174. UNION SOLDIER'S LETTER REGARDING GETTYSBURG Good war-date Union soldier's letter, 4pp. 8vo., by Pvt. Joseph Drudge, Co. B, 116th New York Vols, on patriotic stationery of Washington's Monument in Baltimore, Baltimore, Oct. 17, 1862, concerning being stationed at Gettysburg while pursuing Stuart's Confederate cavalry during his raid into Pennsylvania during autumn 1862. In part: "...Last Saturday morning about one o'clock we were all routed out of our tents...we packed up our things and the cooks had to cook two day rations...we marched down to Baltimore and we had to stay there till nine o'clock...on account of there being two or three regiments ahead of us and not having cars to carry us of in...then we went onto Gettysburg...then we marched about three miles...beyond Gettysburg...We were marching for the rebels but we could not hear or see any thing of...Stuart's cavalry...in Pennsylvania. They were...three to six thousand strong and we were about five thousand strong [with] one light battery. The last we heard from them was that they had crossed the Potomac back in[to] Virginia...". On October 10, 1862, General J. E. B. Stuart crossed the Potomac into Maryland and with less than two thousand men and rode towards Chambersburg, Pennsylvania collecting horses and provisions while at the same time embarrassing McClellan and the Union army who were unable to stop the flamboyant cavalier. Negligible punch holes, light scattered staining, very good. $200 - 300