“Oh Otis, you ought to be here once just to see how much artillery we have got here. Well, in one place there is for five miles a complete fence of artillery from ten paces to ten rods apart, and we have lots of companies scattered around in several places. If ever Tennessee & Mississippi was inhabited is now. We have about one hundred & fifty thousand in Tennessee and the rebels have about the same at Corinth, Mississippi. It is a’going to be one awful battle inside of one week.”

Item No. 1022571

An April 1862 letter by Private Pomeroy Gamble of the Ottawa Light Artillery (Battery C, 1st Illinois Light Artillery). It was written from Hamburg, Tennessee, just downriver from Pittsburg Landing, where earlier in the month Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant had been victorious at the Battle of Shiloh. In the letter, Gamble, who had previously served in the 10th Illinois Infantry, writes about the capture of New Madrid and Island Number Ten, as well as their river voyage to Hamburg and prospects for another battle at Corinth, Mississippi.

Gamble opens the letter letting his uncle know “we are on the Tennessee River seventeen miles from Corinth and at the town of Hamburg, awaiting orders to move.” He then states what had transpired since his last letter, when his battery participated in the operations around New Madrid, Missouri. Located at a strategic S-curve in the Mississippi River, the rebel positions included strong defenses at New Madrid, on Island Number Ten, and along the peninsulas formed by the meandering river. After capturing the town by land, Union forces under General John Pope dug a canal that allowed Union navy gunboats and transports to bypass the rebels’ heavy guns on Island Number Ten, reemerging downriver. The subsequent crossing of Union troops over to the Tennessee side of the river forced many of the rebel defenders to surrender by April 8. Gamble writes:

You know in the last letter that I said we was a’going to cross the Mississippi River the next day. Well, we did cross the river and had the pleasure of help taking over five thousand prisoners. We took our guns over and could not take but one section of our horses across by the same boat, so we went one section under the command of Lieut [Edward J.] VanDyke ahead of the rest of us, waited for our horses to come over, and then we put out. The section we sent ahead came in sight of the rebels at dark, but did not attack them, but would in the morning if they had not surrendered to General [Eleazer A.] Paine. When we got there in the morning, they had the prisoners bagged.

He then briefly describes an April 7 “engagement between our gun boats and a three gun battery a little below New Madrid.” While the canal dug by Pope’s men had been deep enough to accommodate Union Navy transports, it could not support the deeper-draught ironclad gunboats needed to suppress rebel river batteries. Two ironclads, the USS Carondelet and USS Pittsburgh ran the gauntlet of Island Number Ten’s guns on previous nights, arriving downriver to support the infantry’s crossing. Engaging the rebel guns, Gamble writes, “The gun boats Carondelet & Essex [he misidentifies the Pittsburgh] wiped them out in one hour and fifteen minutes.”

Afterward, the Ottawa Battery boarded the steamer Daniel G. Taylor. Gamble writes that they:

went down in sight of Fort Pillow, sixty miles this side of Memphis, and stayed two or three days (bud did not leave the boat). And then we got orders to reinforce General Grant at Pittsburg Landing. So we had to retrace our steps back to Cairo, and then up the Ohio to Paducah, and then up the Tennessee till we came here. We was on the boat eleven days and nights. It was so disagreeable it came near making me sick (we was on the boat long enough to go to the old country).

Gamble continues writing that “Chester [P. Whitman] is promoted to the rank of sergeant in our company now. He is off some three miles from here with his gun on a neighboring hill some three hundred feet higher than we are here.” He also comments on the strength of the forces gathering and fortifying around the rebel-held rail crossroads of Corinth, Mississippi:

You ought to be here once just to see how much artillery we have got here. Well, in one place there is for five miles a complete fence of artillery from ten paces to ten rods apart, and we have lots of companies scattered around in several places. If ever Tennessee & Mississippi was inhabited is now. We have about one hundred & fifty thousand in Tennessee and the rebels have about the same at Corinth, Mississippi. It is a’going to be one awful battle inside of one week. If we know ourselves, both sides are trying to fortify as fast as time will permit. General Paine sent out eighty wagonloads of shovels and picks for throwing up breastworks, and there is now nine thousand hard at work at the breastworks. Last night and the night before they were (our men) on landing guns off of the steam boat that took sixteen horses to haul, so you can see there is warm work ahead, and that soon. The pickets have skirmishes every day with the rebels.

