CIVIL WAR: LETTER FROM A SOLDIER TO HIS COUSIN, WITH REFERENCE TO REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Autograph letter signed by Calvin P. Kelley, Co. K, 28th Virginia. Camp near Yorktown, Virginia, 24 April 1862. 2 pages, 4to. 

A letter from Calvin P. Kelley, a volunteer in Company K, 28th Virginia. He's writing to his cousin, catching him up after he "safely arived at Camp after a long & tedious hunt for my Regiment." He muses about how his camp is 70 miles east of Richmond near Yorktown, "where General Washington Compelled General Cornwallis to surrender Which was considered the close of the Revolutionary War." 

Kelley writes about how close his regiment is to the enemy line to the point the Yankees were throwing shells into the entrenchments, albeit "with Very little Effects." He also hears rumors of a Yankee attack but isn't worried because "we are all ready and willing to meet them at any time & place." 

Calvin P. Kelley mustered into the 28th Virginia on 15 June 1861 as a minor. He was able to serve for nearly a year and a half before being discharged on 8 October 1862. Even in this short period, Kelley participated in several important battles, including First and Second Bull Run and Antietam. 

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