CONFEDERATE CHAPLAIN TO FATHER WHO LOST FOUR SONS AT GETTYSBURG A great war-date Confederate chaplain's letter, 1p. 4to., written in ink by Chaplain William Burton Owen, "Camp of the 17th Miss. Regt., Greenville, E. Tenn., Mar. 4, 1864 ", to Doctor George Kirkman, reading, in part: "...I reached camp a few days ago...your letter of Dec. 22nd was handed to me...I am glad to inform you that your son had good medical attention & was well nursed...most of our men at Gettysburg were nursed & attended by our nurses and surgeons who were left with them for that purpose. Your son was decently buried & his head-board well marked...particular attention was paid to making and numbering the graves...your son...was wounded in the left foot. Your bereavements are very heavy and sad and may you find grace to sustain you...H. C. died hopeful...give my kind & sympathies to your good lady...may the lord bless you and yours... ". Henry Clay Bascom Kirkman was one of fourteen children born to George Kirkman, a well-respected North Carolina physician. In 1861, Doctor Kirkman saw five of his child leave home to fight for the Confederacy. On June 10, 1861, eighteen-year-old Henry C. B. Kirkman enlisted in the 26th North Carolina and served alongside five of his brothers all of whom would not survive the ravages of the battle of Gettysburg except his brother John C. who mysteriously disappeared from the regimental records after August 1862 and was not at the epic battle. After the battle of Gettysburg, Chaplain Owen was one of the few who remained behind to attend to the needs of the McLaw's wounded in hospitals along Marsh Creek and helped attend Private Kirkman while the unfortunate private languished in Northern hands. Near fine. $800-1,000