Letter from Augustus Hesse, McClellan, U.S. Hospital, Nice town near Philadelphia, to Deborah Weston, Sunday, July 12th, 1863

Item Information

Title:
Letter from Augustus Hesse, McClellan, U.S. Hospital, Nice town near Philadelphia, to Deborah Weston, Sunday, July 12th, 1863
Author:
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Addressee:
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Date:
July 12, 1863
Format:
Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Anti-Slavery Collection
Subjects:
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Extent:
2 leaves (6 p.) ; 8 x 5 in.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw98r
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
McClellan, U.S. Hospital, Nice town near Philadelphia
Language:
English
Notes:
Holograph, signed.
Augustus Hesse writes this letter from a comfortable hospital. He said: "I was oblige to leave everthing I had in the Rebel hands who made such a desperate attack on our Battery on the second day's fight in the Evening. We were on the extreme left. I done all what was in my power and was one of the last able to give them the last Canister we had left. I fired 128 rounds of Ammunition in the time from five to seven p.m. after seven the fight became so desperate that they rushed up to 100 yards in front of us. ..." Hesse recounts shouting for ammunition, receiving a canister "by degrees" from the rear, and seeing the rebels "drop down." But "the Infantry the third Corps was running in do[u]ble Quick so that we the glorious young 9th Mass. Battery in splendid Organization and for the first time in an engagement, stood the ground and were willing to die for the co[u]ntry slowly...the Sergt. and I was left at last alone. ..." The shells were falling thick on both sides of him so that Augustus Hesse thought they would hit him, "but God was with me & I had confidence to be cared---So we Artillery were alone without Infantry or Cavalry." Suddenly they were flanked by sharpshooters: "we were obliged to leave the Ground---but not sooner did we do it untill [sic] we got the Order." Augustus Hesse was shot in the left arm, with "the blood run all over me. I was swe[a]ting and the Powder of handling the Cartridge and smoke blaked [sic] my face." Hesse suffered for two days and nights, with "no one to see to me. I could get nothing to eat. I layed in the Woods without a Blanket to lay on, at last I was fetched to a house---and got all I want for the citizen were coming with Provisions." Augustus Hesse is now in a "spendit [sic] Hospital lighted with Gas."
Identifier:
3133554
Call #:
Ms.A.9.2 v.31, p.71
Barcode:
39999066784404
mq8390620