American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography

[UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPS]. Letter from Alexander Heasley (1839-1865), discussing progress of the 1st SC Infantry, later the 33rd Infantry United States Colored Troops. [With:] Additional document.

LETTER FROM A LEADER OF THE FIRST BLACK REGIMENT TO FIGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR.

"Camp Drayton Hilton Head S.C.," 23 July 1862. 2 1/4 pages, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4 in., creased along folds, minor spotting and ink smearing.

In this letter addressed to his sister, Heasley first discusses the agricultural products available in South Carolina, describing the selling process whereby Black sellers would come to Hilton Head with boat loads of watermelons, corn, tomatoes, fish, peaches, cucumbers, and other goods, and soldiers buy them out of their stock almost as quickly as they arrive.

Turning to military matters, Heasley reports that the 100th Pennsylvania Infantry "Round Head" Regiment has "gone north either to Fortress Monroe or to Annapolis. I have not heard from them since they left..." Heasley enlisted as as corporal and mustered into the 100th Pennsylvania in August of 1861. When that regiment went to Beaufort and Hilton Head in July of 1862, it seems Heasley stayed to raise a regiment of Black soldiers, the 1st South Carolina Colored Infantry.

Heasley writes: "Our Colored Regiment is giting [sic] well and learning to drill very fast in fact I never saw men learn faster and all seem to like it very well...Our Regt is not quite full but we expect to have it full this week as they are bringing a boat load from Georgetown which place is one hundred miles from here...The soldiers are all going to leave this island but our Regt. and some cavalry besides this Regt. 1st S.C."

Heasley was officially promoted to the rank of captain and commissioned into Company C of the 33rd United States Colored Troops (which was organized from the 1st South Carolina Colored Infantry) on 31 January 1863.

During the summer of 1865, the regiment was ordered to Augusta, Georgia, where Heasley met and became engaged to a mixed race woman, who apparently had a relationship with an Augusta native, Frank Hight. Outraged over the engagement, Hight and two friends, CSA soldiers Charles Watkins and Joshua Doughty, shot and stabbed Heasley to death at the woman's house.

The other document featured in this lot regards Heasley's untimely death:

Manuscript document dated at Augusta, GA, 1 December 1865, regarding the personal effects and finances of Alexander Heasley. An Army official sends word to Samuel Heasley of Pulaski, Lawrence County, PA, that he is sending some of his deceased relatives items and receipts of "moneys paid." Accompanied by postally used envelope.

Together, 2 documents including one war-date letter.