1861 June 24 Centreville, Virginia

Genl Beauregard,

Sir

Having exhausted my other
means to procure tents for my company I have con-
cluded to write to you asking you for the sake of
humanity to do what you can for us. We have
been in service now for two months, and have made
requisition after requisition, and there is no more prob-
ability of getting them now than when we first entered
the service. It is true that while at Manassas
Junction and at Richmond we had a plank shelter
which was not much better than the open air.

Here we are lying upon the ground in the woods
with no shelter at all and with five or six men
just recovering from the measles. I dislike very
much to trouble you about this matter, but when I
know the fact that several companies have gotten tents
that have entered the service since we did, I can
not refrain from complaining to you of the injustice
done us. We have applied to the quarter-master of the
Regiment and he says he has applied to the general qua-
termaster but so far without success. It sees to me
that there is something strange in the fact that other

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companies have procured tents that entered the service three
of [sic] four weeks ago while we who have been in the service two
months cannont get any now, although we have made almost
incessant application for them. If you find it im-
possible to get tents please make the quartermaster
send me plank to shelter us from the rain.

If you can get tents fifteen would be sufficient for
us. By doing anything to alleviate our sufferings
(for we will be suffering should it rain) you will
confer a great favor on us which we can never forget.

You can send tents or plank to Co. I. 18th Regt. V.V.
care of Col. Withers at Centreville.

Very Respectfully
your obedient Servt.
Felix H. Luck 2nd Lieut.
Co. I. 18the Regt. Va. Vols.

Felix A. Luck, 1842-1915, of Pittsylvania County, lived in Virginia and North Carolina after the war. University of Virginia alumnus, Colonel Robert Enoch Withers, 1821-1907, was disable by wounds and retired from the service. He was later editor of the Lynchburg Daily News, a Lt. Governor of Virginia, a U.S. Senator, and U. S. Consul at Hong Kong. In the last year of his life he published Autobiography of an Octogenarian. The 18th Virginia in which he served briefly as Colonel, was in many of the major engagements of the Civil War. Only 2 officers and 32 men were present to surrender at Appomattox.

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