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Soldier\'s Letter Cover, ca. 1862, George Boss, 15th Massachusetts Volunteers, Sandy Hook, Maryland.
- Addressed to:George H. Boss,Fitchburg, Letter,Geo. Baldwin,Adj\'t 15th Mass. Vols.
- SANDY HOOK circular datestamp
- DUE 3 circular handstamp
- Envelope only, no letter
This letter may have been written by Gettysburg soldier George L. Boss [1841-1863] to his father George H. Boss [1819–1902].
George L. Boss was a 19-year-old private from Fitchburg who enlisted in Company B of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in July 1861. In 1862, he and his regiment fought in major campaigns of the Union Army of the Potomac.Sandy Hook, Maryland served as a strategic outpost, encampment, and transit point for elements of the Army of the Potomac. Boss was later fatally wounded at Gettysburg in July 1863 and is interred there (Plot D-10). A print of George L. Boss will be included with the cover [envelope].
From data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"578\">Boss, 19, lived with his parents and younger siblings in Fitchburg when he enlisted in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry in July 1861. During the brutal march north to Gettysburg, Boss fell out of the ranks, but rejoined his regiment by the late afternoon of July 2, when the 15th was thrown forward to the Emmitsburg Road as part of a forlorn hope to stop the Rebel advance. During the short but sharp combat, Boss received an ugly wound to his hip from a shell that may have been fired by a Union battery blasting away at the Confederates from Cemetery Hill.
Taken from the field to the Jacob Schwartz farm, which served as the field hospital for his division, he awaited treatment. Overwhelmed surgical staff could not keep up with the influx of wounded. A comrade remembered that early on the morning of Independence Day, Boss had yet to received medical attention. He wrapped himself in a blanket and crawled over to a campfire for warmth and quietly passed away.
Boss’s parents erected a cenotaph in his honor in the family plot at Fitchburg’s Laurel Hill Cemetery. It reads: “Killed in Battle, Buried at Gettysburg.”
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