Product Details

Original Civil War soldier's letter, written February–March 1864 by Private Edward Jones, Company K, Purnell Legion Infantry / 1st Maryland Infantry (Union), to his father Valentine Jones in Frederick, Maryland. Two sheets, four writing surfaces, framed under glass. Soldier confirmed via National Archives Compiled Military Service Records, film M388 Roll 6 Content is historically significant. Edward reports fresh camp intelligence that Grant has superseded Meade and intends a forward move on Richmond toward Hanover Junction — an accurate soldier-level preview of the 1864 Overland Campaign written approximately eight weeks before it began. He identifies the Confederate defensive plan and references General Lee's intentions. This is firsthand military intelligence as understood at the enlisted level in the final weeks before the most brutal campaign of the war. On the personal side, Edward describes winter camp conditions in detail: 4–5 inches of snow, living outdoors with no shelter, suffering from rheumatism, rationed to one-third pound of bacon per day with his hand trembling when he cuts a piece. He pleads for his father to send biscuits, bread, and 10 pounds of bacon. He asks his father to safeguard his trunk and watch back home, quotes Proverbs 27:12 as a coded warning, and urges help moving a female relative named Sally out of the county before the campaign begins Edward's unit — the Purnell Legion Infantry — joined the Army of the Potomac in the field on May 26, 1864