PROPERTY OF A CALIFORNIA LADY
SHAW, Robert Gould (1837-1863), Col., 54th Massachusetts. Two autograph letters signed ("Robert G. Shaw"), to Anne Russell Aggassiz (his cousin) and Sarah Shaw, his mother, Cantonment Hicks, Maryland, 24 January 1862 and Washington, Va., 20 July 1862. Together 5 pages, 8vo, remnants of mounting.
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SHAW, Robert Gould (1837-1863), Col., 54th Massachusetts. Two autograph letters signed ("Robert G. Shaw"), to Anne Russell Aggassiz (his cousin) and Sarah Shaw, his mother, Cantonment Hicks, Maryland, 24 January 1862 and Washington, Va., 20 July 1862. Together 5 pages, 8vo, remnants of mounting.
TWO WAR-DATE LETTERS FROM THE LEADER OF THE FAMED 54TH MASSACHUSETTS, including one from the Second Manassas campaign. "We left Warrenton five days ago," Shaw writes in July 1862. "The streams have been swollen by the recent heavy rains, which has stopped all communication...Two brigades of Banks' Corps have been here some time & two more are on the way. Siegel is at Luray & McDowell at Warrenton... What will be done here no one seems to know, but is supposed we shall be quiet for a time." Two months later he would be wounded in the maelstrom of Antietam. The earlier January letter to his cousin contains family news and comments on the grim conditions at the Army's winter encampment at cantonment Hicks. "We have been having two weeks of terrible weather & you may be thankful; you came when you did. The mud in some parts of the camp has been ankle deep for a week and we have not been able to have any drills." He's grateful for a recent visit from his parents. "Mother had several conversations with Phoebe (the black woman you know) which amused her very much. She also ascertained to her complete satisfaction that the little hunchback was a secessionist." Shaw had a somewhat strained relationship with his parents. A Harvard dropout in 1859, he shared none of his parents' abolitionist fervor. But when war came in 1861, the Army gave him the direction and prestige he lacked in civilian life. He was Governor John Andrew's first choice to lead the all-black 54th Regiment. Together 2 items. (2)
TWO WAR-DATE LETTERS FROM THE LEADER OF THE FAMED 54TH MASSACHUSETTS, including one from the Second Manassas campaign. "We left Warrenton five days ago," Shaw writes in July 1862. "The streams have been swollen by the recent heavy rains, which has stopped all communication...Two brigades of Banks' Corps have been here some time & two more are on the way. Siegel is at Luray & McDowell at Warrenton... What will be done here no one seems to know, but is supposed we shall be quiet for a time." Two months later he would be wounded in the maelstrom of Antietam. The earlier January letter to his cousin contains family news and comments on the grim conditions at the Army's winter encampment at cantonment Hicks. "We have been having two weeks of terrible weather & you may be thankful; you came when you did. The mud in some parts of the camp has been ankle deep for a week and we have not been able to have any drills." He's grateful for a recent visit from his parents. "Mother had several conversations with Phoebe (the black woman you know) which amused her very much. She also ascertained to her complete satisfaction that the little hunchback was a secessionist." Shaw had a somewhat strained relationship with his parents. A Harvard dropout in 1859, he shared none of his parents' abolitionist fervor. But when war came in 1861, the Army gave him the direction and prestige he lacked in civilian life. He was Governor John Andrew's first choice to lead the all-black 54th Regiment. Together 2 items. (2)