1861 October 23 Camp Federal Hill Baltimore

My Dear Mother, I received your letter last week & I assure you I was glad to hear from you I dont know as I can write you any news but will let you know how I get along my health is good & has been so ever since I left New York the work on our fort is a about done the walls are all up & the rest of the work that is the grading the interior will be done by outsiders I am not sorry we have got through for it was the toughest job that I ever had any thing to do with, the Fort will mount A great number of guns & if ever we should have occasion to use them the City of Baltimore would not be worth much for the Fort commands the whole City there is not A House we cannot see, we have A splendid View of the whole City & Bay I can see A great change in Baltimore since I have been here, when we first came here it nothing but Jeff, but now it is Union, wherever we go we have tremendous crowds to witness our Parade, Sunday the Fort is full of People the seventh Maine are encamped on Patterson park about two miles from us I was over to thier encampment yesterday to [?] A large number of my acquaintance the men in our Regiment have made A large number of acquaintances in Baltimore the Union People show us A great deal of attention & we are always welcome to thier Houses whenever we are enclined to go. I took dinner at the Henry Jacksons A few days ago & I enjoyed myselfe very much, our food is verry good we have fresh meat every day & splendid bread fresh from the oven in fact we have nothing to complain of except rainy weather we have had rain for the last week past & we are all mud inside of the Fort we have to go as far as from our House to South St for our dinner as all the cooking arraingments are outside of the Fort and just now it is fun to see the crowd at dinner time it is so sloppy it is as much as one can do to keep his footing one fellow will get his oaf of bread his soup & meat & with both hands full will start for his tent he may get to his tent with his dinner & he may not ten chances to one his dinner goes in the mud but they all take it in as A good Joke & if one succeeds in getting to his tent with his dinner all safe all right I lost my breakfast the other morning I had three slices of toasted bread that I had toasted nicely & with my coffee in one hand & the toast in the other I sarted for the tent when halfe way down the plank which leads from the cook tent to the Fort away went the bread in the mud so I had to make my breakfast on A pot of coffee I shall be glad when we have some pleasant weather it is nothing but mud around here & it makes it verry unpleasant I will write as often as I can I shall have more time now we have got through work I receive letters from Joseph quite often hopeing that this will find you enjoying good health I remain your Son George W Leavitt Company F Fifth Regiment New York Volunteers Col Warren

Letters from George Leavitt and his brother Joseph 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 int he war, George at Second Bull Run, August 30, 1862, and Joseph at Spotsylvania,
May 18, 1864

MSS 66