17th Maine Infantry - Wounded at Orange Grove, VA

Item LTR-6958

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 4 pages written in period ink.


Camp Bullock, Culpepper County, VA
Sunday, January 24, 1864

Dear Father

Having a few spare moments between inspection and meeting, I will occupy them in informing you of my welfare. I gladly received a letter from Hollis last Sunday with the mainspring of my watch and another from Mother and Lois night before last. You must not blame me if I don’t write once a week now. Our company is very small and we are on some kind of duty most of the time. I have been building corduroy roads and cutting stumps out of the company street for the last three days.

We have a splendid camp ground. It is on the side of a small hill. The company streets are thirty feet wide. Our company has nine tents with four men in most of the tents. The streets are rounded up in the middle with a side walk in front of the tents. Each line officer’s tent is about twenty paces from the company in the center at the head of the street. Then the regimental headquarters are about forty paces from the line officers, opposite the center of the regiment.

The ground has to be all swept every day and it looks as nice almost as a house floor. A soldier’s life would do very well if we could be in camp all the time. But some of the boys find a great deal of fault with it here. The officers are very particular. We have to keep our guns so you can almost see your face in them; our boots and equipment blacked up and buttons and all the brass plates we wear scoured up as nice as can be. I tell you, anyone would think to see how we live that it would be impossible to keep things looking so nice. But when we go on dress parade or inspection, we look as nice as a crowd going to meeting.

We had an inspection this morning and General Birney rode through the camp. Our colonel is in command of the brigade now and Major Mattocks commands the regiment. If our captain had not been killed, he would have been major now. Major Mattocks has been promoted to major since the last battle.

I shall be obliged to ask you to send me some postage stamps. I have tried to buy some here but it is impossible. I bought a dollar’s worth when I left the hospital but they are all gone and I have got to borrow one to put on this letter.

I have no news to write so I will close. Write often. S I shall write to Hollis and Lois soon.

From your affectionate son,
George W. Doughty