Information
Sheet
R Ryall, Richard Huston, 1836-1894.
499 Letters, 1863-1864.
One folder,
photocopies and typescripts.
These are Civil War letters of Richard
Ryall, 6th Missouri Cavalry, from New
Iberia, Louisiana. The letters, written to his brother, Isaac,
in Maries County, Missouri, concern war news and family matters including the
death of a brother in Union service.
With the letters are typescripts, a photograph of Ryall in uniform,
and a biographical sketch provided by the donor.
Richard H. Ryall was a native of Ireland. During the potato famine he came with his family
to the United States,
settling in 1857 on a farm near Vienna
in Maries County, Missouri. He enlisted
at Rolla in Co. K of the 6th Missouri Cavalry in March 1862,
and gained a
commission as second lieutenant of that company in November 1862. The 6th Missouri Cavalry
served under U. S.
Grant during the Vicksburg
campaign, then in the District of Eastern Arkansas, the Department of the
Gulf, and the District of Baton Rouge.
Richard H. Ryall was discharged at Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, on 22 February 1865.
Following the war, Ryall worked for the Barr-Duncan department store in St. Louis until
1869. In 1873, he joined other members
of his family in Marseilles, Illinois,
where they had moved after being forced out of Maries County
by turmoil caused by the war. He lived
in Marseilles
until his death in 1894.
Included with Richard Ryall’s letters is
one by his brother, Charles Ryall, to his mother. Charles was a member of the 1st Missouri
Artillery. He died of disease at Memphis, Tennessee, on 1 September 1863. His death is the subject of Richard Ryall’s
letter of 22 December 1863.
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