1861 Nov[ember] 12 Camp Franklin near St. Johns Seminary

Dear Father--I received your kind & welcome letters of the Fifth & seventh
I was glad to hear from you & to hear that Folks were well & I also recd
the letter from Henry in which he wrote that he was at Home sick which
I was sorry to hear & I also received three papers if that you send me, if you
do send three every week I do not get them regular now I have not for the
three weeks past. I saw some of the members of the seventh of Maine
yesterday & they told me that they was at Leesburgh which is eight miles above
us & by the looks of that they are in the advance of us, by the way you write
it seems that Mother thinks I spend my money for segars which I do not nor
have I tuch tobacco in any form since I left Portland, nor I do not think I
shall yet awhile we do not have to go far after wood because the woods
is right by our Camp Ground which is about twenty feet from the
Kitchen there is gone to be A grand Parade in front of St Johns
Seminary day after tomorrow in which Genl. McClellan is to rev
iew this Division I want you to write & tell me whether you got the ten
dollars that I sent to you in A letter last Sunday because I shall not
feel right not till I hear from it give my Love to all of the Folks
From your Son Joseph Leavitt

Letters from Joseph Leavitt of the 5th Maine and his brother George of the 5th New York 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