[Fragment] [c. December 1862] / [Francis Rupert].

The letter is part of the Stuckey-Nunn collection of Civil War correspondence between Union soldiers (Joseph D. Richardson and Francis Rupert) and their families, as well as one letter from a Confederate soldier, William T. Bickham to his cousin; see additional letters from Francis Rupert in the collection.

This fragment states that Rupert's horse gave out [above Centreville?] and that he had to walk nine miles. Part of it seems to relate an anecdote about requisitioning a horse or a mule, acquiring a bridle from an old man who didn't know what to think. In his December 17, 1862 letter to his mother, Rupert again references this matter, saying that though she doesn't approve of taking someone else's possessions, the government allows them to do so. Rupert served with the 2nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Cavalry, 59th Volunteers which saw action in Northern Virginia, assisted in the defenses of Washington, and was present at major battles of the war including Antietam, Gettysburg, and the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House. Rupert became a POW and died at Andersonville Prison in Georgia on June 26, 1864; the overcrowded conditions there led to the deaths of 13,000 from disease, malnutrition, and exposure.