1861 September 2 Fort Elsworth, Virginia

Dear Father I thought I would write to you And let you know that i went before the Medical Department at Alexandria & they told me that i had better wate a week or two Longer to see whether the climate would not agree with Me & i suppose you would Like to know about George Brown & hear how he gets along Bleeds at the Lungs & has ever since has been here & the Medical Docters told him he had better stay here three months as the Climate Mite agree with him that is the kind of Docters that this Government has taken to attend to the overcrowded & Sick I dont want you to Look after me any Longer because I shall wait till the regiments goes home, which will be at home at the end of three months the reason that i think they will be home is that the Muster roll was not Made out right Capt Thomas told the Company that they was not Made out right And I want to know wether they can hold a regiment that is Not Made out right then there is only two Captains with this regiment that came out with us & at the end of the three Months the regiment will throw down their Guns they wont stand it any Longer to be kick round by the Officirs of this regiment any Longer wether they go to dry Torugas or not we know that People of the United States Pay enough for food but the Soldiers are cheated out of it, when you answer this letter I want you to send some Postage stamps to me & let me know what you think of dry Torgugas from you Son Joseph Leavitt

[Private in the 5th Maine]
Henry Goddard Thomas, 1837-1897, was Captain of Co. G, 5th Maine. He was mustered out after three months and served as a mustering and recruiting officer until 1863 when he became the Colonel of the 79th and then the 19th U[nited] S[tates] C[olored] R[egiments] He was reportedly the first officer of the regular army to accept the command of an African American regiment. He eventually commanded a brigade of four colored regiments in the XXV Corps and was breveted a Major General.

MSS 66