13th Massachusetts Artillery CIVIL WAR LETTER With Adams Express Receipt
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:95859 |
CIVIL WAR LETTER
This Civil War letter was pennedby Lloyd W. Manning (1837-1883). Prior to the Civil War he worked as amachinist in the Springfield Armory. We also know that he was married to LydiaF. Phillips on 4 January 1864 — just days before leaving to be a soldier in the3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. Lloyd never rose above the rank of privatewhile serving with his unit. Though he was an “armorer, ” he appears to haverapidly been offered a “choice” position o...f serving as a cook for the officerswhich enabled him to avoid some of the less desirable duties, to eat relativelywell, and stay out of the line of fire. It also afforded him more time torecord his observations of the war from the general vicinity of Bermuda Hundredwhere he spent the majority of his time in the service.A descendant was toldby one of his great grand daughters that “he died of fever and ague — that henever recovered from the war, [and that] he played guitar.” In 1878 he wasinitiated into the Masons and accepted as a member the following year. Deathrecords give his cause of death as a heart attack at the age of 46 while stillemployed as a “mechanic” in a sewing machine factory. He was buried in CentralCemetery, Orange, Franklin county, Massachusetts.About Co. I, (13th Company) 3rd MassHeavy ArtilleryCompany “I”, nominally a part of the 3dBattalion, had an experience entirely different from that of the othercompanies. It was recruited largely from mechanics employed at the NationalArmory in Springfield, Mass., and was employed as an engineer corps. It neverserved with the rest of the regiment, but was at once assigned to duty underCapt. F. N. Farquhar, U. S. Corps of Engineers, and was placed in charge of thepontoons of the Army of the James. After a few weeks of drill and practice themen of Company “I” became expert pontooniers.They built two pontoon bridges across theAppomattox River, connecting the Armies of the Potomac and the James, twoacross the James River below Chaffin’s Bluff, and in April, 1865, constructedthe pontoon bridge at Farmville, which was used by the 2d and 6th Corps in thepursuit of Lee’s fleeing army. It later built the bridge at Richmond by whichthe Union armies crossed the James River on their way to Washington after thewar was done. In addition it ran captured saw mills, built wharves and roads, and performed engineer duty in general.TRANSCRIPTIONOpposite Broadway [Landing on Appomattox river]
October 26, 1864
Wednesday P. M.Dear Lydia, I have just received your letter and the few lines from Stratton but Lieut. [John F. E.] Chamberlain has been down to the Express Office and when he gave them my package of $60.00 to send you he presented to them the old receipt of $25.00 and told them how you had never received it. He gave him this copy of my old receipt and wants me to hand it to the Athol Agent in the Express Office there and if the money is not there, he will write on it “not received” there and send it along through the whole line and it will probably be looked up in this way. Now I want you should see Cook and have him tell the Athol agent about it and have him send the receipt through the line. If you had just told me what his name was, I could have written to him but you can get Cook to see him and give him the receipt or if any of you are going down you can see him yourselves.I have had to write in a hurry so excuse the bad writing. My letter has gone. I wrote last night so I had to write another. Yours in haste. With much love, — L. W. ManningTERMS$3.00 postage in the United States. We accept Paypal. Postage combined for multiple purchases. Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise will pay a much higher postage rate!For International buyers: We are now using eBay's Global Shipping Program. We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing. So we believe this program will be safer for us - and for you.We're members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions). Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog. We've been selling on eBay since 2001. BID WITH CONFIDENCE.
00078
This Civil War letter was pennedby Lloyd W. Manning (1837-1883). Prior to the Civil War he worked as amachinist in the Springfield Armory. We also know that he was married to LydiaF. Phillips on 4 January 1864 — just days before leaving to be a soldier in the3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. Lloyd never rose above the rank of privatewhile serving with his unit. Though he was an “armorer, ” he appears to haverapidly been offered a “choice” position o...f serving as a cook for the officerswhich enabled him to avoid some of the less desirable duties, to eat relativelywell, and stay out of the line of fire. It also afforded him more time torecord his observations of the war from the general vicinity of Bermuda Hundredwhere he spent the majority of his time in the service.A descendant was toldby one of his great grand daughters that “he died of fever and ague — that henever recovered from the war, [and that] he played guitar.” In 1878 he wasinitiated into the Masons and accepted as a member the following year. Deathrecords give his cause of death as a heart attack at the age of 46 while stillemployed as a “mechanic” in a sewing machine factory. He was buried in CentralCemetery, Orange, Franklin county, Massachusetts.About Co. I, (13th Company) 3rd MassHeavy ArtilleryCompany “I”, nominally a part of the 3dBattalion, had an experience entirely different from that of the othercompanies. It was recruited largely from mechanics employed at the NationalArmory in Springfield, Mass., and was employed as an engineer corps. It neverserved with the rest of the regiment, but was at once assigned to duty underCapt. F. N. Farquhar, U. S. Corps of Engineers, and was placed in charge of thepontoons of the Army of the James. After a few weeks of drill and practice themen of Company “I” became expert pontooniers.They built two pontoon bridges across theAppomattox River, connecting the Armies of the Potomac and the James, twoacross the James River below Chaffin’s Bluff, and in April, 1865, constructedthe pontoon bridge at Farmville, which was used by the 2d and 6th Corps in thepursuit of Lee’s fleeing army. It later built the bridge at Richmond by whichthe Union armies crossed the James River on their way to Washington after thewar was done. In addition it ran captured saw mills, built wharves and roads, and performed engineer duty in general.TRANSCRIPTIONOpposite Broadway [Landing on Appomattox river]
October 26, 1864
Wednesday P. M.Dear Lydia, I have just received your letter and the few lines from Stratton but Lieut. [John F. E.] Chamberlain has been down to the Express Office and when he gave them my package of $60.00 to send you he presented to them the old receipt of $25.00 and told them how you had never received it. He gave him this copy of my old receipt and wants me to hand it to the Athol Agent in the Express Office there and if the money is not there, he will write on it “not received” there and send it along through the whole line and it will probably be looked up in this way. Now I want you should see Cook and have him tell the Athol agent about it and have him send the receipt through the line. If you had just told me what his name was, I could have written to him but you can get Cook to see him and give him the receipt or if any of you are going down you can see him yourselves.I have had to write in a hurry so excuse the bad writing. My letter has gone. I wrote last night so I had to write another. Yours in haste. With much love, — L. W. ManningTERMS$3.00 postage in the United States. We accept Paypal. Postage combined for multiple purchases. Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise will pay a much higher postage rate!For International buyers: We are now using eBay's Global Shipping Program. We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing. So we believe this program will be safer for us - and for you.We're members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions). Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog. We've been selling on eBay since 2001. BID WITH CONFIDENCE.
00078
