1860s - 1870s CORRESPONDENCE ARCHIVE LOT OF TWENTY-ONE (21) MANUSCRIPT HANDWRITTEN LETTERS SENT TO NOTED CIVIL WAR VETERAN HENRY H. HANNAN BY TWO OTHER NOTED VETERANS

Superb archive of 21 handwritten manuscript letters with great historical content. Nineteen [19] letters (2 exceptions of the 21) are dated circa 1860s, and many during the civil war years. All of the letters have the month and day they were written, but only nine of them have the year. Of those nine there is July 15th 1861, Oct. 14th & Nov. 5th 1862, March 7th 1863, June 1st 1863, Feb. 10th 1866, April 20 1866, June 9 1866, and Oct. 3rd 1877. All of the other letters are written with headings and the same paper that coincide with the letters that have the dates above, so it is easy to assume they are all written around that same time frame. Besides that some of the letters that have no year on them, talk of the war, confirming the assumption. Next, all of the letters are written to H.H. Hannan or Henry H. Hannan of Swann Creek Ohio. All but two are written by Ed (Edward) Sehon of Manson West Virginia, although Mr. Sehon does write sometimes while at school at the Pennsylvania Military Academy in West Chester Pennsylvania. He also writes a few letters while in Cincinnati, St. Louis and one while on board the steamer Irvin Watson. Then the last two letters are written from Richard Homer Mead who was a Texas Land Locator. All of these men have prominent life histories: HENRY HANNAN: Born in 1843, lived in Swann Creek Ohio and married Sarah Jane Arbuckle in 1868. Mr. Hannan was a land agent and a simple google search provides numerous web sites that had documents, maps and manuscripts with Henry’s Land Agent Stamp on them. EDMUND SEHON: Edwards’ great grandfather was Charles Lewis who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, a battle described in the pages of West Virginia history as one of the most decisive conflicts of the American Frontier. Mr. Sehon took up the study of law and began his practice soon after the close of the civil war. In 1868 he was elected state’s attorney of Greenbrier and Mercer counties but in 1870 he returned to his native county of Mason. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Legislature and ended up mayor of Huntington. DR. RICHARD HOMER MEAD: Born in Huntsville in 1847 and at 16 enlisted in Company K, 8th Iowa Cavalry at Camp Roberts, Davenport Iowa. From there went to Nashville Tenn. and shortly after that went on duty in the mountains during the winter of 1863 - 64. His Civil War record is quite lengthy. He became a prisoner during McCook’s raid and several men in his company died at Andersonville prison, he escaped. An original newspaper article states: August 16, 1878, Dr. R. Homer Mead leaves St. Louis the 9th in charge of a large surveying party for the Pan handle of Texas, by way of Fort Dodge, Kansas. The letters themselves are so very interesting and really give you a good idea of what life was like for these young men during the civil war. Edmund really has a hard attitude towards the war, the draft, but has a very colorful way of writing about women, his great desire to head to California and his steamboat rides on the Mississippi. Here are some snippets: "Well then the next time you write I want you to tell me whether you have ever succeeded in doing what we tried so hard to do in Mason, you know what I mean. If you have you must tell me if it come up to your expectations. Give me your experiences and then I will give you mine. The country is indeed in a bad situation and God only knows when we will see things in a better state. Persons who have nothing cannot make anything and those who have property are in danger of loosing it. Albert McCown is a captain in the 13th Va. Regiment. Well Hen how do you make it with the girls now or do you think any thing about them in these war times? There is scarcely a girl in Mason City worth going to see. Please direct your next letter to Pomeroy as this office is about to go in to other hands. I received your long and welcome letter yesterday and God knows it is one of the most pleasant things imaginable in these times when one knows not whom to trust. You speak truly of the distress of our country, we may exclaim earnestly as did one before us, Oh Heaven my bleeding Country save, is there no hand on high. If a nation was ever so corrupt as to merit annihilation, the present one does. Ask the general of our armies as he makes stepping stones of thousands of dead bodies, lavishing each step with millions of government money. What is he fighting for? Without a pause he will answer Power!......I complemented a fellow the other day by calling him a damned liar and he immediately returned it by knocking me down which gave me a black eye. Well how are you on the conscripted? Suppose we fellows will stand as good a chance of being conscripted as any one else. Well I aint going to pay $300 at the same time. Hate the idea of going into our army. Excuse this scrawling ill written letter Henry, as this boat shakes so I can hardly hold my pen. Spire (?) Patrick has come back; he was in prison at Point Lookout and took the oath to keep from dying there. Eddie Cox died in prison there and Henry Patrick died down South some where. Poor Spire, I don’t blame him for getting of with his life. He tells a hard story of the times he has seen. The country is full of returned soldiers from the South. Oh, Henry what a change in three years. About 8 weeks we will all go home unless the Cholera sends us off sooner for it is said to be in N.Y. city now. God grant that it may deal lightly with this country who has so lately felt the bereaving hand of war. We had a fine excursion on the Delaware river last week, chartered a steamboat and went down to Ft. Delaware which is just at the junction of the river into Delaware. Boy it was a considerable sight to me as I had never been in a large fort before. I wish you were here for a short time especially to see some of these pretty Yankee girls. I have started to school at this military institute. I sold out at Point Pleasant soon after seeing you was summoned to attend Federal Court at Wheeling. West Chester is 27 miles from Philadelphia a very pretty little town of about 5,000 inhabitants (he goes on with describing the routine of the institute). Nothing would give me greater pleasure then to be with you, however if we can’t be boys together, fortune and destiny may make us men together. I am very much inclined to go to California in the spring (he mentions going to California a lot in many of the letters) Well I have been on a steamboat all winter froze up in the Mississippi. I spent both Christmas and New Years in St. Louis and I never had a bigger time in my life than on the latter occasion. The whole crew went out and got stone blind. We laid in bound at St. Louis for one whole month then started for Cincinnati but run into a gorge of ice first 20 miles above Cairo on the Mississippi River and laid there over a month. I do think it was the most God forsaken land I ever saw in my life. There were 14 steamboats all laying up together and we did the best we could to amuse ourselves _______in the day time and danced all night." And much more. The two letters that are from Mead are all about surveying. One of them has a letter head that says, "Office of R. Homer Mead. Texas Land Locator and dealer in all descriptions of Texas Land Warrants and Patented Lands, Opposite Read House". This one is dated 1877. He’s writing to Hannan telling him about the survey that was done on a piece of land that has a fine stream and that it is bound to be used for a county seat. The other letter is not dated, but I’m sure it’s around the same time and in part says: "I am just in from near Fort Concho where my party is at work. I came by and retraced these lines and took another look at the land, it is splendid. I could not do better for you and there are near settlements and more valuable. I have had them covered with warrants." There are no covers, but the letters themselves are in great shape and full of historical information. They all range from 1 to 2 pages in length. VG+