1861 December 27 Camp Franklin Near St Johns Seminary

Dear Father your kind & welcome letter of the twenty first came safe at
hand & I can tell you that it gave me great pleasure to receive one from home
& hear that all the Folks were well, next Pay day I am gone to try & get A
pass to go to Baltimore to see George which will be in A few days as they
are making out the Payrolls now I do not want you to write to him & tell
him I am talking about it because if I get it I want to take him by surprise
you thought I was not verry much pleased to see Mister Staples which you
thought wrong in fact I was pleased & should like to see any one from Port
land that I know but there is one thing I did not like & that was this you
said that I did not have enough to buy boots with, Which in fact I did
& have Five to spend as the boots cost five dollars what I am writing is
true but as you wrote you took it as if I was not telling the truth as I
took it but what you write about the Sutlers is true & nothing but
the truth I have not wrote anything but the truth to you & if you
think I have I want you to point it out it is kind of hard to have you
think that I did not write to you the truth I want to know what good
it would do me to write to you what I know to be false & about my
own money what I have work for ever since I have been here I can
tell you what I have earnt out here has been work hard for & if I send
you fifteen dollars every Pay day which will be deducted from my
Pay every Pay day from the Pay Master I think I shall be doing well
you said that I did not write about those mittens which I wrote
in A letter before this they fit me first rate & tell Mother I am glad that
she thought so much of me which I shall never forget write as soon as
you get this from your affectionate Son Joseph Leavitt
And dont forget to tell William to send them stamps that I
wrote about & tell him & Henry to write
this is my last postage stamp

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