“All I see, but the more full convinces me that the event of this war is being used to elevate a few names upon the scale of distinction…"

New York soldier's eloquent four-page assessment of the Battle of Yorktown, General McClellan, Jefferson Davis, and the war’s status.

Autograph letter signed by Ebenezer "Eben" Buel, Co. B, 9th New York Cavalry, to his wife. Camp Winfield Scott, Near Yorktown, [Virginia], 7 May 1862. 4 pages, 4to, 8 x 10 in. With original envelope with red 3-cent stamp and postal stamp.

Written in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Yorktown, Buel writes home to his wife with an assessment of the commanders on both sides:

“I have told our boys for the last ten days I expected Jeff [Davis] - who knows his men - would let Mac [McClellan] putter away & spend as much time as he could induce him to do & exhaust the energies of his men at hard labor, and deplete the national resources as deeply as possible, & then, just as everything was ready for the blow, like a flea beneath a war club, when it was bout to hit the little animal, would not be 'thar.' And yet I see there is a majority who are determined to make a hero of McClellan in spite of himself, lauding the policy that has given us Yorktown without the loss of a man.” Buell continues: “But these [people] forget that he has only got the place where the Tiger crouched, while the animal is still at large and unsubdued. And though no men were lost at the ditches before the ramparts, still the month before Yorktown has made its record on the death rolls which will never be reported to the world in total, and the blanched cheek of many a lingering sufferer shall tell of exposure to the miasmas & storms of the peninsula. I do not wish to underrate true merit, but after spending the day yesterday in the enemies' works at Yorktown and along the lines to the Worcester [Warwick] River, I could but feel that while McClellan has lost his game by stopping to forge a heavy cable to bind him, he might have securely held him if he had used the small chain he already possessed. At Yorktown the works are heavy and would have offered a barrier hard to pass by the assistance of artillery alone, but the gunboats in the river could have handled that while the works on the center and left would not have sustained the fire of our rifled field guns for a single day at any time since we came on here. All I see, but the more full convinces me that the event of this war is being used to elevate a few names upon the scale of distinction, & more pains is taken to insure this than to secure the return of a speedy recurrence to peace and prosperity. "

Ebenezer "Eben" Buell (1827-1887) enlisted on 4 November 1861 at Westfield, New York as a sergeant and was mustered into Company B of the 9th New York Cavalry. He later served as the quartermaster sergeant before being discharged from the regiment in February 1864 to re-enlist in the general service. The regiment initially was assigned to guard the railways until June 1862 when they were mounted and participated in General Pope's campaign, seeing frequent action. They served through the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns and subsequent campaigns in Virginia with heavy losses at Beverly Ford, Brandy Station, and operations near Culpeper, earning them a reputation for gallantry and efficiency.

Condition: Small losses along old folds. Loss to envelope upper left.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Yorktown, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera, Politics]