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Regiment: 2nd Michigan Infantry
Battles Mentioned:
Historical Figures:
Do you have to pay for the letters
when you get them out of the office
Tell me in your next please
Hunter’s Chapel Sept. 15th /61
Dear Bro Ad
You must excuse
me for not writing to you
before but it is not my fault
as you will find out before this
letter is finished About two
weeks ago our company took up
its quarters at Hunters house,
the owner of which is an officer
in secesh army, about a miles
from camp to dig rifle pits or
more properly breast works
and I tell you we have made a
nice job of it. it is about half
a mile long in the shape of a bow
it is about 4 feet high at the base
and about 6 feet where we load
it is this shape and on [drawing] one side
it is soded and on the other side
there is brush and sharpened sticks
so as to prevent Infantry or Cavalry
from charging over it I think
we will make them sick if they try
to take Washington which I have no
idea they will try. The pickets are
so close to each other that they holler
at us and call us d—m Michigan Yankees.
I dont think that I will have
a chance to see Dick as I believe
the rigment is not a coming this
way I would like to see him very much.
I have seen Bill Noble since we
come back from Bull’s Run he has
been in Washington ever since
he has been very sick but I believe
he is around now. You say that Pond
is Orderly in the ninth rigment
just four or five hours before the battle
of Bulls Run I asked him how he
liked it and he said that if he ever
got home he would not come back
again in a hurry. You want to know
if I think you would like it down here
I don’t think that you would like
it here near as well here as you
do at home. You say that you had a
long letter from father and that
he has got to work again and his eyes
you say are agiting well I am verry
glad of that and still more glad
that he thinks he can send home
a little money once more. If in
your next letter you will give me
fathers adress I will tray and
write to him. Since I wrote to
you last I have been made Corporal
so I do not have
quite as hard [ ? ] to
stand guard any more but it
is just as bad I have to go around
every two hours. I received a letter
from Emma saying that you had
not heard from me for about three
weeks I have wrote to Emma and
Frank and Uncle last week and
I will try and write more regular
after this. I expect we will get
paid off this week and I am a
going to take my amount in
Treasury Notes so that it will be
easy to send home I will have about
twenty five dollars to send home
and you may give it to Mother
to use for Charley or Mary or as
she thinks fit. You have not
mentioned Charley in any of your
letters and I should like to hear
how he is a getting along. Emma gave an
account of the death of Pierre in her
letter and I wish that you would
send me the paper with an account
of it in if you can get one. I was not
expecting any such thing and it pretty near
made me sick I felt so bad I always
liked Pierre very much and him and me
used to fool together a goodeal.
I am a getting to the bottom of the sheet
and as it is so warm I will have to quit
Give my love to all of the folks
at home with a share of it for yourself
Good Bye
from Ed
[On Envelope:]
JW Killenger MO
Mr. A. H. Winchell
Detroit
Mich