Being an Autograph Letter Signed "R Martin", Roanoke Island, NC, 2 pp., 8vo, to John H. Trites, Montgomery, PA, reading, in part: "...the long expected Battle has come of at last... it was a pretty sharp one...we were near enough to hear the music of the Rebel Pills which made us bob our heads down without orders, we passed right in front of their Battery and the balls flew over us quite brisk...we were ordered to flank so we marched around through a swamp above our knees and thick with bushes and briars which I believe was harder work than fighting but not quite so dangerous...the Rebels were driven of(f) before we got around so we had not the satisfaction of being actively engaged...we done as we were ordered and we done it cherefully. I cannot how prisoners there is but they look hard having no uniform the greater part of them have Kentucky Jean clothes...." Included is the letter's original patriotic postal cover featuring an embossed effigy of General George McClellan and addressed to Mr. John H. Trites, King of Prussia P.O., Montgomery County, PA.

Private North Carolina Civil War Collection

The letter's author, Robert Martin, served in Co. "I," 51st Pennsylvania Infantry; the letter's recipient, John Trites, was the postmaster for King of Prussia, PA.

An exceptionally clear letter in pencil; the cover with some splits above the McClellan, else very good condition.