Autograph Letter Signed. Union Soldier. Date hard to read but probably Nov. 15, 1861

Written on the first 2 1/2 pages of a lined personal-sized sheet that had been folded to form 4 pages. 28 cm. Two later horizontal folds for mailing. Modest splitting at bottom of vertical fold. Soiling on blank final page. Dunnovan., a drummer in Company G, 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, was stationed at Annapolis and under the command of a Captain Walker. Dunnovan reports hearing firing of guns from the Potomac to celebrate the successful landing of the fleet in South Carolina -- probably the capture of Port Royal Sound on November 7th -- and that his unit was expecting to go with the next fleet that sails from Annapolis. He observes: "there is lots of n[word]s. I have a gay old time with them dancing and singing all nights in the week we go to meeting on Sunday to a n[word] meeting house." He adds a note at the end reporting that the Fitchburg Company, also guarding the railroad, found 20 contraband rifles "secreted in a piano forte nothing was in it but the keys were left in it to avoid suspicion.".…