1861 October 6 Camp Vernon

Dear Father I Received yours of the 29th and Mothers of the 27th and as i have a spare time I thought i would write to you,you dont Say wether Mother received my Letter that I wrote to her yesterday There was a Company in this regiment that went out scouting day before yesterday & Brought in Four Prisoners and the New York company Brought in two more The roads where we go on Picket are the Mount Vernon & Richmond Roads & they extend out sixteen miles it would make you Laugh to see the men Come in From Pickett and see the Turkeys And Potatoes and all kinds of Stuff to eat you said that you Sent George the Portland Papers I have been sending the Papers that you have sent to me after reading them to him i Sent you the Baltimore Clipper yesterday, the Regiment is Just going to Meeting Mother wrote in her Letter that Aunt Remick had Come Down from Boston tell her that I should like to see Her & & she wrote t me that Mrs Gooding is dead she must died suddenly if i maid them Mistakes it was not because I did not know how to spell them But but did not pay my hold attention to the spelling the way that Colonel Ilsley wrote his name on the passes was this Insby and i wrote them the same way but if i make a mistake I want you to remind me of it and i shall Not think any Thing of it But shall be glad to be reminded of it there is one thing I have noticed lately that is that you do not write to me so often as you used to this is the Worst letter i have had from you for three weeks & Mother the same give my love to Mother and all the Family & Aunt Remick From you Son Joseph Leavitt I wish you would sent that Box soon and tell aunt Remick that I would like to have her to write to me and tell her that i Shall Be glad to when this war is over so that i can sleep on a good Bead this sleeping on the ground is not quite the thing give my Love to Sam Safford & ask him if Jim got my Lette rthat I wrote i shall not write not till i get some letters from Home again (the Story is if he did not get A letter every other day it appeared weeks to him J L)

Joseph L. Leavitt of the 5th Maine. His letters were copied out into a ledger by his father after his death in 1864
MSS 66