A Massachusetts Soldier and Gettysburg Veteran Writes to His Sister in 1864 About His Recent Wound

The letter was written on July 8, 1864 (though mistakenly the soldier wrote “June 8” as the date) by Private William Wallace of the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment to his sister. The letter is long and legible, with the document having an overall size of approximately 6-7/8 inches by 8-3/4 inches, being four pages, with the transmittal envelope. Within the letter Wallace tells his sister of the wound that he had recently received on June 3, 1864, as Bethesda Church, Virginia. He writes: “Now for answering your questions: In the first place, I was wounded on the 3rd of June about 10 o’clock a.m., while charging on the Rebel rifle pits, by a ball which his the back of my hand, passing through in a slanting direction and coming out in the palm”. Wallace goes on to relate information about the readiness of the men in the hospital to pick up a gun and respond to any threat from the confederates, and he writes as well about the 4th of July celebration in the camp. Wallace was a 23 year old farmer from Needham, Massachusetts, who enlisted in September of 1861 and who was mustered out on October 17, 1864, in Boston. His unit, the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry, fought at Gettysburg as a part of Tilton’s Brigade, Barnes’ Division, in Sykes’ 5th Corps.