I have been with them laboring and toiling till I am weary and so warm I can hardly write.—Samuel Ryan Curtis

…the means of travel has been cut off and the people through the Country are hostile and arming.

Annapolis April 23d 1861

My dear wife

We the 7th New York Regiment and a Regiment from Massachusetts under the command of Genl Butler have landed and are encamped in the beautiful grounds of the Navy yard with the Corps of Midshipmen. I say we because I have been with them laboring and toiling till I am weary and so warm I can hardly write. I have been too busy to do much writing, but no opportunity seems to have offered since I embarked on the Boston¹ for this place and Washington I do not now much expect to get a letter through, but some opertunity will no doubt offer, and I will give it a trial We had a pleasant Steamboat trip to this place Saving the personal inconveniences that one suffers in a boat so crowded you could not get room to lay down and bread of the hardest kind being the only fare. Last night I had the good fortune to get a nights lodging at the eligant house of Capt. Blake² who is Comt of the Navy Yard. Genl Bridgeman knows therefore that for one night since I left home I have had comfortable quarters.

I hope we will have sufficient transportation to move on tomorrow. We are within about 35 miles of Washington in a straight line, but the means of travel has been cut off and the people through the Country are hostile and arming.

Of course this is just as I expected and if it takes time to fight through I shall also try to patiently and steadily work my way with the troops who are on their way and ready to do their duty. I am in the staff duties of Genl Butler Col Lefferts and the United States just as I can be most useful.

I am in excellent health and about able for all the accidents of the service. I am directing the formation of this depot which I think will become the greatest depot in the country.

My advice included the particular location and arrangement of landing and I was with the first to enter the city.

Affectionately & Ever yours
Saml R Curtis

I close suddenly because an express is ready to go

1. Embarked at Perryville.
2. George S. Blake, midshipman 1818, commander, 1847, captain, 1855, and commodore, 1862. Blake was actually superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, a post he assumed in 1858.