Lot 1006

COL. SOLON Z. RUFF DESCRIBES ROBBING THE YANKEE DEAD AT SEVEN PINES

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Lot 1006
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COL. SOLON Z. RUFF DESCRIBES ROBBING THE YANKEE DEAD AT SEVEN PINES
COL. SOLON Z. RUFF DESCRIBES ROBBING THE YANKEE DEAD AT SEVEN PINES
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COL. SOLON Z. RUFF DESCRIBES ROBBING THE YANKEE DEAD AT SEVEN PINES

Estimate: $600 - $800

Current Bid: $300

(1 Bid)
by Alexander Historical Auctions LLC
July 31, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
106 East Main Street, Suite 103
Elkton, MD, US 21921

COL. SOLON Z. RUFF DESCRIBES ROBBING THE YANKEE DEAD AT SEVEN PINES
SOLON Z. RUFF (1837-1863) Confederate colonel who led the 18th Georgia Infantry as part of John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade at the Seven Days Battles, Second Bull Run and Antietam, and as part of Wofford's Brigade at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, but was killed in action while assaulting Fort Sanders. Rare, very fine content war-date A.L.S., 4pp. legal folio, Lynchburg, June 14, 1862, to his father. Ruff writes shortly after the battle of Seven Pines on the outskirts of Richmond and provides a fine eyewitness account of its aftermath, in large part: ‘…We left Richmond two days ago and have been here and on the road ever since. Moving very slowly in consequence of the meagreness of transportation on the Stanton R. R. and the number of troops ahead of us. We are on the road to reinforce Old Stone Wall [Jackson]who is said to be at no great distance from Stanton. Quite a number of troops have passed here on the way to him but I do not know the number nor do I believe any else does short of some of the Brig Generals. Every thing is kept perfectly dark as to Stone Wall's movements… or force. There is much speculation about the object of this move, but it is all speculation. Perhaps about the best solution is, the fight at Richmond proved that all the troops we had there were not needed in the defence, and Jackson wanted more they sent us along. You know as much about the fight at Seven Pines by this time as I do. For the first two or three days we anxiously sought the Richmond papers for information about our own fight. No man knew more than just what he happened to see or do and it was impossible for any of us to pass down the lines news hunting. We all thought on Sunday morning we were going to have this great battle. We had done about enough on Saturday to initiate the Young Napoleon [George B. McClellan], and of course he would martial his hosts and ‘clean us up' the next morning. We were posted on the edge of a pine thicket and just in good rifle range of a skirt of woods in possession of the enemy. The night before the men lay in line of battle in an open field where the ground was very damp and they had no blankets. The night was very cold and the poor fellows – most of whom were thinly clad – had to stack – I don't know exactly how they did it but in the stack they looked very much like a pile of hogs on a winter night. After midnight I was awakened by some one, (I slept of my new English saddle blanket) and looking towards the battle field I saw a great number of small lights passing about in every direction. I asked some one what it meant and they said it was the Yankee camp. I looked at them for awhile and thought to myself that the scamps must be very bold to be passing about in that manner after receiving such a drubbing as they had. The next morning, a half hour before daylight, I learned the solution of my mystery. It was our men pillaging the Yankee camp. About the first thing they found was a box of candles and each one lit him one and went to work searching for curiosities and when I went around to awake them to prepare for the days work they were all comfortably wraped up in Yankee blankets and protected from the damp earth by Yankee India rubber clothes. Most of them had changed haversacks and appropriated portfolios filled with letters and all kinds of fancy stationary. Some of the letters were very amusing but the common people of the North are heartily sick of the war. The boys tore them open by the bushel and left them scattered all over the woods. As much as our men desire curiosities and relics, they did not dare touch a thing while the fight was going on. They passed right over dead and wounded officers and left fine swords, pistols, matches &&c entirely unmolested. There were men however who followed just in the wake of the advance forces and rifled the pockets of any dead man they found. Their gastly countenances lay turned up every where and almost all of them had their pockets wrongside out. Scores of citizens and negroes flocked to the ground to gather plunder and all went back loaded, some with horses and mules some with guns pistols &c some with blankets and clothing and some with commissary stores, all hands in high glee. But just before they got into the city with their booty a slight arrangement cast a damper over their exhilarated spirits. Gen [Gustavus W.] Smith was simple enough to post a guard on the road with instructions to make every body to lay their plunder down for Governmental purposes. Some got mad, some cussed, some looked blank , some remonstrated and told how hard it was to take the things away from them that they had packed so far. But the sentinel was deaf and only answered ‘Well lay it down'. It is useless to try to tell you half the little incidents that occurred though they are all interesting. This fight has proved conclusively that our men can whip Yankees two to one all the time. Nothing saved them from a most disastrous defeat but their earthworks. It has been asked why Gen. [Joseph E.] Johnston allowed them to fortify on this side of the Chickahominy. The answer is we could not help it. I know from experience that a regiment can throw up earth enough in a single night to shield them from either shot or shell effectively. I have in half a day and in the rain, made my position so strong that I would have been willing to fight five times my number. The Yankees will never offer a field fight at Richmond. We would not have gotten as good a one as we did if we had not attacked them suddenly and unexpectedly and then fought them in their trenches. In fact, their surprise was perfect as could be seen from the condition of their camps. Every thing lay scattered about as if it had been left in a hurry. We passed a tent in which two or three dead men had been laid out, their hands crossed and their feet tied together but they did not have time to cover them up in their blankets. The surgeons had to leave some of their wounded with their wounds undressed or only partially dressed. Large quantities of commissary stores seemed to have been just unloaded. Whisky barrels stood around in abundance, some of them were leaking out through bullet holes. The camps I passed through were new ones and the prettiest I ever saw. The tents were portable and made of fine sail duck and India Rubber cloth… The scamps had every thing that an army could wish and yet they ran off and left it. But the bullet holes through the tents and the dead and wounded piled around showed that they had a cause for leaving. All the prisoners we got were half drunk and the dead smelt very strongly of whisky… [all sic]' The final part of the letter is crosswritten on the last and first pages, and Ruff signs vertically ‘S. Z. Ruff' in black ink on the first page. Shows original mailing folds, with some splits thereto repaired with archival tape, otherwise in very good overall condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000