ORDERING
RECONNAISSANCE AROUND D.C.
DARIUS
N. COUCH. Autograph
Letter Signed to Oliver Edwards, Camp Brightwood, DC, 12 September 1861.
2¼ pages, 7½” x 4½”.
A Civil
War-date letter from Darius Couch, a West Point graduate who was made
a Union general at the start of the Civil War. He fought ably in various
locales, including the Peninsular campaign, Nashville, and the Carolinas,
and he also oversaw the Pennsylvania militia during the Gettysburg campaign.
Couch
was in his first assignment with the Army of the Potomac when he wrote
this letter to his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Oliver Edwards, who would
later rise to the rank of general. “You will take a party
of horsemen say four with rifles or revolvers with
two days rations and a hospital team to carry blankets and forage –
and make a reconnaissance of the road from this camp to Chain Bridge
via Rockville,” Couch directs.
“You
will carefully note the distances, permanent streams, roads, condition
of the road for transportation of Artillery, baggage, etc, the ravines,
woods, open country, marshes, thickets, stone or brick houses, churches,
villages &c &c indeed everything that may be of importance to
a commanding officer to know who may have to march over, or defend the
country on the proposed line of reconnaissance. You will start to-morrow
morning at 6 a.m. unless the weather is heavy. Rifles might be carried
in the wagon – in case you do not reach the Bridge by night be
careful that you are not surprised while bivouacking.” He
has signed, “D. N. Couch / Bg Gnl,” and on a facing
page, has added a postscript, “Secure the countersign for
three days.”
The letter
is written on the first and third pages of a four-page lettersheet,
with the postscript added on page two. It is somewhat wrinkled, but
is darkly-penned and clear and in good condition overall. $650.00
This
image shows the two main pages of the letter, but omits the postscript
written on another page.
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