Autograph letter signed by Charles E. Bower (1826-1864). Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory, 25 May 1859. 1 page, 4to, on blue paper. 

Charles E. Bowers writes to his wife Minerva from Nebraska Territory on his way to Salt Lake City before heading to California. He includes interesting details of his journey: "We are in buffalo range and expect to have some fun soon. We came across a dead Indian last night before we got to camping plane. He lay wrapped in his blanket. He had laid there a good while. How he came there, no one knows." 

He arrived in the Genesee Valley in Plumas County, California before the winter of 1859 to begin searching for gold. Other known letters (not included here) reveal that his venture was not very successful and he wrote Minerva in June 1860 allowing his intentions for returning home. He would be drafted into Company B of the 14th Michigan Infantry on 26 September 1864 and is recorded as "missing from the Ambulance Train...on the march from Atlanta to Savannah, Ga." He had become ill and wandered off in a delirium. He died while being nursed by a local woman named Mrs. Bryson.   

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