Address                                  

            Tompkinsville P.O.    

            Co. G. Camp Washington

Staten Island

Nov 21^st 1861

 

Dear Sister

            I wish to inform you of my location at the present time so that I may hear from you occasionly I have been here about two weeks and have written two letters and recd. four I would inform you also that I am employing myself first-rate a plenty to eat and drink and the wherewith to keep warm I presume that I have seen many things during the last two weeks that I would probably have never seen had I not taken the course / that I have I have been over to N.Y. twice yes three times once with our company giving respectable honors to the death of one of our officers and we had the pleasure of seeing the inside of quite a splendid church The entrance of the church was lighted with gas in the day time so that you can imagine that we have passed through purgatory We had preaching last Sabath in camp by our Chaplin he is an Episcopalian I believe & he reads his prayers and he is going to make the soldiers a present of a prayer book each

 

I recd. a letter from Pa and Mary last evening Mary feels bad to think that I am going to war but I hope that the letter that I have written her will allay her / fears I wrote to her that I belonged to an Engineer Regiment and we were calculated more for work than fighting Such as building forts bridges and cutting the way for the army We have the promise of 19 dollars per month I am pretty much over the rhumatism I guess

 

I like our drill exersize firstrate if I ever get home again I mean to have a home guard in the place where I stop

 

The boys are telling so many stories to night that it is almost impossible to write will you excuse me this time with the promise of doing better next time We may leave for the far South in 8 or 10 days please write as soon as you can and oblige your

                                                                                   

Afft. brother James

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