122

Freeman B. Shedd.

Letter describing the Chancellorsville campaign with the 33rd Mass.

Near Stafford Court House, VA, 9 May 1863
Autograph Letter Signed as "Freeman" to mother and sisters. 10 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on 3 folding sheets; mailing folds, small stain on final leaf.

Freeman Ballard Shedd (1844-1913) worked for a druggist in his native Lowell, MA before the war.  He enlisted in the 33rd Massachusetts as a private, but parlayed his modest medical knowledge into a new position: "I have been appointed hospital stew'd of the 33d Reg't." 

This letter describes the Chancellorsville campaign from the initial troops movements of 27 April. The regiment has been in service for six months, but never faced fire until a few errant shells passed over their heads on the 29th: "Some of the boys were badly scared, but all escaped." They passed a blacksmith shop with a sign reading "Wurk dun at short notis an fur kash onli," which he considered "a remarkable specimen of southern orthography." On 2 May, while the regiment was out on a reconnaissance, the Confederates broke through the lines and captured all of their knapsacks and supplies, except for Shedd's valise in the hospital wagon which escaped in the retreat.

The regiment found themselves near the front on 3 May: "Such cannonading I never heard before, & do not wish to hear again. It was fearful to hear the tremendous vollies of musketry, the booming of cannon, & the bursting of the shell, the cheers of the victorious & the groans of the wounded." Shedd sums up his long account of the campaign thus: "A tremendous slaughter, an infernal licking, and an inglorious retreat." 

Shedd had a notable life after the war, becoming a successful cologne manufacturer. He donated the land for Lowell's Shedd Park in 1910. 

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