Fortress Monroe, Va July 19. 1863

 

My Dear Friend

                                    Enclosed is a note for $2.00 against one John Oldham a man who was in the 6^th Regiment. Please send him a letter telling him to call at your office and settle. When he calls tell him that Lt. Bickford left some bills with you to collect when he went away—letting him know that I am at the Fort—and among others this against him (it is balance on some shoes) and ask him if he wishes to pay it. You need not sue him. I do not know as you could on that note as it is not in form but I expect he does not know anything about that. I think he will pay it without any question. I want it paid but did not see him before I came away, to ask him for it. He is inclined to be gingerly and so handle him as you would a porcupine, with the quills from you. Don't charge him any costs, but if you get the pay, keep half of it and send me the balance in P.O. stamps. W^m Johnson sold the shoes to Oldham for me, but O. knows that he owes me for them.

 

My hurry to get here, found its climax, the night I left Lowell, when I got to New Haven. I was ad- / vised by a man just from here, that I'd better go the overland route to New York if I wished to be sure to reach the train for Baltimore the next morning. So I started from Boston at half past eight in the evening, took a berth in a sleeping car, and laid myself away. About two o'clock the conductor came and woke us up, and said the train could not go any further, as the track had been torn up at New Rochelle, Harlem bridge burned, and the rails in N.Y. City taken up and the Depot in the hands of the rioters. That he should take the train back to Boston at 8 o'clock but there would a train start from New Haven about six, and would go as far as possible. I saw that my hurry was about over, so I laid down and went to sleep again. I got up about five and looked out. There I was in the magnificent city of Elm, in the cellar kitchen to the Depot. It rained hard as it could pour, and the rats were running around there by squads. My chance for getting along did not seem very clear. I went up into the refreshment salon and called for a cup of coffee and a bun and paid 10¢. The girl had not washed her eyes open, and she brought me three. I ate / the one bun, drank my coffee, put the other buns in my pocket, and walked off, consoling myself with the thought, that I was 8 cents in. I then bought a paper and went into the Saloon and sat down. I'd no umbrella and could not walk out. Pretty soon, a man and his wife and child came in. The lady was lovely, but had evidently not slept much that night. She had forgotten to fasten her dress securely in front, and as she sat with her hand on the back of the chair near her, I had a concise view of her bosom. I had eaten only a very light breakfast or I could not have endured the sight. As it was, it lasted about ten minutes, when she dropped her arm, and her shawl fell over it. I got up and went over to Quinn's'—barber—and got shaved. I took the "Elm City" at ten o'clock for New York, was there from three until 11½ P.M. when I took the night train for Baltimore. I did not see the rioters, but no cars or omnibuses were running, the stores were more than half of them closed, and all mechanical business was at a stand still. I saw the carmen in the streets, and plenty of police and military, but neither had any energy. I / found the New York ladies as hospitable as ever, rec'd several invitations to visit them at their houses, but owing to my hurry I felt compelled to decline. One girl put the all important question to me in good square terms that no one could misunderstand, whether "I did not wish to *c her that night". I allowed that nothing w'd give me more pleasure, but the heat of the weather would not permit. I passed my hand lightly over the beautiful form of one young lady, but found no particular improvement in the construction since I examined one before. I went into the Bowery Theatre but a "Negro Minstrel Troupe" were "running it" and I did not stay long. I had a young married woman from Boston turned over to me, for my attention while I staid in Baltimore, by a Capt. in a Maine Reg't whom I got acquainted with in the cars. He was going to Gettysburg, and she to Annapolis, the train he was going in, went immediately on our arrival there, the one she went in not until 4 oclock—it was then about seven. We rummaged around in Baltimore about all day, and I had

 

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a very pleasant time with her. When I went to the Depot with her at 4 o'clock, we found that a bridge had been washed away on the Annapolis Road, and she was obliged to wait and go in the steamer the next morning. I was obliged to leave her at five, to come here. I got here safe and sound Thursday at 8 o'clock AM. I will write you about this place in my next. Please let me hear from you soon. Hoping you have not been drafted

                                                                       

I am truly Yours,

Selwyn E Bickford

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