A letter from Confederate soldier George Franklin Robinson to his wife describing army morale and movements after Gettysburg, July 18, 1863.
This letter from George Franklin Robinson to his wife, Elvira Jane Griffin, was sent following the Battle of Gettysburg on July 18, 1863. On the second page, Robinson draws a map of his unit's march from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Robinson was a member of the Confederate Seventh Infantry Regiment (Company A) of the South Carolina Battalion in Joseph Kershaw's Brigade. He enlisted in June 1862 and was discharged from the Federal prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, in June 1865; he had been taken prisoner in November 1864.
Winchester July 18, 1963
Dear Elvira,
I take my pen in hand to rite you a few lines to let you no tho I am at Winchester I have bin [[object Object]] bad off for some 10 or 12 days I come to Winchester da[[object Object]] before yesterday but I am giting well. I will be able to go back to my regt in a few days. I am at a convalescent camp, just in tents. I was taken with high fever & akin all over but I taken a dos of brimstone & the soarness left me & I have bin weak & no stomach to eat but I am giting harty now. Elviry I had rote to you but once since the fite & that was at hagerstown Maryland. I think we paid dearly for our trip in to [[object Object]] we gave 20 thousand mens lives for a few cattle horses & wagons. I think our confederacy is gone up the spout. they say old lee is going back in Maryland if he does I think it will end the war our men had most as soon dy as to start back to Maryland our men is badly disheartened they are beginning to think this [[object Object]] wont end til we are all killed & it wont take long if they make many such [[object Object]] as they have bin making. I rote to you that Off Smith & [[object Object]] Williams was wounded they say the yankees has got them. Elviry I got a letter dated June 19 & glad to hear to hear you was all well & doing [[object Object]] you said miles & [[object Object]] be as at home if they had miles out hear he would be safe. Elviry don't greave about me if you don't hear from me I will do the best I can I thank god for his kind blessings to me.
May god bless you & my sweet little children.
G F Robinson E J Robinson
[[object Object]] I have draud off a sorter of a map of our rout and battle ground you will commence at Fredrick & go on round back to Hamburg when we SOMETHING on the same road the figure will sho you the distant from town to another them dots is the battle field between the lins
Robinson, George Franklin, "George Franklin Robinson letter describing Battle of Gettysburg," Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/7633733ecaa58307ca72dd784e5f2514.
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives via Digital Library of Tennessee.
Item 8 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Battle of Gettysburg
A photograph of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in early July 1863 by Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan.
A photograph of the headquarters of General Meade, commander of the Union Army, by Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan, July 1863.
A map of military action during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863.
A map of military action, graves, and local landmarks during the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863.
A letter from Union soldier Samuel Hodgman to his brother about his experience during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 16, 1863.
A letter from Confederate soldier Edwin Kerrison to his sister about his experience during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 7, 1863.
Excerpts from the diary of Union soldier Nathaniel Rollins about being taken prisoner during the Battle of Gettysburg, June 30-July 6, 1863.
A translation and original letter, in French, from Union soldier Francis Deleglise to his father about his wounds and imprisonment at Gettysburg, August 14, 1863.
A letter from Confederate soldier John Futch to his wife about the death of his brother during the Battle of Gettysburg, August 6, 1863.
A list of soldiers of the Nineteenth Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who died at Gettysburg, July 1863.
(Warning: graphic material) "Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter," a photograph of a Gettysburg soldier by Alexander Gardner, July 1863.
(Warning: graphic material) A photograph of Union dead at Gettysburg by Timothy O'Sullivan, 1863.
A box of relics collected at the battlefield at Gettysburg.
Handwritten copies of Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address given at the Gettysburg National Cemetery and letter to Mrs. Bixby, 1864.