1862 December 22 Fort Tillinghast

        Fort Tillinghast  Decr 22d/62
                                    2 oclk PM
Dear Wife,
                    We have had quite a little
excitement for the last day or two,  One
other company of our regiment has
been ordered to Harpers Ferry, to do
garrison duty, We expected it would
be Company M, that would be sent there,
but Company m is still at Tillinghast
and Company B has gone to Harpers
Ferry, they went this afternoon,  they
did'nt want to go, as they were fixed
up in good, comfortable, winter quarters,
five or six of the men had there wives
with them at Fort Craig, Col Wright told
them they had better leave their wives
at Fort Craig, and not take them along
with them now, and in a week or so
send for them after they got settled at
Harpers Ferry, They took his advice,  Some
of our company wanted to go,others did
not, For my own part, I did not care

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much whether we went or not, We
are very comfortably situated here,
and have got things fixed up in very good
shape, if we had gone, it would have
been something to have changed the
monotony of every day life of the soldier
doing garrison duty,  We had quite a camp
yarn here last week, I was that the
rebel Gen lee, said he was coming here
to drive us off of his estate, (the Arlington
Place) I dont know that I ever told you
that Fort Tillinghast is on the estate
of Gen lee, and not more than three
or four hundred rods from his residence
the Arlington House, it is beatifully situated
not far from the Potomac river, and
overlooks, Washington, Georgetown, and the
surrounding country, I think he was
a devilish fool to join the rebel army,
and leave such a beautifull place,
I guess he will be smart, however, when he
drives us off.  I guess he wont try not quite yet.

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                                     Mon eve 6 o'clk
   I have just received the box, all
in good order, The boots I am very much
pleased with, they are just what I wanted,
they are a little long for my foot, but that is
a very good fault here, I could'nt have suited
myself better, had I picked them out myself.
I am, tell your father, very much obliged
(to say the least) to him for the trouble
and labour that he has been at, in procuring
them for me, I will endeavour to repay
him at some future time, The Doughnuts
were very nice and acceptable,  The Pears
were very nice, and quite a treat, The Pepper
and Ginger was very acceptable, just what
I want, we cant get any that is good here,
in short every thing in the box, was very acc-
eptable, I also received by mail, a letter dated
Dec 1q4th, it is the one, that tells me of
Diasy's sickness  Tell Ernie that I am
very glad that he was a good the day you
wrote to me,and that I hope he will always
be good,m then I shall always love him, tell
him, that when I come home,I shall ask him

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if he has been a good boy, and if he has, I
will love him a "whole heartfull"
You ask me if there is any probability of this
new commotion disturbing us, I answer, No
We shall never be sent away from these fort-
ifications, again, at least we all think so and
it is the general opinion, all around.
I strongly suspect that you gave your letter of
the 14th Dec. to Wm to mail for you, and that he
kept it in his pocket a number of days, as the
envelope was stamped, Boston Decr 19th it contained 3 stamps
Please let me know how much the boots cost,
also let me know if you received my last
letter, marked Soldier's Letter, there are
a great many letters sent in that way, I thought
I would try one, as I had no stamps.
They say we are to be paid off the day after
tomorrow--I dont believe it yet, I must
say one more word about the boots, Everybody
that sees them,says, "them's the best boots I've
seen out here yet," thanks to your Father,
Some of our boys went out to-day and killed two
Possums, I have bot the skins streched on a board
to dry, they are very pretty, and will do to trim some-
thing for Ernie, they are about the size of a very
large cat, the color is a sort of grey and white
I will send them home when I have a chance,
Take good care of yourself dear wife and
ever believe me yours in love
                                                     Robert

Robert P. Mansfield, Co. M., 1st Massachusetts. Heavy Artillery

MSS 1242