1861 August 1 Claremount, Va.

Dear Mother, I thought I would write to you & let you know
that I think I shall be Home in A week or two the doct of this Regiment
has given me my discharge he thinks that I cannot stand climate & that
I had better leave it & he has given it to me & you may expect me Home in
about two weeks if I do not stop in New York a week you need not think I am
A Fooling because I have got my discharge & the Captain this morning filled
them out for me, & the only thing to be done to them is to have Genl. McDowel
to sign them since the Captain has come from the Fight he has been appointed
first Lieut in the regular Army but he has not given up his Commission as Captain
but he is goin to do last night the Regiment was called up but there was no
reason to do it as I saw,

I remain your son truely Joseph Leavitt

Joseph Leavitt was in the 5th Maine.

Letters from Joseph Leavitt and his brother George Leavitt were copied into a ledger by their father John Leavitt in October 1865: "because they are of value to me and I was fearful that they might get mislaid." Both boys were mortally wounded in the war, George at Second Bull Run, August 30, 1862, and Joseph at Spotsylvania, May 18, 1864.

MSS 66