WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
LETTER FROM THE 59TH MASS. REG’T.
CAMP NEAR PETERSBURG,
June 28th, 186[4].
MR. EDITOR:—We are lying within two miles of Petersburg, and our pickets keep up a heavy firing all the time. Even now, as I write, the balls are whistling overhead, but we get so used to it that we are really indifferent.
Our regiment [the 59th Massachusetts] has seen some hard times since it left Massachusetts, and although a raw regiment, was hurried into the field and placed in the thickest of the fray. We have shown what stuff Massachusetts men are made of, and never shrank from any duty. The 59th made a gallant charge on the rebel works on the night of the 17th of June [1864], and captured two lines of breastworks and some prisoners. We went into the fight with one hundred and ninety men and lost seventy-four in killed and wounded. I learned this morning that we have lost one of our best officers, Capt. Bean. He was a brave man, and his loss is to be deplored. Private Charles Marshall, Jr., is sick in the hospital, but not seriously. The other Gloucester boys are well. Lieut. Millward is in command of Co. D, as the Captain has been dismissed from the service. Everything seems to be “working lovely,” and Gen. Grant will play one of his flank movements soon. The army have confidence in the Lieut. General commanding, and where he says go it is go whatever may be in the way.
Yours, B.1
***
Other Massachusetts’ Soldier Letters in the Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph
- NP: July 16, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 13th MA, Last Days at Petersburg
- NP: July 16, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: Co. D, 32nd MA at Petersburg, Late June to Early July 1864
- NP: July 23, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: Co. D, 32nd MA Fourth of July
- NP: July 30, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA, Mid-July 1864
- NP: July 30, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: Co. D, 32nd MA, Mid-July 1864
- NP: August 6, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA And Shelling Along The Lines
- NP: August 13, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA and Confederate Countermines
- NP: August 13, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA Observes the Crater Battle
- NP: August 13, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 32nd MA Observes the Crater Battle
- NP: August 13, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 32nd MA, the Crater, and a Feud
- NP: August 20, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA and the City Point Explosion
- NP: August 27, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA Feuds with the 32nd MA
- NP: August 27, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: Co. D, 32nd MA Shelling and Explosions at Petersburg
- NP: September 3, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 23rd MA at the Siege of Petersburg, Late August 1864
- NP: September 3, 1864 Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph: 32nd MA at the Battle of Globe Tavern, August 18-21, 1864
Source:
- “Letter From The 59th Mass. Reg’t.” Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph. July 9, 1864, p. 1 col. 5-6 ↩