[CIVIL WAR]. WARD, DUDLEY H. 30 autograph letters signed ("Dudley H. Ward") to his father Colonel Thomas William Ward, and one to his brother James W. Ward, written from various Confederate camps in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Mississippi and in Texas, 25 January 1863 - 14 September 1864; and an autograph letter signed from Lt. J. Atchison to Dudley Ward, Camp Lubbock, Houston, 16 November, 1863, one page, 4to. Together 32 letters comprising 115 pages, 12mo-small folio, most on white or blue lined stationery, most with recipient's docket, a few tears and small holes, occasional staining or browning, one letter with a 5-line passage deleted in acidic ink resulting in 3 holes and browning on verso; [with:] Printed document signed as above, countersigned by Captain George W. Goddard, Paroling Officer, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 7 July 1863, broadside, oblong 8vo, 157 x 202mm. (6 1/8 x 7 15/16 in.), printed on a half-sheet of lined stationery, accomplished in manuscript, a parole certificate, "I. Dudley H. Ward...being a Prisoner of War, in the hands of the United States Forces, in virtue of the capitulation of the City of Vicksburg and its garrison...do in pursuance of the terms of said capitulation, give this my solemn parole under oath--That I will not take up arms again against the United States, nor serve in any military, police, or constabulary force...held by the Confederate States of America, against the United States of America...until duly exchanged by the proper authorities".A FIRST-HAND CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT OF THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN As a private in the Second Regiment of the Texas infantry, Thomas Ward's son Dudley participated in the defence of the Mississippi at Vicksburg from his brigade's arrival at Fort Pemberton in early March 1863 until his capture by Union forces during the final siege in May. This series of letters to his father forms an unusually vivid and detailed record of the long resistance of the Confederate forces to Grant's determined onslaught, from the viewpoint of an ordinary soldier. The news of the war is put in context by the young man's careful descriptions of the lay of the land, the wildlife, the weather and state of the crops, and the local prices of common produce, and, in a different manner, by his increasing homesickness and reiterated pleas for news from home.Under the command of Col. Ashbel Smith ("one of the most unpopular colonels among his men in the Confederacy"), Ward's brigade had been assigned to Fort Pemberton in March 1863. After a temporary separation, he succeeded in joining them on 13 March "after a journey of thirty-eight days; and a very weary one it was, the communication having been entirely cut off between here and the other side of the Mississippi River...on account of gunboats being in the way" (14 March, 1863), arriving in the middle of a bombardment that would scarcely cease until the Confederates' final capitulation on July 4th: "...the Yankees have been bombarding us very heavily, and every minute while I write this you might hear, at fifty miles off, the report of the Artillery. There have been already about eighteen men wounded, some of which will certainly die. A good many of the wounds were occasioned by the explosion of a magazine caused by the bursting of a shell thrown by the enemy. There have been about three hundred shots today on both sides, some thrown by the Federals measured thirteen inches in diameter and weighed so much that the strongest of our men could scarcely lift them. These were only shells: solid shot of the same size would weigh according to the rule two hundred and ninety-four lbs...the enemy's force at this place amounts to twenty seven vessels in all, of which seven are iron clad gun-boats...".7 April: "Since I last wrote you the enemy have twice attacked, and as many times been repulsed by us, which, as you must know, is a very unusual thing when they approach any point by water. Our position is only a tolerably good one...The Fort is placed so as to command a bend in the Tallahatchie, in which but one gunboat can be used against it. A raft, and other obstruction are placed opposite the fort in order to stop the enemy while our guns are playing on them. The first attack was made on the 13th ult. and after trying us to the best of their ability, with their heavy mettle, they retreated, and acknowledged a defeat. Getting a reinforcement, however, they returned on the 23rd...but finding us prepared for them they again left us in our glory on the 5th inst.... The force of the enemy when they last attacked us was ten gunboats and twenty eight transports, on each one of which I suppose there were five hundred men, as they are loaded down to the water's edge. Our strength is about eight hundred men...The repulses that the enemy have sustained are as good to us as a victory, and as disastrous to them as a defeat. Fort Pemberton is the keystone to Vicksburg, and if they had succeeded in taking it, they could have descended the Yazoo River and not only have landed troops in the rear of the last named place, but, also, cut off the almost entire supplies of our armies stationed there...". Ward goes on to compare the prices of slaves in Louisiana and Texas, promising to help his father find a woman servant. "In camp near Vicksburg", 18 April: "...Since I wrote to you last we have moved from Fort Pemberton and come to our present camping ground near Vicksburg, but for what purpose I am unable to see...A few days ago, the raft and obstructions in the Yazoo River were broken loose by the current, and expecting the enemy should find it out and make an attack in the rear of Vicksburg, the regiment was placed on picket and we spent the following night in the trenches. While there we heard the most tremendous cannonading on record, in front of the city, the cause of which was the enemy passing in their gunboats. They succeeded in getting seven through out of ten...".28 April: "...we have good quarters, at a proper distance from the city [of Vicksburg], which to make the best of it is a poor place, it having been bought out by the soldiery, who do not hesitate to pay any price for an article which they may chance to want...All this morning we have heard a battle going on, at some distant point near Jackson. The enemy have of late become very bold, they made a couple of raids on the Southern Rail Road, and destroyed two trains. The last news we got, they were in force on [by?] Black river, and I think it must have been from there that the reports of artillery were heard. I would not be at all surprised if they should make a very strong attack at that point, for it is by that railroad that Vicksburg receives its principal supplies; and without food for the troops it will be very easily subdued...".Written three days before the start of the siege of Vicksburg, this is Ward's last letter from Vicksburg. Taken prisoner soon after, he was paroled on July 28th, and having been "duly exchanged" for a Union soldier in the fall, he rejoined his brigade, now back in Texas. The remainder of the letters, from Camp Lubbock, the port of Velares, Camp Slaughter, Camp Sydney Johnson near Mouth Camp, and Galveston, are filled with news of camp life, of increasingly short rations, and of an epidemic of yellow fever, and with suppositions concerning the enemy's movements and the strategy of the Confederate command. A certain cynicism creeps into the last letters: "I met that fellow Lynch, the jail bird of whom we bought that pistol when I started to Miss....he has been elected a lieutenant...Of such material is a great part of the Confederate Army officered, and under such men I am obliged to serve. It makes me feel mean to think about it...". (33)

