Title: Letter from Captain Thomas Sparrow to Captains James J. Leith, G. W. Johnston, T. H. Sharp, and H. A. Gilliam

Identifier: 0001-b1-fa   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23724)

Description: Letter from T. Sparrow, "Capt. Washington Grays" in Portsmouth, N.C. to Captains James J. Leith, G. W. Johnston, T. H. Sharp, and H. A. Gilliam in Portsmouth, N.C. Sparrow discusses returning to Portsmouth after a week and learning that a sickness has spread amongst the men in his company. Sparrow vacated his own quarters and asked for Captain Gilliam to vacate two of his company's building to house the sick. Sparrow responds to a letter sent by the addressees that implies that he is to blame for using the hospital as quarters. Sparrow goes on to explain that he was just following orders and that when the surgeon arrived he did not request to use the hospital. Sparrow also discusses the death of a Private Wheeler, who the addressees claim would not have died had he been in the hospital. The Civil War correspondence relates the activities of Thomas Sparrow and his Washington Grays from their formation as a volunteer company in April of 1861, until their parole from a Union prison in February, 1862. From the papers of Thomas Sparrow (1819-1884), a lawyer from Washington, N.C. who fought in the Civil War and later represented Beaufort County in the North Carolina General Assembly.