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Civil War letter from 1862...
Civil War letter from 1862...
Item # 705210
February 28, 1863
A letter datelined: "Harrison's Landing, Va., July 26, 1862"
* Original Civil War soldier's letter
* At Harrison Landing on James River
* Post Seven Days Battle encampment
An interesting letter, some items including: "...you did not know where to direct your letters...we have moved around so, but we are now in camp at Harrison's Landing on the James river, Va., Gen. Sedgwick Division...we have a hard time for weeks we have had nothing to eat but hard bread & salt meat...I see in the papers that they blame McClellan but I think he is the best general in the Army if hd has his own way...but we sometime think that if he had followed them up at Fair Oaks we could have been in Richmond now enjoying happiness...we shall remain here for two months before we can be able to march on to Richmond again. McClellans says Richmond shall surely fall before the 1st September if he gets more men..." and other items.
Four pages, 5 by 8 inches, nice condition.
background: In July 1862, General John Sedgwick’s division of the Union II Corps arrived at Harrison’s Landing on the James River as part of the battered Army of the Potomac, retreating after the grueling Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign. Sedgwick’s men, having endured heavy combat at Savage’s Station and Glendale, were exhausted and depleted, with many regiments suffering severe casualties. At Harrison’s Landing, the division took up defensive positions on the heights overlooking the river, constructing entrenchments and preparing for a possible Confederate assault that never came. The camp became a temporary stronghold and a vital logistical hub, with Union gunboats patrolling the river and supply ships replenishing the army. Sedgwick’s division, including brigades under generals like Gorman and French, spent several weeks recovering, drilling, and reorganizing while under the oppressive Virginia summer heat and frequent illness. The stay at Harrison’s Landing marked a pause in operations and a shift in Union strategy, as McClellan’s failed attempt to capture Richmond gave way to withdrawal and reevaluation, with Sedgwick’s battle-tested division emblematic of the resilience—and frustrations—of the Union war effort in 1862.
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