8th Connecticut Infantry - Wounded at Antietam - NEW

Item LTR-11994

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 3 pages, written in period ink.


Chesapeake Hospital
Near Fortress Monroe
 
May 19, 1864
 
Dear Parents,
 
I received your kind letter of the 1st yesterday and was glad to hear from you. It is the first I have got from home since I left New Haven. The one with the money I have not received yet, but hope it will come along soon.
 
I am now at Chesapeake Hospital, was sent here from Yorktown before the regiment left there for the peninsula. I wrote you as soon as I got here, but perhaps you did not get it. I am getting along pretty well here.
 
There is some talk of sending us north, but I guess it is only talk and will not amount to much. I would not mind coming up there, but it is not long before I shall be out altogether. The regiment has suffered pretty bad in the last battles in front of Fort Darling. There is only 70 men left in the regiment now, and they are still under fire. There is as many as 70 killed and wounded out of my company, as near as I can find out. Our lieutenant is wounded in the left elbow and is in the hospital here. Dutcher is wounded also in the leg. How many more, I do not know.
 
I am sorry to hear Father has got the toothache. Hope he will get over it soon. 
 
Give my respects to all that inquire. Write soon as you can and accept this scrawl from your affectionate son,
 
Charles D. Garlick
Company I
8th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
 
Chesapeake Hospital, near Fortress Monroe, Virginia.