Copies of letters written to Cousin Emma A. Griffin, Dover.

(Copied February 5/85).

                                                                                                            Suffolk, May 8, 1863

 

Rainy. cold and disagreable. Very warm May 3^d Four men of Co. E. severely wounded May 3^d one Killed. J. H. Foye died in about twenty minutes after he was shot. They were all hit during the charge. “I was the first man of Co. E. to reach the woods where the Rebels were concealed. Capt. Julian the second.” (The rebels were in rifle pits, and Julian and I were the first men of Co. E. to reach the pits, capturing one rebel’s ammunition in his cartridge box.) He didn’t have time to get away with it/

 

            “I am coming home” after the war is over. Matter worth reading is very scarce in the Army. There is a whole Brigade just about here in the woods of the Nansemond, and two Batteries. All the troops which came up to reinforce us have gone. Longstreet, who has kept us working day and night for nearly a month, has gone also—no one knows whither. Long may he wave from a gallows! There are scarcely as many hundreds of us here now as there were thousands a week ago. Wild flowers are blooming in profusion, and the leaves on the trees are quite large. A part of our camp is in a small orchard. Much cheering to day along the line. The battle of May 3^d overran a garden, where a peculiar kind of yellow rose was in bloom. I send you one which I snatched by the way. 25^th N.J. are 9 months men. We expect to have the same “fate”—much talk about it in camp. It would be money in my pocket to get out of the service.                                              T.

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