1861 21ST NORTH CAROLINA INFANTRY LETTER – PVT. HARRISON ALEXANDER

1861 21ST NORTH CAROLINA INFANTRY LETTER – PVT. HARRISON ALEXANDER

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8”x10” line blue paper; 3 pp. Dated Manassas Junction, VA, Oct. 6th, 1861. All legible ink, by an educated soldier. Written to “Miss Emily Burnside”. Overall very good condition.

Letter talks of sickness in his regiment, “my health is so bad that at times I would all but give up…feel as if I would gladly welcome the summons of death”.  Alexander notes that, “….about a month since this was a distressing time in this Regt, we were all sick in Capt Scotts company but him and in other companies equally as bad  I never felt worse in my life other than to see the dead and hear the groans of the sick & dying made my heart-ache and cast a gloom around one – when poor Jessie Smith died it made my heart bleed – oh how sorry I was when he yielded to the arms of death…”  [Smith died of typhoid fever on 9/21/61.]

The regiment was 15 miles from Manassas “…at a place called Thoroughfare near the Manassas Gap RR….The water is very good and plenty of it – The health of the regiment has greatly improved since here though  hardly a day passes by but what some one dyes. There has been about one hundred & thirty deaths in Regt….”  The author also notes there has been talk of the regiment returning to North Carolina.  He does not have a positive view of his Colonel, he is “…one who has no feelings for soldiers and is the cause of many lying in a premature grave..”  The letter contains additional good content on this famous regiment. Signed, “Yours very Truly Harrison”.

Harrison Alexander, born in 1851 in Mecklenburg County, NC, was a 19 year old resident of Guilford County, NC when he enlisted on 6/4/61 as a Private. On that date he mustered into Co. M, 21st North Carolina Infantry (formerly the 11th North Carolina Infantry). Listed as a POW on 10/19/64 at Cedar Creek, VA; confined 10/21/64 at Point Lookout, MD. Paroled on 3/28/65 at Point Lookout, arrived at Boulware’s Wharf, VA on 3/30/65 for exchange. Alexander died on 2/26/1929 at Paw Creek, Mecklenburg County, NC; he is buried in an unmarked grave in a family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, NC.

Alexander’s regiment was organized in July, 1861 and was composed of twelve companies, A thru M. It was reorganized in April 1862 when Companies B and E were taken from the regiment and formed Companies A and B respectively of the 9th (also known as the 1st) North Carolina Sharp Shooters. The designation of the regiment was changed from the 11th Regiment North Carolina Infantry (Volunteers) to the 21st Regiment North Carolina Infantry (State Troops).  [jw/ld][ph:L]

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