Beschreibung:

Archive of 25 war-date letters including some excellent camp letters, and an 1891 re-issuance of pension for career soldier James Caten of Company “D”, 169th New York Volunteers. Caten, of Sandy Hill, NY, had previously served 5 months with the 96th NY before being discharged on July 30, 1862, apparently for medical reasons. He re-enlisted with the 169th New York Volunteers two weeks later, and served through the war. The letters, dating from October 1862 to September 1864, cover Caten’s service in the 169th, listed as one of Fox’s Fighting 300, from their initial service in Virginia and defense of Suffolk, through service at the siege of Charleston, to his being hospitalized with a bayonet wound suffered in the Bermuda Hundred campaign. His first letter, dated October 28, 1862, from Camp Abercrombie (near Chain Bridge, Va.) tells of being harassed by Rebel spies during picket duty, and his detachment catching five of them and two horses. The regiment was spoiling for a fight, and anticipated one soon, as McClelland was behind Jackson and driving him this way. In two letters from November and December, Caten tells his family that his leg is acting up again, and he may be medically discharged. The next letter, dated July 16, 1863 from Camp at Bowers Hill describes a march of 7 days on 3 days’ rations from White House Landing to Hanover Junction, where the soldiers were so tired they fell asleep in the middle of a Confederate bombardment, until 2am, when they were woken up with news there were Rebels enough to eat us up and had to double-time march back the way they came. The next several letters relate the re-assignment of the 169th NY to the siege of Charleston Harbor. Caten was thrilled with the regiment’s campsite on Folly Island, declaring I never liked soldiering any better in my life than at the present time. Sea breezes kept them cool, and they bathed twice a day in the sea. He tells his mother We have marched over 800 miles in the last six months, and… I have not spoken to a white woman in all that time. In his September 21, 1863 letter, Caten tells of standing guard at Battery Gregg and seeing Ft. Sumter and the city in the distance. We had a splendid view of Charleston City & Harbor this time but we soon expect to have a closer look at that doomed garden of secession, and it will be the pleasure of every soldier to see it in ruins for it was that polluted spot where the first act was committed that opened this unholy rebellion. Its fate is sealed. Sooner or later it must fall. With such a man as Gilmore there is no such word as fail. This echoes the tone of many of Caten’s letters, giving the impression of the high morale of the regiment, even in the swamps. February 19, 1864, finds Caten writing home of the operations on Seabrook Island, south of Morris Island. The island is a very handsome one, some splendid plantations and homes, all of which we burned to the ground. The last three letters run from July 8 to September 25, 1864, when Caten was in two different military hospitals after being wounded. Although his letters in this archive do not mention his prior service in the 96th New York, or where he was wounded, research into his pension application revealed an 1895 deposition of his military service describing his stint in the 96th, (where his name in the rolls was spelled “Caton”) as well as a bayonet wound in his left thigh and short-term capture by the Confederates. In addition to his Civil War service, Caten had a long military career. He enlisted in the Regular Army the day after Christmas, 1866, and served in Battery “M”, 2nd U.S. Artillery until December 26, 1869. Four years later, he enlisted again, this time in the United States Marine Corps, serving from October 8, 1873 until he was declared insane and discharged into the care of the Government Hospital for the Insane in November, 1889. Medical records kept in the National Archives as part of his pension hearing shows that Caten was hospitalized multipl