Estimated Price:

$20,000 - $25,000

Realized Price:

$22,325

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POW. Capt. Henry T. Dudley Papers, 1861-1906. 143 letters (134 war-date, nearly all soldier's letters); 26 documents; Memoir of experiences in 20th Mass. (manuscript and 13p. typescript); 12 post-war diaries (mostly 16mo or 32mo diaries of Lucy Dudley); 95 photographs

Memorabilia including cribbage board made in Libby prison, minie ball lodged in inkwell stand; two sets of shoulder straps; GAR and reunion memorabilia; Civil War-era wallet; 6 books.

Time after time, Henry Tyler Dudley found himself at the center of the storm during the Civil War. The son of a mill owner from Worcester County, Mass., Dudley served with two of the most bloodied regiments in New England during his four years' service, surviving more than a dozen battles and months of captivity as a prisoner of war; and sustaining battle wounds on four occasions (Fair Oaks, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Deep Bottom). Rising through the ranks from Private to Captain in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry, witnessing all its struggles and bitter losses, before transferring into the 20th Massachusetts Infantry -- the "Harvard Regiment" -- whose record of travails was even greater: the 20th sustained the highest casualty rate of any regiment from Massachusetts, and the fifth highest rate overall in the Union army.

Born in Lancaster, Mass., on April 17, 1841, Dudley was barely twenty when he and his first cousin Cassius Moore Wilder enlisted as privates on July 12, 1861. By late summer, the 15th Mass. Infantry was assigned to duty in Poolesville, Md., which Dudley considered a very fortunate location indeed. Hearing that his friend Sam Rogers (21st Mass.) was experiencing southern hostility, Dudley joked that in Poolesville "he wouldn't shoot any of them rebels if he should see them... for they won't fire back & are anxious to be friendly as possible, & they say they have been deceived & come obliged to join the army to save their lives & property. They meet our soldiers in the river & exchange papers quite often & our soldiers go over to their side of the river...." Yet as he showed repeatedly, Dudley was no fair weather soldier. In another letter, he expressed a hope that his company could be sent to the river on picket, "for they have a good time down there shooting across the river at the rebels. The artillery bothers them a little once in a while. 2 or 3 days ago they went down upon them rather suddenly & fired 12 shot at them right into their camp making them scatter rather suddenly."

The regiment's first major engagement -- Balls' Bluff -- was an unmitigated disaster and a sign of things to come. On the night of Oct. 20, 1861, the 15th ran headlong into the 18th Mississippi. After a fearsome assault, the green soldiers broke, with most abandoning their arms and diving into the river at great loss. Dudley reported that his "company is badly cut up as well as others. We have perhaps 50 well men left the rest either killed wounded or missing & where they are missing they are taken prisoners for there was no chance to escape. We were driven off into the river, but not til we had fought 5 hours against great odds 200 of us against 5,000 at least of the enemy...." In a subsequent letter, he added considerable detail about that night, illustrating his words with a hand drawn map depicting the scene of action. The crux of the problem, as Dudley saw it, came when the regiment got into a pinch, and "the Col. turned to the boys & told them to save themselves the best they could & told them to throw their guns into the river throwing at the same time his pistols, sword, watch, & money & clothes into the river & swam it, Maj. Kimball doing the same.... I hated to throw my clothes away & jump into that cold water so I crept along the shore about 3/4 of a mile." While dozens of his comrades were taken prisoner and subsequently held for weeks, Dudley and few comrades found a boat and rowed to safety.

During that bleak first winter, Dudley was cheered by news about successes of local boys in other regiments. Sam Rogers reported on the success of Burnside's Carolina expedition: "the expedition has landed in safety sweeping all before it, taking three forts, losing three men & wounding twenty. I mean having twenty wounded. The rebels all ran away leaving only one live white man behind & he was dead drunk. Our troops found forty dead rebels and it is supposed that they took many of their dead with them on their flight...." Meanwhile, Dudley reported only a "sham fight in regular military style" (described at some length), adding ominously that he had the impression that the 15th was rehearsing their position in future fights: as skirmishers.

