Item No. 7627394

In this September 1863 letter to his wife Molly, General Henry Shaw Briggs discusses challenges faced at the draft rendezvous camp at Alexandria, Virginia, where he commanded. At the camp new conscripts were equipped, given a bit of training, and assigned to units at the front.

Near the beginning of the letter Briggs writes that he:

did not go to church this morning, having been occupied in trying to get off some Pa. conscripts, which arrived last night, and plagued by the stupid failure of the officers in command to get the transport to the wharf in time for the 11 o’c train, thereby making it necessary to detain the men here till tomorrow morning. I didn’t get out of patience, tho, I believe. It would take a little dullness of one of the dear children in learning a Sunday verse to accomplish that now, I suppose.

He continues the discussion of the draft with details of a letter he received from General Charles Devens, who had been Briggs’s brigade commander during the Peninsula Campaign:

I got a letter from Gen. Devens yesterday, in reply to our business I had written him. He says that he is mortified and pained “at the failure of the draft in Mass.”—that it will not yield 3,000 men. And yet I find that up to this time that state has sent forward to the Army of the Potomac more than any other state. The work was begun there earlier and about all that are to come have been sent to the rendezvous. Only 7,477 have as yet come from all the states.

Later he writes, “Yesterday I went with the post commissary, Col. Bell, to the Govt. bakery here, where the average yield is 100,000 (one hundred thousand) loaves per day,” adding that “on Wednesday last they made 125,000.”

He then writes, “In the afternoon I went with the tug to the arsenal for guns, &c. I took the three younger children with me, and they had a nice time—notwithstanding a tremendous squall.”

Briggs had been colonel of the 10th Massachusetts earlier in the war, but received a severe wound at the Battle of Seven Pines that forced him to recuperate in Massachusetts. He received his brigadier’s star in July 1862 and served in the 8th Corps into 1863. Between 1865 to 1868 he was Massachusetts State Auditor, and after was a district court judge until 1873. He passed away in 1887.

The letter was written upon four pages of a letter sheet measuring about 5” x 8 1/4”. Excellent condition with a bit of foxing in just a couple of places. Creased at the original folds. The full transcript may be read below.

Alexandria, Sept 13th
Sunday, 2 1/2 P.M. 1863

Dear Molly—
Your letters of the 10th and 11th came—none the less welcome for being a little late—this morning. I am glad to know that you are all still kept in health. I was prepared by the accounts of Aunt Eliza’s attack to hear at any moment of her decease. Poor Carrie is indeed entitled to all our sympathy. Her devotion to her Mother was remarkable and affecting, and it does seem that one can hardly be more utterly bereaved than she by the earthly loss of the all in all to hear of her earthly friends and comforters.

I did not go to church this morning, having been occupied in trying to get off some Pa. conscripts, which arrived last night, and plagued by the stupid failure of the officers in command to get the transport to the wharf in time for the 11 o’c train, thereby making it necessary to detain the men here till tomorrow morning. I didn’t get out of patience, tho, I believe. It would take a little dullness of one of the dear children in learning a Sunday verse to accomplish that now, I suppose.

I got a letter from Gen. Devens yesterday, in reply to our business I had written him. He says that he is mortified and pained “at the failure of the draft in Mass.”—that it will not yield 3,000 men. And yet I find that up to this time that state has sent forward to the Army of the Potomac more than any other state. The work was begun there earlier and about all that are to come have been sent to the rendezvous. Only 7,477 have as yet come from all the states.

I wrote to Dwayn yesterday—before the receipt of your letter—requesting him to send me the amt. of my indebtedness to him, with a view of paying a dividend next month. I am sorry to say that all I last sent you would not cancel my debt to him. I never did quite understand how I became so much indebted to him; but I have the most perfect confidence in his uprightness of purpose, and am not inspired to question the accuracy of his computations. I owe Wheldon, too, $50 or more and have written him. Perhaps Frank Rice needs what I owe as much as anybody, and his account is of my long standing.

Levi determined last night I shouldn’t object to his making a longer visit, as I have but very little for him to do here, and I am paying him (board & all) $8 per week.

Yesterday I went with the post commissary, Col. Bell, to the Govt. bakery here, where the average yield is 100,000 (one hundred thousand) loaves per day. On Wednesday last they made 125,000.

In the afternoon I went with the tug to the arsenal for guns, &c. I took the three younger children with me, and they had a nice time—notwithstanding a tremendous squall.

The clock has struck three & I must hurry to get my letter to the mail.
Love to all
Affectionately
Your Husband

Mrs. H. S. Briggs
Pittsfield, Mass.