Terrific, 4 page letter in period ink and dated July 12th, 1864. The writer is Private Lorrin H. Wilson (sometimes spelled "Loren") of the 106th New York Infantry. Wilson was 19 years old when he enlisted in August of 1862 as a musician for the 106th. His brother, Lewis, to whom he refers in the letter was also a member of the regiment. This letter was written just three days after the battle of Monocacy, Maryland! Here is just some of the amazing content:

• "We met the rebels at Frederick City on the 8th and the ninth we fought them nearly all day. But we were outnumbered by five of them to one of our men, but the Third Division never run for the bullets...it was the hardest fight I ever saw..."
• "Our loss is very heavy and if the reports are true, the Rebels had as many killed and wounded as we did, but they captured nearly all our men and a great many stragglers."
• "There is but 9 guns in our company now..."
• "You will probably get the list of wounded and killed and in the list you will most likely see Lewis W. Wilson's name, but he has got a slight wound in left hand and got struck with a spent ball in the forehead but nothing serious, just enough to make it bleed a very little, but it knocked him straight as a string for a few minutes."
• "We had to retreat to Baltimore, it being 40 miles in one day and night"

The letter is in superb condition considering it dates back more than 140 years!

There is more content; mostly greetings and routine news. But this is the first letter describing the battle of Monocacy that I have owned in nearly 40 years of collecting. This would make a splendid addition to any Monocacy collection, New York collection or any grouping of battle letters.

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