Description:

CAMP DAVIDSON AND CHARLESTON CITY JAIL ESCAPEE GROUP
A superb and very rare pair of items by Ira B. Sampson, a Union soldier who was imprisoned in four notorious prison camps and escaped from two of them. Sampson enlisted in Springfield, MA, as a Captain on Aug. 4, 1863, and commissioned into Co. "G" in 2nd Mass. Artillery four months later. After just four months in this regiment, Sampson was captured in Plymouth, SC, and sent to Andersonville. He was then transferred to Macon, then to Camp Davidson in Savannah. There, he managed to escape by crawling through a hole under fence and tried to reach the fort on the coast six miles away, making his way across a swamp in the process. He was, however, recaptured by patrol while attempting to remove himself from the muddy swamp, and then shipped off to the Charleston City Jail...where he again escaped on Mar. 17, 1865! Our lot comprises an A.L.S. 1p. 8vo., Macon, May 4, 1864, in pencil on lined letterhead to Mary, in part: "...I have written to you twice since taken prisoner at Plymouth. We are now at camp pleasantly located in the Fair Grounds and are comfortable, in all 98 officers. The men are at Camp Sumter, Andersonville. We were sent there by mistake, ought to have been sent to Richmond. May now remain here but we do not know positively. On 2 or 3 unwell. We are expecting to be exchanged...shall then see you...At Andersonville Mr. Dickson, Chaplain 16th Conn., officiated and was very interesting...". Along with a S.P., a carte-de-visite image showing Sampson in uniform, signed at bottom: "Ira B. Sampson Captain 2nd Batt. Mass Artillery". Backstamp of J. C. Spooner, Springfield Mass. Sampson is featured in Frances Casstevens' volume Out of the Mouth of Hell: Civil War Prisons and Escapes, p. 314, as well as on p. 387 in Portals to Hell by Lonnie Speer. Both pieces are in very good to fine condition.

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January 20, 2010 10:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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