Texan in the Civil War Details the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi in 1862

[Texas]: [Civil War]: McDaniel, J.W.:

[Wartime Autograph Letter Signed, from J.W. McDaniel, Co. A, First Texas Legion, to His Parents, Detailing a Notable Early Civil War Battle in the Western Theater].

"Camp Near Baldwin Miss": September 24, 1862. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet of lined paper. Minor staining, old mailing folds, a few small holes at cross folds with no loss, couple of marginal tape repairs. Overall good condition. Accompanied by a partial letter and another two-page letter from a family member. Item #13323

An impactful letter sent home by J.W. McDaniel, a young Texas soldier fighting in Mississippi in the early part of the war. McDaniel opens with some news about a few other soldiers, likely from back home, as well, before he begins to tell his father and mother in great detail about the recent Battle of Iuka, which comprises most of the rest of the letter, and reads as follows (with spelling normalized):

"Since I wrote you last we have had a little fight with the Yankees at Iuka some fifty miles from here. We taken the town and three-hundred thousand dollars worth of property and several prisoners without firing a gun. In about six days they received a strong reinforcement and attacked us. On Friday evening our brigade brought on the attack and fought four brigades two hours and twenty minutes. We must have fought at least three to one.

They never fired their Artillery at us. until we were in about one hundred & 20 yds of them. When they turned loose one of the most galling fires of grape and musket that I ever read of. We advanced to within sixty yds when Col Hawkins told us to change their battery which our noble boys did with that gallantry ever due to Southern Chivalry. We advanced to within ten paces of them before they gave back.

Capt Zachary was wounded in the left leg before we reached their battery. Liet. Wynn was wounded in the breast at the mouth of the cannon. We had several wounded but none killed that we know of. There is one missing probably killed. None of the boys you were acquainted with in our camp hurt. Joel Major of Comp. I was killed dead on the field but Monroe is safe. There was a spent ball struck me on the left arm near the shoulder but only left a little bruise. Just stung a few minutes. We went in the fight with 481 men and our loss in killed & wounded & missing was 102, nearly one fourth. Ben Coffee of Comp I & William Rice of Greers Reg was killed. I do not know the enemies loss but from [what] I can learn about (700 to 900).

The prisoners we taken say that the battery had been charged nine times during this war but had never been taken before. We taken nine pieces in all, 5 only with our Legion and the rest of the Brig the balance. We were relieved about 11 o'clock at night. The next morning we began our retreat in the face of  60 or 70 thousand of the enemy who could not hurt us. We left our wounded there.

Gen Price says that we [were] the best fighting he ever saw and Gen Hebert give the praise to our Legion. I expect we will have another fight as soon as Gens Van Dorn & Breckenridge can get here. That is as soon as we get to them at Holly Springs. It may be a month or so though Gen Lee and Jackson has whipped Pope & McClellan again in Va. We lost Gen. Little killed at Iuka... From your affectionate son, J.W. McDaniel. Compy A, 1st Texas Legion, Hebert's (2nd) Brigade, Army of the West, C.S.A."

Though it is tough to tell from McDaniel's letter, the Battle of Iuka was an early victory for the Union, not the Confederacy. The battle was fought on September 19, 1862 between forces led by General Rosencrans on the Union side and General Sterling Price for the Confederates. The First Texas Legion fought at Elk Horn, Farmington, and Iuka before being merged with troops from the Department of Southern Mississippi and East Louisiana to form the Army of West Tennessee four days after the present letter was written. Lter renamed Whitfield's Legion, the troops would proceed to fight in practically all of the principal battles in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia during 1863 and 1864.

McDaniel's letter is exceedingly easy to read. It is accompanied by two letters that are decidedly not, including an earlier partial letter (June 3, 1862, presumably by him), as well as a two-page letter signed E.D. McDaniel, perhaps J.W.'s brother, who writes from Camp Bayou in July 1864. The real value here is in McDaniel's letter about the Battle of Iuka, a decidedly obscure early battle in the southwestern theater of the war.

Price: $1,850