"...had only got into the yard when several ‘sesesh’ cavalry rode up and ordered us to throw down our arms and surrender to Jeff Davis. It was impossible to do anything else so we gave ourselves up..."

Autograph letter signed by Albert L. Graves, Co. C, 2nd Vermont Infantry, to his family. [Libby Prison?], Richmond, Virginia, 12 November 1861. 4 pages, 4to.

An early Civil War prisoner-of-war letter written by Private Albert L. Graves of the 2nd Vermont Infantry to his family. Although Graves does not identify the place of his confinement, he was almost certainly writing from the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond.

In the letter, Graves gives a vivid account of the fighting at the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, the first major engagement of the war, and of the circumstances surrounding his own capture: “…in your last letter you asked me to give what particulars I knew in regards to Corporal Rice. While we were engaged in the action he was shot through one leg just above the ankle by a round musket ball which broke one of the bones and lodged in the other ankle. He turned around and started to go over the hill out of the range of the balls which were then hissing through the air as thick as hail. Streeter saw him staggering along making but very poor progress and went to his assistance. By this time he had got too weak to walk and I happened to look around and saw his situation and immediately started to help Streeter. We picked him up and carried him a mile and a half to Sudleys Church which was used for a hospital where we were joined by Fife and Wheeler. Fife picked the ball out of his leg with my Bowie knife. I went and got several blankets and made him a good bed and then we went out to follow the retreating army which had passed us on our way but had only got into the yard when several ‘sesesh’ cavalry rode up and ordered us to throw down our arms and surrender to Jeff Davis. It was impossible to do anything else so we gave ourselves up. I have since heard that Rice is in Richmond and not getting along very well although.”

Graves and Corporal Rice had both enlisted in May 1861 in Company C of the 2nd Vermont Infantry. They were sent first to Washington, D.C., and then into the field for the war’s first major battle. Crossing Bull Run at Sudley Ford, they advanced to Chinn Ridge and engaged Confederate forces there. After the collapse of the Union line, they attempted to withdraw toward Centreville. Graves and Rice were among thirty enlisted men of the regiment captured that day. Once confined in Richmond, they were almost certainly held in the confiscated three-story brick tobacco warehouse that would become infamous as Libby Prison.

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

Short separations along old folds - small repair to verso.