111

Letters of Henry and Lucy Coe on the Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes and Lincoln assassination.

Various places, 1861 and 1865
9 letters (5 from Lucy Coe of Painesville, OH to soldier husband Henry; one from Henry to Lucy; two from sister Mary of Indianapolis to Henry, on patriotic letterhead; and one from friend John Morrill to Henry), various sizes; minimal wear. With 33 Coe family postal covers from this era. 

  • Notes: Henry Hayes Coe (1830-1908) of Painesville, OH served in the band of the 7th Ohio Infantry. This collection contains one letter from Henry to his wife Lucy Ann Proctor Hayes (1828-1909), written from Gauley River, WV not long after the regiment's dramatic rout at the Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes. "Maj. Casement came up last night & will probably remain here. The Secesh captured our band & field music tent at Cross Lanes as the waggon was broken but we have got better here (although Rosencranz has recaptured our old one). . . . As for Cr'st Quinn, I have no doubt he is safe, though a prisoner. He was well tough & rugged & was known to have got out of the fight but could not stand to run & threw down his gun, declaring it was no use to run & was waiting for them to come & take him. It is not known if any of our men were fired on in the woods, until after they had been ordered to halt."

    Lucy's letters to Henry from April 1865 are also good reading. On 15 April 1865, she began with pun-filled gloating on the recent Union victories: "Petersburg has petered out, Grant has extended his land grant all through Virginia, & Lee wrecked on a lee shore. I begin to feel encouraged, & my heart is today light." In Painesville, the townspeople "hung Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree, & burned him in effigy." Three pages in, she began writing in underlined text: "We have just rec'd the terrible intelligence that Pres. Lincoln & Sec. Seward are last night assassinated. Oh, what fearful news, what a calamity."

    On 30 April 1865, she noted the Lincoln funeral train: "A large crowd at the depot here, fired guns, tolled bells, &c as the trains passed." 
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