The collection is open to research.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Charles H. Gray Letter, Ms1989-028, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Charles H. Gray Letter was donated to Special Collections and University Archives in 1989.
The processing and description of the Charles H. Gray Letter commenced and was completed in January 2022.
Charles H. Gray, son of Frederick and Nancy Ann Chamberlain Gray, was born in Ohio on Februrary 10, 1840. The 1860 federal census lists him living in the Miami County, Ohio home of his parents and working as a teacher. On June 3, 1861, Gray enlisted in Company C, 4th Ohio Infantry; he was promoted to corporal on October 1, 1862. Gray sustained injuries while falling from a railroad car near Washington, D. C. and died soon afterward of typhoid at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia on November 23, 1862. He was buried in Fletcher Cemetery, Fletcher (Miami County), Ohio.
This collection consists of a single, 10-page letter from Charles H. Gray, of Company C, 4th Ohio Infantry during the American Civil War. Written to Gray's brother from Beverly, Virginia (now West Virginia) on patriotic stationery, the letter describes Gray's part in the recent Union advance on Beverly, Virginia (now West Virginia), and a report on the Battle of Rich Mountain. The letter was written over a period of two days (July 13-14, 1861) and provides a summary of the regiment's movements and battle engagements over the preceding few weeks from Clarksburg to Huttonsville and on to Cheat Mountain. He describes the hardships endured in camp, march, and battle but concludes "we are now repaid for all," as "[t]he secessionist[s] are all cleaned out of Western Virginia."
The guide to the Charles H. Gray Letter by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).