1865.3

Bay Stater to Wife: “We had a gay old time playing ball . . . send me five dollars”

Salience	Peripheral
Tags	Civil War, MilitaryCivil War, Military
Location	WVWV
City/State/Country:	Wheeling, WV, United States
Modern Address
Game
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	AdultAdult
Holiday
Notables
Text	“My dear wife, We were drawn up in line this afternoon and informed we would be discharged and sent to our Regiments in ten days. We had a gay old time playing ball. . . . You must send me five dollars without fail. I am almost distracted by the want of tobacco.” Letter home from Wheeling, West Virginia, by John R. Irving, May 4, 1865. Irving, in a Massachusetts Cavalry unit, was assigned to General Custer’s Division. Note: it is possible that the ellipsis in this rendering omits a bit more detail about the ballplaying. Accessed 6/22/09 by Google Web search “’john r irving’ ‘auction contents.’” The letter is descried under auction #2.1.
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Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
External Number	117
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Has Supplemental Text

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