Deep-pocketed collectors take note: A nine-page letter in crisp condition dated December 20, 1877 from General Joseph Hooker to General Henry Shippen Huidekoper of the Pennsylvania National Guard will come up for auction next month. More info here.
Hooker writes in part, Until the War of the Rebellion, I had been made to believe that the strength of a military power lay in its trained troops, and my conviction remained unchanged until the battle of Williamsburg...In that fight the greater part of my troops were under fire for the first time, and many of whom, I have no doubt, had never before heard the report of the discharge of a musket, and yet they went into battle at the earliest dawn, at one time engaged with unusual violence, and stuck to it until night came.... 
As for books on this battle, there is to the best of my knowledge, but one book-length study devoted exclusively to this engagement. That would be A Pitiless Rain: The Battle of Williamsburg, 1862, written by Earl C. and David S. Hastings. I have not read it though noted author Noah Andre Trudeau has described it as "a little gem of a combat history."
Such lengthy, detailed letters from famous major generals rarely come on the market and when they do, the bidding is usually heavy. Much of Hooker's papers are gathered at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. I wonder if their representatives will be going after this item?
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