Stickney, Charles W. Letter, 1865

This collection contains a letter from Private Charles W. Stickney to his mother written shortly after the end of the Civil War.

Charles W. Stickney was a private in the first regiment of the Illinois Light Artillery, also known as Taylor's Chicago Battery, during the Civil War. He served from 1862 to 1865 and was present at the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

The collection consists of a letter from Charles W. Stickney to his mother, dated May 19, 1865. At the time of its writing, Stickney was near Alexandria, Virginia, at the headquarters for the Military Division of the Mississippi, an administrative division of the U.S. Army that controlled military operations in the Western Theater of the Civil War, which encompassed an area spanning roughly from the interior of the Carolinas west to the Mississippi River and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The letter describes the excitement and busyness surrounding preparations for the Grand Review of the Armies, a military procession and celebration in Washington, D.C., on May 23 and 24, 1865, following the end of the Civil War. Stickney mentioned the arrival of General William Tecumseh Sherman at headquarters and sharing a carriage ride to Washington, D.C., with the general's brother, Senator John Sherman. Stickney also described an excursion to buy new clothes with his brother, Lieutenant Clifford Stickney, during which a shopkeeper refused to sell him a coat due to an order prohibiting the sale of civilian clothing to soldiers. Finally, he mentioned preparations for his scheduled discharge from the military prior to September 30, 1865.

The letter was purchased by the Library in 2018 with the support of Library Friends.