With the arrival of the spring and the Peninsular Campaign, the 15th gained earned their stripes as skirmishers. The Dudley collection contains a suite of letters describing the slow buildup and slower progress of that campaign. "We left camp here Monday night very secretly for some place to us then unknown," Dudley writes in a typical letter, "but after traveling 12 miles I found myself on the opposite side of M[alvern] Hill. The expedition was probably intended to make the rebs think that we were going to attack them in force & draw them our of Richmond & as the force was not over we intended to capture them if possible but they got away from us.... The rebs loss was a considerable at the fight July 1st as there were any quantity of them buried there. I saw 2 of our men buried Bull Run style their skulls feet & knees out of the ground & bones bare." Other letters include an excellent account of the entry into Yorktown that features a description of a torpedo (land mine) in action: "they have blowed up several folks & one fellow was blown all to pieces & another one had his leg blown off that I see & there was several others wounded & killed besides that I did not see. I see the one that had his leg blown off & was intending to see the operation of amputation but they concluded to carry him to a tent out of the fort where there was not so much danger of stepping on the plaguey things. The stump of his leg that was left on his body was all stringy like a moss & the other part was blown off so that they could not find it for a while. Twas blown off above the knee...." Wounded at Fair Oaks, Dudley was hospitalized briefly, and the collection includes three letters from his father attempting to visit him in hospital. His cousin Cassius was killed on the Peninsula.

As the year progressed (and the army didn't), Dudley's mood soured and by the time of Antietam, he was at low ebb, heading lower. Surviving being flanked in the bloody western woods of Antietam, Dudley's bitterness welled over, piqued by the dismissal of his commanding general George B. McClellan. His patriotism had subsided, he wrote, because of all the politics and politicians, adding "I am not sorry I enlisted, but tis provoking to see the carryings on, & as far as for fighting for the niggers, if I thought I was fighting for them I wouldn't touch my gun again, for the great wrongs they have suffered has played out with me. They are used better here in the army than we are." The debacle at Fredericksburg made it worse: when Dudley noted with derision that the northern papers claimed the boys were still "anxious for the fray," it was more than he could handle. "Now I have never seen a soldier that has been in one battle that ever said he wanted to go into another. A week ago today I was in a very uncomfortable posich & that was in the front line of battle with the rebs pecking shell at us every 5 minutes & a sharpshooter sending a bullet at our heads if we showed our head. Consequently we had to hug the ground from daylight till after sunset. We watched the sun that day & seemed though twould never be dark." In another letter, he described why he had become so despondent, filling in the gruesome details of that day: "Oaks lay near Mathews & Caswell [two wounded comrades] & the shot hit him in the right shoulder but as his cape was over his head & fell back when the shot hit him, covering the wound, the boys did not see that he was hit & left him lying there as he did not make any motion supposed him all right, & his brother helped carry off one of the others, but I lay right at his feet & I thought twas queer he should lie so still supposed him to be dead.... But pretty quick he begun to moan then I gut up & asked him if he was hit, but he never moved & seemed to know but could not move nor speak, only make a simple moaning noise. There was some blood on his coat but I supposed twas blood from the other two wounds, as when the shot struck it covered us all over with blood & flesh & mud in particular...."

What distinguishes Dudley from many Civil War soldiers is not his bitterness, a trait widely shared in the Army of the Potomac in 1862, but self-reflectiveness and remarkable perseverance in the face of so many set backs. Ruminating about his experiences after Fredericksburg, he wrote, "I have heard bullets whistle long before this & felt the wind & have felt the confounded things themselves & I have been sorry since that I throwed my pants away after the battle of Antietam for there were five bullet holes through my pants but they were made by three bullets though but these confounded pieces of railroad iron & shells & solid shot screeching round the[y] make a fellow shake in his boots & wish himself out of the army. I know I thought so over at Fredericksburg as we lay there with the rebs whanging away at us expecting every moment would be our turn & laying right where they fired two feet over us at the new line of battle that were coming in & the rebs contrived to drop about one in every five right amongst us. Tis the dread of battle more than anything else that is so much dreaded by a soldier. I had the least fear the battle of Antietam than any battle I have been in. There we went into it on the double quick so we had no time to think of being afraid...." This letter goes on even further to describe the contagious psychology of panic and the rage he felt whenever he heard soldiers in new regiments boasting of their exploits. Making matters worse, Dudley reported that Confederates were taunting the Union (years before such behavior became institutionalized on the gridiron). Confederate soldiers, he wrote, could be seen across the river during the Mud March holding up boards painted with the words: "Burnsides Army stuck in the mud."

Despite the dark tone of these letters, Dudley rose rapidly through the ranks, receiving promotion to 2nd Lieutenant in January 1863, first Lieutenant barely three months later, followed by a Captaincy at the end of the year. Although he wrote less often in the spring of 1863, the collection includes a handful of letters describing the early days of spring and the stirrings of the new campaigns as the 15th Mass. joined in the pursuit of Lee. At Gettysburg, the regiment set up on Cemetery Ridge, where Dudley was wounded. The collection includes a special order from July 5, 1863, authorizing 2d Lieut Dudley, "wounded in the late battle at Gettysburg," to return home on surgeon's certificate of disability, and a photo taken during that trip.

