Item No. 0116269

Offered here is an interesting four-page wartime letter written by Private Daniel D. Dunkler of the US Army Signal Corps. Dated February 20, 1865, from Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, Alabama, the letter was written just ahead of the campaign to capture Mobile, one of the last major Confederate-held ports on the Gulf Coast. Written to his father in Boston, Dunkler’s letter is rich in personal insight, wartime detail, and financial discussion, capturing both the bureaucratic and human elements of a Union soldier's life late in the war.

Dunkler opens the letter discussing the receipt of pay and bounties, regretting that a month’s worth of his pay, he alledges, had been lost on the steamer Electric Spark, “which was wrecked last Spring.” (In July 1864 the steamer was captured and burned by the Confederate raider CSS Florida.) He then turns his attention to a financial dispute with a fellow soldier over a loan to allow the man to visit his dying brother. He expresses disappointment in both the man’s character and in broken promises made. “He swears now that no such bargain was ever made between us,” he writes, “but he says that he will pay it, for I lent it so he might go home and see his sick Brother that was about dead.”

He next writes about his detachment traveling to Mobile, rather than to Natchez, Mississippi, as Dunkler had anticipated. As the last major Gulf Coast port in Confederate hands, Mobile was of great strategic importance. After the Union Navy’s victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864, the harbor was closed to blockade runners. When Dunkler wrote the letter in February 1865, Union forces were beginning to gather on Dauphin Island for the eventual push on Mobile itself. He writes:

My writing about my going to Natchez Miss. is all knocked in the head, and we are down to Mobile point. And I am much better pleased than at Natchez Miss., for I want to see Mobile Ala. fall. I have seen the Forts that guarded the harbor taken, and now for the city. I can have quite a history to tell in my old aged days.

In another paragraph he writes:

learning the Code was nothing but nonsense now, for the Col. of the Corps is out and that knocked it all in the head, for if he has been dismissed from the service. There are 4 of us in Lt. Harris’s party. I shall probably be in the southern clime another summer, but I guess not in N.O. but in Mobile City, Ala. or thereabouts. And we will stand it better this summer than we did last summer, for we have got ‘climated.

Near the end of the letter, Dunkler acknowledges the Union victory at Fort Fisher, a key fortification protecting the other last remaining Atlantic port for the Confederacy in Wilmington, North Carolina. He then comments on a speech made by General Benjamin F. Butler that he had read about in a newspaper. “I like the speech that Gen. B. F. Butler made at Lowell, Mass.,” he writes. “He gives old Porter Jessie, does he not? I don’t blame him.” (The tension between Butler and Admiral David D. Porter centered around their failed first expedition to Fort Fisher that had taken place in December 1864.)

The Signal Corps was a relatively new and elite branch of the Union Army during the Civil War, responsible for communications via flag signaling, torches, and telegraph. Men selected for this duty were often better educated and more technically inclined than those in the rank and file.

The letter was written on four pages of a bifold letter sheet measuring about 7 3/4” x 9 3/4”. Creased at the original folds. The full transcript appears below.

Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, Ala.
U.S. Sig’l Corps
Feb 20th 1865

My Dear Father,
Your letter of the 29th ult. came to hand yesterday, February 19th, by the Stmr. Gen. Banks from N. Orleans, La., and will hasten to answer it. I am glad to learn that my ($25.00) money arrived home safe & sound; and that you are putting it where it will draw the most interest. You can put it wherever you see fit. Yes, 6% is a great deal better on a hundred dollars than 5%. I have rec’d my State bounty $3.25 & $25.00 of Gov. Bounty, my first installment, & 4 months pay, one month having been lost, or was supposed to be, on the Electric Spark, which was wrecked last Spring. I have been paid off up to the first of Sept. & only one installment of Government Bounty.

I am glad to hear that you have been successful in receiving that ($100.00) one hundred dollars, for I did not know but what you would be unsuccessful with it. You say that you want to know if the money I lent Fuller is something I want you to look after. I say it is. I will give you the am’t & the reasons of lending it. He came to me after receiving his furlough and wanted to borrow some money. I told him I could not lend him. And then he went to Mr. Farquharson & tried to borrow of him, but he had nothing smaller than a one hundred dollar bill and he did not want so much, so Farquharson went around and tried to get it changed, but could not. So F. come to me and asked me if I would lend him some till the afternoon, and then he would pay me. But he swears now that no such bargain was ever made between us. But he says that he will pay it, for I lent it so he might go home and see his sick Brother that was about dead. He lives in Reading, either North Read. or So. Reading, but now is in Georgetown D.C. or vicinity or hereabouts. By directing to Charles Fuller, Georgetown or Vicinity, U.S. Signal Corps Camp of Instruction, and you will learn the particulars of it. Please let me know as soon as you can. I think I did pretty well sending home $25.00 out of 2 months pay, but I will not be able to do so next time, for I have got to pay the Sutler $20 or 25.00 for things I rec’d there.

My writing about my going to Natchez Miss. is all knocked in the head, and we are down to Mobile point. And I am much better pleased than at Natchez Miss., for I want to see Mobile Ala. fall. I have seen the Forts that guarded the harbor taken, and now for the city. I can have quite a history to tell in my old aged days. I am not in N. Orleans to receive your letters, but at Ft. Gaines, Ala.

I am greatly obliged to you for those stamps, and change for it came in play nicely being out in the sands of Ala. I probably shall not want any more till we get settled down either in Mobile City or N.O. City, and then I shall write you about it and let you know what I want.

Yea, I should say John O. Dunkler has done a bully thing. D-mn fool ought to be hung, or didn’t know any better. Or was he a full born fool? I should think he would have known better. How are you […] of his. No, I am nothing more than a private. That learning the Code was nothing but nonsense now, for the Col. of the Corps is out and that knocked it all in the head, for if he has been dismissed from the service. There are 4 of us in Lt. Harris’s party. I shall probably be in the southern clime another summer, but I guess not in N.O. but in Mobile City, Ala. or thereabouts. And we will stand it better this summer than we did last summer, for we have got ‘climated. I have not seen a particle of snow this winter, and it seems like a long summer to me as I ever seen. I should like to be there and have some sleighing & raise Cain in general.

Yes, I should like to have been in Charleston and seen that Tableaux on which you & Uncle N’s Family took part of it. We are having fine weather here. Seems like summer. They are doing spring work here as they have to do when you see any of Uncle F. Sawyer family. I am sorry that Aaron does not get along any faster, for he can’t do anything. I have rec’d W. P. Farnsworth address and wrote to him. Expect an answer by the next mail. I have rec’d those lines of Miss Julia E. Martin and call them very pretty. Yes, we have rec’d the news of the fall of Ft. Fisher. I rec’d those two papers you sent me. I like the speech that Gen. B. F. Butler made at Lowell, Mass. He gives old Porter Jessie, does he not? I don’t blame him.

Does Chas. Morton like the Broker business better than Drug business? Romanus Emerson wishes to be remembered to you, also the rest of the boys. We are having fine weather here, pleasant & warm. I wrote you a few days and told you all th enews and our trip. i will now close for the present.
I remain as every your true & aff. Son
Daniel D. Dunkler

To William A. Dunkler
26 Tremont St.
Boston

Car of M. S. Burr & Co., Mass.

Write soon. Have you rec’d my Photos?

Daniel D. Dunkler
U.S. Signal Corps
Dept. Gulf
N.O. La. or elsewhere

Care of Chief Signal Off.