“THE GROUND WAS LITERALLY COVERED WITH THE DEAD”
113
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(CIVIL WAR—NEW HAMPSHIRE.) Burbank, Calvin M.
Articulate and
humorous letters describing Bull Run and Williamsburg.
8 Autograph Letters
Signed to cousins Henry and Sarah Gerrish of Mast Yard, NH, two of them on patriotic
letterhead. Various sizes; condition generally strong. With 5 postmarked patriotic postal
covers, one stamped and 2 of them hand-colored.
Vp, 1861-62
[800/1,200]
Calvin Morris Burbank (1833-1866) of Boscawen, NH enlisted as a private in the 2nd New
Hampshire Infantry early in the war. His first letter to cousin Henry was written a month after
the first Battle of Bull Run, enough of a lapse to approach the carnage with some humor: “The
only visit I have made was to Bull Run, where although we found the folks all at home, did
not have so agreeable a visit as we contemplated. . . . We are not at all discouraged at our late
defeat, though I must confess that some of our boys are not so loud in their boasts as before.
The music of the whistling of bullets, and the groans of the wounded and dying, are not, to the
unpracticed ear, the most pleasant of sounds” (3 September 1861). In the same letter, Burbank
also described “the Negroes, last Sabbath, exchanging apples and peaches for old clothes.”
The last letter in this lot was written on 8 May 1862. Burbank describes the Siege of
Yorktown and the subsequent Battle of Williamsburg, where his regiment played a major role:
“Our division, though having sustained the brunt of the battle for six hours, still held their
ground. The rebels now made a desperate struggle to break through our centre, and though we
were four times driven back and fairly beaten, still we would not retreat. . . . The battle hung in
even scale till at four oclock the long expected reinforcements with McClellan at their head came
up.” The next day, “I went over the battle ground and the sight was awful to behold. In some
places for acres in extent the ground was literally covered with the dead. Oh, the horrors of
war.” Burbank was later badly wounded at Gettysburg, but returned to action. Though he
survived the war, he died of smallpox in the following year. See The History of Boscawen and
Webster, pages 326-9, for a long account of his soldiering career.
114
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(CIVIL WAR—NEW YORK.)
The Last Campaign of the Twenty-Second
Regiment, N.G., S.N.Y., June and July 1863.
8vo, early library cloth with portion of
original front wrapper laid down; colored pencil number on title page.
New York, 1864
[200/300]
This National Guard unit was mustered for emergency service in the Gettysburg campaign.
Sabin 39143.
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