The following partial letter was written by a member of Co. G, 111th New York Infantry based on the stationery and the actions of the regiment described in the letter. Readers will remember that the 111th New York Infantry was one of the regiments branded as “Harpers Ferry Cowards” for their surrender—through no fault of their own—during the Antietam Campaign of 1862. Paroled but forced to spend a miserable winter in a Union prisoner of war camp in Chicago until exchanged, the brigade was looking for a chance to clear their name when the little action described in this letter took place.

Company G was raised at Auburn in Wayne county, New York, and mustered into the service on 20 August 1862. I attempted to winnow down the soldier’s identity by identifying all those soldiers in Co. G who were corporals at the time this letter was written. This left me with only six possibilities. Four of them were in their early 20s and two of them were only 18. My hunch is that it was one of these two younger soldiers—either Harry C. Kinnie who entered the service as a private but was promoted to a corporal (no date given). He was wounded in action, May 6, 1864, at The Wilderness, Va.; discharged for disability, February 17, 1865. The other soldier would have been Elijah Esty Wood, who actually mustered in as 1st Corporal of Co. G, and was later promoted to sergeant. My hunch is that it was the latter soldier. As 1st Corporal, I think it’s likely the duty of carrying the flag would have fallen to him. He was killed in action, July 2,1863, at Gettysburg.

I was unable to connect any woman named Elmira to any of the soldiers though she may not have been a family member or she might have been a sister-in-law.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

11th Regt. New York S. Volunteers, Col. Jesse Segoin, Company G
Union Mills [Virginia]
January 5th 1863

Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters,

Having been on guard yesterday and last night, and being at liberty today, I have again seated myself for the purpose of informing you of our whereabouts. January 1st, we had orders to be ready to march at 10.30 o’clock, January 2nd, for Alexandria. We then took the cars at about 12 o’clock and did not leave until after dark. It was pretty cold and as a large share of the regiment was on top of the cars, they suffered much with cold. We arrived at this. place—Union Mills—at about 12 o’clock at night. It is about 20 or 22 miles from Alexandria and about 30 from Washington and two or three from the Old Bull Run Battlefield. We are in the 3rd (Gen. D’Utassy’s Brigade, Gen. Casey’s Division. I do not think there is any danger of a fight here unless it should be a dash by a few cavalry such as was made a short time since in our cavalry pickets of which I. will tell you.

One week ago last Sunday, the news came to camp that our cavalry pickets had been driven in and that there was a great danger of an attack by a strong force. The Bloody 111th—as it is often called—was ordered to the field. We were loaded with 80 rounds of cartridges and drawn up in line. A corporal had to be detailed from each company for color guard. In our company, the lot fell on me. The most I had to regret was that I could not fire my piece unless by special order, thus depriving mr of the privilege of killing some one. After our line was formed in camp, our chaplain offered a prayer and our Colonel, C[linton] D. McDougal told us, we were going as he supposed to meet the enemy and he expected every man to fight to the last.

When we arrived at our picket line, they were much surprised and would have been equally surprised had the rebs made their appearance. We were placed in the best defensive manner possible and ordered to remain silent without fires. It was cold and we marched fast and got sweaty. It was rather tough. We had the privilege of laying down on the ground without any blankets but that was cold and frozen. No warm bed was there beside which to kneel with a little loving brother. No loving Mother’s hand was there to tuck the clothes around us. But God was there and those who trusted in him found comfort. We were not disturbed and the next day we went on picket in place of the 27th Maine Regiment.

We had been there two days when Elmira came to see me. She said it was about two weeks since she left home and that she had been all the time looking for me. I went back to camp with her. She gave me a satchel of good things that you sent to me and said that… [rest of letter is missing]