Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

[allan4570]

Gentlemen,
I have a friend who purchased an old book from a fleemarket that contain an original letter from the Civil War. She has ask for my assistance (and now I am asking for yours) to find out if possible, more information about the unit and then hopefully about this person who was assigned to this battery. I am enclosing the letter in a WORD document. This way you can save the letter and use it for research. Any help, suggestions or questions will be appreciated and answered if possible. The book and all of it's entries seem to originate from Aberdeen, Mississippi and the Aberdeen Female College, June 1860 by Miss Ellen Howard, or Hommond ?

[FloridaConscript]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

best email? I have a petersburg OOB in excel I found on line.

unless someone knows how to post an excel doc on the forum.

[allan4570]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

Bryant, my email is; fabecton4570(at)att.net. Thanks for your reply!

[bAcK88]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

Off the top of my head and with my sources back home, I believe the units in that part of the line were part of Mahone's Division. I'll send this link to Emmanuel Dabney and get his expert opinion.

[Steve Acker]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

While not much here is some info on Battery 35 or Fort Walker as it was known. Named after 3rd corps artillery chief General Walker, it was captured on April 2/3 1865. The website has some geographic information. On page 305 of Earl Hess’s book, In the Trenches at Petersburg has reference to Battery 35.

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=17508

Good luck on your search to indentify the unit.

Steve Acker

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

With the name missing, it's going to be next to impossible to determine who it is and what unit. The Confederate positions were not neatly mapped because of the longevity of the campaign.

Based on his comments about Uncle Glenn in Macon, I surmise he's in one of two Georgia brigades in A. P. Hill's 3rd Corps. The possibilities: Ambrose Wright's (Wright no longer in command by the time of the Petersburg Campaign) old Georgia brigade:

3rd Georgia
22nd Georgia
48th Georgia
64th Georgia
2nd Georgia Battalion
10th Georgia Battalion

OR

Edward L. Thomas' brigade:

14th Georgia
35th Georgia
45th Georgia
49th Georgia

[roundshot]

Re: Original Letter from Battery No. 35, Petersburg

Well there are several hints here if we read closely. First off, references in the letter seem to indicate this man is an artilleryman, not any infantryman: Viz "I find it terribly hot here in our battery" and " Everybody is expecting Gen’l Lee to go into PA again Which trip I fear we will miss as little artillery will be taken. . . " He continues with this telling comment: " . . . and reports say [we] now belong to General Beauregards's army."

In mid- June, three quasi-independent battalions of artillery (Moseley's, Coit's, and Boggs') were assigned to Beauregard for Petersburg's defense before Lee arrived. See "Long Arm of Lee, Vol. II, pp. 837-838 and Official Records I, Vol. 40, Pt. I, p. 756). Among the batteries in this group (in this case one of Moseley's) was one Georgia unit: the Macon Battery of Captain C. W. Slaten. Organizationally, at least, they were likely still on the rolls as "Beauregard's" even though they were eventually merged into Lee’s Army.

Now I’ll let people draw their own conclusions here but it does seem given the writer’s reference to leaving Macon and the info cited in the letter that our mystery writer may, indeed, be an artilleryman in the Macon (GA) Battery itself.