Autograph letter signed by Peleg E. Peckham, Co. E, 7th Rhode Island Infantry, to Friend Dave. On board Steamer David Tatum, Opposite Helena, Arkansas, 12 August 1863. 4 pages, 4to, on blue paper.

An illuminating soldier's letter revealing prevalent attitudes and prejudices to contrabands and the treatment of Black troops in Arkansas.

Penned by Peleg E. Peckham who enlisted in 1862 as a sergeant and mustered into Company A of the 7th Rhode Island Infantry, quickly rising in the ranks to first lieutenant (of Company E) by 1 March 1863. After being present at the defeat at Fredericksburg, they moved west to reinforce Grant's army as they besieged Vicksburg.

Peckham writes to a friend in the period after the Mississippi campaign, he reports the heavy losses experienced by the Corps, and the rampant diseases. He turns his letter to discussion of freed slaves who have joined the Union forces. He reports of the harsh conditions and his understanding of their high mortality: "Contrabands" well there are about 20 with us, going up to Island (No. 10) to die. You may think I am letting a large story that two thirds of the Plantation Negroes that go into the Contraband Camps die of disease either the first 3 months but it is so + from the best Authority I can get 1/2 of the other 2nd will die within the next 9 months after. And it is a safe calculation to make the statement(?) that one half of the negroes who avail Churches of the Presidents Emancipation League will not live six months, it is true that most of those who die are the women & children, & I do not but it is all right & the best thing could be done with them for they will be annihilated in two generations and will be no longer here to curse us with the institution of slavery."

Continuing his harsh assessments, he turns to the freed and escaped slaves who had joined their ranks following the Emancipation Proclmation, and the recent General Order No. 143 (22 May 1863): "The papers tell you that the Negroes fought like Hell at Helan and it is not so. They were placid in a rifle pit by our troops + told to remain there & fight. They did not under stand the mode or manner of attack and their officers left them telling them to shoot [at the] rebels they saw until they got to the pit & then run for the shore, the Rebs came the Negroes fired a few shots without effect. The Rebs carged to the Bank in front of the pit & shot the acursed Black son of Ham right down through the head. While this was going on our forces lay under cover of the gunboats the Rebs supposing they had won the field while they had killed the greater part of the negro Regts. without white officers advanced..."

Though he does not name the regiment, he likely was describing the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent), later the 54th United States Colored Regiment (USCT). The actions here are notably the first combat wounds suffered by African American soldiers in Arkansas during the war. Though Peckham places the blame on their race, the regiment had not even formally organized (they would not muster until September 4th), and had next to no training. Whether or not Peckham knew how green the recruits were did not spare his criticism: "the Negroe did not help do it for they will not fight they are like the damned cowards and cannot be trusted. Negro Soldiers! ha, they are not soldiers, they are living tools that will not work without the cash nor fight where Death is to be faced."

After a rough winter, the regiment returned to Virginia. They were held in reserve at the Battle of the Wilderness, but engaged at Spotsylvania Courthouse and North Hanna. They arrived at Petersburg with only 125 men in June 1864. Shortly thereafter, Peckham was promoted to captain (25 July 1864), again to major by brevet in February. At the very end of the beginning, Peckham was killed in action at the Breakthrough at Petersburg on 2 April 1865.

An early impression of Black Union troops, revealing the deep prejudice present.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, African Americana, African American History, Black History, USCT, Colored Troops, Buffalo Soldiers, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]