"...but they rallied toward the night and drove us back to within a mile of our main line...We fought as long as we could but 'twas no use. They completely surrounded us..."

Autograph letter signed by William Rowe Russell (1837-1887), Co. F, 4th Vermont Infantry, to his wife, Annie Eliza Smith Russell (1839-1898). Camp near Petersburg, Virginia, 25 June [1864]. 2 pages, 7 1/2 x 10 in. With original cover with four-ring target cancel and red three-cent stamp.

A sobering letter reporting that Russell's regiment, the 4th Vermont Infantry was "annihilated" during the battle of Cold Harbor. Russell had enlisted in Co. F shortly after the regiment's formation in late November of 1861. The 4th Vermont, also known as the "Vermont Brigade," played a crucial part in many important battles of the Army of the Potomac, including the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania.

Rusell, plagued by a chronic illness, was not with his regiment for several of these conflicts. However, for better or worse, he was well enough to rejoin his comrades just prior to the battle of Cold Harbor, the harrowing events of which he describes here: "I had command of a company and drove the reb cavalry half a mile through the woods...but they rallied toward the night and drove us back to within a mile of our main line...We fought as long as we could but 'twas no use. They completely surrounded us."

Assuming great personal risk, Russell bore the flag himself and endeavored to protect it from a group of vengeful Confederates: "The Johnnys wanted those colors badly & I saw Libby Prison & the disgraced elf having colors taken as I knew the regiment was gone up." Russell and his men managed to escape and "got to the woods...and into the 3rd Division pickets about 11 pm."

Later, he reports on the battles devastating consequences, writing that they "lost 217 men and 11 officers." Given the great number of casualties, the regiment was reconsolidated, and Russell instructs his wife to "direct" all subsequent letters she sends "just [the] same only omit the company as there is no companies now."

Russell sustained a minor wound while in the trenches of Petersburg shortly after this letter was written but otherwise returned home to Annie unscathed. He attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and mustered out on September 20, 1864. Census records indicate that Russell worked as a freight clerk, first in Herkimer, New York, and later in Boston, Massachusetts, where he and his family ultimately settled. He died there of tuberculosis in 1887.

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