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Preferred Citation

Leroy Atkinson Civil War Letters, 1863-1864, Accession #11039, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Atkinson letters were purchased from Remember When Antiquities of Acton, Maine, on May 26, 1992.

Biographical/Historical Information

The 7th Maine was organized at Augusta on 21 August 1861 as a three-years' infantry regiment. During the period of Atkinson's letters it was led by Colonel Edwin C. Mason and served at White Oak Church, and participated the battles of Chancellorsville (May 1863), Gettysburg (June-July 1863), and Bristoe Station campaigns (August-October 1863). It later participated in 1864 Virginia campaigns including the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Jubal Early's attack on Washington. It was mustered out on 21 August 1864, but several of its veterans and recruits were enrolled as the 1st Maine Veteran Volunteers (First Regiment Maine Veteran Infantry/1st Maine Veteran Infantry) at Charlestown, Virginia.¹

¹Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion , (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959), vol. III, 1221; Adjutant-General's Office, Official Army Register Of The Volunteer Force Of The United States Army For The Years 1861, '62, '63, '64, '65 , 9 Parts (Washington; Adjutant-General's Office, 1867; reprint, Gaithersburg, Maryland: Ron R. Van Sickle Military Books, 1987), part 1, New England States , 22-23; William E. S. Whitman and Charles E. True, Maine In The War For The Union (Lewiston: Nelson Dingley Jr. & Co., 1865), 163-191, 587-588.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of six letters of Leroy Atkinson, a member of Company B, 7th Maine Volunteers, to his parents while stationed at Washington, D. C., and Virginia, 1863-1865. He describes camp life, daily activities, and his impressions of the war.

The majority of the letters are to his mother. On 27 January 1863 Atkinson writes from Washington, D. C., enclosing $150.00 for her; he describes the regiment as being at the "retreat"¹ and that it will leave for Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the morrow. (This stationery bears an engraving of the U. S. Capitol building.) On 11 May 1863 Atkinson, writing from [White] Oak Church, Virginia, tells his mother of the Army of the Potomac's movements and fighting near Fredericksburg during and after the battle of Chancellorsville, including the use of pontoons and the capture of Confederate prisoners; only thirty-six men are left in his regiment.

Atkinson encloses $25.00 for his mother in his letter of 12 June 1863 while at Fredericksburg; his division had captured Confederate positions but the following morning 40,000 rebels were entrenched in the retaken positions [a result of fighting at Marye's Heights]. In a letter written at Warrenton on 16 August 1863 to his father Atkinson briefly mentions his regiment's experiences at the battle of Gettysburg.

His letter of 13 September 1863 (he is still in Warrenton) to his mother states that the cavalry had gone to Culpeper that morning and the sound of cannons can be heard in the distance [this was the beginning of fighting at Brandy Station, Muddy Run, Culpeper Court House, Pony Mountain and Stevensburg, part of the Bristoe campaign]; at this time the 7th Maine was assigned to the Army of the Potomac's VI Army Corps, Second Division, Third Brigade.² Atkinson asks his mother to pay his wife Martha's debts for him inasmuch as "she is very mad because I did not send her any money"; this letter also contains a brief reply from Martha who discusses payment of bills.

Atkinson's last letter, from Brandy Station, Virginia, 24 January 1864, approves of his mother's move to Cornsville; as for regimental news several deserters have been executed and more sentenced to receive the same punishment; he expects veterans (such as himself) will be granted furloughs but in the meantime the regiment is on guard duty. There is a another reply by Martha in response to one of his letters (not present): "i am going to send you some nedels [needles]/Come home do for i want to see you very much."

¹ Atkinson is probably referring to the Soldiers' Home, Abraham Lincoln's presidential retreat located north of Washington in a wooded area three miles from the White House and used by him to escape the heat and humidity of the city. It was sometimes known as the Soldiers' Retreat because military units occasionally encamped there.
² William D. Henderson, The Road To Bristoe Station (Lynchburg, Virginia: H. E. Howard, Inc., 1987), chapter 3 and page 243.