This letter was written by Thatcher Bradford Foster (1844-1864), the son of Charles Harrison Foster (1820-1901) and Martha Ann Sargent (1822-1904) of Hillsboro, New Hampshire. Thatcher signed his name “Thacher” but I presume his given name was “Thatcher” as that is the name on his cenotaph in Hillsboro. At the time of the 1860 US Census, Thatcher was enumerated in his parents home in Hillsboro where he was most likely learning his father’s trade as a house carpenter—his father being “sick and poor” at the time.

Thatcher volunteered on 18 August 1862 at the age of 18 to serve in Co. G, 9th New Hampshire Infantry. The recruiting officer recorded his height as 5 feet 5 inches, his hair light, his complexion fair, and his eyes blue. The 9th New Hampshire Infantry was one of the few regiments having an opportunity to serve in both Eastern as well as the Western Theatre of the war.

This letter was written in the summer of 1863 from the trenches before Vicksburg but by the following year, the regiment was with Burnside’s 9th Corps back in Virginia and in the vicinity of Petersburg where they spent two months in front of the Rebel lines at Elliott’s Salient, part of which time it was being undermined for the Battle of the Crater in which “the Ninth bore a conspicuous part” on 30 July 1864. The 9th New Hampshire was called upon to lead Griffin’s 2nd Brigade, advancing on the crater from the right, some ten minutes after the explosion. In the attack, the 9th New Hampshire’s commander, Captain Hough, “fell when part of his jaw was shot away.” The regiment was one of the first to float their colors over the enemy’s works but they soon fell under a heavy fire from Wright’s guns at a distance of 500 yards, and a counterattack by remnant’s of the 17th South Carolina and the 49th North Carolina, causing the loss of half of their men. Among the wounded and taken prisoner was young Thatcher who was held prisoner for some time before he was exchanged, suffering severely from chronic diarrhea. He was transported to a hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, but died there on 1 November 1864 and was buried in the Annapolis National Cemetery.

Transcription

Camp near Vicksburg, Mississippi
June 19th 1863

Friend Dan,

I take my pen to write you to let you know that I am in the land of the living alive and well. I should of written before but you talked of going to New York and I did not know whether you had gone or not. But as I was a going to write home this morning, I thought I would just drop a few lines to you.

It is as hot as you please here. I went out black berrying yesterday and had good success too. This country is full of everything that you could think of. There is a lot of rattlesnakes here. I killed one yesterday that was 10 feet 4 and a half inches long. It makes my hair stand up pretty straight if I happen to run onto one of them a sudden.

Now I guess I will close by requesting you to write me as soon as you get this. Goodbye. from your friend, — Thacher

The fight is still a going on.

P. S. Direct to Co. G, 9th Regt. N. H. V., First Brigade, 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps, Cincinnati, Ohio