Head Qurs. 38^th Wis Infty Vol

Near Petersburg          July 28 1864

 

My Dear Friends.

                        Haveing pleanty of time this morning I thought that I would write you a few lines. you will see by this that I am right in front again, only a mile & ½ from the front lines. fireing is continually going on so we have pleanty of music. I suppose you would like to know what kind of a time I had in getting down to the front. Well, on friday the 15 of July we received orders for us to leave Madison on Wensday the 20 & report to Brig Gen Casey at Washington. Wensday we were all ready, started at 9 A.M. had a pleasant ride to the junction, where we had to wait untill the 1 P.M. train for Chicago. we went to Janesville where we stoped a little while & then went on to Chicago, arrived at C. just at dark. marched over to the Soldiers Rest, got a good supper for the boys & then went over to the Pittsburg Ft Wayne & Chicago R.R. Depot & took the night express for Ft Wayne, which place we reached in the morning. got breakfast, went on, reached Crestline at noon, had dinner. I did not like the country from Ft. W. to Crestline. afternoon we went through 

 

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Ohio was a beautifull ride, very pleasant all the time, arrived at Pittsburg at dark. did not have time to get any supper, took the night express for Harrisburg. I slept all the way, as it was dark. I could not see the country, so I did not care about keeping awake. reached Harrisburg by morning, got a good breakfast, and had quite a resting spell. at 9 took the Baltimore & Harrisburg RR for the former place. this is the road the rebels tore burnt on their last raid in that state. the bridges were all rebuilt so the road was in good running order. the ride was very pleasant. got to Baltimore at 12 M. I wrote you a few lines letting you know of my arival in that place. we did expect to leave for Washington at 3 P.M. but did not get away until 4.45 so I had some time to look around. I think that Baltimore is the cleanest and pretyest place I have ever been in. you may think that I was not there long enough to judge, but in that short time one can go around conciderable. there are cabs that you can take & go all over the city if you wish. I did not go all over but what I did see was good. I went up to the Washington Monument but square but did not go in side of the Park. Well we left B. at 4.45 and got to Washington at 6.30 went into Barracks there friday night We was three days & two nights on the road. a very quick ride of over 1000 miles /

 

Reported there as ordered Saturday morning then received orders to report to the commanding officer of the Regt. was to leave Washington Sunday at 2 P.M. on Steamer "Key Port". Well Saturday Lieut Holton & myself thought that as we were not very buisey we would go around & see the sights of the City. first we must go to the Capitol. I shall not try to describe it. all I can say is that it is magnificent. I went first into the rotunda, saw those world renown paintings from there into the House of Representitives this Chamber they were cleaning, had the carpets up, satisfied my curiosity here. then went into all other rooms & places I could of this wing. from there we went into the Senate Chamber. I sat in Senator Doolittles chair also Sen. Sumner. from there we went into the Presidents Reception room. this was grand. I would be contented if they would give me the money it cost to furnish this room. well it took us all the forenoon to go over the Capitol building & half was not seen, but we must go down to the White house, if we had to leave the rest without being seen, so down Penslvania Av. we started. finaly found ourselves in front of Uncle Abs residence, walked into the yard, up to the house, onto the porch, stared around as if we were idiots & then walked by. came back Saw her Majesty—Mrs Abraham (guessed that) Old Abe was "not at home" to such distinguished visitors as two Lieuts getting tired of looking around, we turned back, went through the Treasury building saw where "Green backs" are made, did not go all over this building as we were too tired. got into one of the street cars & rode back to our quarters, satisfied with the Capitol of the U.S. Sunday I went over into the Capitol park, look around there a little while, then got ready & marched down to the boat. started at 2 P.M. left Washington, lontched at Alexandria, & then went down the Potomac, had a good view of Mt Vernon as we passed. got to the bay at dark 12 P.M. a heavy storm was rageing, so we had to lay to under Point Lookout. next morning we went on there was a high sea as the wind blew quite hard. good many of our boys were sea sick. I enjoyed it hugely. I came nigh being sick myself. we arrived at Fortress Munroe at 4 P.M. did not stop long. there was one spell we were out of sight of land, the blue watters of the Atlantic were only a little ways from us on one side the other was Va. we left Ft Munroe at ½4 started up James river. all I noticed was the wreck of the Cumberland and the place where the first Monitor & the Merrimack had their fight. As it was soon dark I went & layed down. at 10 P.M. we reached City Point, landed & camped on the bank. the next afternoon we started for the Regt. which was only 8 miles from us we got on a freight train & rode five miles & marched the rest. went into camp found the Regt. was out in the rifle pits. the camp is a 1½ mile from the front. we have fixed up camp prety good, have quite comfortable quarters, can hear the fireing very plain. the reb shell comes over /

 

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this way quite often. in the night we can see them very plain I have not been out to the front yet, our company will not go out unless something is up. the Regt are to be relieved on Sunday. I read your last letter that you wrote in answer to the one of mine from Madison. it was forwarded through was sorry to hear of Uncles death. twas the first I have heard from there. will write soon to the girls. The rebs are fireing quite heavy now. we can see Petersburg very plain we only 2 miles from there. but I must close. excuse this writing for I have just come in from drilling and am tired. you must give my best respects to all who enquire for me

 

love to all folks there at home write often as you can Frank

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