Notth CciAoLina State.
Алексии
Raleigh, Nonth
Сало
Lina
РГ
19*2
Collection: John. W. GOULD Letters
1862
Oakham, Mass.
Physical Description: 8 items (3 letters; 1 poem; 4 CSA currency notes)
Acquisition: Gift, Cumberland County Public Library, 1994
Description: John. W. Gould, born about 1841, was the son of Rufus and
Mary H. Gould of Oakham, Worcester County, Massachusetts. His father
and his older brother, William R. , were shoemakers, while his older sister,
Mary Ann, was a schoolmistress. Though his name does not appear in the
usual lists of Civil War volunteer soldiers, Gould volunteered for service
in the Massachusetts infantry. He was mustered in as a musician in the
25th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment on October 7, 1861. The regiment
sailed with Burnside’s e^edition to North Carolina at the beginning of
1862. After the regiment had been stationed at New Bern for about four
months, Gould was taken ill, apparently for a second time, and was sent
to the General Hospital at Beaufort, N.C. At the beginning of September
1862 all the regimental bands, with the federal occupying forces at New
Bern were mustered out of service and sent home. If Gould survivied his
sickness to return home in September, he apparently saw no further military
service during the Civil War. His younger brother, Edwin S. Gould,
mentioned in these letters as being eager to enlist, may be the soldier
of that name who saw service in Company F, 60th Massachusetts Infantry
Regiment, and as a hundred-days man in 1864 in Company F, 51st Massachusetts
Infantry Regiment.
There are three letters in. this collection, dated July 9, July 20-21,
and July 21, 1862. They were written from Massachusetts to John W. Gould
by his mother and sister while he was hospitalized at Beaufort. The
letters contain news of family and friends at home, and the second of the
three letters describes the box of comforts ;that family members are sending
to him, including such restoratives as wine, currant jelly, slippery elm,
and hartshorn.