CONFEDERATE CIVIL WAR LETTER - 6th Arkansas Infantry - BATTLE CONTENT, Amazing !

Description

Postal History / Letter
The flag under which the 6th & 7th Arkansas fought during the Atlanta Campaign. It was captured on 1 September 1864 at the Battle of Jonesboro.
This extraordinary Civil War soldier letter was written by Asahel W. Thompson
(
1838-1864), the son of Asahel Washington Thompson (1800-1872) and Nancy Horton (1809-1899) of Chesterfield county, South Carolina.
According to military records, Asahel enlisted on 19 September 1861 at Pitman’s Ferry, Arkansas. He was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and convalesced in a hospital at Columbia, South Carolina, until 9 February 1864 when he returned to his regiment.
Due to dwindling numbers, the Sixth and Seventh Arkansas were consolidated for the Atlanta Campaign which started in May. On September 1, the entire unit was captured at the Battle of Jonesboro but were later exchanged in time to fight at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, and the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee. Private Thompson was not among those taken prisoner, however. He was wounded in the left arm, just above the elbow, on 22 July and he died on 25 August, 1864, at a hospital in Griffin, Georgia. He was buried in the
Stonewall Confederate Cemetery
at Griffin. Thompson was actually a member of Co. G, 6th Arkansas, though when the 6th was consolidated with the 7th companies C and G of the 6th were consolidated and became Co. E of the 6th-7th Arkansas. So Thompson was a member of Co. E, 6th-7th Arkansas in the Atlanta Campaign.
Transcription
Line of Battle, 6th Arkansas Reg.
June 23rd 1864
Dear Father & Mother,
Your kind letter of the 10th is at hand. I received it in due time. This leaves me well but wearied nearly out. We have been fighting very hard for the last two days. We are in full view of the enemy. They are in four hundred yards of our lines. Father, while I am writing, the balls are whistling all around me. The skirmishers are a few yards of our line of battle fighting. We are in our ditches & we have to stay in them day and night. My company have been skirmishing very hard for the last two days. The loss in my company for the last two days are one killed, four wounded, and one lost his right arm & several others struck with balls. I run some very narrow escapes but I thank God that I am one amongst the living yet.
You will see enclosed the Yankees account of their repulse on the 27th May [at Pickett’s Mill] but they was mistaken about the number of men we had engaged. Govan & Granbury Brig. was all that repulsed them. We had several wounded in the regiment & some few killed.
We are waiting for the Yankees to advance on our lines & when they do, we are confident of victory. It has been nearly two months since we left Dalton & we have been fighting & moving around from right to left, & falling back most the time, day and night. He have heavy rains every day and we have to take it as it comes.
Father, I cannot interest you as times is very hot around me with balls. You should be satisfied to hear that I am living. You must not expose my letters as I had to write in great haste & my mind are wandering. I get very little sleep at night. You must write in haste. Fail not. Give me all the news. Address as before. Yours as ever, — A. W. Thompson
TERMS:  .00 postage in the United States.  We accept Paypal.
Postage combined for multiple purchases.  Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise you will pay a higher rate.
For International buyers, we utilize eBay’s Global Shipping Program.  We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing.  So we believe this program will be safer for us and for you.
We are members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.
We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions).  Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog.
We have been selling on eBay since 1998.   BID WITH CONFIDENCE !