[CIVIL WAR]. WARD, DUDLEY H. 30 autograph letters signed ("Dudley H. Ward") to his father Colonel Thomas William Ward, and one to his brother James W. Ward, written from various Confederate camps in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Mississippi and in Texas, 25 January 1863 - 14 September 1864; and an autograph letter signed from Lt. J. Atchison to Dudley Ward, Camp Lubbock, Houston, 16 November, 1863, one page, 4to. Together 32 letters comprising 115 pages, 12mo-small folio, most on white or blue lined stationery, most with recipient's docket, a few tears and small holes, occasional staining or browning, one letter with a 5-line passage deleted in acidic ink resulting in 3 holes and browning on verso; [with:] Printed document signed as above, countersigned by Captain George W. Goddard, Paroling Officer, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 7 July 1863, broadside, oblong 8vo, 157 x 202mm. (6 1/8 x 7 15/16 in.), printed on a half-sheet of lined stationery, accomplished in manuscript, a parole certificate, "I. Dudley H. Ward...being a Prisoner of War, in the hands of the United States Forces, in virtue of the capitulation of the City of Vicksburg and its garrison...do in pursuance of the terms of said capitulation, give this my solemn parole under oath--That I will not take up arms again against the United States, nor serve in any military, police, or constabulary force...held by the Confederate States of America, against the United States of America...until duly exchanged by the proper authorities". A FIRST-HAND CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT OF THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN As a private in the Second Regiment of the Texas infantry, Thomas Ward's son Dudley participated in the defence of the Mississippi at Vicksburg from his brigade's arrival at Fort Pemberton in early March 1863 until his capture by Union forces during the final siege in May. This series of letters to his father forms an unusually vivid and detailed record of the long resistance of the Confederate forces to Grant's determined onslaught, from the viewpoint of an ordinary soldier. The news of the war is put in context by the young man's careful descriptions of the lay of the land, the wildlife, the weather and state of the crops, and the local prices of common produce, and, in a different manner, by his increasing homesickness and reiterated pleas for news from home. Under the command of Col. Ashbel Smith ("one of the most unpopular colonels among his men in the Confederacy"), Ward's brigade had been assigned to Fort Pemberton in March 1863. After a temporary separation, he succeeded in joining them on 13 March "after a journey of thirty-eight days; and a very weary one it was, the communication having been entirely cut off between here and the other side of the Mississippi River...on account of gunboats being in the way" (14 March, 1863), arriving in the middle of a bombardment that would scarcely cease until the Confederates' final capitulation on July 4th: "...the Yankees have been bombarding us very heavily, and every minute while I write this you might hear, at fifty miles off, the report of the Artillery. There have been already about eighteen men wounded, some of which will certainly die. A good many of the wounds were occasioned by the explosion of a magazine caused by the bursting of a shell thrown by the enemy. There have been about three hundred shots today on both sides, some thrown by the Federals measured thirteen inches in diameter and weighed so much that the strongest of our men could scarcely lift them. These were only shells: solid shot of the same size would weigh according to the rule two hundred and ninety-four lbs...the enemy's force at this place amounts to twenty seven vessels in all, of which seven are iron clad gun-boats...". 7 April: "Since I last wrote you the enemy have twice attacked, and as many times been repulsed by us, which, as you must know, is a very unusual thing when they approach any point by water. Our position is only a tolerably good one...The Fort is placed so as to command a bend in the Tallahatchie, in which but one gunboat can be used against it. A raft, and other obstruction are placed opposite the fort in order to stop the enemy while our guns are playing on them. The first attack was made on the 13th ult. and after trying us to the best of their ability, with their heavy mettle, they retreated, and acknowledged a defeat. Getting a reinforcement, however, they returned on the 23rd...but finding us prepared for them they again left us in our glory on the 5th inst.... The force of the enemy when they last attacked us was ten gunboats and twenty eight transports, on each one of which I suppose there were five hundred men, as they are loaded down to the water's edge. Our strength is about eight hundred men...The repulses that the enemy have sustained are as good to us as a victory, and as disastrous to them as a defeat. Fort Pemberton is the keystone to Vicksburg, and if they had succeeded in taking it, they could have descended the Yazoo River and not only have landed troops in the rear of the last named place, but, also, cut off the almost entire supplies of our armies stationed there...". Ward goes on to compare the prices of slaves in Louisiana and Texas, promising to help his father find a woman servant. "In camp near Vicksburg", 18 April: "...Since I wrote to you last we have moved from Fort Pemberton and come to our present camping ground near Vicksburg, but for what purpose I am unable to see...A few days ago, the raft and obstructions in the Yazoo River were broken loose by the current, and expecting the enemy should find it out and make an attack in the rear of Vicksburg, the regiment was placed on picket and we spent the following night in the trenches. While there we heard the most tremendous cannonading on record, in front of the city, the cause of which was the enemy passing in their gunboats. They succeeded in getting seven through out of ten...". 28 April: "...we have good quarters, at a proper distance from the city [of Vicksburg], which to make the best of it is a poor place, it having been bought out by the soldiery, who do not hesitate to pay any price for an article which they may chance to want...All this morning we have heard a battle going on, at some distant point near Jackson. The enemy have of late become very bold, they made a couple of raids on the Southern Rail Road, and destroyed two trains. The last news we got, they were in force on [by?] Black river, and I think it must have been from there that the reports of artillery were heard. I would not be at all surprised if they should make a very strong attack at that point, for it is by that railroad that Vicksburg receives its principal supplies; and without food for the troops it will be very easily subdued...". Written three days before the start of the siege of Vicksburg, this is Ward's last letter from Vicksburg. Taken prisoner soon after, he was paroled on July 28th, and having been "duly exchanged" for a Union soldier in the fall, he rejoined his brigade, now back in Texas. The remainder of the letters, from Camp Lubbock, the port of Velares, Camp Slaughter, Camp Sydney Johnson near Mouth Camp, and Galveston, are filled with news of camp life, of increasingly short rations, and of an epidemic of yellow fever, and with suppositions concerning the enemy's movements and the strategy of the Confederate command. A certain cynicism creeps into the last letters: "I met that fellow Lynch, the jail bird of whom we bought that pistol when I started to Miss....he has been elected a lieutenant...Of such material is a great part of the Confederate Army officered, and under such men I am obliged to serve. It makes me feel mean to think about it...". (33)

