Letter re: 54th Mass w/ Pirate Broadside
"I feel sorry to think that we are to use so many of our best sergeants for the sake of that detestable N----- Regiment - the 54th.”
Long, eight-page letter written in 1863 by William Carlton "Carl" Ireland that details his wartime experience as an enlisted man in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War. Notably, Ireland expresses his candid opinion of the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry. Contemporaneous accounts of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry during the “colored” regiment’s formation are rare. The letter is accompanied by an unpublished broadside entitled “Captain Robert Kidd” with verses from the perspective of the pirate captain. Other poetic broadsides produced by the same publisher are recorded from the 1830s, however, no other copies of this example are known.
Autograph letter signed by William Carlton "Carl" Ireland (1842-1895), Co. D, 44th Massachusetts Infantry, to his parents. Camp "Stevenson", Headquarters, 44th Massachusetts, New Berne, [North Carolina], 26 February 1863. 8 pages, 4to, 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.
WITH Captain Robert Kidd. New York: Elton, [1830s]. Approx. 9 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. letterpress broadside. Affixed to paper and bound with letter. RARE: No other copies traced.
The son of a Boston lumber merchant, Carl Ireland enlisted on 29 August as a private and mustered into Company D of the 44th Massachusetts in September. With educational advantages and fine handwriting, he was given a clerk's position which removed him from many of a typical private's duties. After training at Camp Beigs outside Boston, the regiment was stationed at New Bern and saw combat at the Battle of Rawl's Mills (Nov. 1862) and the Goldsboro Expedition.
Ireland was an astute and detailed observer of New Bern, commenting widely on his own experiences as well as those of his comrades. He writes of a brave drummer boy: "On our march to Kinston and Goldsboro, one of our little drummer boys was wounded badly at the former place and has been down in the Stanley General Hospital since. He is now nearly well. His name is [Edwin S.] Fisher...He belongs to Co. G and is a very popular little fellow."
He includes a highly amusing account of Co. I's raucous and out-of-hand entertainments: "The boys have commenced throwing their surplus hardtack again in earnest. Co. I have nightly entertainments. The battle usually opens with a "tack" striking the Sergeant's room. This calls out the sergeants who are then taken for targets and some fine shots have been made. The Major would say, 'Excellent line shots.' The lieutenant cut off the hard bread rations of this company one day, when straightaway someone pointed and posted, 'apples to our brother companies' which brought them in nearly two bushels of the desired 'ammunition.' The result of it all has been the court-martialing of three of Co.I's 'roughs' who will probably take up their summer residence at Fort Totten and one of them - [James L.] Philips - with ball & chain."
In a remarkable amount of detail, Ireland lists the 27 regiments "as they passed" noting the amount of equipment for each artillery regiment. He comments, "This was the sight of a lifetime. Think of one of our regiments passing down State Street and from this estimate the length of such a line as 20 regiments would make." He concludes his observations, however, with a virulently racist commentary on the 54th Massachusetts: "I feel sorry to think that we are to use so many of our best sergeants for the sake of that detestable N----- Regiment - the 54th. I am decided in favor of Colored troops for several reasons - they can be put in the van and open battles and receive bullets which otherwise must have been aimed at our white men. but I am opposed to officering them with white men. The officers will get picked off by sharpshooters rapidly. I also am opposed to brigading them with white troops. It will create mutiny-vide our own Brigade. The 24th and 17th and 10th Conn. stacked arms and refused duty with N-----s at their sides and they were backed in this by their Colonels and Generals.
Interestingly, Ireland has included a broadside titled "Captain Robert Kidd" with verses from the perspective of the pirate captain. Other poetic broadsides published by Elton are recorded from the 1830s, however, no other copies of this pirate broadside were located.
After the war, Ireland was an active member of GAR Post #113 (Edward W. Kinsely) in Boston, serving as Senior Vice-Commander and Post Commander. Though, like many veterans, he seemed to have been haunted by his experiences in the war, having a period of instability in the 1870s before taking his own life in 1895.
Condition: Letter in very fine condition, broadside with extensive creasing, tear, affixed to paper.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate, African Americana, African American History, 54th Massachusetts, Robert Gould Shaw, USCT, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera, Pirates, Piracy, Broadsides]
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"I feel sorry to think that we are to use so many of our best sergeants for the sake of that detestable N----- Regiment - the 54th.”
