"...I am a caged Prisoner of War..."

Autograph letter signed by Reuben M. Colby (1839-1893), Co. B, 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his friend Eliphalet Smith. Charleston, South Carolina, 21 August 1864. 1 page, 8vo. With original cover, inscribed "From a Prisoner of War," with "Due 3" handstamp and Port Royal postmark. 

A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Colby was working as a carpenter in Louisville, Kentucky at the outbreak of the Civil War. He entered the service on April 27, 1861 as a sergeant with Co. H of the 20th OVI, assigned to the Department of West Tennessee. Notably, in the summer of 1864, the regiment joined General Sherman's army in the Atlanta Campaign, in which its members displayed great personal daring. The regiment also sustained heavy casualties and saw 19 of its men taken prisoner, including Colby.

Penned during his confinement at the Charleston City Jail, Colby informs his friend that he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Atlanta and is still imprisoned one month later in Charleston, after being held briefly in Macon. In this brief letter - limited to one page by military authorities - Reuben bemoans his situation, writing: "I am a caged Prisoner of War." He acknowledges that the treatment is better in Charleston than "at any place [he] has yet been," but is still eager for freedom: "I hope soon t be exchanged for this thing of being a prisoner is anything but pleasant."

Colby received a promotion shortly after the Battle of Atlanta, likely for his bravery during the campaign, and mustered out as Captain on July 15, 1865. He returned to Massachusetts, where he worked as a police officer and raised six children with his wife, Sarah Jane Fisher. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Prisoner of War, POW]