1861 November 3 Camp Federal Hill Baltimore

My dear Father---As the evenings are getting verry long now in consequence of dress parade being at one halfe past four I have A great deal of spare time now in the evening & I thought I could not improve my time much better this evening than writing you A few lines the Regiment is getting along finely this week has been quite lively in Camp Thursday the Regiment was inspected by inspector General Marcy Friday the Regiment was mustered for pay, the last of the heavy guns have been mounted & every evening at dress Parade one of them is fired off which makes the Hill shake A little I have been busy this week making of the muster & pay rolls of the Company it was rather A difficult Job as there has been so many changes & everything that happens has to be stated in the payroll how many sick how many under arrest & absent what occurs every day has to be mentioned we may get paid off this week & we may not every thing about the Fort begins to look shipshape (as you would say) there is very little more work to be done, yesterday we recieved new tents & will have to change our quarters again I have got tired moveing round so many times we will get our tents put up our floor nicely laid & be in them about two weeks when we are ordered to take them up & move to some other part of the Fort I hope this time it will be permanant we have got plenty of under clothing & good blanketts in fact I consider we are very well off we have made A great many acquaintances in Baltimore, the tenth of Maine are getting along finely & getting in the good graces of the People of Baltimore to day being Sunday, we have had our usual Sunday crowd there is but one [?] Jam or whatever you have A mind to call it, entrance to the Fort which is reached by A short bridge & we amuse ourselves by watching the Crowd trying to gain admittance it is A grand sight to see the dress Parade Sunday the Regt with their red pants white turbans & white leggins, & the crowd of People which is always gathered on that day. I reced A letter from Joseph yesterday his Regiment is still encamped near Alaxendria he writes nothing new you wished me to tell how Federal Hill is situated it is situated like Mount Joy it commands the entrance of the harbour but instead of being at one end of the City it is nearly in the center if Portland City commenced at Hog Island & extended round to Tukeys bridge monjoy Hill would be the same as Federal Hill is to Baltimore the whole City is right in Front & in A very short time the City could be entirely destroyed by the guns from the Fort, but I hope we shall never have occasion to fire A gun fire that purpose you of course know that Gen Scott has retired from the command of the Army & that Gen McLellan is now in full command if we had six months ago sayed that Gen Scott ought to give away to some other man we would have been called Fools but time works wonders if any one should ask me what my opinion was in regard to the retiring of Gen Scott I could say nothing I always supposed him to be head & front of the American Army and the Idea of his giving way to some one else never entired my head I hope Gen Mc Clellan will be successful he has A mighty task to perform & I hope he is equal to it but what encouragement has the Soldier in fighting for the Union they all hold dear, why is it that Traitors are allowed to live amongst us without being called to an account why is it that such men as John C Breckinridge Wigfall & Henry May are allowed to go unpunished men that are know to be Traitors are allowed to go at large and while it has A bad influence in the Army we see m3en taken Prisoners & set at Liberty again by taking an oath which they have broken once & do not care A straw for it looks to me like looking the Barn door after the Horse is stolen reinforcements are always sent after we have been defeated it was so at Big Bethel Bull run Springfield & Edwards Ferry it is about time things were changed the doctrine that we can beat down this Rebellion without hurting any

[George Leavitt's letter home ends abruptly at this point. He will write again on the 4th]