Gates, Charles Arad
Scope and Contents
Charles Arad Gates was born in 1841, one of five children of Arad and Charlotte Gates, in the village of West Monroe, near Baldwinsville, New York. His parents were third generation New York farmers, but his family history dated back to the immigrant Stephen Gates and his wife Anne who traveled from England to settle in Hingham in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. Charles' ancestors Deacon Samuel Gates II and Samuel Gates both served in the... Revolutionary War. From September 1861 to June 1865 Gates served in the 1st New York Light Artillery, Battery B, which was known until the Gettysburg campaign in 1863 as Petit's Battery, after their first captain Rufus Pettit of Baldwinsville. The battery was organized at Baldwinsville and was composed chiefly of Onondaga county men. It was mustered into the state service at Baldwinsville on August 24, 1861 and into the service of the United States at Elmire on August August 31, 1866. Charles wrote letters home frequently to his parents, relatives, and friends describing his experiences and thoughts about the war. This collection is comprised of 39 of those letters written between September 1861 and December 1863 and envelopes for which no letters were found. There are examples of illustrated stationery, both in the letters and the envelopes, including Union icons and likenesses of McClellan, George Washington, and the Sons of Erin. Among the contents are four maps drawn by Gates including the battery's first winter camp at Camp California near Alexandria, Virginia; a map of the Antietam battlefield; a camp at Bolivar Heights near Harper's Ferry, Virginia duruing the Maryland campaign in 1862; and a camp of the Chalcellorsville battlefield. Noteworthy letters include a letter of July 4th, 1864 describing two days of battle including the climactic charge of Confederate troops led by General George Pickett on the Union defense of Cemetery Ridge on the third day of battle. Others include descriptions of the battles of Fair Oaks, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chalcellorsville. Gift of Steven M. and Lori A. Gates
See moreDates
- Creation: 1861-1970
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Collection: 2.00 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Iowa Special Collections Repository
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City IA 52242 IaU
319-335-5921
319-335-5900 (Fax)
lib-spec@uiowa.edu