Autograph letter signed by Quartermaster Sergeant Elijah Baker, 47th New York Infantry. Park of Wagon Train, near Petersburg, Virginia, 25 June 1864. 2 pages, 4to. 

In his capacity as Quartermaster Sergeant, Baker writes to a superior officer from the Siege of Petersburg. After crossing the Appomattox to reinforce Grant, he writes: "Lieut Bowen who is Acting Adjt ordered him to give him the big Horse. I talked to them, and told them your orders, but they would not listen, especially Lieut Bowen who, after taking the Horse, said he would send him to his Company, and was rather sassy...I wish you would send me a written order that no person shall have anything to do with them except myself." 

A charge was ordered but rescinded, and he notes that "a terrific shelling is kept up by both sides. You can see the steeples in Petersburg." 

An intriguing postscript to the letter: "We have just heard that Lieut Scott's n----r was shot in the A-S by a sharpshooter, while getting water. This is all the casualties up to this."

The 47th New York had fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor and Grant's First Assault on Petersburg, suffering casualties. This letter is written just days before the Battle of the Crater, where the regiment would lose 17 more men to casualty. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]