“You cannot imagine my feelings when there & seeing the bones of our boys bleaching in the sun. It made my blood boil.”

Two autograph letters signed from John Boultwood Edson (1839-1863), to his father. Manassas Junction, [Virginia], 6 April 1862; On the Battle field near Sharpsburg, Maryland, 19 September [1862]. 4 pages in pencil.

Edson enlisted as a private on 7 May 1862 in Rochester and mustered in on the 21st into Company E of the 27th New York Infantry. He mustered out with the company on 31 May 1863 at Elmira, NY. Some sources aver that Edson died in service in December 1863, however, no currently known evidence supports this claim.

In service of the 27th New York, they saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run, and in his first letter, Edson revisits the battlefield nearly a year after the engagement on 6 April 1862. He writes with great emotion seeing the still-present devastation: “You cannot imagine my feelings when there & seeing the bones of our boys bleaching in the sun. It made my blood boil. There were a number of bones found of men belonging to our regiment which we buried over and there being a minister present, held a short service of the bones. His name was Parker. I went to the spot where Co. Ellsworth’s Fire Zouaves fought & there were the bones of nearly a dozen of them exposed to the gaze of the passers by. I helped cover them over again. I have now with [me] one of the ribs which was detached from the back bone & intend sending it home when convenient. I also have a piece of one of the Zouaves red shirts which I enclose in this and the girls can work it into a piece or needlework to keep in remembrance of those brave men.”

He also recounts that he “visited the old stone house where I carried John Clague” accompanied by a drawing of the house illustrating that it “still bears the mark of the cannon shot.” The Stone House still stands, one of just 3 wartime structures within Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The 27th New York would be further bloodied at the Second Battle of Bull Run before joining the Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Antietam. In Edson’s second letter here, he writes just days before the main action detailing the early skirmishing. He closes his letter presciently: “There will probably be another great battle soon which will terminate the contest of this fall. I leave you to guess to what you think will be the result of that contest.”

A rare pairing of both Manassas and Antietam letters from the same soldier. Full transcriptions of both letters can be furnished upon request.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Manassas, Bull Run, Antietam, Sharpsburg, Elmer Ellsworth, Zouaves]