The relatively peaceful interlude following his wounding did not last. After rejoining his regiment, they took part in the Mine Run campaign, where seated in comfortable quarters taken from Confederate forces, Dudley wrote "I hope they may let us remain here at least six months for the idea of a winter campaign, no man would entertain could they have seen the suffering the we experienced the week we were across the Rapidan to say nothing about the suffering the wounded would experience by laying out these cold nights, although most them would die during one such night as we have had since the first of Nov...." With the regiment's time running down, thoughts of reenlistment playing on his mind, Dudley was in no mood to hear of holiday celebrations at home: "Sometimes when I see and hear of the jollification &c I wish that the rebs could go through the north and dampen some of their dissipations. Here people from the north come out here and try and urge our boys to reenlist tell them this war cant last much longer and that they had better take the large bounty that is offered and reenlist. If this war aint going to last much longer why don't they come out, and even if it does last tis no worse for them than for us. As far as money is concerned there is not money enough in the United States to hire me to go through the privations and suffering that I have been through in these two years... [After his three years is up] I shill go home and say to you folks, Gentlemen I've served my three years. Now when you able young men have all been, I'll go for three more, and I think not till then, although I've reenlisted for three more all ready, still I can go home when my Reg does." In the new year, new and more devastating battles followed. The collection includes a letter hastily written on torn out pages of a diary on June 20, describing fighting during the Wilderness-Spotsylvania-Petersburg campaigns. If there was a saving grace for Dudley, ironically, it came in the form of a minie ball. Wounded in the Wilderness on May 18, he was one of the few officers in his regiment who avoided capture at Weldon Railroad in June 1864. From hospital, he wrote "the worst of it was they [the 3rd Georgia Infantry] captured our national colors, the State colors were not with the Regt., they had been sent to the rear some time before on account of being so badly torn. I was back in the hospital sick consequently was not with them; if I had been twould been Libby Prison with me now...." Dudley goes on to describe the battle and preparations for going home: "We can probably rake up near 300 men including those off sick and wounded & detailed &c. But it wont be like going home with our colors, although we have the state colors to take home with us, and besides we shall go home with a different set of me than we should if the Reg had not been captured, for those who have done the fighting have gone to Richmond and will not be with us while those shirks & bummers who have been hanging about hospitals will get the honors...."

The final act of Dudley's wartime service came later that summer. Although he had written that he could go home with his regiment, he did not, remaining with a small number of reenlisted veterans and new recruits from the 15th who were consolidated into the equally decimated ranks of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry. Although today the Harvard Regiment is remembered as an outfit manned by the gallant sons of the Boston elite (like Oliver Wendell Holmes), and for their intellect, courage, and public service, Dudley was far less impressed. "These officers of the 20th don't know as much as my poorest Corporal did (about business affairs)," he wrote. "They are some of the Aristocracy of Boston and put on more style than all the officers of the 15th put together... I am here to arrange the papers of the Regt as well as I can and look out for the boys for if I didn't they wouldn't have any one to for there are no other officers here that belong to the 15th & these 20th officers don't care any more for a private than they do for a dog, not as much. They are altogether a different set of people than I fancy, or any other humane man. I can't stand it to stay in the service another 3 years. I am entitled to an honorable Discharge, but if I can't get that I will take a dishonorable one. I can do something to get court martialed and get dismissed the service as punishment, that is the only way I can see giting out of it unless you can bring influence to bear...." While still fulminating about the officers in the 20th and contemplating taking a commission in a one year regiment -- or anywhere else -- Dudley faced his final challenge in the service. In his last letter from the field, scrawled on a piece of paper torn from a diary on Aug. 22, he wrote that he expected more fighting soon "as the rebs are very desperate and want to get the road back...." Three days later, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Reams Station and held prisoner for seven months in Libby Prison, Salisbury, and Danville, suffering from rheumatism and typhus for the last three months of his confinement.

Dudley's time as a prisoner of war is well documented in the collection by three letters, two from Libby in September 1863, and one from Danville to his friend, Sam, requesting a box of food, clothing, and blankets. The letters from Libby Prison are excellent examples of the genre: "I am as you see a prisoner, my first experience behind grates. I was captured Aug 25th arrived here 27th. Am in good health and with a little money, enough to eat.... I buy a load of bread mornings for a dollar which together with my rations, I shall not suffer...." A longer letter Sept 26, 1864, asking again for Confederate money to be sent, but telling his family not to worry: "I am used well and fed very well & am as contented as possible. Everything is clean here there are some lice, but they are doomed a soon as seen..."

Adding to Dudley's POW letters are seven other letters relating to his imprisonment:
• Letter from the Mass. Military State Agency stating they could not get word to Dudley in prison
• Three letters from family friends S.N. Rogers, making efforts to secure Dudley's release on parole
• One letter from a fellow prisoner to Dudley's family explaining the confusion of the exchange and how Dudley, suffering from rheumatism, might have gotten misplaced and delayed.
• One letter from a newspaperman, Feb. 12, 1865, who states he did not see Dudley while at Salisbury
• Letter from Henry written after his arrival at Annapolis, requesting items and stating that he had been suffering from rheumatism and typhus since January

After finally securing his exchange, and obviously frail, Dudley was mustered out of the service on March 25, 1865. He returned to Wilkinsonville, Worcester County, where he joined his father's firm and, in October 1866, married Lucinda Holbrook Chase, with whom he had two children. He married a second time following Lucy's death in 1890, to Almira (Stockwell) Peck. Active in veterans' organizations, particularly the regimental association for the 15th Mass., Dudley remained at home until his death in December 1920. He is buried at Wilkins Cemetery in Sutton, Mass., where his daughter was living.

Although Dudley's soldier's letters make up the bulk of the collection, there are a number of other items that make for a richer context and that fill in details about his life and attitudes. The collection is considerably enriched by the presence of post-war memoir -- probably written for a veterans' organization -- describing Dudley's brief like in the 20th Mass. This narrative includes a fine description of the engagement at Reams Station, but an even better account of his imprisonment, discussing his treatment by guards, living conditions, and providing much detail on life at Libby, Salisbury, and Danville. In some ways, Dudley's account is a not uncommon story of hardship and privation, but he provides many less-often discussed details. Upon his arrival at Salisbury, for example, he writes of the new arrivals being greeted as "fresh fish" by other prisoners and robbed of their belongings; he adds an account of an attempted escape by tunnel, the election of 1864 (a heavy vote for Lincoln), which showed that though nearly starved the spirit of war to the end was not starved out of us), the meager and repulsive food, pastimes. The memoir mentions an encounter with Gens. Crook and Kelly when he was in hospital, sent back to Libby for exchange. Crook and Kelly had been taken asleep in their beds, and Dudley mentions their captor made good natured fun of their plight. When released, Dudley mentions he weighed only 96 pounds (down from 180) and would not have survived if not for $100 sent from a cousin in Petersburg (one letter from that cousin survives in the collection). When exchanged, he mentioned that the tear he had received in his pant leg when he was grazed by canister at Deep Bottom had torn away "making me a handsome looking object, with shoulder straps, one legged pants, and an old sombrero which a Johnnie had exchanged with me when I was captured by grabbing my hat with one hand and putting his own on my head with the other."

Even this lengthy recap of Dudley's service does not entirely capture the depth of the collection. Among the other letters in the collection, for example, is a rather remarkable letter from a Southern cousin of Dudley's written from Petersburg, Va., Sept. 1863: "I avail myself of the opportunity of writing to you to let you know that neither Northern or Southern prejudice has affected my for my relations, and that I still love all of them that love God Justice and Truth. No, I have not forgotten you all though we are far from each other and my section of the country is blockaded... if all America were as I trust we are, the land would be governed by Love, Reason, Justice, Truth and Wisdom instead of Fanaticism, Powder, Bayonets, Brute force, and the Devil...." Written on the back of the letter is a separate letter from a hospitalized union soldier (a private from the 48th NY), recently released from southern prison, who secured the letter from Dudley's cousin while passing through Petersburg while being exchanged. "I consented [to take the letter] and regardless of consequences endeavored to bring it through the lines -- with other communications in which attempt I have been imminently successful. Having evaded the vigilance of their most wary detectives...."

Miscellaneous documents include Dudley's Dec 1862 appointment as 1st Sergeant, Co. G, some miscellaneous returns, his commissions as 2nd and 1st Lieutenant (both signed by Gov. John Andrew), and post-war documents relating to pension and other matters. The books include Andrew E. Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (Clinton, 1898); two copies of Casey's Infantry Tactics, vol. 2 (1862), both inscribed by Dudley when in the 15th Mass.; Psalms of David (Silas Andrus, 1824) 16mo; a Bible and pocket Bible belonging to Lucy Dudley; and a gift book Friendship's Token (S.A. Howland, 1852). Also a small theatrical broadside from Worcester, Mass., advertising performances of Enlisted for the War! and The Mischievous Nigger. The regimental history is slightly cocked and starting at the hinges, else about good condition.

