all in honor of the Emancipation Bill. Speeches were made...the principle subject of [which] was that McClellan was not the man for the next President and Old Abe should be reelected if their influence and votes would help the matter."

The remaining months of war did constitute Dustin's aforementioned "increase of force," as his regiment was assigned to the defenses of New Berne, where they notably saw action at Drury's Bluff and Cold Harbor. Dustin survived the war, however, and returned to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to marry Lucy Low Davis (1847-1916) and pursue a career in bookkeeping. 

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