Letter to Col. Hiram Scofield from a Private in his 47th United States Colored Infantry Regiment

Item Details

Erwin, MS: 1887. Autograph letter signed on an 8x10" sheet of ruled paper, 2 pages and docketed. Transmittal folds and toning, few small edge tears. Quite legible and very good.

Incredible civil war letter from a black veteran to his former commander, Colonel Hiram Scofield seeking assistance with a pension.  Parnell Miles entered Company G of the 47th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry as a private and left as a corporal, and this letter from 1887 mentions a 22 year gap since the company's parting at Baton Rouge, about 1865.  Miles opens by explaining that he has taken it upon himself “to write to you to see if you are Dead or not.”  He reports that their comrade Henry Miller is still alive and “Gray as a Possum,” adding that the two often speak of Scofield.

After recalling their departure from Baton Rouge and Scofield's speech to the regiment, Miles notes he has "seen hardtimes Since then."  He asks Scofield’s advice about obtaining a pension, offering fifty men from his company as witnesses, and inquires after two former company captains (likely Walter F. Devereaux and E.W. Hershe).  He expressly states, “this are don with My own Hand Writing,” before closing with an affectionate declaration: “Col I love you as a Father & Many others of the old Regiment.”  Miles's emphasis on writing the letter himself is particularly compelling in light of the regiment’s history.  In July 1864, its chaplain, Charles W. Buckley, described the soldiers as “men recently escaped from servitude” and reported establishing a school for them earlier that year, noting that many could not read the Bible.

Organized in 1863 as the 8th Louisiana Infantry (African Descent), the regiment became the 47th USCT in March 1864 and participated in the assault on Fort Blakely the following April.  Miles’s service is confirmed in the National Park Service’s soldier index, which records his time in Company G. 

After the war, Col. Scofield resumed his law practice in Iowa, but built two large houses in Seattle where he planned to retire.  One house was to live in and the other held his massive library, "one of the largest private libraries in the nation;" he died in Seattle in 1906.  It wasn't until the 1950s when his heirs finally sold the houses and the library was dispersed.