A letter from Andersonville.

Israel Roach letter

The Town Archives holds thousands of letters—some business, some government, some personal. Nearly all have a clear connection to the town of New London, but here's a rare and fascinating exception.

Israel Roach of Danvers, Massachusetts, was 38 years old when he volunteered for the 35th Massachusetts Regiment in 1862. Most of his comrades were more than a dozen years younger. On May 24, 1864, he and eight others from the same regiment were captured at the battle of the North Anna River, Virginia.

They were taken first to Libby Prison in Richmond for processing, but after four days they were moved along with a thousand other prisoners (sixty-five men packed into each boxcar) to Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia. They arrived at noon on June 7, 1864 and struggled to find open ground on which to settle in the over-crowded prison.

One month later, Israel wrote this brief letter to his wife, Almira. Dated July 9, 1864, it begins:

...through the mercy of God I am well enough to write to you to day.... I have a strong hope to see you once more on the Earth, although the mortality is fearful here daily. If the government delay[s] paroling those men, there will be few... to transport in a few weeks.

The regimental history of the 35th Massachusetts Volunteers includes the following diary entry of Sgt. Henry Tinsdale on August 21, 1864:

Reverse, with death notice

The weather has been warm and very trying to sick and well. The death rate holds its own; three out of the ninety have died. Among them Israel Roach, of Company F, of our regiment. It was with tearful eyes we of the Thirty-Fifth bore his remains to the gate, pinned the scrap of paper denoting his name and regiment upon his breast, and delivered them to the stolid rebel guard. I have had many pleasant chats with him during our prison days. He had, I think, typhoid fever, and was delirious in his last hours. 

Two or three times a day now can be seen the "dead-wagon"—an old army wagon rigged with staves and railing, into which are piled our dead comrades, as a farmer would pile a load of wood — drawn by four mules around the south-west corner of the stockade to the final resting place. 

Israel Roach's letter was found among the papers of Oren D. Crockett, a New London resident with a keen interest in local and national history—but no known relation to the soldier.