American Historical Ephemera & Early Photography Online

Autograph letter signed from Private Dwight W. Stannard (1835-1916) to his wife. "Camp Near the Battlefield." 5 May 1863. 4pp, approx. 4 1/2 x 7 in. (creasing, light soil).

An engaging battlefield letter written in the final days of the Battle of Chancellorsville as Union forces began to withdraw following their defeat. Stannard writes, in part: "...we have been under fire some two or three days but none of us hurt but some of the regt In our brigade got some killed right behind our regt. we marched 25 miles the other day and after we got here we had to work all night building breastworks. this is the seventh day that we have been a fiting...there is a great slauter hear but I think we have got the best of them this time so far. there was a brigade of rebels made a charge last night and there was not 50 of them that went back." Stannard closes his letter with a memorable sign-off, "This is all, this from your husband, yours truly, Dwight W. Stannard, as long as he lives."

HDS indicates that in September 1861 26-year-old Dwight Stannard enlisted at Boonville, New York, as a private in Co. A, New York 97th Infantry. He was listed as wounded 5/5/1864 at Wilderness and again on 6/13/1864 at White Oak Swamp where he suffered a severe wound in the right arm necessitating amputation. He was discharged for disability on 10 August 1864. The 97th New York was a hard fought regiment, participating in major engagements including Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Cold Harbor. Following the war Stannard moved to Oneida, New York, where he was listed in the 1870 US Federal Census as a farmer.