Small archive of Civil War letters written to a wounded member of the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regimen (The Garibaldi Guard) along with the soldier's discharge certificate by Various authors - 1865

Various locations, 1865. Very good. Nine letters written to Stephen H. Gregory, a member of D Company, 39th New York Volunteer Infantry. Eight were written during April and May of 1865 while Gregory was recovering from wounds at the Homewood Hospital in Washington D. C. The ninth letter is pre-war. Two of the letters are enclosed in mailing envelopes with indistinct postal markings; one of the envelopes is franked with a 3-cent rose Washington stamp (Scott #65), the stamp is missing from the other. Gregory's discharge certificate is also included. The letters are all in nice shape; the certificate has some storage folds and minor wear.

The letters are primarily queries from family and friends about his wound ("Stephen you had not aut to wash your wound after eny other persons wound for fear of the gang green"), his general health, "shugar making," and the death and wounding of other local soldiers, mixed with considerable hope that Stephen would soon be able to return home.

One letter, however, also references the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth: "las Friday they is a corpral and three privates to the depo looking for the man kiled abrham linkin and they say that they git 3000 if they git him".

The 39th New York Infantry (the Garibaldi Guard) was organized in New York City in the Spring of 1861 by Colonel Frederick George D'Utassy under special authority from the War Department. Initially, the unit was divided into eleven companies each primarily composed of men of different national heritage; three companies were Hungarian, three were German, one Swiss, one Italian, one French, one Spanish and one Portuguese. In the Summer of 1864 four companies (A through D) were mustered out, however, a new D Company was mustered into service that October from upstate New York.

Gregory, was from Lisbon, New York and joined D Company while it was being organized at Malone, New York. D Company fought in the Appomattox Campaign during March and April, and it was during this time that Private Gregory was wounded. Gregory's military records are sparse, but they do confirm that he was hospitalized for four weeks although they do not specify where or how badly he was wounded, but, based on the dates of the letters, it must have been some time in April shortly be General Lee surrendered.

A nice collection of letters to a wounded soldier, clearly evidencing the love and concern of his family.