American Historical Ephemera and Photography

5 x 8 in. illustrated lettersheet featuring "Ab'm Lincoln" bust portrait in purple at top left. MILGRAM AL-138, later printed in black for the 1864 campaign and also adopted for mourning designs following Lincoln's assassination. Lettersheet contains soldier's letter to his wife describing, in part, the countryside near Thoroughfare Gap and ongoing wartime activity in the region, "Thoroughfare Gap, [VA], Nov 11. [18]62." 4pp, with accompanying cover addressed to "Mrs. Buba C Merrill" in Cattaraugus County, New York. Though unsigned, the author appears to be Mr. Barzilla Merrill (1818-1863) of the 154th New York Infantry.

Merrill writes, in part: "You said you thought I would verry soon be in a battle. It may be so. I don't think or see any signs of it yet. I have not had my gun loaded but once yet and that was for picket duty. I had no occasion to use it. Then I think the thing works favourable for us yet we are used as a reserve....We are turned out in the fields and woods and I don't know but we shall get wild after a while but I guess if I should every stray back to Dayton [New York] you would come tame me by a little coaxing...."
Merrill's description captures the reality of the 154th's first seven months in the service during which the soldiers did not see combat. That was soon to change.

HDS indicates that 44-year old Barzilla Merrill enlisted as a private on 8/30/1862 at Dayton, NY. On 9/25/1862, he mustered into "K" Co. New York 154th Infantry. He was Killed on 5/2/1863 at Chancellorsville, VA. The 154th NY Volunteer Infantry, also known as the "Hardtack Regiment", served in the Army of the Potomac, the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of Georgia during the American Civil War. According to a St. Bonaventure University web page on the 154th NY, the 948 original regiment members were from Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties in the southern tier of upstate New York. From Camp Brown in Jamestown, where they mustered into the army in September 1862, the men would move on to fight in important battles such as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In these battles, the 154th suffered significant causalities, losing 40% of the troops on the battlefield at Chancellorsville (the fourth highest regimental casualty count in the entire Army of the Potomac) and 78% at Gettysburg. They then joined the Army of the Cumberland and participated in the Chattanooga, Atlanta, and March to the Sea campaigns. Merrill was one of the estimated 22% of the regiment that died on the battlefield or of disease, while others were captured and held as prisoners of war. At the final muster, only about 350 men were left on active duty.