6 page, period ink letter written by Pvt. Charley Tyler of the 15th Illinois Infantry from Bolivar, Tennessee. The letter is dated October 1st, 1862 and just look at the amazing highlighted excerpts from this letter:

• We stopped at Holly Springs twice within one week after a Guerilla Band but did not succeed in capturing them, although we had a skirmish with them.
• That made, in all, 220 miles we marched in going from Corinth to Memphis. There are some portions of that country very nice, beautiful country, good cotton land. Also plenty of sweet potatoes and darkies without number. (My note: A most unfortunate racial epithet but clearly not intended to be as we shall learn later in the letter.)
• We went on a scout of 3 days down to Hernando, Miss. Our advance guard, a portion of the 6th Illinois Cavalry, captured 25 Guerillas in one squad.
• We were camped two miles south of Memphis on the bank of the river which was a cool, pleasant place. Opposite our camp on a sand bar was the remains of the Rebel gunboats Beauregard and Bragg, sunk in the gunboat fight last spring in front of Memphis.

Tyler goes into great detail about watermelon, sweet potatoes and slaves laboring in the field. He even explains to his cousins back home that there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd pickings of cotton in a single crop. He laments the fresh new recruits arriving in Bolivar with clean uniforms and 75 dollars "coax money" in their pockets. He says many of the veterans are ragged but thankfully, he is not. Then, Tyler insists any suffering is worth bearing as long as they are fighting on behalf of the slaves. It would seem his letter is ending but then he goes on to write a two page PS on a separate sheet. Here are the highlights from that:

• Rebels under Price attacked our force, commanded by Gen. Rosencrans (sic) at Iuka, Miss. last week. Price was repulsed with a loss of 300 killed and 1,000 wounded.
• Also last week, the First Brigade of our division started on a scout towards Grand Junction when about 8 miles out, they were attacked by about 17 regiments of Secesh under command of Van Dorn and (?) Vilipique (?). Our brigade...marched out to support them but night coming on, the Rebels fell back. There were two killed and a few wounded.
• Three deserters came in yesterday...they belonged to the 7th Ky. They took the oath of allegiance and left for Ky.

There is much more interesting content. In addition to the letter itself, the cover is very uncommon. Of the thousands of covers I have owned, I have only seen one or two with the phrase "soldier's letter" stamped on it, rather than hand-written. Letter is in good condition with a tear about halfway down the center fold. It is quite dark and legible.

A wonderful item for the collector of Illinois items, western theater documents and those who appreciate the perspective of a soldier fighting for the freedom of his fellow human beings.

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