87

Edward Powers.

Letters of a quartermaster's clerk complaining of "our jackass generals."

Various places, 1862-1864
5 Autograph Letters Signed, various sizes; minor wear. 

In these letters, a clerk in the Army Quartermaster's office writes home to his friend Henry A. Collin (1817-1892), a Justice of the Peace in Mount Vernon, IA. 

He describes war-torn Harpers Ferry on 21 April 1862: "This town is almost ruined, and when we first came here was almost uninhabited. Some families however have returned since the troops passed through here. Our troops have destroyed a good deal of the property that remained here, have put horses in the houses, pulled buildings to pieces for firewood &c." 

On 28 September 1862 from Frederick, MD he opines on the Union leadership: "Our jackass generals are--a good portion of them--good for nothing but to strut around in their uniform, drink whiskey, and draw their pay. Pope is nothing but a bag of wind. McDowell is believed by the soldiers who served under him to be a traitor." 

Describing Hagerstown, MD in the wake of Gettysburg campaign on 20 September 1863, "the Rebel army when it was here played the deuce with the fences. . . . They also stole from the farmers great numbers of horses. A good many of the people about here are secessionists, but I think that but few of them wish to see the Rebel army here again." 

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