Camp 13^th N. H. Vols near Portsmouth Va June 17^th 1863

 

Dear Wife I am on picket today on the railroad about one hundred yards from camp towards Portsmouth and thinking you might like to hear from Dixie once more I seat myself on the ground to write a few lines to you. I am enjoying my usual good health with the exception of a slight cold that I caught by lying down in the shade or walking in the sun or thinking of N.H. I don't know which but I know I have got the cold no matter how I got it. Well Frank Foss wrote to me the other day that Jere was going to get those boots done to send this week and I hope he will for I begin to want them and I cant keep my boots on my feet much longer. Well from where I sit I can hear some guns in the direction of Newport News and I guess it must be some of the Iron Clads for the guns sound very hevey. Well the 16^th Connecticut Volunteers moved down here from Suffolk last night and they say that Suffolk is going to be evacuated by the union troops soon they brought a 12 inch siege gun down with them on the cars and left it at the fort that we have been building and I hear that they are going to bring the rest of the hevey guns at Suffolk down here to put them in these forts round here for when Suffolk is evacuated they must fall back on this line of fortifications and they are getting this line of fortifications very strong and if we can have a month longer here before we are attackted we shall get it so that our Division (3^rd Division of the 9^th Army Corps) can hold it against fifty thousand of the Rebels. By the way they have just brought four more siege guns in on the cars from Suffolk and left them at this station. They are 68 pound Parrot and Dahlgreen guns (Lem is at his usual work of joggling me) and will be apt to make a noise / when they are fired if nothing more. Well I saw Governer Gilmores message the other day and it seems by the reading of that that there will be no draft in N. H. even if there is a call for more men because the quota of N. H. is more than filled at present by reckoning the last two regiments of three years men (the 13^th & 14^th) as equal to four Regiments each of 9 months men and if that is the case I shall pretty soon begin to consider myself equal to four common men at least. Well the 10^th N. H. Vols have to drill four hours in a day and do fatigue four hours and a half to pay them for being drunk so much. By the way the other day they had over one hundred of them under guard for getting hot down to Norfolk. Well there is any quantity of chance to see some of the beauties of Norfolk even here on this post for all or nearly all of the negro girls that belong down there come up past here with stuff to sell and we have quite an amount of sport with them. There is a fellow on the post with me from Co C 13^th N.H. that talks to them and you should hear them laugh. (yah yah Darkies Laugh wid me). Well I have just arrested two negroes that belonged to the wagon train and then went after the wagon master and he came down and gave somewhat of a setting up for trying to leave camp without his orders. He says he can not do anything with the "Damned black scoundrels" and he is going to tie them up and let them stand at the wagon wheel all night if they dont do better. Well I should like to see Col Stevens take us out and drill us as Lieut Col Cocklin of the Tenth does them and see if he could get any work out of us when he took us out on the fort or road to work. Well it is rumored that we are to move from here sometime this week and I heard today that we were going to Maryland and I hope we shall go there for I should like to see the place very well 

 

Well I shall have to write you a short letter this time because I can think of nothing to write unless I wait till tomorrow and finish it then. By the way how do you get along down there in that school oh how I should like to be there for a few moments if no more just to see if you look as you used to look before you was married you know I have not seen you hardly since you were married. Well it is getting to be almost sunset and I shall have to stop and go up to camp for a few moments so here is love for you and a kiss and a hope that I shall see you soon from your husband Joseph H.

 

Thursday afternoon June 18^th 1863 My Dear Hannah I am trying to finish my letter this afternoon and while I am writing the boys are drawing their whiskey and are making considerable noise because there is no more of it. Well I got relieved from Picket at about ten o'clock this morning and should have finished this letter before but it was so awful hot that I had not courage enough to begin before and the flies are so thick that it is with difficulty that I can write now. Well by the way I must tell you about our meeting house it is built of poles and pine boughs and is about 25 by 30 feet and will accomodate all that goes or wants to go for we are growing rather impious out here. Well we have been at work digging a well at the head of the company and all the way we can dig is to take a barrell and put down and shovel out inside and let the barrel sink down and then put another one on top of that and serve that in the same way and in that way we have got seven barrels sunk and have struck the hard ground so that we cant go any further so we shall have to stop and call the well all dug. Well they have brought down some more guns from Suffolk today / one one hundred pounder three forty eight pounders five twenty pound rifles and two hundred pound howitzers and if they keep on at this rate we shall soon have all of the Suffolk guns down here. Well I dont think that we shall stay here a great while longer any way and I begin to want to move from here for we have been here about long enough but I am in hopes that those boots will come before we move because I shall want them. Well I shall expect a letter from you tomorrow as I generally get one every Friday and have ever since I have been here and should like to get one from you every day but I always try and write you two letters every week each Sunday and Wednesday. Well I wish I could put myself in a letter and come home in the mail and stop while I could get back the same way I guess I would try Billy Hawkinse's plan and see if I could not make folks believe that I had a lame knee. By the way I have not heard from him since I was at Camp Casey and then I wrote to him and sent Mr Adamse's receipt for a cure for his leg I supose you remember what that was dont you. Well Billy was awful mad and has not written to Lem or I since that time. Well we get some thing to read most every day and we have got a book entitled the "Mysterious Marriage" and we like it pretty well. I would send you some of them but as quick as we get them read somebody else wants them and we have to let them go for the sake of getting some more of them. Well Ed is eating his supper and has got some butter and is enjoying himself first rate eating dry bread and butter. Well Ed and Lem sends their love to you so give my love to all write as soon as convenient and here is love and a kiss for you and I remain your faithful husband and well wisher Joseph H. Prime

 

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By the way I send you a piece of a Rebels overcoat that I cut off of a dead rebels overcoat May 3^rd in the fight at Suffolk

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