Saturday, July 3, 2010

Another letter 11-21-1862

Camp Hellena
Nov. 21st 1862

Dear Parents,I am well and doing fine. We got here last night and had a pretty good time coming down the lines. Our company has gone down to White Water after the jc sesh(?). There is a few here now and they are all sick. There ain't anyone we know. But Will Dow is here working in the hospital. The boys will will be back before long I guess. it seemed to me quite like getting into camp and have a nigger cook for us. I got a letter from Martin Wilbur last night,they are all well. We stopped at Columbus two days asave(?) were coming down and saw the rebel foritify cation there. There was some thundering, big guns there. There is a fairly good fortify artillery here. There is some big gun boats here, the Mississippi River from St. Louis down is well supplied. with gun boats that looks like great mind(?) turtles(?)

Has Baly taken the flak not or yet. I want you to take care of that saddle of mine for I think I will be home next summer to use it.

With these few lines I will quit at present

Direct you letter to St. Louis

From your son
W Mc Cord
esq.

4 comments:

  1. Okay, what's the story on this letter? Is this someone in your family?

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  2. Yeah the same person that wrote the last letter I posted,a relative on my mother side of the family.

    I did find out why one brother joined the Union Army and the other the Confederate Army, I think.

    It seem their farm was located on the Iowa/Missouri border, most of it was in Iowa but part of it was across the (Arkansas, I think) river in Missouri. Seems that one brother liked the Iowa part, the other the Missouri part.

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  3. I am concerned now (I've been hanging around with way too many genealogists and archivists) as to how you are preserving these letters. Have you had them copied into some archives somewhere?

    Just wondering.

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  4. They are in acid free sleeves and don't get exposed to light to often. The ink looks brown instead of black already. I thought about taking them to the VC library and ask about better preservation methods, but I haven't done that yet.

    Oh and W O Mc Cord was my great great grandfather on my mother side. My grandmothers grandfather lol.

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