[Brothers in the 12th Missouri Cavalry write to their parents back home in Missouri.]

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Six 8vo letters (9.75" x 7.5" to 8" x 5"). A total of 20 pp. of manuscript. 1 original envelope included. Three letters include writing from both brothers. CONDITION: Good to fair, one letter with a 2.75" tear along old horizontal fold (but no losses to the text), one letter dampstained, two small holes to two letters with partial losses to a few words. An engaging group of six Civil War letters written by two brothers to their parents. Both brothers saw action in the pivotal 1864 Battle of Nashville, and one later died from wounds received there. Born in McDonough County, Illinois, Joseph Gilmer Banning (1843-1908) and Pinkney "Pink" Asa Banning (1845-1865) moved to Kansas as children with their parents in the mid 1850s after Kansas Territory was created in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Their parents, Ephraim (1819-1878) and Louisa Banning (1817-1887), moved the family to a farm and were among the first settlers in Big Springs, located ten miles outside of Topeka (est. 1854). In 1855, the first sermon in Big Springs was preached in Ephraim's log house, and Ephraim was a founding member of the Big Springs United Brethren Church (the first UB church in Kansas), which served as both a church and a school. In 1855, Big Springs was also home to a free-state convention in which determined men pledged to offer their lives to defend their homes from pro-slavery border ruffians from Missouri. The Bannings lived in Big Springs until 1860, when they returned to Missouri, eventually settling on a farm near Brookfield in Linn County in 1862. In July of 1861, Joseph enlisted in the State militia, serving until 19 Dec. 1863, and then entered the regular U.S. service in Company F of the 12th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. On 30 Sept. 1863, Joseph's brother Pinkney also enlisted in Company F of the 12th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. Serving in Nelson's Cavalry Corps, Joseph participated in all the battles and skirmishes in which the 12th Missouri Cavalry was engaged, the most important of them being the Battle of Spring Hill (29 Nov. 1864) and the Battle of Nashville (15-16 Dec. 1864). Pinkney was wounded at the latter battle on 15 Dec. and died from his wounds at Cumberland Hospital in Nashville on 27 Jan. 1865. The Battle of Nashville saw Confederate Lieut. Gen. John B. Hood attempt to retake Nashville from the occupying Union army, despite being significantly outnumbered. The decisive and large Union victory under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas destroyed Hood's army as an effective fighting force, and put an end to rebel resistance in Tennessee for the rest of the war. Joseph served in the 12th Missouri until 9 April 1866, first as a private and subsequently as a corporal and then sergeant. In May of 1868, his regiment was assigned to frontier duty to battle the Sioux Indians in the Black Hills, where he served until being discharged at Fort Leavenworth in the late 1860s. He then returned to Linn County to farm with his father until 1870, when he married Letitia Millar of Brookfield and had four children. Joseph spent the rest of his life as a farmer near Brookfield. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church of Brookfield, where Joseph was a deacon. Pinkney and Joseph's letters are written to their parents as well as to their sister and younger brother who lived in Brookfield, Missouri. The letters address some of the following subjects: the arrest of their whole regiment because one of them knocked an African American soldier down with a rock; an eventful steamer trip from St. Louis to Memphis; the recurring sickness of one Captain Martin; a man accidentally shooting his own uncle and killing him; a shooting incident while on picket guard; crossing the Tennessee River and hearing the gunboats shell the rebels; the regiment being transferred to General Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland; discussion of attacking Confederate General Hood's forces, and more. SOME REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES Pinkney; Benton Barracks, St. N° de ref. del artículo 7526

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Título: [Brothers in the 12th Missouri Cavalry write...
Editorial: Memphis, TN; Camp Well near Memphis; and Benton Barracks in St. Louis: 14 February-4 November 1864