Camp Wright, Hulton, Penm.,
Saturday, June 15, 1861.
Dear Father:–
Our camp this week has been the scene of a good deal of confusion and uneasiness. I clip an extract from this morning’s Dispatch that explains the cause.
We have been told by some officers that “We were accepted; we were going to Chambersburg; we were not accepted; we were accepted for three years; those who would not enlist for the war would be sent home; they would be kept here till their three months expires; that Companies A, B, C, F and I only, would go for the war, and the rest would be disbanded,” and within ten minutes Major Schlaudecker has told me “that none of the companies would go; that we would all go together, one way or the other.”
Acting on the statement that our company would not go, I went this morning and put my name on Company B’s roll for the war. Our Captain said “No man should leave his company till it was disbanded.” The Colonel said “Any man who chose could enlist in any company in the regiment to go for the war. Captains notwithstanding.” “Father said I might and mother said I shouldn’t,” and I concluded I would do as I was a mind to.
The statement that the companies could not be filled in time to report according to orders, is probably the true one, and so that performance will not amount to much.
Such a feeling pervades the minds of the soldiers that discipline is played out. Company K refused to turn out to roll call the other morning, and day before yesterday, not a man of them appeared on dress parade. Company F would not come out on parade yesterday.
Night before last a row broke out in a beer saloon near the depot and some of the Pittsburgh boys cleaned out the whole thing, broke in the doors and windows, smashed up the glass and furniture. A crowd collected and Colonel Grant was obliged to call out Companies B, G and I with their guns to disperse them. Company G charged down the road and across the railroad track through the thickest of them. They made quite a determined stand on the track, and some six or eight were wounded before they would leave. A man stood before me and I called to him twice to stand back. He did not move and I ran my bayonet into his side an inch or so. He started then. He was awful mad. The wound was not a serious one, only a flesh wound, but he swears he will shoot the man who stabbed him. He has been hanging round our quarters with a revolver several times lately, and pointed out a man who, he says, stabbed him, but he has got the wrong man. I think I am safe enough unless some one peaches. Only three or four in our company know who it was. M. W. Goold pricked one man, Godfrey. Wheeler and others pricked some, but none were seriously hurt. I have carried a revolver for a day or so, and I think I am all right.
The way we have been treated is enough to make a preacher swear, almost. We are cheated in our rations about half the time. Our clothes are all dropping off from us. We don’t know whether we are accepted or not, or that we will ever get any pay.
We have been practicing at target shooting lately. Our guns beat everything I ever saw to shoot. The balls are very heavy, eleven to the pound. We were shooting at “Old Jeff” yesterday, at forty rods, and over half the boys hit him. We broke his back, legs, arms, and knocked his teeth out. This morning, since I commenced writing, nineteen of us have been shooting at a target at twelve rods. Thirteen balls struck the board, nine inside the ring and four hit the center. I call that good shooting. I, of course, am not among the best, though I hit inside the ring. One ball went plumb through an oak tree, nine inches in diameter.
The orders this morning are that we must commence drilling again, and have every man attending to his duties or lying in the guard house.
I hope you will write as often as you can. It seems to me my letters are like “angels’ visits.” My health is excellent. It never was better. I am in the river every day. The river is about one hundred rods wide here, with a swift current. I rolled up in my blanket the other night and slept under an apple tree. I slept first-rate, did not wake till reveille, nor take the least cold. The boys are all getting considerably copper-colored in the hot sun. The weather is warm and dry. The Dispatch says the thermometer stood at 102 yesterday at noon.
P. S.–At 12 m. It is definitely settled now that we are to stay in the State service the remainder of the three months. No companies will leave the regiment. According to past experience, we expect this changed in a couple of hours.