1861 Sept[ember] 21 Campt of the fifth M[ain]e Regt

Respected parents and friends

I have recieved
two letters from you since I wrote to
you I am on extry duty so much that I
do not got time to write one half as much
as I should like to I am on home guard
to day yesterday and the day before I was
on picket at the advanced post five miles
from camp and within two miles of the
tomb of Wasington at Mt. Vernon I was
on land once owned by him. I should
have gone down and seen the place but
I had a bad head ache and I thought
I would not go then I think I shall go
there the next time I am on picket at
that place. Some of of[sic] our boys went
down an they say it is a splendid place
the people that live where we go on picket

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are first rate folks they furnish hot cake
and milk and all kinds of fruit but we
always pay them something for it. When
I feel well I enjoy myself a great deal
better than I expected to. I have not
been sick so I could not get out doors since
I enlisted I have taken salts twice and
castor oil once the oil made me sick to
my stomach and I vomited some and
I felt quite weak for one day the next
day I worked on the fort. There has been
some hard fighting in Missouria and
Western Virginia in which our troops
have been successfull I suppose you
get such news as this as soon as we can
get it here. If there is any one that is rugged
and well that wants to enlist in this
Company they can do so by going to
Mechanicks falls. Lieut. Bucknam is at
home as an enl a recruiting officer and
he will enlist enough to fill up this
Company six are were lost at the battle of
bull run and five or six will get their

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discharge and we want a few good men
to fill their places. I should like to see
Francis Symonds out here I want you
to tell him so there is men here that
cannot hea4r so well as he can tell him
if he comes out here no he will never be
sorry for it. I am much obliged to
Wm. Douglass for the vote he sent me
and also the same to Mr. Duran he wanted
to know which one I should have carried
if I had been at home I do not know
as I should have much choice between
Washburn or Jameson for I believe they
are both firm union men I think the
other candadate ought to be shot with all
thoes that voted for him ought also to
be shot I think this is the only way to
put down rebelion I believe that
northern tritors are worse then the tories
of the revelutoinary war for independence
for they ar trying to break up our union
and destroy our constitution but there will
be millions of lives lost before it can be
accomplshed if it ever can

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Tell Mr Hadsdon[?] that I remember well
the time he spoke of and I wish he was out
here so he could fire pices of his ramrod, at the
rebels as he did at the coons th tell him that
the rebels are very careless with their guns they point
them write twords any one and fire and we do
the same to them. Tell Capt Levi that we
have not lost our courge by our defeat for
we are more determined than ever to ship
them which I know we can at onany time
in a fair fight in an open field they do
not dare to come out of the woods to fight
but I think they will be obliged to before a
great while. The two armyes remain the
same as they as they[sic] have for some time on
this side of the Potomack the rebels dare
not advance. I have no more news to
write this time we do not have much
news here worthy of notice

Yours in haste

Hiram M. Cash

The Maine gubernatorial election was won by the Republican candidate Israel Washburn, Jr., 1813-1883.
Charles D. Jameson, 1827-1862, colonel of the second Maine, was candidate of the "War Democrats" in the state. He was promoted to Brigadier General, wounded at Fair Oaks, and subsequently died from camp [typhoid?] fever.

See other comments on the Maine gubernatorial election in the letter of Joseph Leavitt of the 2nd Maine, 1861 September 8.


Private, Co. K, 5th Maine