150

Daniel R. Smith.

Letters of a captain in the 2nd Corps d'Afrique Engineers.

Various places, 1863-1865
3 Autograph Letters Signed to mother Jane French Smith of Turner, ME. Each 3 or 4 pages on one folding sheet, various sizes; partial separations at folds. With stamped envelopes bearing New Orleans postmarks.


Daniel French Smith (1839-1875) of Turner, ME was listed as a student in the 1860 census (at Bowdoin College?). He was a captain in the 13th Maine Infantry before transferring to the 2nd Engineers Regiment, Corps d' Afrique, which became the 96th United States Colored Troops in 1864.

His first letter was written from Brashear, LA on 13 October 1863 with the Corps d'Afrique still in training: "I am superintendent of instruction for the 2d Engineers, so you will readily perceive that I have five hundred pupil, scarcely one of whom know the first letter of the alphabet. We have a school room where the First Sergeants will attend six hours and the other non-commissioned officers three hours per day," with "all necessary books for those who prove themselves able to learn." 

His 27 November 1864 letter was written from Mobile Point, AL: "There are any quantity of chaplains in the ranks. . . . I wish you could hear some of the preaching. These religious Negroes do well so far as they know, but the loudest preachers & prayers will get drunk frequently . . . and do many other things which New England society have long considered inconsistent with a strict Christian life. . . . Often their thunder tones are heard in the neighboring camps." He quotes from one prayer: "O lord God, Jesus Christ! Whichever of you is boss today, mount thy white horse and shamrock through all the regions of Hell and bring up all the unconverted to thy Grace." 

On 2 January 1865 from East Pascagoula, MS, he describes some combat at Franklin's Creek: "The Rebels came out from Mobile and met us. We had two fights & whipped them each time. The second fight was quite desperate. The cavalry met hand to hand & fought with sabers altogether. Two Rebel officers were captured, one of whom had received a cut on his forehead laying bare the skull full three inches. . . . Ad. Farragut has two sisters living here who are very 'secesh,' yet they treat the soldiers very well. The daughter of one of them cooked  us a turkey for New Year's dinner."

After the war he married and went west to Portland, OR. His wife Louise Humphrey Smith became a notable educator, profiled in Julia Ward Howe's "Sketches of Representative Women of New England."

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