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THB19th Century Archive of the Beach & Cooke Families, Branford, Connecticut, Incl. Civil War Correspondence of Samuel Beach, 27
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About Auction
LiveJun 9, 2017 - Jun 10, 2017
Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
Lot of approximately 200 items, including 31 war-date letters and one post-war journal featuring an account of the Battle of Fredericksburg written by Samuel Beach, 27th Connecticut Infantry. Accompanied by 5 pre-war letters and 3 war-date letters from Samuel G. Cooke, 50th Illinois Infantry and 44th USCT Infantry, in addition to 113 family papers, documents, and letters spanning from 1832 until 1899; 1860s farm schedule with musings about breeds of farm animals; and an 1860s ledger counting expenses from an oil mill among other places.
On December 13, 1862 Corporal Samuel Beach, 27th Connecticut Infantry Co. B, found himself in the middle of one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War---Fredericksburg. He wrote:
Our troops all passed the fence coming on with every little opportunity. Like a wiley tiger crouching for his prey to come within reach, [the rebels] watch and wait. The first line of the brigade are now coming to the line, and passing into the doomed area. The bursts of artillery on all the heights and the discharge of muskets from the fire and rifle pits. Was like a tremendous blow in the face (post-war journal account, ca 1880s).
After his men faced the slaughter of the fence, they pushed forward. Beach and some of his friends from Branford, CT sheltered themselves from the storm of bullets against a brick house. After their retreat, he went to the hospital to assess the damage and the wounded.
I could hardly believe it [George Bennet] that marched along with us with the tread of a giant sat there his hair disheveled the sleeve of his coat cut off at the should and gone his arm shattered by a ball his face the picture of dismay. Our eyes met one short earnest gaze of recognition and his head dropped on his bosom then tears gushed out the great stout hearted George Bennet sobbed like a child (post-war journal account, ca 1880s).
Beach and his friends tried to help their friend and desperately reached for his sleeve with his shattered arm, trying to clean him, while they waited for the overwhelmed surgeons and nurses to make their way towards their comrade.
Beach's service started on a much more optimistic note. His brother-in-law, Samuel G. Cooke was very enthusiastic about the cause and attempted to form a company at his home in Meridian, IL. [He] is one of the leading spirits, wrote Beach’s friend, Howard. Everybody around here is full of patriotism or as Alice says everyone and their mother is full of fight (Meridian, June 29, 1861). That fall, some men from Meridian, including Cooke, enlisted to be a part of the 50th Illinois Infantry, Co. A. Death soon greeted the eager young men, almost as soon as they stepped on the battlefield. Cooke wrote to Beach:
A lady in Meridian received a letter from her husband last night the 50th were in the battle [at Pittsburgh, Tennessee]. He gave the names of the killed and wounded our boys were not mentioned so we thankfully conclude they are safe as she knows them well. One Meridian man was blown to pieces by a shell. He leaves a young wife and two little children…every field officer killed except the Major (Samuel Cooke, Paducah, March 27, 1862).
Cooke experienced much bloodshed at the battle of Corinth. Later that fall, Cooke wrote a concerned letter to his brother-in-law:
We heard of hard fighting in Virginia and hope you are not engaged in it. The prospect is of another battle here soon the troops left here last night to dispute the crossing of the term R___ by rebel forces supposed to be the advance of General Bragg commanding was heard in that direction…Since I last wrote you I have been attached from the reg and am in the engineering department under Capt Capell we have four or five hundred contrabands working on the fortifications (Samuel Cooke, Corinth, MS, November 19, 1862).
Little did Cooke know, that in a month his brother-in-law would be in the thick of fighting just as he had been at the Battle of Shiloh earlier that spring. Cooke experienced more action at the Battle of Corinth and unexpectedly in the winter of 1864 while on a scouting journey. He wrote:
The fourth day of the last scout we fell in with a gang of rebs surprised them and captured a major and four men with the horses, army saddles, bridles of BB of he the gang most of them escaped by running in the woods. The captured maj told our col, that there was a regt and a half within 20 miles of him coming to meet him which caused him to feel quite uneasy…he feared they would capture the whole of us before we could get back however we escaped them and arrived in camp about 8 next morning (Samuel Cooke, Lynnville, TN, December 23, 1864).
Cooke left his regiment for a promotion to 1st lieutenant of the 44th USCT, Co. A on September 9, 1864, but resigned a year later on May 25, 1865.
While Cooke served on the front, Beach spent a considerable amount of time in the hospital due to back issues, colds, and other ailments. While recovering from the measles, he wrote his wife, My health is much the same don’t think I should be able to destroy Lee’s army alone I hope Meade will succeed in doing so (S. Beach, Convalescent camp, Alexandria, VA, July 14, 1863). Earlier in the year, the regiment experienced an epidemic of illness that took the lives of 22 men, including his friend George Baldwin. He wrote to his wife:
George [Baldwin] was a good soldier he enlisted from motives of patriotism and principle…he was what we call too conscientious and contrived to perform his duties when unable to his great, if not fatal disadvantage, Few pierced that terrible storm of bullets at the Battle of Fredericksburg to a point so much the enemy worlds as he. Few came nearer being killed than he, a ball passing through his cap. But the hardships and exposure of the march, and the battle of Fredericksburg was a terrible sacrifice all over the land especially to the 27th. And the poor soldier that remains turns inquiring what is the gain for all this expense of valuable life and treasure (Camp near Falmouth, VA, January 25, 1863).
Beach and the men cried over the loss of their friend and thought of his funeral from the front. One mother, who went to the front to retrieve her dead son; however, received the shock of her life. Beach explained:
A Mrs. Patterson came here last night after the body…she had been to the front and engaged a surgeon to embalm his body and then came here to the Hospital for his body. When she alighted from the ambulance who should step out of the ward but the very son she was after. Probably there was few happier women in this country than she last night (S. Beach, 1st Division Hospital 2nd Corps Near Brooks station, VA, May 24).
Beach finished his service and mustered out of the army on July 23, 1863, soon after fighting hard at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
The remainder of the archive consists of various family papers mostly concerning Connecticut and farming. There is also a sizable collection of letters speaking of an amusement park Beach opened in Branford, CT after the Civil War.
Condition
Range in condition from good to very good. Letters have typical folds and some fading of the pencil markings. Many come with their original envelopes. There is some toning on some of the paper. The journals have quite a bit of damage with brittle pages, toning, and fragile binding.
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