American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

Letter attributed to Sergeant Henry Myers, Co. A, 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Warren County, Kentucky, "Camp Bruce[?] Near Bowling Green," 27 October 1862.

2 pages, 7 7/8 x 11 1/4 in., heavily creased, with loss and separations throughout, toning, staining, and brittleness throughout. Written on the back of Confederate requisition forms. 

In this letter to his father, Myers addresses his curious writing material: "...this is sescessh [sic] paper that I am writing on I found a lot of it at Hopkinsville a few days ago when I was there at that town. I thought I would write to you on it so as you could see a seshess [sic] requision [sic]..." 

He then quickly turns to his recent experiences at war, writing, "I was down at russelville to Elton and to trenton there we had a fight with about 8 hundred rebels we we [sic] had two cannon a long we fired twelve or fifteen shots with them and then with our small arms we killed about seventy of them and then they scedadled [sic] they show a few of our horse and wounded a few of our men we we got also thirty prisoners..."

Notably, he also discusses encounters with Morgan's Raiders. In part, "...and then we went on to hopkinsville where we stayed a few days and then came back to Bowling Green that same night we started to morgantown after morgan but did [not] get him yet but we got twelve of his men prisoners wen [sic] we got to morgantown they hered [sic] of us coming they lfet [sic] there meat and everything lay and left as fast as they could..." 

Henry K. Myers enlisted as a sergeant in October of 1861, mustering into Company A of the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry that same day. He was promoted to first lieutenant in March of 1863, transferring to Company L, and was captured 2 years later in March of 1865 at Solemn Grove, NC. He was finally mustered out in July of 1865 at Lexington, NC.