The papers say it will be the bloodiest battle of the century. Already there are five thousand sick and wounded in the hospitals from that fight.”

Autograph letter signed by Joshua H. Tower, Co. F, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, to his sister Kate. Fort DeKalb, 13, 15 & 17 December 1862. 4 pages, 8vo, 5 x 8 in. With original yellow envelope with Washington D.C. postal stamp and red 3-cent stamp.

Joshua H. Tower was a bootmaker from Hopkinton, Massachusetts who enlisted on 4 August 1862 as a private in Company F, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. The regiment was garrisoned at Fort DeKalb on Arlington Heights from his enlistment in 1862 until June 1863. Here he writes to his sister regarding freezing conditions experienced by soldiers: ”At the convalescent camp near Alexandria, six soldiers froze to death. They have got no fire nor means of getting any...people may talk about the sufferings of the soldiers of the Revolution and one of these days they will tell about the soldiers of 1862.

He continues by describing the Battle of Fredericksburg: "The papers say it will be the bloodiest battle of the century. Already there are five thousand sick and wounded in the hospitals from that fight. The Union forces under Gen. Burnside have got possession of Fredericksburg and are driving the rebels out of their fortifications but it will cost seas of blood to do it and then they will retreat into other fortifications to be still driven, unless some fortunate circumstance shall give us Richmond while Burnside is engaging the rebels at Fredericksburg." He concludes his letter 2 days later on the 17th with news that "Gen. Burnside has retreated across the Chickahominy [Rappahannock] and abandoned the fight after losing ten thousand men killed, wounded and missing."

Tower did not survive the war. After continued garrison duty in the capitol, the regiment fought at Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg where Tower was taken prisoner. While imprisoned in Savannah, Georgia, he died of disease on 10 October 1864.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera]