EATON, William Arnold.
William Arnold Eaton Autograph Letter Signed.
"Churchill has promised me in this case to get me some job with the troops at the front...": Rare Autograph Letter Signed by William Arnold Eaton
Natal, South Africa: Durban Club, March 22, 1900.
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Rare autograph letter signed by General William Arnold Eaton. Octavo, four pages on Durban Club stationary, the letter reads in part, "22 March 1900 My dear mama, I go back tomorrow to join the 19th...Churchill has promised me in this case to get me some job with the troops at the front, he is going to ask Lord Dundonald to take me temporary as his staff as an extra...galloper, that is if anything important is going on but every thing seems very quiet..." Captain Eaton served in South Africa 1900-1902, led the first foreign United States military victory at the Battle of Derne by capturing the Tripoli subject city of Derne in support of the restoration of the local monarch, Hamet Caramelli. He also gave testimony at the treason trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr. In this letter to his mother, he mentions Churchill who had returned to South Africa in January to take Pretoria and relieve the Siege of Ladysmith. In very good condition with light toning, mail folds, and vertical creasing. Accompanied by a 1995 reprint of Churchill's speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March 1946.
Anticipating the outbreak of the Second Boer War between Britain and the Boer republics at the end of 1899, Churchill sailed to South Africa as a journalist for the Morning Post. While traveling to the conflict zone near Ladysmith, he was besieged by Boer troops, captured as a prisoner of war and interned in a POW camp in Pretoria. Two months later, Churchill escaped and found safety in Portuguese East Africa, returning to the army in January of 1900 as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse regiment, joining Redvers Buller's fight to relieve the Siege of Ladysmith and take Pretoria.
William Arnold Eaton Autograph Letter Signed.
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