[AFRICAN AMERICANA] - [CIVIL WAR]. A group of 3 war-date letters associated with Fort Pillow and Memphis, comprising:

Autograph letter signed from Confederate soldier "J.T. Kidd," 2 pp, 4to, 15 April 1862, to his wife, from “Ft Pillow Tenn,” reporting as the battle rages: “I am righting under the sound of hevy canonadeing[.] we had hardly landed until we was preparing to fight[.] their was a smart fight between our gun boats and the enemy[.] I tell you Jane it was a magnificent sight to see those too contending armeys and here the rore of cannon and see the bombs bursting[.] the shot and shell flew thick and fast for some time[.] the place we are stationed is in full viu of the gun boats of boath sides[.] I tell you Jane the erth trembles on boath land and water[.] The place we are stationed is on the most broken and hilly place you ever saw[.] we are well fortified and the timber is cut down so thick that we get reinforsments, if not I am fraid we will go up the spout[.] we have some 7000[?] men and they some 9000[?] tho we are going to sell out as deer as posieable[.]” He will be left behind to care for the sick—typhoid, punamoney [pneumonia], chils—though “we have had an order to cook three days rashons to bear in 2 hours and a half to meet the enemy. . . . Oh pray for me when fighting for our sunny South. . . . Things are so stirring you cant turn around.” He asks her to direct letters to him “care Capt. Jones Kings Redgiment.” This letter anticipates by almost a month the naval battle of Fort Pillow, which the Union lost, on 10 May 1862

Autograph letter signed from Union sailor George Midlam, 4 pp, 8vo, 27 May 1862, from the "Gun boat Carondelet" to his Brother Edwin, containing a discussion of the period between the May 10 Battle of Fort Pillow and the decisive fleet battle of June 6 off Memphis, in which the Union severely damaged the Confederate Navy. At the time of writing, Midlam states that the Carondelet and two other boats are laying off the Arkansas side of the Mississippi, and the remainder are laying off the Tennessee side. He describes several Confederate soldiers coming to the shore and waving truce flags, as well as a general quiescence and demoralization of the rebels after Fort Pillow. “We are fiting out our boats to garde against them rams of the rebs. They have taken square timber and bolted it on our sides making a kind of fender on the outside[.] on the outside of that they have bent railrode iron.” “We hear no news from out army bfore Corinth[.] I don’t bleave they will even fight there[.] they will not a tack them untill we have a superior force than what the rebs has and then the rebs will retreat towards Memphis.” Within two weeks of this letter, the Carondelet would have an unpleasant encounter with the Confederate behemoth Arkansas and sustain severe damage.

[With:] A sailor's letter written by John E. Clark while on board the U.S. Gunboat Tyler, 2 ½ pp., 8vo, 18 April 1864 (losses at left margin of both leaves, not affecting text, and at edges of folds on second leaf, obscuring a few words, moderate soil). To “Friend Everite,” in part: “I expect we will go up to Memphis to day or tomorrow[.] the rebs have been raising the D___L up there[.] they have taken Ft. Pillow and they are threatening Memphis now. . . .”

The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection