Written from Abingdon, Virginia. Letter concerns John D. Imboden's donation to VMI of the field glasses belonging to Union officer W. S. Lincoln of the 34th Massachusetts Infantry. Imboden recounts the events at the Battle of New Market, Virginia that lead to the capture of Lincoln and the acquisition of the field glasses.

Page 6 of the letter contains a note by VMI Superintendent Francis H. Smith pointing out an inaccuracy. Then note reads "I am much obliged to Gen. Imboden for the gift of the Field Glasses, and will have them carefully preserved. His sketch of the Battle of New Market is is not sustained by those who were in the charge on the Battery. Capt. H. Wise led that charge. July 9, 1889"

This letter was transferred from the VMI Museum, which has the referenced field glasses in its collection.

Abingdon, Virginia June 21st 1889 Col. A. Fulkerson, Bristol Tenn.

Dear Col;- As you are going to the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington in a few days, I take pleasure in making you the medium of presenting to the Institute, as a war relic, a pair of old Binocular Field Glasses, of historic interest for all time to the Cadets.

The battle of New Market was fought on Sunday May 15th 1864. An incident of that battle was the capture of a Federal Battery, by a direct charge in front by the 62nd Regiment, Virginia Infantry of my Brigade, under the immediate command of Col. George H. Smith, and the Corps of Cadets of the V.M.I. commanded by Col. S. Shipp. The Federal Battery was on a high hill and had to be silenced before Genl. John C. Breckinridge could order a general assault along the whole line of the enemy, without the certainty of great slaughter of his troops and peril to the success of the movement. The capture of this Battery by a charge up the hill and directly in front, supported as it was by the veteran 34th Massachusetts Regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel W. S. Lincoln, a most intrepid and gallant soldier, required as high discipline, courage and daring as were displayed at Gettysburg, on a grander scale to be sure, by Picketts Division of Virginians in their famous and bloody charge.

But the old 62nd and the boys of the Institute were equal to the occasion. They charged up the hill at a double-quick to the very nuzzles of the cannon and took them, leaving the ground over which they had come without faltering, strewn with nearly half their bleeding comrades. The supporting Regt. of the enemy fled. Their brave Colonel in the effort to rally his men, fell fearfully wounded and was caught under his dying horse. In that sad plight Col. Lincoln attempted to use his pistol, but surrendered to a demand from Col. Shipp, just as a Cadet was about to pin him to the ground with his bayonet.

The Colonel fell into our hands as a prisoner of war and was treated for his wounds by Dr. Russell Meem, who became so interested in his gallant patient that, with my permission as District Commander, (when Gen. Breckenridge, the day after the battle, returned to Gen. Lee's Army with his own and a part of my troops) he took special care of Col. Lincoln and a few days later, by my order removed him, with all the wounded, who could bear it, to the hospital at Harrisonburg. Some two weeks after the Battle of New Market, as the remnant of my command, returning before the superior force of Genl. Dave Hunter in his march through the Valley, passed through Harrisonburg, Dr. Meem came to me in the street and said Col. Lincoln had given him a souvenir of their acquaintance this pair of field glasses, which he had on when he fell at New Market. The Dr. accepted them on condition that he might present them to Gen. Breckenridge, and he asked me, as he was to be left there in charge of the hospitals, to take them to the Genl. whenever I might meet him again. I did so, and at Lynchburg, shortly afterwards I handed them to Genl. Breckenridge with a verbal statement of their history. As Gen. B. had a fine set of glasses of his own and mind had been broken some time before and I had none then, he handed them back to me with the remark "Wear them for me till I call for them". They were never called for and have been in my possession ever since. You will see they have had hard usage and are now useless without repairs. It has been a question with me for some years, what to do with them; Whether to seek Col. Lincoln and return them to him or present them to the Institute as a relic of the war and a memento of the unsurpassed intrepidity of the boy Cadets of 1864, along side of the glorious old 62nd at New Market.

I have decided on this latter course and through you, as an alumnus of the Institute and yourself a distinguished veteran of the Confederate Army. I ask their acceptance and preservation by the Institute. Very truly, Yours, J. D. Imboden Brig. Genl. of Cavalry Commanding Valley Dist: 1863-4