1861 Nov[ember] 4 Camp Federal Hill

Mt Dear Father, I received your letter of Nov 1st today and hasten to answer it in my letter of yesterday I wrote you that I had been busy making out the payrolls & they have been sent on to Washington & that I expected to be paid off this week the reason the pay has been so long comeing I can explain to you in A very few words if anything about the payrolls are wrong the department at Washington has the right to send them back & keep back all pay untill next pay day now in making out the rolls last pay day there was A great many errors & they were sent back, all on the account of the Officer not knowing how to make out A pay roll this time I think every thing is correct this Regiment had been four months in the service before they got their first pay I shall send all my money Home excepting what I absolutely need you ask if we do not get extra pay when we work on the Trenches yes we do twenty five cents per day & one halfe ration which amounts to forty cents per day but when we shall get that I dont know as all work is pd for by the quarter Master so you need not give yourself any uneasiness about my spending my money if i thought nothing of my wife it would be another thing but as I think more of her than any one can tell, i do not think I will be quite so hard harted as to keep the money back when i know she wants it so much, I have no more to say on that subject but this I Love my Wife, where Ellen got the Idea that my company was going to march from is more than I have can tell I dont recollect saying any thing about it. I wondered why I did not receive A letter from her hoping this will find you in good health I remain your Son George P.S. the tenth Maine left to day for the Relay House, In your letter of August 22d you say you do not understand what I meant by sheat firing it should read street Firing I will explain it to you as well as I can saying the Regiment was formed on Pleasant Street the line reaching from Park to Maple the first company is the right suppose the riot was at Gorhams Corner the Regiment would be ordered load shoulder Arms then forward march the first company are ordered to halt, Redy, aim, fire, after the firing the order comes Regiment file left double quick march the Face to the right & march back to the rear then the next company takes the place of the first, fire, March back, & so one company after the other keeping up A constant fire on the March which they could not stand because by the time the last commy had fired the first would be back in its place ready to fire again if you could seethe Regiment go through with it you could understand it better i have given the best explanation I could, I like our new Col first rate he is A man we have confidence in A Man that knows his duty he will handle the shovel or pick as well as any of us our former Col was A fancy Man although one of the best drilled officers to be found any where what I mean by fancy Man, is he liked A great deal of show he wore A very showy uniform would never touch A spade or Pick in fact what some would call A Ladys Man at the same time his one of the best drill masters in the United States His promotion as Brigade Gen is the best thing that could happen to the Brigade I hope you will excuse the looks of this letter as I write under difficulty remember me to all I have received your three last letter also papers & the ten cents for which receive my thanks I will write again soon from your Son George

The first Colonel of the 5th New York was Abram Duryee (1815-1890) He was succeeded as Colonel by Gouverneur K. Warren (1830-1882) later know for his defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

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 in the war, George at Second Bull Run, August 30, 1862, and Joseph at Spotsylvania, May 18, 1864. Presumably their third brother William survived the war.
MSS 66