1862 CIVIL WAR LETTER & COVER CAMP ELSWORTH MD MARYLAND

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Up for auction is an original Civil War letter written by Union Soldier Edward Augustus Elliott to his mother. He wrote this letter from a camp Elsworth , Maryland . The letter is dated Sept. 4th, 1861 . Edward Augustus Elliott was with the 5th Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry at the time he wrote this letter to his mother. The 5th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the 1 st Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment were among the first regiments in the North to agree to a three year enlistment. Edward Augustus Elliott and his brothers, James Peters Elliott and George Frederick Elliott, all stepped forward and volunteered for service at the beginning of the Civil War. You could call James Elliott a Civil War lifer for he reenlisted at the end of his three years of service and stayed in service to his country until the end of the Civil War. His brother George served his three years and then left the army in 1864. George Elliott served along with his brother in the 1 st Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery Regiment. Edward Augustus Elliott served in the 5 th Connecticut Infantry Regiment. Edward Elliott had a tough time with being in the Army. It was not long after he joined that he started complaining of being very sick. He told his mother and father that he was dying. George Elliott Senior wrote a letter to the Governor of Connecticut appealing for help in getting his son a discharge from the Army. The Governor sent a surgeon to see Edward at his camp and the doctor could find nothing seriously wrong with the boy. The surgeon wrote the father and told him what he had found and let the father know that he felt that the boy was just homesick. At the time Edward Elliott wrote this letter, in January of 1862, he was feeling better but was still very unhappy. He let family members know that he was thinking of deserting. His brothers and other family members appealed to him to do the honorable thing and not desert and stay with his regiment. Then Edward disappeared from his regiment in the summer of 1862. It is unclear whether he deserted or if he was captured by the confederate forces and killed. Both his brothers, James and George Elliott, were writing letters home, in 1864 and 1865, stating that they did not know what had happened to their brother. I have yet to find out how and when he died. I am going thru family letters trying to learn more about what happened to Edward Augustus Elliott. This three page letter is written on one folded sheet of patriotic stationery that is 8" by 10" in size. The mailing envelope is a "The Loyal States Connecticut Union" patriotic envelope. I have not corrected the spelling in the letter below. He writes: Camp Elsworth Maryland Sept 4 th 1861 "Dear Mother I take this opertunity to write to you to inform you that my health grows poorer and poorer every day now you may think that I am not so sick as I tell you but one thing is certain that is this that God knows the truth and to him I aply for aid I have writtne several letters to Father and you Requesting that he would see about getting me a Discharge in some way or a rather I do not wish he worry you or any body else any more than I can help the truth is this that the Dr has been trying to learn how to Dr for bleeding at the lungs but they could not help me so I thought that I would not go up to them any more. if you will do what you can for me your poor sick boy God knows that I will bless the day that gave you birth. Mother this is the last letter perhaps that you will ever recieve from me. the last Request that I wish to make to you is that you will write to Father to ask him to see some Leyer or Leawye to ask him about havving a writ made out to take me out of dreadfall place. I am glad to say t... read more

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