COLONEL WILLIAM COCKRUM LIBBY PRISON GROUPING WILLIAM M. COCKRUM(1837-1924) an antebellum operator in the "Underground Railroad" who once helped kidnapped a large group of slave hunters and who enlisted in the 42nd Indiana as a lieutenant in 1861 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the end of the war. He was twice wounded: once at the Battle of Stone's River and at Chickamauga, where he was captured after a minie ball passed through both hips. He was confined in Libby for eight months while the wound crippled him for life. Following his release he became commandant of the military prison at Nashville. Included in the lot is a nice half-plate tintype of Cockrum wearing his regulation field officer's uniform housed in a heavy brass table frame, along with two letters written by him to his parents while in Libby Prison , in part: [Libby Prison Hospital, Richmond, Va., Nov. 29, 1863] "...Again I am permitted write you a line. My health is much improved...my wounds are healing up slowly...I am yet very lame in my left leg...I am in hopes that I will get well yet. I am as comfortably situated as I could expect to be. God only knows when there will be an exchange made...if I could only get a letter from home...I would be as well...as anyone in the prison...[Dec. 18, 1863 to his wife]...I think it very strange you don't get my letters...my wounds are almost well...I am in hopes that we will all get home this winter...". Both original transmittal covers are included with each bearing a "Old Point Comfort, Va." marking. Also included is a postwar book he authored in 1907, entitled A Pioneer History of Indiana. Wear to the covers and spine with the tintype and letters very good. Six pieces.