Sent home by Private of the 117th New York Infantry who died in 1864!
7 1/4 x 9 1/2, imprint, with large vignette of spread winged eagle.
DIXIE'S FARMS
Air- Uncle Sam's Farm
We're a going into business, boys, I'd have you understand. For there never was so good a time to speculate in land; We're bound to make our fortunes quick, without a deal of toil, By some real estate investments in the market of Free Soil.
Chorus- So come along, come along! Uncle Sam can pay; Right down to Dixie's land- we shall find the way; Sugar-lands, cotton-lands, ready for your arms! Dixie's land is rich enough to treat us all to farms!
We've got our markets in our hands, our knapsacks on our backs; And as for our expenses, Uncle Sam will pay the tax! As for niggers, we'll apprentice them to till for us the land, And if massa comes to catch 'em, we'll declare 'em contraband.
Oh! you needn't think we're joking, for the Union is our own, And we're bound to save the pieces when a part is overthrown; We can raise the best Sea Island, and the tallest kind of rice, And for sugar and tobacco we'll be sure to get our price.
And as for those poor Southern ducks, Jeff Davis and his peers, We'll show them that our Pilgrims stock are good as Cavaliers; That honest men are twice the match for all our rebel foes, And honest toil can make the South soon blossom like the rose!
This was sent home by Private Charles Hevener, Co. I, 117th New York Infantry, to his siter. There is an ink note on the reverse written by Charles as follows: Jan. the 30, 1863. Dear Sister, Here is old Dixie for you. Learn it if you can. I am in a hurry for we are going to have inspection today.
Light age toning, wear, and irregular right edge.
This came out of a grouping of 117th New York Infantry letters written by Charles Hevener. Charles, (also know as Herner) was a 21 year old resident of Boonville, New York, when he enlisted on Aug. 11, 1862, as a private, and was mustered into Co. I, 117th New York Infantry. He died on Oct. 25, 1864, in the hospital at Jones Landing, Va.
The 117th New York Infantry, was recruited in Oneida County, N.Y., in the summer of 1862. The regiment saw action at Suffolk, Va., and in the 1863 Peninsula campaign. Ordered to the Department of the South, they took part in the siege of Fort Wagner and the operations around Charleston Harbor. In April 1864, they were ordered to Virginia where they joined the Army of the James and were engaged at Swift Creek, Drewry's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, where they were present at the Mine Explosion, fought gallantly in the battle of Fort Harrison, and were heavily engaged on the Darbytown Road. They were then sent to North Carolina where they participated in General Terry's 1865 Carolina campaign. The regiment fought with conspicuous gallantry in the final assault on Fort Fisher, and also saw action at Cape Fear River, Fort Anderson, and Wilmington. |
