Benton Barracks

St. Louis, Mo.

Jan 25/63.

 

Dear Parents and Brothers.

            This finds me in St Louis, and enjoying good health, excepting a slight cold, but I am nearly well of it again. I hope this will find you all enjoying good health. I rec^d a letter from you yesterday containing that of Reigels. glad to hear that you are all well. tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since I arrived here. I would have wrote sooner but I thought I would wait and see how things were going on first. Well, so far I like my place very well. we are in comfortable Barracks here, and have plenty to eat. / I am now in Co A. 1^st Reg^t Missⁱ Marine Brigade, and have the old position of Fifer again, and am in a Band that can play. after the Reg^t is all together and formed there will be 23 Musicians, 1 Bass Drummer, Fife Major, Drum Major, 10 Fifers, 10 Drummers. I like the Officers better than in the old Reg^t. We have as good a Captain as any other Company can boast of. we have not been paid off yet, but are expecting it soon. The Boats that we are going on to are not quite finished yet. some are nearly finished now at New Albany, Ind. we expect to go onto them as soon as they are all built. where we will go to is hard to tell, but I expect to see Vicksburg and perhaps / New Orleans before many months roll by, but I dont care where I go to, if I go across the Ocean I am satisfied, but if they ever catch me clodhopping again they will know it. if there is any place in the army that I can stand on account of my health, it is the place I am in now, and if I keep my health, the next 3 years will see me in the army if the War should last that long, for I was mustered out of the old service into the new for the term of 3 years, from the presant time of enlisting. that I should enlist again for 3 years may seem strange to you, but not to me, for I think I have bettered my position a great deal, and / I think it was the best I could do. I know very well that should I have went back to the old 74^th I could not have stood it long, on account of the exposure. here I have a roof to sleep under when night comes. I cannot tell much about it now yet, in my next letter I can perhaps tell you more, but this much I know, I would not exchange my place and position for the best one in Hospital No. 4, Louisville. I would rather stay here in this place 10 years than spend 1 year in No 4 among the biggest set of blacklegs that the world ever afforded. deliver me from the Hospitals if there are no better men in any of the rest than in No 4, I would not wonder if some of them had to leave home to escape the gallows, but you generally find the meaner the man the higher his office.

 

I must take another sheet of paper /

 

The Steward of No. 4. is here with us, it was too mean a place for him. he has been in the Army some 7 or 8 years. Jacob Pontious came to No 4 a few days before I left. he looks bad, but expects his discharge, and I think he will get it. there is only one more besides myself of the 74^th in this Reg^t that I know of. another one came with me from the Hospital, but was rejected on account of disability after he got here and was sent back to Louisville. this certainly is a beautiful place, and if it were not for the climate, I would like to live here. I do not wish to live in a warmer / climate than Southern Michigan. on our way from Louisville to this place we passed through some beautiful prairies. the Miss is quite a large stream, a little bigger than the St Joe, I guess, and a place to suit me better I never seen. I believe I am naturallly more of a water than a land shark, so you see I am in my natural element. but perhaps I had better not say too much, for I may get tired of it yet before the War ends, or 3 years are gone by, but, I rather think that I will not have to stay 3 years in the Army. however if I keep my health I do / not care how long I stay. there are a great many Reg^ts represented in this Brigade. I doubt whether you could find half a dozen from one Reg^t and all are convalescents out of the Hospitals and Barracks.

 

the last I heard of the 74^th it was in pursuit of Morgan, and if they just drive him to the banks of the Miss by the time Gen^l Burnsides second Expedition get under full headway, we will help take him. I have seen Gen^l Elliott several times since I have been here. he is a very common man and does not feel half as big / as some little noncommissioned officers that I have seen

 

I believe I have said you all that I think would be any way interesting to you, so I will close for the presant when you write, let me know what you think of my exchange

 

give my respects to all my friends. I did not receive any of J Hummers letters. I may get them yet. I received that Book which you sent me, and I believe all other things which you sent to me that your letters speak about. when you write

 

Address, Benton Barracks,

                        St Louis, Mo.

            Co A, 1^st Reg^t Miss

                        Marine Brigade,

            Care Capt Newell.

 

Write soon so much from

your affectionate son,

                        Wm O Albright.

 

my respects to all my Friends.

I will write them as soon as I can get time. I must go out now and play on Dress Parade.

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