[ Autographs ] CIVIL WAR CORRESPONDENCE OF JERRY SMITH A fine Union soldier's correspondence, comprising 19 letters writtrn by Jerry Smith of the 51st. N. Y. Infantry between October of 1861 and July of 1865. Most of the letters are multipaged, several on illustrated letterhead, and some with battle content. The correspondence, with some of the phonetic spelling here corrected, reads in part: "...Feb, 1862, Roanoke Island, North Carolina [Battle of Roanoke Island]...we came around the light house and followed the gunboats as far as it wassafe...the firing commenced...we got there through the enemy and encamped for the night...the 25 Massachusetts taking the lead...the rebels opened fire upon us, they soon retreated to those fortifications.... The battle commenced about 8 o'clock and lasted until noon...the number that was killed and wounded was said to be 150..I can't give any count how many we killed of there men. We took fiveforts, 30 guns...June 18...It is a bad time to enlist...a fellow don'tthink much about it when they are at home, but when they get down here they begin to come to their senses. You live on rancid suet and hard crackers and coffee...Sept [?]...While on the battlefield it struck mymind that I would...have time to write a few lines...we have been in some pretty tough fighting for the last six weeks. Today makes nine days this battle has lasted. It commenced last Saturday. Oh, it is awful to see how some of our men is cut to pieces...Sherman's divisioncut them off...we piled the old rebels up...our regiment...charged up to a stone wall before the rebels see them...the rebels was in betweentwo stone walls, a kind of lane...in places there is three hundred... we took some six or seven thousand...Winchester, Ky., Apr. 26, 1863...There is some pretty nice girls out here...plenty of them come to see us, both white and blacks, so the boys can have their choice...There is some unruly ones in both...Jackson, Mississippi, July 18, 1863...Wemoved the same day that Vicksburg was taken, the 4th of July...one of the strongest places that the rebs had...We took 28, 000 prisoners of well men, and nine thousand wounded and sick, in all, makes 37,000. Then we started after Jackson...we got within 3 miles of Jackson and there was Mr. Johnson...We whaled him out and old Breckinridge...some of the boys made a big haul. One fellow got E200 in greenbacks...lots of nice things...one fellow got his arm full of silverware...house furniture, the very best kind, pianos, and most all of the decent horses...Near Petersburg, Aug. 5, 1864...since the last attack on Petersburg...it were an awful time around here...we took two lines of breastworks and blowed up one of their forts, which mounted sixteen guns...what did it all amount to in the end, nothing. If they had keptthe colored troops out it would'a been a victory...The darkeys wasn't so much to blame as were the officers that led them...the officers were drunk, they didn't know what they were about...". One or two letters are in pencil and somewhat faded, making them difficult to read, otherwise very good, with 18 letters transcribed, otherwise verygood.