1861 December 11 Camp Franklin Near St Johns Semenary Alaxandria Va

Dear Mother---As I have just come up from Guard & will have nothing else to do today I thought I would set down & try & write you A few lines and as Father has asked me A great many questions about the Chaplain of the Regiment I will try to write you about him he has been sick now for about three months with A cold so that he could not Preach Sundays to the Regiment but when he was well he use to go round to the tents of the different Companies regular every day & talk to them he is one of those kind of men that aint affraid to speak to the men & tell them his mind about things & every night at one halfe past seven he holds A sort of Meetings in the tents of the different Captains & as many as the Tent will hold he Preaches to them, I received A letter from A Friend mine last night he belongs in the tenth Main Regiment and he said that the Fifth was cracked up as being one of the best of Regiments this side of the Potomac I have had plenty chances to swap & go in the Seventh but I dont think I shall because this regiment has been in one battle & I had rather be in one that has seen Action give my love to all & tell Johny that I will write Sunday to him last night I received Five Portland Papers I suppose they are the papers that I have not receivd 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.

MSS 66