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Brooks Station, Va. March 14, 1863 Dear Friend; I received your most welcome letter this afternoon and now sit down to answer it. When I last wrote you we were at Farfax Station but since then we have done considerable tramping. We left our camp on the 19th of January and after marching about 20 miles we encamped for the night one mile from Dumfries, a small village about 25 miles from Fredericksburg. The road was first rate but that night it commenced to rain and kept it up for 2 1/2 days. We got up in the morning and started on again. Our artillery and baggage wagons went about 3 miles and got stuck in the mud. We were obliged to stay with the baggage trains so when they got stuck we had to stop and wait for them. We were 5 days going from Dumfries to Aquia Landing, about 18 miles. Aquia Landing is on the Potomac at the mouth of Aquia Creek. There is a railroad running from Fredericksburg to the landing which supplies our army with provisions etc.. Our regiment stayed about a month, working on the docks, unloading vessels, and loading cars. Half the men worked daytimes and the other half at night, so they made us earn our money for that month at least. We were ordered to go up the railroad about 4 miles to protect the railroad bridge. The fort is now completed and it mounts 11 guns so you can see they have kept us busy most of the time. I caught a hard cold on the last day of March and after we got into camp at the landing I was so bad that I couldn't do duty for about 4 weeks. Daniel Hayes of our company wrote to his folks that I was sick with the Typhoid Fever. Mr. Hayes came down and told my folks and the next morning Mother and Father started for the Regiment. After they got to Washington Father got a pass to to come down to the regiment but Mother couldn't and had to stay in Washington while father came on. By this time I had got over my cold and so when Father came here he didn't find me sick. I was almost as well as I ever was. He stayed here 3 days and then went back to Washington to pick up mother. They then went back to New York and stopped to Ables. I have had three letters from home since they got back. The folks are all well in the neighborhood. I don't know that I ever wrote to you and told you that Louise Purdy married a young man by the name of Andrew Strong of Loomis Hill. He enlisted in our company. They were married about a week before the Regiment left. He has tented with me since we left Syracuse. He was taken with the Typhoid and was sent to the hospital at Washington. He died on the way. There has been considerable sickness in the regiment since we left our camp. Our camp at Aquia was very unhealthy. 12 men have died from our regiment in 4 weeks but where we have been encamped now is a very healthy place. At any rate there is hardly a sick man in the regiment. All I ask for is good health. I will risk the bullets. I received a letter from Mary about 2 months ago. She was then at home with her brother Frank. I have written to her since but as yet have received no reply. Your friend; Oliver |
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