Scrapbook, 1865-1897 (bulk, 1865-1866)

ArchivalResource

United States. Army. Colored Infantry Regiment, 104th (1865-1866) Company L. Scrapbook, 1865-1897 (bulk, 1865-1866)

Scrapbook, 1865-1897 (bulk, 1865-1866)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/706137297

Scrapbook, 1865-1866, consisting of ca. 50 forms, lists, and several letters documenting this company of African-American soldiers stationed near Beaufort, S.C., during months following end of U.S. Civil War; papers and several letters written in the hand of Lieut. Patrick Wellington Wood, the young white officer of the unit, and a Union veteran of the Civil War who served in the 137th New York Infantry Regiment. Consisting of correspondence, invoices, returns of ordinance and supplies, two volunteer enlistment forms completed by African-American men from Camden and Columbia, S.C., May 1865, submitted by Ebenezer Young (25 years old, farmer, born in Columbia, S.C., 5 feet, 5 inches tall with "black eyes, black hair and dark complexion"), and William Phillips (35 years old, a painter, born in Camden, S.C., 5 feet 8 inches tall, with "blue eyes, light hair, and light complexion"). Letter, 29 Sept. 1865, from Capt. Thomas H. Ferrel, near Robertville, S.C., complaining that Lieut. Wood sent men rejected for military service to him for transportation to Hilton Head, S.C., for discharge, "all this may appear quite Military to you but it does not seem so to me for the following reasons... do not think this letter Intended as a reprimand only advice to you as I know you [are] a young officer." Letter, 15 Jan. 1866 (Beaufort, S.C.) to his mother, re romantic prospects for veterans in light of the engagement of a friend, Jacob Corl, "if his woman's as good looking as he is and knows as much, I don't see why they can't have Smart and Handsome Children even if their Noses should get Broken.... I see that a Soldier don't stand any kind of a right among the Girls now a Days, that the war is over. Well I can't blame them much for Boys are bad enough anywhere, and after three or four years in camp and hardly ever see a woman, that they become so coarse that they are not fit to enter into young Ladies' society. So the Girls have come to the conclusion to take those that stayed at Home, even is they don't know enough to get in out of the Rain...." Later materials consist of certificates, 1870-1873, reflecting Wood's membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, for a lodge in Homer (Cortland County, N.Y.), and advertising flyers, ca. 1896-1897, for wholesale commission merchants in New York, listing prices paid to truck farmers for produce, honey, apples, poultry, pork, veal, game, etc.

50 items (in 1 v.)

University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries