Lot
3265 
General Prentiss, portrait design on cover to Bedford, Mich., franked with 1861, 3¢ rose (65), small flaws, tied by blue "Cumberland, Md., Jan 16" cds, with original enclosure with red Eagle and "One People - One Government" Banner patriotic letter head, datelined Cumberland, Jan 15th, 1862 with interesting content written just after the Battle of Hancock (Jan 5-6)…Jackson with his army of fifteen or twenty thousand men were doing quite a driving business down where we were they drove the federals from the little town of Bath where they were entrenched about one thousand strong drove our forces across the river at Hancock but General Banks was soon there with a part of his division so the rebels did not dare to cross. I cannot tell where Jackson is at present I do not hear of anymore of his depredations. There seems to be quite a movement of troops for this point. I think it is calculated to make this a place from which to send troops where required. There has been some talk of an attack here but I guess it is unfounded for the present at least Our Regt has nearly all come in here from Hancock. Some of the companies lost everything they had even to their knapsacks, some of the officers lost their commissions. In all of the fights our Regt did not get a man hurt but Co. D. lost 8 men taken prisoner & Co. K lost 4. I do not think however that Jackson made much after all he ownes to the loss of between two and three hundred men. He is beginning to learn the mettle of the 39th…It seems that the great expedition has started down the Miss River and I am in hopes something important will take place throughout the army a general movement is looked for and it is thought by many that it will be the decisive blow one way or the other, F.-V.F.Estimate $300 - 400.
The Battle of Hancock was fought during the Confederate Romney Expedition of the American Civil War on January 5 and 6, 1862, near Hancock, Maryland. Major General Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate States Army, commanding his own Valley District and Brigadier General William W. Loring's force known as the Confederate Army of the Northwest, began moving against Union Army forces in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson's men reached the vicinity of Hancock late on January 4 and briefly fired on the town with artillery. Union Brigadier General Frederick W. Lander refused a Confederate request to surrender on January 5, and that day and the next saw exchanges of artillery fire between the two sides. The Confederates burned a bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on January 5, but withdrew on the 7th.
Realized: $575