MS 165
Letters, 1862-1864.
18 items.
William P. Mason, of Canterbury, N.H., enlisted in Company F of the New Hampshire Twelfth Regiment on August 15, 1862 and mustered in as a Private the following month. After seeing action at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal on May 1, 1865, seven weeks before being mustered out. He was born in Alton, N.H. in 1842 and died, aged only 25, in St. Charles, Minnesota in a drowning accident June 30, 1867.
Twelve letters (with transcriptions) from Mason to his family in Canterbury, N.H., written mostly from encampments near Falmouth, Virginia and at Point Lookout in Maryland. The letters describe troop actions and morale, and one letter (April 11, 1863) records Mason’s impressions of President Lincoln – “he is a thin spare man…a very sober man & caryes an expresion of deap sadness upon his face, & looks pale. I am afraid it will be means of his deth, he is to be pited.” There is also a letter from Mason’s sister “H.” in Canterbury to other members of the family.