Camp Near Downesville Md.

Oct. 30. 1862

                       

Dear Sister,

                                                Your letter of the 19^th was received exactly one week afterwards with the greatest pleasure imaginable. I had begun to think I was forgotten entirely, it had been so long since you had written, but I am afraid you will begin to think the same of me if I do not begin on a letter before long. I should have answered yours the next day after it was received if we had remained in camp, but we were off bright and early in the morning and since then when there has been any spare time I have been mending my clothes, or getting the rust off my gun that collected on it in the rain storm last Sunday while on picket. 

 

We are now back in our old camp at Downesville where we started from two weeks ago nearly. It seemed like getting back home again to march into the old grove again. The regiment is in the same spot that we were in before we left though the different Co's hold different positions from what it did. on account of Captain Dyer's being assigned as Major to the twelveth R.I. Co I is now the second Co. in line of promotion and holds the left of the line. before we were the third or color co. the next promotion will place our co on the right. if that is ever done, and if Gen Devens is elected Governor of Mass. our Col. will probably be Brigadier in his place. He is a pretty smart man in a military point of view according to my ideas, and I know he is consulted very often by officers above him in rank in matters relating to whatever business there is on hand that is rather puzzling Our Lieut Col. is very apt to make many mistakes, which he always will acknowledge when convinced of his error. he is a good man though he has got an awful temper. 

 

I guess now that I will look your letter over again so as to see what there is in it that needs particular attention. My rags are not quite so bad as some of the others but they are bad enough And I have not seen any patches on them yet nine deep. Our clothing has not arrived only a small portion of it. About five suits to a company did get to us one day last week. these were given to the most destitute. some men had no pants at all. Jo Wood is alive and kicking yet, though I am afraid we are going to lose him. He has been trying for the last six months to get an appointment in the Navy. He begun to feel a little discouraged about ever getting one, but the other day he received a paper from the War Department in relation to it which he let me read. All that he has now to do is to get a recommendation from his last Capt and then put his papers through to Washington when he will be assigned to some gunboat as Acting Masters Mate, pay forty dollars a month rations and clothing. I should hate to have him leave the worst kind because he is a good likely fellow, and I get a good many good turns from him. 

 

Sergeant Hawkins the one you wrote of in your letter is in the Hospital in Chester Pa. close by Philadelphia sick of rheumatism and of the regiment too. he will not come back until he is well I'll warrant. But few men were lost while I was away though a good many sick were sent away Albert Davis and Thomas Barker both corporals in co I. died while I was away, and Albert Stone private, also. Then Seth has gone I could not hardly make it seem so at first. What deaths that family of boys have died, all of them miserable. Then Tot has got a family fairly started growing up around him it must seem odd to see him with a wife and child what is he doing for a living I dont hear any thing about him or Hi. How come Pa to owe Ben Bates so much is it a part of that he owed for the Jed place. How near is he out of debt for that place now I should like to be at home to go chesnuting with you this fall. we dont get any up here in the mountains but we have a good many English walnuts. Yes I should like a box either kind would suit me first though I would prefer the kind Ma used to give / us provided I could be at home to receive it. It would not be safe to send a box to me here in the present condition of our means of transportation. Over two hundred boxes came here about three weeks ago for the men some of which had been on the road three months all the eatables of course were all spoiled. But I will tell you what I would like to have sent to me the first chance you can get. that is a pair of woolen mittens with the fore finger on the same as on a glove. send by mail it will not cost more than six cents. send them as quick as you can for the nights are getting to be pretty cold. You wrote a while ago about sending a paper to me. it has never come and I believe there is a letter still back. I think you might omit until further orders to put on the brigade and division on your directions. Just simply the Co and regiment, and Washington D.C. I believe they will come more direct. I should like to eat some of that premium cheese but am afraid I cant unless Ma keeps it a good long while. Ma will get the first premium or braid I know I did not think when I sent those seeds home that the fruit would / be carried to an exhibition. I should think they were too common at the North to attract much attention I heard of them years ago. You say you are afraid there will be a good many mean lazy men when the war is over. You never said a truer thing in your life you have no idea how mean they are getting in this regiment and in this co too. some of the members of this co. knocked a man down while we were in Hancock and robbed him of his money. they will steal anything they can lay hands on, and the Captain lets it all go unless he is obliged to take notice of it. there will be awful times at home when this army is discharged you may make up you mind on that. I found a watch and chain this morning in a lot close to the camp it was running when I found it. it is a detached lever full jewelled. the owner can have it by proving property. How is Grandmother getting along now I have not heard anything of her in a good while. I got to thinking last night about the times we used to have there Sundays when George used to come there and always at about eight oclock Granny would bring up some apples for us to eat Pa and I got to feeling pretty blue them times have gone forever. /

 

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Where is Ham now that he dont write tell him to hurry up I would rather have some woolen mittens than my gloves you sent last winter they are too bungling around a gun and are not any warmer than mittens. A man in Co F got killed Monday by one of his own company.

 

I have took a notion to send you a diary of what happens from day to day perhaps I shall get out of the notion as suddenly as I got into it.           

L.C.C.

 

[diary pages follow: dates are those printed on the pages]

 

[Wednesday, October 16, 1861.]

We have been on division guard to day come off at three o'clock. we were lucky in being on today for at dark a thunder shower came up and I guess it will rain all night When we got into camp we found Parkhurst had been remodeling over the tent it is now a little longer but not quite so high. There will be a little more room in it now room enough so our feet will not stick outdoors I bought some first rate bread to day and got a pound of butter to go with for which I paid thirty cents. butter is almost impossible to get_x

 

[Thursday, October 17, 1861.]

