58th Pennsylvania Infantry - Wounded at New Bern, NC

Item LTR-7029

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 2 pages written in period ink.

Camp near Portsmouth, Va.
August 1, 1862

Friend Marietta.
I received your kind sisterly letter a week or two ago but have not been able to answer it before. When I last wrote to Cousin Will B., I was getting better. But when we moved our camp two weeks ago, I marched the company down here and in putting up tents and handling baggage, overworked myself and since then I have been very sick. But I am getting around again. It is five weeks today since I have been able to do anything and I do not expect to do much for a month yet. I would come home but there is not such thing as getting a furlough or any kind of leave in General Dix’s Department. Men and officers from the Army of the Potomac and in the face of the enemy are getting furloughs by hundreds but in this department where we do nothing but guard and picket duty and no days of attack, we are hardly permitted to leave our camps.

Our new camp is very pleasantly located in the woods just below the marine hospital on a point of land at the junction of Scott’s Creek with the Elizabeth River. It is a nice shady grove and since we came here, the health of the regiment has greatly improved. We have a splendid view from our camp. The point of land juts out so that we look directly down the river. Directly before us lies Craney Island with its bruising batteries and a way beyond with a glass, we can see a forest of masts. Up James River to our right lay the batteries of Turner’s Point and Fort Norfolk to our left. The batteries of Turner’s Point are handsome pieces of work of eleven guns in casement. The cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth are hidden from us by the woods. We have plenty of fruit of all kinds at reasonable prices. Dry goods and groceries bring pretty good prices but nothing compared to what they were when we first came here. When common women’s shoes were seven or eight dollars a pair and men’s boots twenty-five dollars a pair and other articles in proportion.

You can have no idea without seeing of the immense amount of labor laid out by the Rebels on the entrenchments and fortifications guarding the approaches to their two cities and which were abandoned at our approach without the firing of a gun. With what men they had, they could have repelled five times out numbers.

Enclosed you will find two pieces of the Merrimac, one a piece of the gun broken by a shot from the Cumberland. The other a piece of her escape pipe, also damaged in the engagement.

Though I have been away for years, I have neither forgotten home or my friends and I hope some day to see them all again. Meanwhile, I have made up my mind to live in a cloth house until we get some more liberal commander in this department or we get transferred to some other. We are likewise blessed with a military governor of secession proclivities who protects the Rebels, gives them passes to Richmond and turns poor union men, who come to claim restitution of property stolen by Rebels, from his office. Pleasant it is not. But I must quit. I don’t know as you can read this. Give my kind regards to all my friends and write soon.
From your friend,
Wm. W. Wells
Pr. direct to Lt. … Co. F. 58th P.V. Fortress Monroe or Camp near Portsmouth Va.
Either address will do.