1862 July 28 Camp near Harrison's Landing, Va.

Camp Fifth Maine, near Harrisons Landing Va July 28th 1862

Dear Father--I received your letter of the twenty first this morning & you say that you had one from George on the tenth & you thought he wrote as he was cross I suppose he has them cross spells once in A While because I am in that way somewhat some times I have seen the times since I have been in the Army when A wounded man yes A Soldier could not get in A Ambulance but if A nigger should come & demand A ride why of course Mr Nigger gets in I know the fault is not in Gen. Mclellan but it lays somewhere & should think that somebody would say something Father I seen enough of the Nigger to be down upon them & I am if one of them is better to ride where A wounded Soldier yes A wounded Soldier that the People at home are preaching as defenders of their Country now I do not see why they do not say something about these niggers As well as I like Gen. McClellan I should like to have him issue an order like that of Genl Popes where he [word missing?] all guarding of Rebel Property should be done away with the soldiers of this Army has guarded every place that they have come to & some of the places that they have been Placed over some of them never returned they have been shott I could not say by who but it looks to me as if the owner of the Property had done the deed but still there was nothing said now there was one rebels property that they put A guard over & you could not find A bigger one in America one they caught sending up skyrockets so as to give information to them the Name of this Rebel is Dr Gains who was taken along with us at the move to this River, he is Owner of the Place where the Battle of that Friday came off & I can say that it is one of the finest places in Virginia as far as I have seen, you want to know who I meant by politicians I mean such men as Wendell  Phillips who has said more about the Nigger I think than any other Man in the Country & what did he say, he said that he had been these seventeen years trying to break up this American Union & why does the Government allow such men as him to go at large them are the men that I call Politicians & I should like to be the one to putt the rope to his neck I guess you will thing that I am in the Nigger question well I feel kind of Niggerish this afternoon, you want to know if I get enough to eat yes I get enough & clothing the place where we camp on is called A nice place by the Doctors but I do not think it is as we have lost three of  our members of the Regiment two of Which belonged to Company E & the other to Company A Company E is A Lewiston Company & a belongs to Brunswick now there is one t hing more & that is about George you wish you would see some of Georges Friends them who pretends to be & see if they cant get him A commission in one of the Maine Regiments that are now getting up there, He is capable of having one you Just speak to Mr Green & I bet he could get it & Unkle James or to Mr Chase & I want you to speak before it gets to late George thinks that there ought to be enough there that could try their influence by taking A little interest in him I will now close by putting A little piece about Ambulance Drivers & Genl Popes order about Rebel property which I think has got the ring to it, I am well & enjoying good health which I hope is the case with you and Mother & give my love to all although you may think I have said A great deal about  the Nigger I mean Just as I say but still I want you to know that my confidence in Gen McClellan is Just as good as it ever was & shall have as long as he has command of the Army & I can say it would do for any other one to take command here I know by the way that some of them talk because they think A great deal of him, I am going to put down things that we draw for Rations dried apples, beans, potatoes, pork, beef,  Fresh Pork & beef, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, & vegetables for soups them are the rations that we draw we had for breakfast this morning baked beans & to night Vegetable soup now why should the men Grumble This is from you Son Joseph Leavitt.

Letters of Joseph Leavitt of the 5th Maine and his brother George of the 5th New York were copied into a ledger by their father John in the fall of 1865 as a remembrance of them.  Both boys were mortally wounded in the war, George at Second Bull Run and Joseph at Spotsylvania.


MSS 66