(Civil War Correspondence Of William Hotchkin) An extraordinary lot of 14 letters, about 110 pp., from William Hotchkin, 1st Ny Vol. Engineers to his parents, including two hand-drawn maps of the siege lines outside Petersburg. The letters cover the period from Jan. 8, 1864 to May 7, 1865, and most are from the lines around Petersburg; all are written in a clear hand in ink. The letters are filled with detailed descriptions of life at the front, including a Union charge and Confederate counterattack against Union cavalry, colored regiments in action, detailed descriptions of Union and Confederate defenses between lines, including trip wires, abatties, and ditches, news of Grant's attacks at Petersburg and Sherman's success in Savannah, sniper assaults, rebel ambushes, descriptions of contrabands and runaway slaves, and a vivid description of action at Dutch Gap between Confederate rains and gunboats and Union shore defenses. Hotchkin concludes with mention of flags of truce showing at Confederate lines, and describes his visit to Richmond days after war's end, describing Libby Prison, the Confederate capitol and Richmond in ruin. Hotchkin's two maps show defenses on both sides, with artillery batteries, roads, rivers, bridges, forts and railroads all indicated. A fine, informative correspondence.