Long, eight-page letter written in 1863 by William Carlton "Carl" Ireland that details his wartime experience as an enlisted man in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War. Notably, Ireland expresses his candid opinion of the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry. Contemporaneous accounts of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry during the “colored” regiment’s formation are rare. The letter is accompanied by an unpublished broadside entitled “Captain Robert Kidd” with verses from the perspective of the pirate captain. Other poetic broadsides produced by the same publisher are recorded from the 1830s, however, no other copies of this example are known.
Autograph letter signed by William Carlton "Carl" Ireland (1842-1895), Co. D, 44th Massachusetts Infantry, to his parents. Camp "Stevenson", Headquarters, 44th Massachusetts, New Berne, [North Carolina], 26 February 1863. 8 pages, 4to, 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.
WITH Captain Robert Kidd. New York: Elton, [1830s]. Approx. 9 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. letterpress broadside. Affixed to paper and bound with letter. RARE: No other copies traced.
The son of a Boston lumber merchant, Carl Ireland enlisted on 29 August as a private and mustered into Company D of the 44th Massachusetts in September. With educational advantages and fine handwriting, he was given a clerk's position which removed him from many of a typical private's duties. After training at Camp Beigs outside Boston, the regiment was stationed at New Bern and saw combat at the Battle of Rawl's Mills (Nov. 1862) and the Goldsboro Expedition.
Ireland was an astute and detailed observer of New Bern, commenting widely on his own experiences as well as those of his comrades. He writes of a brave drummer boy: "On our march to Kinston and Goldsboro, one of our little drummer boys was wounded badly at the former place and has been down in the Stanley General Hospital since. He is now nearly well. His name is [Edwin S.] Fisher...He belongs to Co. G and is a very popular little fellow."
He includes a highly amusing account of Co. I's raucous and out-of-hand entertainments: "The boys have commenced throwing their surplus hardtack again in earnest. Co. I have nightly entertainments. The battle usually opens with a "tack" striking the Sergeant's room. This calls out the sergeants who are then taken for targets and some fine shots have been made. The Major would say, 'Excellent line shots.' The lieutenant cut off the hard bread rations of this company one day, when straightaway someone pointed and posted, 'apples to our brother companies' which brought them in nearly two bushels of the desired 'ammunition.' The result of it all has been the court-martialing of three of Co.I's 'roughs' who will probably take up their summer residence at Fort Totten and one of them - [James L.] Philips - with ball & chain."
In a remarkable amount of detail, Ireland lists the 27 regiments "as they passed" noting the amount of equipment for each artillery regiment. He comments, "This was the sight of a lifetime. Think of one of our regiments passing down State Street and from this estimate the length of such a line as 20 regiments would make." He concludes his observations, however, with a virulently racist commentary on the 54th Massachusetts: "I feel sorry to think that we are to use so many of our best sergeants for the sake of that detestable N----- Regiment - the 54th. I am decided in favor of Colored troops for several reasons - they can be put in the van and open battles and receive bullets which otherwise must have been aimed at our white men. but I am opposed to officering them with white men. The officers will get picked off by sharpshooters rapidly. I also am opposed to brigading them with white troops. It will create mutiny-vide our own Brigade. The 24th and 17th and 10th Conn. stacked arms and refused duty with N-----s at their sides and they were backed in this by their Colonels and Generals.
Interestingly, Ireland has included a broadside titled "Captain Robert Kidd" with verses from the perspective of the pirate captain. Other poetic broadsides published by Elton are recorded from the 1830s, however, no other copies of this pirate broadside were located.
After the war, Ireland was an active member of GAR Post #113 (Edward W. Kinsely) in Boston, serving as Senior Vice-Commander and Post Commander. Though, like many veterans, he seemed to have been haunted by his experiences in the war, having a period of instability in the 1870s before taking his own life in 1895.
Condition: Letter in very fine condition, broadside with extensive creasing, tear, affixed to paper.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate, African Americana, African American History, 54th Massachusetts, Robert Gould Shaw, USCT, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera, Pirates, Piracy, Broadsides]
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