This letter was written by Montgomery Withers Boyd (1818-1886) who offered his services as an Acting Assistant Surgeon at Warrington, Escambia county, Florida (near Pensacola). For a time he was attached to Capt. Frank Kerr’s Battery at Fort McRae, Pensacola. And then early in 1862 he was appointed “Surgeon” of the 1st Mississippi Light Artillery. Boyd was an 1843 graduate of Transylvania University Medical Department at Lexington. He traveled to California in the Gold Rush of 1849 and was enumerated at Placercille, El Dorado county in December 1850. By 1853 he had moved to Jackson, Hinds county, Mississippi.

During the siege of Vicksburg, Dr. Boyd was taken prisoner near Snyder’s Bluff and held captive as a spy. After the city was surrendered, Grant dismissed the charge but held him in exchange for two of his assistant surgeons left with the sick in Jackson, Mississippi.

After the war, Dr. Boyd went to live in Brazil for a time but eventually returned to Jackson, Mississippi, where he died in 1886.

Dr. Boys wrote the letter to Dr. Cyrus S. Knapp (1822-1873), a New York native who relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, a decade before the war to set up his dental practice.

What’s most interesting in Boyd’s letter is his proposal to recruit a band of guerrillas with equipment and tactics quite similar to what General Mosby would later propose and carry out in Virginia.

[Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Greg Herr and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Warrington, Florida
July 9th 1861

Dr. C. S. Knapp
Jackson, Mississippi

My dear sir, you know that I received a letter a long time ago from you and feeling that in writing to a friend, I had no right to bore him with a batch of nonsense such as I will be compelled to use on the present occasion, but that something must be written either to amuse or interest. I will very frankly say that I have no materials from which to construct a passably decent letter.

Each day adds something in the ennui of camp life where nothing much is expected to be done either by ourselves or by the enemy. They are afraid to attack and we cannot get at them. They have a large force and besides are strongly entrenched, and the whole of the lower end of Santa Rosa Island is but a continuous mine of powder and ball.

Now, you see partially our condition. I am at present acting in the line of my profession and am placed with an Independent Battalion of Georgia Volunteers commanded by Major Villepeigne—one of the very best officers of the old U. S. Army and for 6 years a preceptor at West Point and a native of South Carolina.

There are some rumors of an immediate fight but there have been so many that I am loathe to put any trust in them. I have had a notion of giving up my position and going on to Richmond and get the power to raise a small company of 30 or 45 men to be mounted and armed with double barreled shotguns, a sabre, and two Navy revolvers, and to be independent of any Division, Brigade, or Regiment, and never to go into the field with more than 15 men to act as guerrillas and never to permit a sentry or picket to live his two hours out if he is in any reasonable distance of my encampment. If permitted to raise this company, I will go on the border and will bargain to kill for every 30 days, 450 men, and I will not be satisfied with any less. If I get the consent of the President to do so, I will go to Kentucky and get the finest horses that can be procured and the best men that ever mounted a horse in any one company.

Lewis Burk left for Montgomery with his grandfather on Saturday. Frank Kerr was ordered to East Bay some two weeks ago—40 miles east—and returned three days ago. He expected to fight but didn’t [and] is now attached to Col. Smith’s regiment and therefore out of the artillery service. Bob Purdom has been at my quarters for about two weeks a little sick—requiring a terrible effort to avoid typhoid fever. Has succeeded and he is now well but weak.

The Mississippians are generally well. The weather is hot. Mosquitoes abundant. Fruit & vegetables scarce &c. Paper out. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Knapp and kiss all the babies for me. Truly your friend, — M. W. Boyd

P.S. Please write soon and often.