Collection is open for research.
Permission to publish material from Charles M. Cassell Letter must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Charles M. Cassell Letter, Ms2012-018, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
The collection was purchased by Special Collections in February 2012.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Charles M. Cassell Letter was completed in June 2012.
Charles M. Cassell was born about 1842/3 to Joseph and Susan Cassell. He had at least 5 siblings. He served with Companies F and K of the 4th Virginia Reserves as a private and mustered out as a sergeant. Sometime before 1867, he married Mary C. ?. They had at least 9 children and farmed in Wythe Co, Va.
The collection consists of a letter from C. M. Cassell to his aunt, Fannie Yonce of Wytheville, VA. Written from Dublin, VA in November 1864, Cassell's letter describes living conditions at Camp Dublin, his desire for a furlough, Confederate and Union desertions, as well as attempts to retrieve the deserters. Cassell says that "Gen. Lee has ishued [sic] a proclamation that all that would run away he would give a free transportation through the lines."