Shell fragment wired to frame WITH Autograph letter signed by Joseph Tucker, Jr. N.p., n.d. Period wood frame. 

A relic with a fine period letter of provenance and frame. The letter, recounting the soldier's wounding, reads in full: "A piece of Rebel Shell which penetrated my tent and struck me on the right shoulder inflicting a slight bruise and just cracking the skin. Nothing more but as it was the first wound in this Co. inflicted by the Rebs. I thought it worthy of presentation as a relic and alas a reminder of Battery No '2' + May 20th 1864 and the merciful interposition of Divine Providence in my behalf. Ought I not to trust him? Joseph Tucker Jr."

The author is tentatively identified as Joseph S. Tucker of Company D of the 9th Maine Infantry, whose records list that he was wounded on 20 May 1864, the same day detailed in the letter. Tucker, a native of Foxcroft, Maine, was 26 years old when he enlisted on 22 September 1861 into the 9th Maine. 

The regiment joined General Thomas W. Sherman's expedition to capture Port Royal, South Carolina. It the first regiment to land during the successful capture of Fernandina, Florida. The soldiers of the 9th Maine remained there until early 1863, when they returned to Hilton Head and took part in the assault on Morris Island, South Carolina, as part of the assaulting forces in the attacks on Fort Wagner. Tucker re-enlisted on the first day of 1864. 

In May, the 9th Maine sailed up the James River to Bermuda Hundred, where they began a stint of hard service, participating at Drewry's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred, Cold Harbor, the assaults on Petersburg, Deep Bottom, Fort Gilmer, Darbytown Road, and Chaffin's Farm. It was during this marathon of action that Tucker was wounded by the Confederate shell on May 20th. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Relics, Militaria]