Autograph letter signed by James Taylor Eubank, Jr. (1842-1873), Co. B, Jessee's Battalion of Kentucky Mounted Rifles. Hospital Ward 3, Military Prison, Rock Island, Illinois, 17 February 1864. 1 page, 6 1/8 x 7 1/2 in.

WITH Autograph letter signed by Alexander D. Mims (1839-1878), Co. H, 3rd Alabama Cavalry. Prison Hospital Ward 8, [Rock Island, Illinois], 1 March 1864. 1 page, 8 x 8 3/4 in.

A rare pair of prisoner-of-war (POW) letters written from Rock Island prison by two soldiers. The first is written by James Taylor Eubank, Jr., a corporal with Jessee's Battalion of Kentucky Mounted Rifles. After his enlistment on 22 July 1862, he was wounded in the head and taken captive in a skirmish at Mt. Sterling. Here, he writes to his cousin Susan Lucy (Barry) Taylor (1807-1881) who operated a benevolent society in Newport, Kentucky that supplied aid to Confederate prisoners of war. Notably, she was the daughter of William Taylor Barry (1784-1835), a well-known politician who served as a US Congressman, US Senator, Postmaster General under Andrew Jackson, and 7th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky. Eubank requests supplies for a fellow prisoner: "I have a young Alabama friend here who has charge of Hospital Ward 8 attending to our sick. He is very much in need of clothing [and] is very far from home & friends."

The "young Alabama friend" is Alexander D. Mims, who was a graduate of Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania and operated an apothecary shop in Mobile, Alabama. A private in the 3rd Alabama Cavalry, he was often detached as a medical attendant. He was taken prisoner near Strawberry Plains, near Knoxville, Tennessee. The second letter is his grateful response to Susan Taylor: "I have indeed been surprised and completely over powered by your kindness. I hardly know how to begin to award my thanks."

Condition: Minor creasing, possibly trimmed.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Prisoner of War, POW, Medical History, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, Ephemera]