1861 Nov[ember] 3 Camp of the Fifth Maine Regiment near Alaxandria Va

Dear Mother I thought I would set down & write you A few lines to find out why Father has not written to me I have not received A letter from Him for A week the reason tht I thought that he did not write to me was that I wrote to him that in the letter that I wrote to him & I suppose he would not write so often to me, now I want you to tell him that I did not mean any6thing by that & I want him to write as often as he did before for if he does not write I will not send any of my Pay to him which I shall if he continues to write we shall get Paid of day after tomorrow. I dont know whether it will be twenty four dollars or twenty six because they say they keep two dollars of it every time we are Paid off so if anything sh8uld happen to us, but I think it is not so I received A Letter from George day before yesterday & he said that he went over to see the tenth regiment & he saw many of his old Friends, there is A Regiment that has come in this Division from Washington which as a splendid dress on be sure to tell Father to write or if he does not I wont send any money to him next week if we get paid off Give my love to him & tell him I am enjoying good health & hope him & you are enjoying the same From you affectionate Son Joseph Leavitt
P.S. as I am closing my letter I received A letter from Father dated Oct 30th & I thought it was a verry good letter what I ment by foolish stuff was about Packing that box that you sent to me I know what you ought to write to me & so do you and it is your place to write good advice & Mothers to so you need not be affraid to write good advice to me, I know I am far from Home & that is the reason that Father & you should write good advice good advice that is Just so & I want you to write it because I may be forgetful of being strict to my promise & if I should get A letter from you with good advice in it it would remind me of my promise to him & yourself


Letters from Joseph Leavitt and his brother George 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