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Lot 1198
Gettysburg Letter From A Member of the Excelsior Brigade. Four-page quarto letter written by Eseck G. Wilber, who served as a private in Company K, 120th New York Volunteers, of the famous Excelsior Brigade (III Corps, 2nd Div.), under Daniel Sickles. The Excelsior Brigade had the fifth highest number of killed and wounded in the war. Written in pencil to Wilber's father and mother from "Camp in the Mountains of Maryland July 10th 1863" and filled with details from Gettysburg. In part:
"…I told you that we soon expected a fight and we have had it and a hard one to and now we are after the retreating enemy hot and hevy bound to make them surrender or Butcher the whole of them….we went to Gettersburge Pa….the next day was the 2d of July and this will be a day long to be remembered by the survivers of that terable battle. the fight began in good season in the morning that is Canonadeing: in the afternoon it begun hot and hevy on all sides the thunder of the Artilery and the peals of musketry farely made you deaf. our Brigade chose there Position and lay down behind our stacks watcing for our time to Come….at first it appeared to be going in our favor at this point (our position being near the Centre of the line) but it soon became evident that they were driving us….with one wild yell we advanced on the enemy but they were comeing to strong …at this time they had a cross fire on and and they were poreing in from three different waysk…the musket balls was thicker than any hail I ever saw: My Comrads were falling on evry side of me…Captain Barker fell shot dead instantly the ball went through his head just back of his ears right through his brain. I saw him fall he never groaned at all. he had his swoard raised over his head giving us orders….they drove us about half a mile when our battery took a new position and we were reinforced by one brigade and with one wild yell we rallied to our collors and drove them back…we drove them all prisoners except a very few. in our Company we lost 5 men killed 16 wounded and 2 missing. we went into the fight with 40 men and the next day…we could not muster but 9: the regment went in with 346 muskets and came out with 110…the next day the fight raged all day with fury…we have got General Lee in a tight place…we have took about 16,000 Prisoners…we have lost at least 20,000 and I think more….the army that 2 months ago was almost demorilised has won a victory that will long be remembered. General Lee flushed with the hope of a successful result has tried himself the seckond time in Pensilvania and Mariland but he has found a man that is redy to meet him on evry corner and he has got badly whiped….we thought we had hard fighting to Chanselorville but it was not a flee bite to this one…. Much more excellent content, including a description of three musket balls that grazed him on various parts of his body. After surviving Gettysburg, Wilber was captured on October 10, 1863, during the Bristoe Campaign. He was sent to Andersonville, where he died the following September. Copies of Wilbur's war records are included.
Estimated Value $2,500 - 3,500.
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| Realized $4,140 |
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