細節

[CIVIL WAR]. WARD, DUDLEY H. 30 autograph letters signed ("Dudley H. Ward") to his father Colonel Thomas William Ward, and one to his brother James W. Ward, written from various Confederate camps in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Mississippi and in Texas, 25 January 1863 - 14 September 1864; and an autograph letter signed from Lt. J. Atchison to Dudley Ward, Camp Lubbock, Houston, 16 November, 1863, one page, 4to. Together 32 letters comprising 115 pages, 12mo-small folio, most on white or blue lined stationery, most with recipient's docket, a few tears and small holes, occasional staining or browning, one letter with a 5-line passage deleted in acidic ink resulting in 3 holes and browning on verso; [with:] Printed document signed as above, countersigned by Captain George W. Goddard, Paroling Officer, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 7 July 1863, broadside, oblong 8vo, 157 x 202mm. (6 1/8 x 7 15/16 in.), printed on a half-sheet of lined stationery, accomplished in manuscript, a parole certificate, "I. Dudley H. Ward...being a Prisoner of War, in the hands of the United States Forces, in virtue of the capitulation of the City of Vicksburg and its garrison...do in pursuance of the terms of said capitulation, give this my solemn parole under oath--That I will not take up arms again against the United States, nor serve in any military, police, or constabulary force...held by the Confederate States of America, against the United States of America...until duly exchanged by the proper authorities".

