Between the Covers

Unbound. Both sides of a single quarto leaf. Measuring 8" x 10.25". Neatly torn from a bifolium, probably by the writer, old folds from mailing, and a very small, faint stain, else just about fine. A neat and easy to read letter from Colonel Zeigler to an unnamed attorney representing the sister of Corporal William Eurich, who was killed during the Siege of Puebla in September 1847. Zeigler responds in detail to the attorney's request inquiring after Eurich's personal effects and property, and gives a summary of his pay as both a private and corporal, of his clothing and shoe money due, as well as the "Value of Land": presumably a land bounty due to the soldiers, which was by far the largest sum due his survivors at $100. Aside from retaining some small personal effects which he intended to deliver to her personally upon his return, he ends with a message to Eurich's sister Cassandra: "Assure her that I or any of the 'Yorkers' here in Mexico can render her any comfort of assistance that we will cheerfully do so. We all sympathize with her deeply in the loss of her only brother." Zeigler joined the Monroe Guards, a Philadelphia Regiment as a Sargeant, along with eight other York, Pennsylvania residents including Eurich, who eventually headed the Second Pennsylvania Regiment. Eurich seems to have been the only one of the group who died in combat, although three others died of sickness. A nicely poignant memoir of a slain soldier from the Mexican-American War.

Item #413721