Private Daniel Lee Holgate, Company G, 52nd Illinois Infantry Regiment, KIA at Shiloh. Autographed letter humorously suggesting the use of hardtack to build a fort. Cameron, MO. 1 January 1862.

4 pages, 4 7/8 x 8 in., on patriotic stationery, creased, with spotting throughout and wear to creases and edges.

Holgate discusses the attempted capture of a Rebel sympathizer, the destruction of railroad tracks and halted trains, the release of southern commissioner, Mason Slidell, the rumor of a battle at Hudson City, and his regiment's plan to build a fort.

Near the conclusion of the letter, Holgate offers the following assessment of the hardtack issued by the army: "This army bread is about as a stone they are in the shape of these Soda Crackers only a good deal larger. I think we had better make the fort of them as they are ball proof, but take and soak them 2 or 3 hours and then fry them in greases and they go first rate..."

Just three months later on 6 April 1862 the 52nd Illinois would find itself held in reserve on the Shiloh Battlefield. At approximately 3:30 in the afternoon they were sent in to reinforce General McClernand who was being pressed back by the extreme Confederate left. At some point in this attack while facing first Wharton’s Texas Rangers and then Pond’s Louisianans, Daniel Lee Holgate was shot in the head and killed instantly.

The Civil War Collection of James C. Frasca