AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, FROM CAPTAIN AND AAG R.C. SHANNON, TO GENERAL THOMAS H. RUGER, SOLICITING HIS RECOMMENDATION FOR AN APPOINTMENT TO THE ORDINANCE BOARD, ADVISING OF THE DEPLOYMENT OF TROOPS, AND INFORMING HIM OF THE PROGRESS IN ORGANIZING THE 20TH U.S.C.T.

Rikers Island, Draft Rendezvous, New York, 1863. [4] pp, bifolium, written in neat ink manuscript on recto and verso of first leaf only. Two unused 3 cent postage stamps [portrait of G. Washington] in upper blank corner of first page. Fine.

The Letter is to General Ruger, although he is unnamed and addressed simply as "General." This is confirmed from Shannon's diary entry for December 30, 1863. The diary is held at Colby College. Shannon, who graduated from Colby in 1862, enlisted with the 5th Maine Volunteers, was captured at Chancellorsville, and imprisoned at Libby for 18 days.
Shannon writes, "I shall soon in all probability go before (truncated) the Ordinance Board for Examination for position in that Corps. Capt. Benet advised me to procure all the recommendations possible & it was with such a view that I troubled you .... We are very busy all the time. Our detachments go to Army of Potomac, Departments of the Gulf, Dept. of the South, but none to the Department of the Cumberland. Why is this? Possibly they think you have soldiers enough. I have all kinds of office work to do, & my clerks number over twenty. We shall soon go into barracks on Hart's Island very near Fort Scuylar further down the Harbor or rather 'Sound.' The 20th U.S.C.T. is organizing with us under the special patronage & care of the 'Union Leaguers' of New York city. It numbers about 700. (Inventory #: 37681)