1863 – Letter from a New York soldier reporting that he had spent two weeks destroying Virginia railroad tracks and relating a ‘friendly-fire’ incident caused by drunken officers

Item Details

Suffolk. Virginia, 1863, Letter

Very Good

This one-page letter, datelined “Suffolk. Virginia May 29. 63”, was sent by A. [Aaron] Crouch, then a private in the 152^nd New York Infantry to his brother, Daniel, in Mohawk, New York. It is enclosed in an envelope that was postmarked in Norfolk. The postage stamp has been removed.

In this letter, Crouch reports the destruction of two Confederate railroad lines. It reads in part:

“We have returned from our weary march after two weeks absence from our Camp tired dirty footsore and lousey and we was very glad to get back to camp where we have got a Chance to clean up and sleep in our tents. The weather was quite favorable for us and we have accomplished what we went out for namely to take up the railroads one runs to petersburg and one to blackwater and I think to richmond we have taken up 20 miles of each road and brought in the iron without mutch fighting our Regiment did not get a chance to fire a gun at the Rebs. . .. We are again under Marching orders this time I think for Fredericksburg we may stay some days here yet but we have to keep three days rations on hand so as to be ready in a very short time. . ..”

He also recounts that his regiment was mistakenly reported for having fired upon one from Rhode Island.

“It has been reported that our regiment fired into the 11^th Rhode Iland but there is no truth in it  was the tenth New Jersey and 100 and 30^th New York and it was through the Officers being drunk so the boys in the Regiments say.”

After initially serving in the defense of Washington, the 152^nd New York Infantry was ordered into Tidewater, Virginia in late April 1862 as part of Terry's Brigade, Corcoran's Division, 7th Corps to bolster the defense of the Union-held town of Suffolk, which was under siege by General James Longstreet who commandied three regiments of the Army of Northern Virginia. Suffolk, a junction of two important Southern railroads, was strategically important for the defense of Union-occupied Norfolk. After the siege was finally lifted on 4 May, Crouch’s regiment was ordered to destroy the tracks of the  Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad to impede any further attempts by the Confederate Army to seize the town.

(For more information, see “152nd NY Infantry” at the American Civil War Research Database and “The Civil War Comes to the Blackwater and Suffolk, VA Area” at the Civil War Traveler website.”)

#10502