Worthy of special note is a fascinating group of realia and ephemera. In addition to a GAR emblem for a hat and belt with GAR belt buckle, Dudley kept two sets of his Civil War shoulder straps, one mismatched pair of Captain's straps, one with metallic border in good condition, the somewhat worn; and 2nd Lieutenant's straps with metallic braid in very good condition; and there is a reunion(?) ribbon featuring the cloverleaf insignia of the 2nd Corps Army of the Potomac superimposed over the diamond of the 3rd Corps and a telegraphic receiver of uncertain provenance (though please note: Dudley's cousin Cassius Wilder served on detached service with the Signal Corps).

The twin highlights of the realia, however, are an inkwell set into a wooden frame (the glass unbroken) with a minie ball lodged. The artifact does not include any explanation, nor does it appear to be mentioned in the correspondence, however the story it tells is powerful on its own. On the other hand, the collection includes a cribbage board made by Dudley (and labeled as such twice) from a window sill pried from Libby Prison. Labeled on verso in Dudley's hand: "Cut out of window sill of Libby Prison by H.T.D.," with note on paper fastened inside the board to the same effect. In his memoir, Dudley mentions specifically that cribbage was the favorite game at Danville.

The collection includes a thick run of photographs of Henry T. Dudley during the Civil war. an 8 x 10 in. hand-colored photo of Dudley in uniform (wearing a conspicuous clover leaf badge of II Corps), 4 wartime cartes de visite in uniform (one a particularly fine full length portrait with hat and sword taken while home recovering from wounds received at Gettysburg), 3 post-war cartes; a carte and tintype of Lucy; 4 snapshots of reunions (possibly 1913 reunion at Gettysburg)

Worthy of special note are two 6 x 4in. albumen mounted to cards depicting the Winter camp of Co. A, 15th Mass., at Falmouth, Va. Taken by an unidentified photographer, these are a scarce and apparently unpublished visual record of camp life.

Other photographic items headed by a spectacular sixth plate tintype of Cassius M. Wilder, Dudley's cousin, in uniform, clutching his rifle, and set into an ornate patriotic frame. Wilder died in the service on July 20, 1862, of wounds sustained. Also a real photo postcard of the 15th Mass marching to the dedication of the monument to Col. Devens.
• Mounted albumen photos: 21 images (mostly cabinet cards) of Lucy and Henry Dudley, David Dudley, and other Dudley family members; highlighted by handsome boudoir cards of buggy in front of Wilkinsonville Church (where Dudley played organ) and a Dudley family picnic, 1893.
• Mounted albumen photos, mostly boudoir cards, depicting Henry T. Dudley's home in Wilkinsonville, ca.1895, including both interior views of each room and exterior shots, scenery around the home, etc.
• Ambrotypes: 4 half-cased ninth plate; handsome ninth plate ambrotype in split case; sixth plate
• Daguerreotypes: sixth plate daguerreotype of David Dudley (Henry's father); sixth plate of young girl; sixth plate of woman; sixth plate of husband and wife; early quarter plate daguerreotype of couple and young daughter, and ninth plate of young woman
• Gen tintype album apparently from Dudley family
• Civil War veterans photos: 10 x 8 in. mounted albumen "Stone marking spot where Stonewall Jackson fell," 1884 (group includes Gens. Longstreet and Herbert (Confederate), Hunt, Rosecrans, Kniffin, Stone, Robinson, and others; 10 x 8 in. mounted albumen of unidentified veterans on unidentified battlefield; 10 x 8 in. silver print on larger mount of Gettysburg reunion, 1913 (photo by Tipton); 14 x 10 in. mounted albumen of large group of veterans and wives at Gettysburg, ca.1886 (photo by Mumper); veterans group (?) posed in front of house, ca.1913; two mounted albumens of 15th Mass. monument at Gettysburg (8 x 10 in. and cabinet), ca.1886 (larger photo by Mumper); Also set of 6 black and white collotypes by Wells and Hope Co., 10 x 8 in., of Battle of Second Bull Run. Also: 1952 reprint of Gettysburg, the National Shrine (tourist pamphlet).

Until recently, this remarkable collection was kept in the family and it has never been available for historical research or sale. A rich and varied assemblage, it includes great commentary on camp life and home, politics and survival, battle and recovery, prison life and release. A rare opportunity to acquire an intact collection from a grumbling, but eminently loyal son of Massachusetts who experienced all the Civil War could throw at him. Good condition with small, expected faults from age and handling. For more photographs of the Dudley Archive, visit cowans.com.