185. CIVIL WAR CORRESPONDENCE OF PVT. MILO A. JONES - W.I.A. AT GETTYSBURG War-date letter grouping of Pvt. Milo A. Jones of the 120th N.Y. Infantry, who mustered-in on July 22, 1862, was wounded at Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863, and was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, 24th Regt. on Mar. 15, 1864. The seven letter grouping is about 22pp. 8vo., covering his service from Mar. 20, 1863 to Apr. 19, 1865, with the most notable letter concerning his guard duty at Ford's Theater following Lincoln's assassination. The letters are written to his sister Sarah, and read in part: "...It was the largest Cavalry fight we ever had, we drove them about four miles...they took quite a number of prisoners, they go past our camp almost every day...I suppose they belong to Stuart's cavalry, they were the hardest looking set I ever saw. Their pants and coats were patched with every kind of cloth...they saluted some of our boys as they went past...[after his wounding] the rebel army is marching North. It is just the place we want them if our Generals do what they ought to do...cannonading was this morning up towards Leesburg, about 200 rebels prisoners went through...we stopped at Bulls Run for four hours...it was supposed to be a cavalry fight. There is no other force here except our Corps...a great many are put in the Invalid Corps...I shall volunteer to go to the Regiment...". Jones' most important letter describes his guard duty at Ford's Theater, 4pp. 8vo., Washington, Apr. 29, 1865. It reads, in part: "...we are still guarding Ford's Theatre...staying here as long as it has to be guard[ed]...[we] have to stand guard 6 hours out of 24...We rec'd the news last night that Gen. Johnston had surrendered his whole Army, the rebellion is now played out...We had quite an excitement here the other afternoon, somebody reported that he saw Booth the murderer enter a certain house dressed in women's clothes. A guard was immediately put around the whole square, a very large crowd gathered in a few minutes but nobody found. He has since been captured. I wish he could have been taken alive so that he could have been made to suffer more. Nothing would have been too bad for him...". Also included is a Apr. 6, 1865 4pp. 8vo. letter from her cousin Geo. B. Goodrich of the 125th[?] NY who describes his arrival in Petersburg immediately after the Confederate withdrawal, the burning of buildings and bridges, his engineer's company rapidly rebuilding the bridges, the rejoicing of slaves, etc. Most letters with envelopes (stamps removed), very good. According to sources at the Ford Theater historic site, this is the only guard's letter they have encountered. $1,500 - 2,000