10th Virginia Cavalry - Colonel, Wounded & Captured at Gettysburg

Item CON-8027

Description

Original Civil War Prisoner of War Confederate letter, 1 page written in period ink.


Johnson’s Island Prison

January 14th 1864

My Dear Cousin,

Your kind presents of undergarments came safely and were the most prized as the heavens were pouring snowflakes and Erie vexed by windstorms was roaring with oceanic music, lashing her shores and flailing here and there her ices into miniature icebergs. Then came the frost kin in earnest; all was hushed into the stillness of wrath, for the winds from Labrador and Canada now seep over a solid snowman, led plain and full at last into gentle aeolian breezes while the post monarch forgets his sterner attributes, to ornament the Liberian landscape with sparkling gems. To hang up pendants from the eaves and paint primeval foliage on the windows of the prison cells. And the war captives find amusement too. They read; play chess and cards, wash, mend and even make clothes, ear and finger rings, guitars and violins! Bury the dead with solemn rites beneath the frozen sods of the prison island. Writ in hopeful mood to distant friends; but what is the chief plight receive a letter, (perhaps a photograph) from distant beloved ones. Can’t you and my dear cousins let the sun paint your smiles for me. Tis said, we are to go forth worth to Fort Delaware.

Most truly and affectionately yours,

J. Lucius Davis
Colonel
CSA