Private Byron Smith, 203rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Autographed letter with X Corps badge sent home to his sister. Hampton, VA, 6 January 1865.

4 pages, 4 1/8 x 6 1/2 in., creased, else fine. With envelope addressed to "Miss Lois B. Smith, Laceyville, Wyoming Co, Pa." Written while Smith was in the US General Hospital at Hampton, Virginia, this letter discusses his stay in the hospital, his improving medical condition, home, family, and recent dreams. He references his brother Jonas, who is also in the 203rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, writing, "It is a good thing that Jonas enlisted. Had a letter from him a few days since. He was well then." Only nine days later Jonas would be killed at the Battle of Fort Fisher in North Carolina.

Just a few weeks before he penned this letter, Byron's regiment had transferred from the X to the XXIV Corps. Perhaps this was the motivation for his enclosure of his X Corps badge. He explains, "Enclosed is a badge of the 10th Army Corps. We do not know what the badge of the 24th A.C will be. We wear them on our hats, &c." The 203rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment would transfer back to the X Corps only weeks later, meaning that Smith, in all likelihood, would have to obtain another badge to replace the one included here.

[With:] 1 3/4 in. white wool corps badge (some light soiling and discoloration).

The Civil War Collection of James C. Frasca