Camp 148^th N.Y.Vols.

Sept. 7^th 1864.

 

Dear Father:

                        Your excellent letter of the 28^th ult. lies open before me and I will in haste reread & answer as your words suggest a need to my mind. So you have received my 'document'. I hope that you were not frightened by its miscellaneous character & hope too that you were by no means communicative in regard to the character of some of the small scraps. I fear that Mother with the purest of motives may show the unsigned letter to some one to prove the accuracy of her former impressions etc. I was foolish in sending the letter I guess The anonymous one I mean. The Company is for the present without a Captain. 

 

As you may have heard by this time I wrote Mother a short letter the other day not very comprehensive I guess but the best that I could then do. Since then we have received our knapsacks from Norfolk. I have Francis J. Lee's in my tent. I will forward by Express the contents of the knapsack as soon as possible though aside from mere mementos of friendship & remembrances of the deceased the articles will not be worth much above the freight. The knapsack itself is Company property she must remember. Dan came back on the 27^th ult. and was mustered as 2^nd Lt. on the 30^th to date from the 27^th. I mustered as 1^st Sergt. to rank as such from the 27^th. The Captain said that he had recommended S.W.R. for 1^st Lt. and C.A. Gillet for 2^nd Lt. and that his recommendation had been approved at Hd. Qrs. and forwarded. How it will turn out / I can not tell. Some sharp figureing may have been done by some ambitious Son of Mars to get a commission and if the vacancies have been filled by other recommends before the Capt's reached Albany I may be out But the Capt. or ex Capt. said that it should go through. I care more to have it go through straight now than I would if no recommend had been forwarded for I hate to fall below some outsider. Sure I am that if any outsider does get in he had better get on Detached Service right away for we (Dan & I) intend to work for each other & the Co. not for the benefit of any such person. The story of the Colonel's taking so many recruits to his Regt. is all false Only 2 have joined the Regt. since to my knowledge. The Regt. is not nor will not be consolidated with any other. It bears too good a name to be lost in such a change. I hope that you can see the 148^th at home some / day as an organization complete, though many of its original members will be no more among us on earth. God grant that they may be in heaven, both for their sake & our own. The Rebel Pickets have no better chance to pick off our men than ours do to pick them off. But we are not now where we were when I wrote the "Document". The 18^th Corps is on the north side of the Appomattox guarding the lines between the Appomattox & James Rivers. The 148^th is near where it camped when we built the breastworks here. We have easier times now than when at Petersburg. We have a good camp here & I hope that we will stay here long enough to get settled at least.

 

The dam that gave way when we had the flood in the valley near Petersburg was not a mill dam nor did the stream rise on Reb territory. Our Ohio friends are indeed sorely afflicted. The letter that you sent in my care to Frank I forwarded to the Hosp. before I received your letter stating that it contained $5.00. I supposed that all would be right If Frank had been sent from the Hospital the letter should have been returned to the Co. I have looked for the letter in vain. I wish that I had kept the letter longer. Who will lose the money? Frank had not ought to & I know that you had not ought to. I guess that I will bear a part though I am not accountable for its loss. 

 

Second Edition

It is evening and I have as good an opportunity to finish the letter as I shall have in some time I guess. Tomorrow at 9 A.M. we have Division Inspection and at 3 P.M. we are to have Brigade inspection. I shall therefore be busy tomorrow all day and at night I think the Regt will go on Picket so you must be satisfied with small favors this time. The news is good tonight Atlanta it seems is ours & no mistake. How long before Grant will take Richmond remains to be seen. I am in a great hurry to see the day when it will be done and the Rebel Army at the same time effectually "done for". When will the day arrive? So Uncle Charles has been to see / you. I thought that his opposition sentiments would have kept him from calling on a supporter of the Administration or upon one of the Soldiers of the Union or his Parents. Likely his visit was more from curiosity than anything else just to draw an "inference".

 

Dan started for Fortress Monroe Monday morning on a pass of 2 days for the purpose of collecting pay due for services as 1^st Sergt. He has just returned. He bought me a blank book & an Atlantic Monthly for Sept. I hope payday will come soon. Do not make much calculation on my helping you with money for I may not have all that I shall get next payday. I can not tell how it will be yet until I hear from Albany. Gov. Seymour of course.

 

Very Affectionately etc. C.A. Gillet

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