Title: Letter from Thomas Sparrow to R. M. Blackwell

Identifier: 0001-b1-fa   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23788)

Description: Letter from Thomas Sparrow, Fort Columbus [N.Y.], to R. M. Blackwell, 144 Front St., New York. Sparrow says that he came from Hatteras without a changed of clothing, but he has been supplied by the voluntary kindness of friends in New York. Sparrow was allowed to send a letter to his family by Commodore Stringham under a flag of truce. Sparrow says that he can not share in Blackwell's congratulations for his safety because he would much rather be back in the war. Sparrow also responds to a question about how much fun there is in war by saying that the people having their homes invaded do not find it amusing. 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.