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William Combs Letters

The Combs collection comprises nine personal letters, written from 23 November 1862 to 24 March 1865, sent by Private Combs to his wife in New Hampshire. The four earliest letters (November 1862-March 1863) were written from Poolesville, Maryland, where the 14th New Hampshire was on picket and patrol duty along the upper Potomac, defending the city of Washington. (The last three of these letters, from February and March of 1863, were dated "1862" by Combs. Combs was not yet in the army in the winter of 1862, and the 14th had yet to be formed. The letters' content confirms that they were written in 1863). Two subsequent letters (January 1864) are from Camp Adirondack in Washington, where the regiment was on garrison duty. The final three (March 1865) were written from the environs of Savannah, Georgia, where the 14th New Hampshire had been assigned to provost duty after the city's fall. From 6 March to 5 June Combs was part of a 60 man detachment occupying Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River. In his letter of 23 November 1862 Combs betrays a disaffection for the war shared by countless other recruits in the Union regiments newly formed in the summer of that year. Lincoln's July call for 300,000 fresh volunteers had provoked little of the enthusiasm of 1861, and quotas were met only through the advance payment of bounties and the threat of conscription. (The slogan on the patriotic letterhead derives from the year's popular recruiting song, "We are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand More.") Thus, Combs writes, few in his regiment would have enlisted had they known anything of army life; most of the men have been sick; and abolition is no good reason to fight, since it is rejected by the very people whom it would set free. Combs' evident antipathy for blacks is more baldly stated elsewhere, as in his letter of 15 February 1863: "i like here first rate i should like to live here but I dont want the damd nigers I hate them worse than the devel." In all the letters Combs' spelling and grammar are idiosyncratic — somewhat less so in his later efforts, written in 1865. The tintype portrait of Private Combs accompanying these letters is of uncertain date. In later life Combs resided in West Dummerston, Vermont.

Metadata

Creator
Combs, William J., 1828-1904
Date
1862-1865
Material Type
Mixed Materials
Genre/Physical Characteristic
Tintypes (photographs)
Dimensions
10 folders
Language
English
Identifier
/repositories/3/resources/1430
Campus Location
Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries
Conditions Governing Access
There are no access restrictions on this collection
Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user

Subject
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Correspondence
New Hampshire -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
United States. Army. New Hampshire Infantry Regiment, 14th (1862-1865)
Link to Finding Aid
https://archivesspace.library.nd.edu/repositories/3/resources/1430
This digital collection may not include all items or all of the information available about the source collection. See the finding aid for more information.
Contact Us

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries at rarebook@nd.edu.

Images

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Related Items

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Poolesville, Maryland, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Washington, D.C., to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Washington, D.C., to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Washington, D.C., to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Washington, D.C., to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Savannah Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Savannah Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Letter, William Combs, Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to Eliza Doolittle Combs

Tintype Portrait, Color

Tintype Portrait, Color

Tintype Portrait, Black and White

Tintype Portrait, Black and White

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Phone (574) 631-6258
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