Description

14 LETTERS SOLDIER 16TH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY TO FAMILY & CHAPLIN'S LETTER ABOUT WOUNDED HUSBAND This is a Lot of 14 letters and one partial letter from a soldier named James H. Boyd in the 16th New York Heavy Artillery (Company C and then transferred to Company A). Included are 11 letters and a partial letter to his wife, Amanda, concerning their children and her welfare, two letters to a sister, and one letter to a friend. Also included is the enlistment certificate for James Boyd dated January 14, 1864 for his enlistment and assignment to the 16th New York Heavy Artillery. The letters are dated from January 27, 1864 to July 29, 1864 and generally deal with his children, asking her to buy things not availble to his such as butter, clean shirts, paper and stamps, and as he is closer to being sent to battle he writes of his possible death and how he should be remembered by his children; he enlisted to care for his family as he could not find work. These letters are followed by a letter dated August 21, 1864 from a Division Chaplin in a hospital to Boyd's wife regarding his being wounded severely in the side in battle on August 18 and is not doing well, and asking her to write him at the chaplin's office. There is then a letter dated November 9, 1864 from the U. S. Sanitary Commission telling Boyd's wife that if she wants her husband's body for burial she has to send $113.00 to cover the cost of exhuming the body from the battlefield and shipping! James Boyd was stationed at Fort Macruder in Virginia and later at Bermuda One Hundred and was apparently in the battles around Petersburg at the end of the war. The letters give an fascinating look at how a Civil War soldier dealt with the daily life during the war. Interestingly, there is also a love letter dated February 12, 1846 from James Boyd to his wife while she was away from home. See the photographs .