AMERICAN CIVIL WAR FEILDEN (HENRY WEMYSS) Autograph letter signed ('H. Wemyss Feilden') to Eliza Wigham Feilden ('My dear aunt') giving a detailed account of his movements 'since coming into the Confederacy', from breaking the Blockade at Charleston ('I have tried 3 times and been fired at unmercifully each time...') having sailed from Nassau, first impressions of Southern women who from 'the delicate lady to the hardy peasant wife have all... tilled the fields... have clothed the troops... [and] housed them in the hours of sickness...', and of Charleston and attempts to join the Confederacy ('... the city is one great camp... every one is trying for military distinction, [and] the demand for appointments as officers is enormous... I selected Charleston as we daily expect the whole force of the Yankee Armada to be thrown against this portion of the state...', and an almost 4-page description of his first meeting with 'the celebrated Stonewall Jackson', to whose rooms he was invited after dinner, whereupon 'the servant came in & took his mattress out of a cupboard & laid it on the floor, [and] as I chose to retire, the Gen said Capt. there is plenty of room on my bed, I hope you will share it with me...' (a request Feilden turned down, but Jackson kept his great coat to dry it by his fire), leaving on him a great impression ('[Jackson] is the darling of his men, the pride of them, & they never seem to tire of talking of him... I believe his character like that of Gen. Lee is spotless', and venturing opinions on slavery ('The Yankees care no more for the negro and abolition than an Andaman islander does... if they thought by murdering all the negroes they could win the South these Yankees would do it...), etc. 21pp., old folds, small area of loss to 3 pages, 5-line note by Feilden added at later date at foot of final page, 8vo, Charleston, 4-10 March 1863; together with a manuscript notebook by Feilden, including a record of his career in America, the meeting with his wife, the stillbirth of their child and return to England in June 1865 and subsequent movements until 1875, and an album of Feilden family photographs (including several of Feilden, one in Confederate uniform) inscribed to his future wife 'Miss Julia McCord, Charleston, April 1864', and a cased daguerreotype of Feilden aged sixteen, c.1854/5 (4) Footnotes: 'THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM ON MY BED, I HOPE YOU WILL SHARE IT WITH ME' - Stonewall Jackson offers hospitality to W.H. Feilden (1838-1921), a British officer who volunteered as a Confederate staff officer in Charleston, South Carolina. This 21-page letter is the earliest sent home by Feilden to his family in England, vividly telling of his dangerous voyage from Nassau to South Carolina on board a blockade runner, his meeting with Stonewall Jackson, appointment to the staff of General P.G.T. Beauregard, and early impressions of Charleston, the local women, and opinion of the Yankees. Whilst serving he met and married a local woman named Julia McCord who lived in Greenville. To her he presented the photograph album included in the lot, which now houses many photographs of Feilden (one in Confederate uniform) and close members of his family, as well as Gen. Beauregard (by Quinby of Charleston), and George S. Nares (the leader of the British Arctic Expedition 1875-6, which Feilden accompanied as naturalist). The letter was published in A Confederate Englishman: The Civil War Letters of Henry Wemyss Feilden, edited by W. Eric Emerson and Karen Stokes, University of South Carolina Press, 2013, the introduction of which provides a wonderful overview of Feilden's experience during the Civil War. The text was taken from a typescript, and the remainder of the correspondence is held by the South Carolina Historical Society. Provenance: Captain Henry Wemyss Feilden (1838-1921), naturalist on the British Arctic Expedition, 1875-1876; thence by descent. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing