Washington Oct 26^th 1862

 

Dear Father i received your letter yester day and was very glad to hear from you but am very sorry to hear that Henry is sick i hope he is not dangerous you sayed you wanted to have me write oftener i have wrote two or three letters to you since i heard from you you must excuse me for not writing any oftener for i have to be at work on the fort from 7 untill 4 oclock and when we are not on the fort we are on the brest works there is 86 forts in one chane the furtherest north is Fort Marshal and the fartherest south is Fort Ellsworth / that is from Baltimore to Alexandry then we are that is the soldiers are a going to throw up a brest work so as to link all of the forts to gether so you sea we have some thing to do we have a good healthy place to encamp and the boys are generaly helthy the capt was down to the capitol the other day and he sayes the city is full of officers and the jeneral opinion is that the warr will soon be setteled the officers are coming and going to all parts of the united states and capt sayes him selfe that he thinks we will all be home in 6 months he sayes every thing looks brighter / now than he expected it would 2 months ago we have a great dissatisfaction to the Colonel all through the Reg and some body yester morning shot from the woods close by at him and the ball struck within about 3 or 4 ft from him and as luck would have it he was out on the post and fell when trying to save him selfe from falling on his lame arm he broke the same arm that he put out of joint the day we came from washington so you sea he has very bad luck he makes the men work every day on the fort and then sundays he wants them to clean up the ground &c but / boys does not sea the point The Colonel has not been to sea about getting any Chaplain and the chapel tent that was gave to us in Bridgeport has been blown down and torn in two the Colonel had it roald up and that is the end of all christianity he will soon play out i think

 

we have no sick of any account the doctor sayes we are very helthy there is one man died in Co I yesterday he had been sick for a long time in fact was when he enlisted you must excuse this writing for i have no chance write as often as you can i have got no stamps so you will have to pay for this your selfe my love to all

 

From your sone WAClark

 

[front top margin upside down]

 

write and let me know how henry gets along Sam is asleep it rains here and has done since 8 oclock this morning

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