Valentine Chamberlain Letters (Union officer)
Captain Valentine Chamberlain, of New Britain, Conn., served in Florida with the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers as part of the Union force that cleared the Confederate batteries on the St. Johns River in October 1862. This group of letters is principally of note because of Chamberlain’s description of the action on the St. Johns River and his account of his visit to St. Augustine. Chamberlain returned to New Britain after the war. See also “A Letter of Captain V. Chamberlain 7th Connecticut Volunteers,” The Florida Historical Quarterly 15:2 (Oct. 1936):85-95 and “’Southern Rights’ and Yankee Humor: A Confederate-Federal Jacksonville Newspaper,” The Florida Historical Quarterly, 34:1 (July 1955):30-35.