Thursday, June 7, 2012

1862 June 8 Camp near New Bridge, Va.

Camp Near new Bridge Va. Sunday June 8th 1862
My Dear Father yours of the 23rd & 30th have been receivd you of course wish
to know the reason I do not answer your letters the reason is this we are on the
move all the time we do not know when we go into Camp whether we shall stop
one hour or two days if I do get A chance to write, I of course write to my Wife as
I think she should have the first If I have time after writing to her then I
I[sic] take up the next in the list, we are now encamped near new bridge seven
miles from Richmond, the advance are within three miles of the City we are
now taking A little rest which we greatly need we have had hard work and
long marches for the last three weeks, & now we want A little rest you have
heard of the battle of last Sunday & Saturday & Monday before Richmond there
was more of A battle than we thought at first it has shown that our Troops
are equal to the task which is supposed to be before them--I say suppose because
I think we have had the heaviest we will have before Richmond.  Retreat
is the order of the day, McClellan will not  move an inch untill he has perfected
his plans & when he is ready he will not have any one to fight such is my opinion
of the matter I may be mistaken now if they should evacuate Richmond it would
not end the war true it would be giving up thier capital, now in my opinion the
Rebels are sick of the war as we are & would be glad to end it tomorrow & have the
Union the same old Union it was before but pride & stubbornness have A great deal
to do with the continuation of this war, they have made A great deal of noise
about their power & their strength & the ability on one southern man to
lick six Northern, now when they find they have been mistaken in all
of their calculations, refuse to own they are whipped, but will hold out as
long as they possibly can in hopes that something will turn up the
Evacuation of Richmond or the capture of it does no end the war,
as I have written many times before I expect to serve the full two years, you have asked in
A former letter for an explanation about the the two years  business as I was enlis
ted for three years, this Regiment enlisted for two years not all that enlisted in
June & July were enlisted of the [?] war Just enlisting for three years, now
this Regiment being A two years regiment will be discharged at the end of that
time the ninth of may next but if the order shall be to discharge two year men
instead of two years Regiments why the three years men in the two year

regiments will be transfered to other Regiments, you have had the particu
lars of the battle near Hannover Court House so I can tell you no news but
one thing I wish to tell you that is the stories about the Prisoners captured are
not true the five  hundred I saw were good looking men & inteligent they had
no uniforms but had on citizens clothes of a peculiar colour give our men the
same clothes & they would look no better I cant see of what use it is for the news
paper correspondents to make such statements if they told the truth one halfe
the time it would be different but the newspaper correspondents are continually
makeing such statements as these,  the Prisoners were dirty ragged halfe fed
& A miserable looking sett now this is not so when you see such statements as
these dont believe them, they had plenty of provisions not withstanding storeis
to the contrary & better than this Regiment has seen for A long time I shall tell
you nothing but facts we have fared poorly since we have been on the Pen
insula all the fault of our Quarter Master And Officers who care for no one
but themselves it was all verry well when it was impossible to move provisions
but for the past six weeks there has been no excuse for provisions are abund
ant neither would we make complaints if it was so with other Regiments
but when we see Regiments in our own Brigade have plenty of everything the

Government allows we of course complain but that is all the good it does
Our Brigade in [sic] now under the command of Col Warren it is composed of
the first of Connecticut 10th & 5th New York & 6th Pensylvania Cavelry our
Regiment is now under the command of Lieut Col Duryea you may have
heard of Him he is the proprietor of the celebrated Glen cornstarch
works hopeing I shall have the pleasure of seeing you in A short time
I remain your Son
                                                George

Letters from George Leavitt of the 5th New York and his brother Joseph Leavitt of the 5th Maine 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. George's son, born shortly before his father enlisted, later became a noted whaling captain.

MSS 66


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