Morris Island S.C. Aug. 21. 1863.

 

Your letter of the 12^th inst together with 2 papers of the 29^th ult. and 8^th inst. together with a letter from Mrs Hall and one from A. J. Fogg, I rec^d this noon; quite a mail for me. Horace's folks feel very bad about his death, and no wonder, situated as they are; they say considerable about his being sent home, which is an impossibility as he was probably buried at Hilton Head which is about sixty miles from here, and there is nobody there to see to it, and everybody here is kept at work night and day as long as they last, and then there is very little communication between here and the Head any way, probably to prevent news of any movement that may made here.

 

As Horace died in the General Hospital it is not probable that any one that knew him was near him when he died, as the nurses &c there are men sent there from different Regiments and I think the one that wrote to / Capt. Jackson was a perfect stranger, as he has probably been there before now he can tell them more about it than I can.

 

There is not much news to tell except that our batteries and gunboats are hammering away at Forts Wagner, Gregg, and Sumter; what effect they have on the two former we cannot say but Fort Sumter begins to look more like an old stone wall than like a nice looking Fort as it did when we first came in sight of it. At the present time the batteries appear to be doing more than the gunboats, as hardly any of them except the "New Ironsides" do anything at all.

 

The men are all dragged out, more than half those here in our Regiment are off duty and the rest look as if they ought to be. We have been on duty night and day since the 8^th of July sometimes 10 or 20 hours out of 24 and most all of the time from 12 to 15 hours with hardly a day of rest or night either, and yet Capt. Randlett who commands the / Regiment in Col Jackson's absence keeps us here, and it is said volunteers to do duty that is not required of us. I don't know how much of a Regiment he calculates to have by-and-by but it is growing smaller every day, that is of duty men. Our Company has lost 4 men by death since we came here viz. James J Locke who was killed the day we landed here, Melville C. Howard who was wounded July 12^th and died the 17^th, Horace J. Hall who died the same day July 19^th, and Booth Kaye who died yesterday (20^th Aug.) of dysentery. Full half the Company are on the sick list. My health has somewhat improved of late though I have not been on duty yet. I may go on in a few days if nothing new sets in.

 

I have written you I believe what I wanted sent in my box and how I wanted the things fixed, so I will not write anything more about it; if the things had gone you need not fret about it as I can get them fixed here just as well.

 

Fogg sent a list of the drafted men in his letter, you were right about Bell and Morrill / being two of them; I should like to see a good part of them in the Army, as they are young able-bodied men who have no more excuse for not coming into the fight than thousands that are in it now.

 

I am sorry to hear that the 15^th Regiment came back in such a bad state, it seems too bad after getting through a campaign so well to be poisoned by bad water.

 

Give my thanks to Mr Carter for cutting those shirts, and my respects to all who enquire for me.

 

I believe I wrote you that I sent $15.00 to Horace's folks by Capt. Jackson; I have since sold between $2.00 and $3.00 worth of stuff there is little more to sell I took the liberty to sell the contents of the box his folks sent last, and some other things that would be useless to them and which would bring more money here than at home.

 

Fogg writes that Mrs. Hall has signed the certificate for me to receive Horace's effects but she did not send it to me; of course it will be of no effect unless I get it. Probably she forgot to send it, and I dont wonder she did, it will do as well if she sends it next time.

 

Yours in haste—

J. W. Clement

 

P.S. 22^d Nothing new to-day

 

Mr John Clement                                            

            Exeter N.H.

SOURCES