William Barrett Pease papers

William B. Pease was the son of Thomas Huntington Pease (1815-1890), a New Haven bookseller. After enlisting as a private in the 15th infantry regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 8th regiment of U.S. Colored Troops in 1862. The regiment served in Florida for a time and was then transferred to Virginia where it was one of the first units of the Union Army to enter Petersburg. After the war he went with the regiment to Brownsville, Texas to assist in restoring order. In 1867 he received a commission as First Lieutenant in the 11th regiment of the regular army. The only letter in the collection connected with his service with the Colored Troops is one in folder one from Samuel Chapman Armstrong dated 1879 July 3. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, offers Pease a position at the Institute, but these is no further information on the subject in the papers. Of the later events in Pease's life, little has been recorded. For a time he served as Captain at Fort Omaha, Nebraska and from at least 1899 until his death he 1903 he lived in Samobor, Austria. Pease married Mary Frances Cook and was the father of four girls. The letters from non-family members are mainly concerned with his investments in real estate and railroads, financial notes and mortgages, and army supplies.