With the Union’s western armies converging on Corinth, the results of the growing siege were considered by many to be just as important as the siege then going on at Yorktown in Virginia. “If we whip them out here & at Yorktown, the war is over,” he concludes. “And you know we are bound to do it if we sacrifice the last man. The enemy is not afraid of us this time, I guess, for at the Battle of Pittsburg Landing they come to attack us. God forbid that we ever get whipped.”

Pressure on the Confederate defenders of Corinth grew over the next few weeks, causing them to abandon their positions in late May. Gamble would continue serving with the Ottawa Battery, but would die of disease in a Nashville hospital November 22, 1863.

The letter was written on two sides of a long ledger sheet measuring about 6 1/2” x 16”. Light foxing and toning, more so at a few of the folds. The full transcript appears below:

Hamburg Tennessee, April 26 1862

Dear Uncle
I now take my pen in hand to let you know where we are and how we get along. Well, we are on the Tennessee River seventeen miles from Corinth and at the town of Hamburg, awaiting orders to move. You know in the last letter that I said we was a’going to cross the Mississippi River the next day. Well, we did cross the river and had the pleasure of help taking over five thousand prisoners. We took our guns over and could not take but one section of our horses across by the same boat, so we went one section under the command of Lieut VanDyke ahead of the rest of us, waited for our horses to come over, and then we put out. The section we sent ahead came in sight of the rebels at dark, but did not attack them, but would in the morning if they had not surrendered to General Paine. When we got there in the morning, they had the prisoners bagged.

I witnessed an engagement between our gun boats and a three gun battery a little below New Madrid. The gun boats Carondelet & Essex wiped them out in one hour and fifteen minutes. On that trip, we was gone three days and returned, stayed two nights, and then we went onboard the steam boat Daniel G. Taylor, went down in sight of Fort Pillow, sixty miles this side of Memphis, and stayed two or three days (but did not leave the boat). And then we got orders to reinforce General Grant at Pittsburg Landing. So we had to retrace our steps back to Cairo, and then up the Ohio to Paducah, and then up the Tennessee till we came here. We was on the boat eleven days and nights. It was so disagreeable it came near making me sick (we was on the boat long enough to go to the old country).

I suppose you have not hear the new yet. Well, I can tell you. Chester is promoted to the rank of sergeant in our company now. He is off some three miles from here with his gun on a neighboring hill some three hundred feet higher than we are here. Oh Otis, you ought to be here once just to see how much artillery we have got here. Well, in one place there is for five miles a complete fence of artillery from ten paces to ten rods apart, and we have lots of companies scattered around in several places. If ever Tennessee & Mississippi was inhabited is now. We have about one hundred & fifty thousand in Tennessee and the rebels have about the same at Corinth, Mississippi. It is a’going to be one awful battle inside of one week. If we know ourselves, both sides are trying to fortify as fast as time will permit. General Paine sent out eighty wagonloads of shovels and picks for throwing up breastworks, and there is now nine thousand hard at work at the breastworks. Last night and the night before they were (our men) on landing guns off of the steam boat that took sixteen horses to haul, so you can see there is warm work ahead, and that soon. The pickets have skirmishes every day with the rebels. If we whip them out here & at Yorktown, the war is over. And you know we are bound to do it if we sacrifice the last man. The enemy is not afraid of us this time, I guess, for at the Battle of Pittsburg Landing they come to attack us. God forbid that we ever get whipped. I suppose Grandpa is with you now. Give my love to him. We still continue in good health as far as I know. Give my love to aunt and cousins. No more at present.

Direct to Cairo in care of Capt Houghtaling, Ottawa Light Artillery, General Paine’s Division on the Tennessee River. I write to all of the family when I write to you. We expect to move every minute.
From your Affectionate Nephew
P Gamble