29th Massachusetts Infantry & 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry

Item LTR-8979

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 6 pages, written in period ink.


Algiers, La
July 9, 1864

Dear Father,

I must seat myself to write you a few lines hoping to find you all in good health as it leaves me at present. We got paid off yesterday but I did not get all of my pay by ten dollars it was though a mistake. I should have received fifty dollars instead of forty. A veteran gets ten dollars more than a recruit but it was through a mistake and Major Vinal says he will see to it and I shall get it next pay day. I am going to put sixty dollars in the express office for you Adams Express and send it to New Bedford to John Townsend and as soon as you get this letter I want you to go to New Bedford and get the money. Put fifty dollars of it in the bank and ten dollars to my wife will make sixty dollars. I wrote to you some time ago to send me two dollars but it you have not sent it, you need not now. But if you have it, won’t make any difference. I want you to keep account of everything what money you put in the bank and what you pay out and have paid out and postage stamps. Keep account of everything and I will pay you for all of your trouble and I want you to see if my wife has got everything she needs to make her comfortable. If you will, it will oblige me very much for I much rather you would take care of her then someone else and then I can know how things get along. Take as good care of her as you can for I think it will be a long time before I get home. My wife said in her last letter you were trying to find a shop somewhere. I hope you will. She said she could come there if you could get one. I hope you will find one somewhere for she would be better contented there than anywhere else. You can get just such a place as you have a mind to. I will not find any fault probably. I never shall get home to work in it there is got to be some very hard battle soon and long ones to. And our regiment has got to go to. We have been dismounted, our horses taken away and all of our equipment and now we have got to go on foot and carry a gun but never mind. It may be all for the best in the end. Read this now to yourself if it should be my fate to fall in this campaign you do the best by my wife and children you can as long as the money lasts and you must use your own judgment when to let her have money. There will be many a poor soldier that never will come out of this great campaign, but it maybe that I shall come out all right. I think we will leave here tomorrow. Where we are going I do not know nor we will not know until we get where we are going but I will write to you again if I have a chance whenever we get where we are going. I will write the first chance I get, so must not worry about me. If you do not hear from me again very soon, for I may not have a chance to write very soon again you can write just the same and direct your letters the same as you have done. I will now close hoping to hear from you soon. I have not received any letters from you for a long time.

Write as often as you can. As soon as you get this letter, go to New Bedford and get the money from the express office. I shall send sixty dollars. Give my wife ten dollars. Write all the news about the war. You can get what folks think at home for we can’t hear one word here. I will now close hoping to hear from you soon again and to hear of you all in good health. So good bye until I write again from your ever loving son.
Silas Townsend
Co. A 3rd Mass Cavalry
New Orleans, La

P.S. I don’t know as you can read this I wrote it in a hurry.