A FIRST-HAND CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT OF THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN

As a private in the Second Regiment of the Texas infantry, Thomas Ward's son Dudley participated in the defence of the Mississippi at Vicksburg from his brigade's arrival at Fort Pemberton in early March 1863 until his capture by Union forces during the final siege in May. This series of letters to his father forms an unusually vivid and detailed record of the long resistance of the Confederate forces to Grant's determined onslaught, from the viewpoint of an ordinary soldier. The news of the war is put in context by the young man's careful descriptions of the lay of the land, the wildlife, the weather and state of the crops, and the local prices of common produce, and, in a different manner, by his increasing homesickness and reiterated pleas for news from home.

Under the command of Col. Ashbel Smith ("one of the most unpopular colonels among his men in the Confederacy"), Ward's brigade had been assigned to Fort Pemberton in March 1863. After a temporary separation, he succeeded in joining them on 13 March "after a journey of thirty-eight days; and a very weary one it was, the communication having been entirely cut off between here and the other side of the Mississippi River...on account of gunboats being in the way" (14 March, 1863), arriving in the middle of a bombardment that would scarcely cease until the Confederates' final capitulation on July 4th: "...the Yankees have been bombarding us very heavily, and every minute while I write this you might hear, at fifty miles off, the report of the Artillery. There have been already about eighteen men wounded, some of which will certainly die. A good many of the wounds were occasioned by the explosion of a magazine caused by the bursting of a shell thrown by the enemy. There have been about three hundred shots today on both sides, some thrown by the Federals measured thirteen inches in diameter and weighed so much that the strongest of our men could scarcely lift them. These were only shells: solid shot of the same size would weigh according to the rule two hundred and ninety-four lbs...the enemy's force at this place amounts to twenty seven vessels in all, of which seven are iron clad gun-boats...".

7 April: "Since I last wrote you the enemy have twice attacked, and as many times been repulsed by us, which, as you must know, is a very unusual thing when they approach any point by water. Our position is only a tolerably good one...The Fort is placed so as to command a bend in the Tallahatchie, in which but one gunboat can be used against it. A raft, and other obstruction are placed opposite the fort in order to stop the enemy while our guns are playing on them. The first attack was made on the 13th ult. and after trying us to the best of their ability, with their heavy mettle, they retreated, and acknowledged a defeat. Getting a reinforcement, however, they returned on the 23rd...but finding us prepared for them they again left us in our glory on the 5th inst.... The force of the enemy when they last attacked us was ten gunboats and twenty eight transports, on each one of which I suppose there were five hundred men, as they are loaded down to the water's edge. Our strength is about eight hundred men...The repulses that the enemy have sustained are as good to us as a victory, and as disastrous to them as a defeat. Fort Pemberton is the keystone to Vicksburg, and if they had succeeded in taking it, they could have descended the Yazoo River and not only have landed troops in the rear of the last named place, but, also, cut off the almost entire supplies of our armies stationed there...". Ward goes on to compare the prices of slaves in Louisiana and Texas, promising to help his father find a woman servant.

"In camp near Vicksburg", 18 April: "...Since I wrote to you last we have moved from Fort Pemberton and come to our present camping ground near Vicksburg, but for what purpose I am unable to see...A few days ago, the raft and obstructions in the Yazoo River were broken loose by the current, and expecting the enemy should find it out and make an attack in the rear of Vicksburg, the regiment was placed on picket and we spent the following night in the trenches. While there we heard the most tremendous cannonading on record, in front of the city, the cause of which was the enemy passing in their gunboats. They succeeded in getting seven through out of ten...".

28 April: "...we have good quarters, at a proper distance from the city [of Vicksburg], which to make the best of it is a poor place, it having been bought out by the soldiery, who do not hesitate to pay any price for an article which they may chance to want...All this morning we have heard a battle going on, at some distant point near Jackson. The enemy have of late become very bold, they made a couple of raids on the Southern Rail Road, and destroyed two trains. The last news we got, they were in force on [by?] Black river, and I think it must have been from there that the reports of artillery were heard. I would not be at all surprised if they should make a very strong attack at that point, for it is by that railroad that Vicksburg receives its principal supplies; and without food for the troops it will be very easily subdued...".

Written three days before the start of the siege of Vicksburg, this is Ward's last letter from Vicksburg. Taken prisoner soon after, he was paroled on July 28th, and having been "duly exchanged" for a Union soldier in the fall, he rejoined his brigade, now back in Texas. The remainder of the letters, from Camp Lubbock, the port of Velares, Camp Slaughter, Camp Sydney Johnson near Mouth Camp, and Galveston, are filled with news of camp life, of increasingly short rations, and of an epidemic of yellow fever, and with suppositions concerning the enemy's movements and the strategy of the Confederate command. A certain cynicism creeps into the last letters: "I met that fellow Lynch, the jail bird of whom we bought that pistol when I started to Miss....he has been elected a lieutenant...Of such material is a great part of the Confederate Army officered, and under such men I am obliged to serve. It makes me feel mean to think about it...". (33)