Its as clear and cold this morning as anyone could wish to have it. it feels good to get into the shade after the morning drill I went to cleaning my gun up in shape I had a couple of letters this afternoon one from Moore in Penn. who used to be in my ward in Annapolis and was discharged. he writes as though he felt pretty discouraged about his leg ever getting well again The other was from Volney Towers, the letter was worth a dollar though it made me feel a little homesick to hear from all the boys there in the Hospital having so good times_x

 

[Friday, October 18, 1861]

We have no drill to day on account of its being Saturday but it is expected of us to appear on inspection tomorrow with guns shining like polished silver and our equipments all in the best possible condition. Sundown has come and with it orders to get ready to march. this is the third time we have received the same orders in a week. we started at sundown and marched almost exactly north until we reached Williamsport we stopped here an hour then went on in a NNW direction at twelve oclock we reached Clear Springs where we stayed all night in a cornfield_x

 

[Saturday, October 19, 1861.]

We started this morning from our camp at clear springs about an hour after sunrise the men felt bunged up pretty bad after their last nights march. at noon we made a long halt at a place called Indian springs. in the afternoon we kept on with our march. along the Chesapeake and Ohio canal we had a good road all the way towards night my feet ached so it seemed as if I could not step on them and my shoulders got as sore as a bile from carrying the gun. about sundown we got to Hancock and camped. after supper I made a first rate bed and had got almost to sleep when we had to get up and go out on picket_x

 

[Sunday, October 20, 1861.]

We got a pretty cool place last night for guard. it was on the bank of the canal between it and the river the canal at this place is about fifty feet above the river, and the wind blowed through our rags cool as a cucumber. the pickets were stationed ten yards apart with orders to let no one come across from the Virginia side.

this morning the sun came up warm and pleasant though the wind was as cold as though it come off from a snow bank. a part of the sixty second Penn. regiment waded the river this afternoon to do guard duty along the railroad. I had a first rate dinner to day in the village we got relieved about four oclock_x

 

[Monday, October 21, 1861.]

We got routed up out of a good sound sleep at twelve oclock last night and had to start on the march. we took the back track towards Williamsport and halted about sunrise in the woods about a mile beyond Indian Springs we staid here all day. We have had breakfast and that is all we have had to eat except apples and walnuts. Our knapsacks and shelter tents came up today so we have got something to sleep under. it rained a little in the evening. The camp has been the stillest one today I ever saw the men have most all slept through the day A year ago to day was the battle of Balls Bluff_x

 

[Tuesday, October 22, 1861.]

I got up this morning at about half past seven and cooked me a quart cup full of beans and ate them. at noon I got a dinner at a farm house which filled me up about full_x About four oclock we packed up our things and waded through the Potomac and camped in Virginia for the night. I took off shoes and stockings, rolled up my breeches legs as high as I could get them and struck out into the water, gosh! the water was just like ice but my feet burned like peppercorns when I got across the water was about knee deep I heard the Col. just say our advance had captured 18 prisoners_x

 

[Wednesday, October 23, 1861.]

We got orders to recross the river this morning at sunrise and go back into Maryland As we were getting on to the side of the river and rolling down our breeches legs, orders came for us to remain on the Virginia side, but Col. Wheaton said he was not going back now we had got across, so we came back to the same place we had started from yesterday. We have got plenty to eat now. My feet felt like wooden ones when I came out of the water this morning but after I put my stockings on they grew warm as mustard_x

 

[Thursday, October 24, 1861.]

I have washed up my shirts and towels today in the canal. we wash our hands and faces and all our clothing in the same spot in the canal where we get water to drink and to cook with. it tastes well enough and is I suppose good enough for us but the folks at home would think they would look some where else for water to use about the house we have lots of wood here and we get up some pretty big fires around our tents_x

 

[Friday, October 25, 1861.]

The wind blows like the old Harry to day and its cold too. it is a little cloudy and looks as if it might make up a storm.

At one oclock co. I went out on picket about two miles and a half down the river. Major Parker is Brigade Officer of the day our company pickets connect with the cavalry pickets still lower down. there is only five posts for us to day and the men are relieved every hour, so there will be six hours off duty to one on. We started a flock of wild turkeys towards night_x

 

[Saturday, October 26, 1861.]

It begun to rain in the morning about four oclock Parkhurst Corey and I had made our beds under the fence the night before but we got up and moved under an old draw bridge on the side of the canal and slept dry till morning. It has rained most all the time to day but sometimes the rain fell in showers very fast my rubber blanket kept me dry until we were relieved and started for camp when the wind kept it off my shoulders and my arms got wet. we were lucky to find a dry tent to sleep in when we got back to camp_x

 

[Sunday, October 27, 1861.]

It rained all night fast. About five olcock I heard the order come to the Col. to get the men up and have them cook their breakfast so as to be ready to march at seven. I could have bit a board nail in two if it would have done any good but it would not so we had to leave we went to Williamsport about ten miles. On the way a couple fellows got to quarrelling about some little thing when one of them struck the other over the head with his gun which caused his death in about an hour or two_x

 

[Monday, October 28, 1861.]

It has been a mighty cold day in camp to day, and but little wood for us to make fires with_x The men are in a sweat to day about enlisting in the fifth regular cavalry a recent order from the War Department allowing Volunteers to enlist in the regular cavalry. some of the men think they can go there and serve out the rest of there three years and then be free. I should like to go there myself, but they dont catch me in no such trap as that, three years will be enough to satisfy me without having 18 months extra to serve_x

 

[Tuesday, October 29, 1861.]

The wind has blown like the old Harry all day to day and where it has a fair sweep it is pretty cold This forenoon Charley and I went off and got some sticks to build a tent with and when we got to camp again we were under marching orders so we did not put one up. About three in the afternoon we packed up and started towards Downesville which place we reached a little before sundown we are now on our old camping ground_x

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