40127: Two early war-date Confederate letters written b

Two early war-date Confederate letters written by John A. Mackey, 2nd Tennessee Infantry. Describes fighting around Vicksburg, with one letter written on Confederate stationery with a ten-star Confederate flag. The first letter dated June 9, 1861, describes the 2nd Tennessee's first encounter with Union troops. "We faced the enemy boldly & ran them back to their side of the river." Reads in part: "They have made several light attacks upon us since, but have ran every time." "Last Saturday when they made such a desperate attack upon us, we only fired sixty-two guns while they fired five hundred & ninety nine. They never even hurt one of our men. But we killed 90 some odd of their men & tore their ships & boats all to pieces & sunk some of them." "There was several Bomb shells thrown among our Company but did not hurt any of us." "Our Company alone was placed on a little Island between Potomac River & Aquia Creek where we were surrounded by water. Any way that we would look, we could see large Men of War with a great many guns aboard & then they would fire upon us & our Batteries were all around us. They would fire at the Enemy, shoot holes through their ships & boats & put them to flight." "We stayed on that Island as long as we could without eating so we had to leave & come to the camp. While we were on that Island, I saw more & the largest snakes that I ever saw in my life." "We had no tent clothes closets & we had to nap upon a blanket, lay down under a bush & tree wherever we could find it, & in the night we could hear the snakes running through the dry leaves." "We dug Batteries & done without anything to eat for two days & nights. We had to steal everything that we got to eat out of some man's house that we took possession of on the Island." "We have whupped the Northern men every time they fired at us." "They never can land here for Capt. Walker has 4 rifled cannons which he can hit a boat 6 or 7 miles with." "Sunday morning after the battle, our men took a spy glass & looked at the boats & seen holes in them six or seven feet wide & all of her wheel house shot to pieces." The second letter is headed Camp Jackson, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Sunday eve., June 16th, 1861. In this letter Mackey complains of "the meanness of our officers." "They have starved us & run us so much that none of us have life enough to move." Mackey can get "such little satisfaction from my superior officers, that it has discouraged me so much that I hardly have life enough in me to command my section or even to give a command." He goes on "we have been on the point of starvation" and that "they drill us to death nearly." "We have to go double quick time (that is in a run) 8 hours a day & then in the evening we have to let the Colonel drill us 1 hour." Mackey then goes on to describe the battle that took place at North Hampton. "On last Tuesday there was a battle at North Hampton where Lincoln had five thousand men & our side marched up with eleven hundred & surprised them, fired upon the Northern men and killed 240 of them & wounded a great many of them & the balance of them run back." "They did not kill but one of our men and wounded 7. Our men run them as far as they could & as they were returning to their camps, they come along & picked up all of the wounded Northern men and carried them to their camps and took care of them." "We could see dead men laying on every side of the road where they had been shot & then run as far as they could & then fell down & died." "The Northern men found out that our men were marching towards them & then they found their Regiment & marched towards us. Our men seen them at a distance and halted, hid themselves & let the Lincolnist's come in shooting distance. We fired one cannon loaded with grape shot which took effect at the head of the column, killing & wounding from end to end." "Those that was left turned to run. Our men fired upon them with muskets as long as we could see them. The next day after the battle we took one of their men as a prisoner & he said that 500 of their men were missing but could not tell whether they were killed or what had become of them." "Every day we take one or two spies who tell us everything they know to keep from being shot. Yesterday we caught a man. He said that he was on board of the Pawnee when they fought us so at Aquia Creek, and he says there were 800 men on the ship and 500 of them was killed & the ship shot all to pieces." HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved