Group of Thirteen Letters from Wife to Husband who was Captured at Gettysburg

A touching and historically significant group consisting of thirteen letters (with full transcriptions) and two letter covers written by a wife to her husband, Edward Charles Parker, while he was a prisoner of war after being captured at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. The collection also includes a rare Gettysburg Veteran Badge associated with Parker.
 
Parker, a Buffalo, New York resident, enlisted in January 1862 as 1st Sergeant in Company E of the 94th New York Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant (September 1862), then Captain (December 1863 and again March 1865), and served in Companies E, D, and I. Captured on the first day at Gettysburg, he was held at Libby Prison in Richmond and later at Macon, Georgia. He was paroled on March 14, 1865, and mustered out as Captain on July 18, 1865, in Washington, D.C.
The 94th New York Infantry fought in the I Corps (First Corps), Army of the Potomac, and suffered heavy losses at Gettysburg (12 killed, 58 wounded, and 175 captured or missing out of roughly 445 men engaged). The heartfelt letters from his wife provide a personal window into the anxiety and daily struggles on the home front during his captivity, while the Gettysburg Veteran Badge serves as a proud postwar memento of his survival and service in one of the war’s bloodiest battles.
 
This ensemble is a compelling Civil War artifact group that combines personal correspondence with a veteran’s commemorative badge tied directly to the Battle of Gettysburg.