CSA 2nd Lieut. Albert R. Elmore, South Carolina Hampton Legion Cavalry, Civil War Archive Including Correspondence with Sister, Grace Brown Elmore, Pl

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Jun 13, 2014 - Jun 14, 2014

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• Lot Description
  14 items.
  
  Staunch secessionists and political power-brokers, the Elmore, Rhett, and Taylor families sat at the apex of South Carolina society in the antebellum period and were much intermarried. Albert Rhett Elmore, the son of the late Franklin H. Elmore, who succeeded the notorious nullifier John C. Calhoun in the US Senate, was a 17-year old student at South Carolina College in December 1860 when his state seceded from the union. Taking an enslaved man, Billy Duffie, along with him as his personal servant, Elmore defied his youth and barely hesitated before enlisting for military service. He served for two years in the Cavalry Battalion of the Hampton Legion and later, after the Legion was broken up, he joined other sons of the South Carolina elite in the Charleston Light Dragoons.
  
  This fine collection of 14 letters document Elmore's service, primarily with Hampton. Most are from Albert (1843-1915) to his sister Grace Brown Elmore. The letters include only a handful of references to Elmore's experience in combat, but they offer a fine perspective on the mindset of a highly committed Confederate soldier during the earliest months of the war. They include:
  
  *Albert to mother (Harriet), June 13: I hope you have not worried yourself about the boy you sent me, for although I have not much opinion of his character, still he suits me very well, and I believe I would rather keep him than go to the expense of getting Charles here... There is very little news here. Three of our men (Texans) were over at church a few days ago, and run a whole regiment of Yankees, and killed three of them...
  
  *Albert to sister Grace Elmore, Sept. 25, [1861]: Battle of Free Stone: from new camp he can see the war steamers, all about in the river [Potomac]. I was on piquet yesterday, and was stationed immediately on the river, and could see of their ships so near that I could count the cannon on them. One of them had eight guns. I could almost count the stars on the flag, and I took good care to keep myself concealed so that I could watch their movements, without their knowledge of my presence. We are in hourly expectation of a battle. We have our artillery stationed on the river and are only waiting for orders to fire into the ships. The fight will be entirely between the artillery and we will be only spectators until they attempt to land... Later in letter the firing begins.
  
  *Albert to Grace, Oct. 31, [1861?]: Amid asking for items to be sent from home and complaining of not receiving enough mail, he writes: I have just returned from Centreville. I saw a great many of my friends in Kershaw's regiment. You can have no idea of the fortifications and breast-works up there. I think if the Yankees ever get past there, there will not be enough of them to whip the Legion by itself.
  
  *Albert to Harriet, Camp Butler, Nov. 9, 1861: Complaining of being unable to get a furlough to visit home: John Calhoun left to day for Columbia, and I expect, ere this reach you, he will be there, and you can learn a great deal about us, from him. I think it hard that he should get off, and not me. It is the general opinion that he got his on account of his Grandfather's name [John C. Calhoun], merely I am as much entitled to mine, on account of my Father's name, and I think that if the President had ever received your letter that he would certainly under the circumstances which I entered the service, grant me mine also... I heard to day that the Yankees had attacked our coast [Battle of Port Royal], tell Frank there is his chance. I heard we had got worsted in the fight, and that seven ships had gotten into our harbor, all they have to do now is to let them land, and whip them out. There is not the slightest chance of a fight out here.
  
  *Albert to Grace, Dec 24, 1861: I expect to spend the poorest Christmas I ever spent in my life, particularly as I will be on guard all day, and in future I will always know how I spent Christmas day, 1861, however I will make the most of a bad bargain, and try to have a good time any how. I do not suppose you all will have much better, owing to the exigencies of the time. Some of the men have gone out to day to get eggs, and whiskey, and will have a big egg nog, and as fine a dinner as the country will afford...
  
  Albert's final letter in the collection, dated Aug. 23 (probably 1863), was written from Charleston, apparently shortly after he had joined the Charleston Dragoons, and shows that he had been transformed into a fearless veteran: The enemy has commenced to shell the city last night about two o clock. We were all aroused from… slumbers by the explosion of shells, the ringing of the alarm bells, the barking of dogs…The enemy threw about a dozen shells into the city, setting several houses on fire but doing otherwise no damages.
  
  In addition to Albert's letters, the collection includes a warm note from a cousin, John T. Rhett (also Hampton's Legion) to Grace, dated Jan. 10, 1862, thanking her for a knit cap and showing a subtle taste of southern bravado, For the time being the center of excitement seems to have left the Potomac and gone back again to South Carolina. We are all anxiously looking for news from the South but hear very little... We hear that the Yankees have landed on the Charleston and Savannah R.R. I confess I feel decidedly uneasy about our own individual interests. I would not like to me made bankrupt for the advantage of the Yankees....
  
  All but two of the letters in the collection are war-date and all are soldiers' letters except for one from Albert's mother pleading for a commission for her son and two from women friends to Grace. Notably, Grace Elmore's wartime diary was published as The Heritage of Woe: The Civil War Diary of Grace Brown Elmore, 1861-1868 (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1997), and provides important context on the Elmore family and their experiences during the conflict. 

  Condition

  Some typically poor Confederate paper, heavily toned and fragile, some ink bleeding through the paper. One letter lacking a panel, having separated at the folds, with loss of text.
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