This poignant letter written on beautiful patriotic stationery was penned by 39 year-old Corp. Samuel E. Colgrove of Woodhull, New York, who enlisted in Co. H, 86th New York Infantry in September 1861. He wrote the letter to his wife, Mary Phebe (Marlatt) Colegrove and their two children from Camp Good Hope near Washington D. C. in April 1862. We learn from the letter that Samuel had been ill like so many others in his regiment, several of whom are mentioned by name. “It seems hard to see so many young men die,” he wrote his wife. “There is hundreds of them dying every week.” He then encourages her to keep up her spirits. “I find there is nothing like courage; I find it won’t do to give away to trifles.” Samuel survived the war but was discharged in November 1862 due to disability. He died in 1885.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Abraham Lincoln, Paper Ephemera]