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6th Vermont Infantry
Kimball Collection
Letter to the Editor
From the Eleventh Regiment.
________
FORT SLOCUM, WASHINGTON,
April 3, 1863.[The following letter from Egbert Mead, was written as a private one, to his parents in Irasburgh, and by them furnished us for publication.-ED.]
I have just received your letter, bearing date March 18th. It has been off on furlough, and has just got round to me. I see now that you did write to me when I was so long without a letter. You asked me about the company. This much I can say truly : I have been in the company eight months, and never have I had an unkind word spoken to me, by either privates or officers, and as for my liking them, I certainly do.
We have just heard the sad news that Captain Flint was killed a few days ago. We all hope it is not so.
You said you would like to know what the weather is here. It is a good deal like March weather at home. One day it will be pleasant; the next it will be cold and stormy. Oh, give me old Vermont, for all the Sunny South !
In regard to getting furloughs, we can get them for seven days, and the boys do not think it will pay ; but if we wait until fall we can get them for 20 days;-so they say, at least.
April 6th, 1863.I commenced this letter, but have not had the time to finish it until now. I have not been very well for a few days past. It is now very cold and stormy. The snow is about 3 inches deep. I greatly fear that if it grows cold for a month to come, as it has for a month past, we will all freeze to death by the middle of June. I am not homesick out here, but I must confess that I am sometimes very lonely, and we all join with you in wishing that the time would draw near when we might come back to greet the friends we love so dearly, and when that flag-the flag we love-waves over every State. Then we come, we come ! Husbands, fathers, brothers and lovers. Yes, then, and not till then, do we come to grasp the hand of friendship, and to knit still closer and closer the bonds we have once formed.
EGBERT MEAD.