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Dear Sir

I recieved your letter and should have answered sooner but I thought I would waite till we got paid again we expected to be paid sooner than we were I will send 10 dollars more to you to keep for me you wanted to know how I liked Soldiering I like it very well so far though it is not so very nice to travel 10 or 12 miles and carry a knapsack, two days provisions and 40 rounds of cartridges we have to drill with our knapsacks on we have two drills and dress parade in a day and fall in line of battle every morning at day break the wether changes here pretty much as it does there we had some cold wether but to day and yesterday it is warm enough to dry hay

tell mother that I got that peach butter she sent and send my sincere thanks to her for it but it did not get here for about two weeks after I recieved your letter it laid at the express office at Washington and most everything in the box was spoiled I recieved the $1.50 ok that John sent me to camp Wayne I will send mother a few pomkin seeds in this letter they are something extra I got them up along the river

no more at present write soon

Yours

Samuel T. Cassatt

Esteemed Friend

I recieved your letter and hasten at this early Period to avail my self of that pleasure it always affords me to answer your letters I have recieved your letter dated 26th and was pleased To hear from you I had give up all hopes of my letter ever comming to hand as it did not go strait on and one of our mess mates sent some money in a letter and has not heard from it yet You made inquiry in your last letter about Andy he is still at Leidersburg working for Bem. Slick and I have recieved several letters from him I seen him in Harrisburg on his return Home the time we left camp Wayne and staid at camp Curtin all night He was the same Andy as ever he said he would answer my letters if I would write To him I did not write to him till We got to Camp Pierpont thinking it not worth while but unexpected To me he answered every letter So far There is nothing new in camp we were out on (...) Brigade General Reynolds commanding with about 25 or 30 wagons on a foraging expidition we were expecting a fight but we were Disappointed we drove the rebel Piquets in and captured one of them we were drawed up in line of battle ready for any attack that Should be maid and the wagons started in diferent diriction after forage some were loaded With corn and some with Hay and what ever they could get worth taking There is one Thing wich I forgot to mention in my other letters I would like to know if you ever recieved My clothes wich I Sent to Gettysburg from Harrisburg in a carpet sack Directed to you

you wanted To know the Names of my mess mates which I will give you

That is about all That I have To say at present that Big Fight has not come off yet but I hope it soon may no more at Present

But Remain Your Friend

Samuel T. Cassatt

Write Soon

I Heard Last evining that John Had Taken To Him self a Wife is That So Tell him I am Looking for Some of the Wedding Cake I Wish him a Long and Happy life and an agreeable little Wife

I take my pen in hand to answer your Last letter which I recieved Jan 17th I have been sich for about two weeks but I am able to Report fit for duty this morning again it looks a little winter like here this morning there was a nice little snow fell last night but it is more acceptable than the mud this is what they call the Sacred Soil of Virginia but I should call it nothing but a perfect mud Hole we have not had much cold wether here yet but a great (d)eal of wet we keep pretty close quarters for the last month we have not drilled for some time on account of the wether not allowing it the camp as a general matter is healthy and our boys are in good Spirits John Hamilton was Sick about two months shortly after he came to war but he is engoying good health now I recieved them articles from the ordyly Sargent I got 2 shirts one pair of drawers and some thred and pins I did not get any Stockings he said he did not remember any of them for me if there was any please describe them in your next letter and if you forgot them you need not send any as I do not stand much in need of them now we presented our Colonel with an elegant Sword on last Sunday the sword cost $147.50 and the sash cost $40 it was presented by the noncommisioned officers and privates of our Regiment it brought an eloquent speech from the old Colonel the Big Fight you spoke of has not come off yet and no show for it yet awhile

I close hoping to hear from you soon.

Yours Respectfuly

Samuel T. Cassatt

Sir I take this opportunity to inform you that I am well at present and hope these few lines may find you in the same state of health we are now laying close this side of FredericksBurg we crossed the river about a week ago and camped about a mile on the other side of Fredericksburg we lay there about 6 days and yesterday we crossed back to this side of the river our force here at present is not more than about 4 or 5 thousand some having left to reinforce Banks (N.P. Banks 1816 - 1894 was badly defeated by Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in Shenadoah Valley in 1862) the people are all secesh in Frederickburg you can hardly find a union man in the town or around it and they are not afraid to talk it out the women are the worst our Soldiers have to take some gross insults by them the other day while a regiment of our cavalry were passing through town a lady waved a black flag out of a window that is about all that I have to on the Seceh question I will enclose 10 dollars in this letter we were paid off on last friday let me know if you recieve this please write as soon as you get it and tell me all about matters up there for I have not heard from there since we lay at Alexandria things are very high this side of the river has sold as high as 75 cents per pound eggs are 40 cents and every thing else according direct your letter to Washington no more at present but Remain Your True Friend

Samuel T. Cassatt

Sir I recieved your most welcome letter containing the Stamps in it I have had Some pretty rough times since I wrote to you last I am now in the hospitle in Washington I had the Typhoid fever the Second day after we embarked at the peninsula to come to Fredericksburg and I had no attendence till I was sent to Washington you wondered in your last letter that I did not give you Some particulars of the battles I will write you Some as soon as I get abler to write there is one favor I would ask of you I am out of money and I need a little I would have had money but I had bad luck I lost 5$ and I cannot get payed here because I have not got my discriptive list and there is no communication between here and our army I cannot get it So you would oblige me very much by Sending me $5 dollars direct your letter Washington U.S. General hospitle Fudiciary Square

no more at present but Remain your Friend write soon

Samuel T. Cassatt

Dear Friend

It is with pleasure that I take my pen in hand to reply to yours of the may 28th I was pleased to hear from you I did not know what was the reason that I did not get an answer to my last letter for I was under the impression that I had wrote to you last You wanted to know how I liked Soldering well now I like Soldering very well but then I am tired of this war and I do not like this thing of being tied down for three Successive years without having the privalege of a furloe but Soldering is a good School for those who never tried it when I Say soldiering I do not mean playing Soldier but it is easy to play it if I could talk to you I could tell you some great tales that has happened in the 2 years campaign and some laughable ones also but it is not worthile to mention them on paper but I look forward to the time when I can speak to you face to face I think it will be but eleven months till that day comes they say that we will get discharged on the 15th of next may: I would like very much to have a furloe to come home on some business I will be of age the 9th of this month ("be of age" = 21st birthday) there has some of our company has got furloes through McPherson they wrote or got somebody to intercede for them saying that they had been out so long and not been home yet and that they had become of age now and had some important business to tend to at home now I would like to know how the copperheads are getting along up there I suppose you are well surrouned with them tell me in you next who they are though I have a good idea who some of them are it would be my delight to be one to help to rid them I could do it with as good a grace as I could a Rebel they are not as honerable as a rebel soldier and they are more harm to us I suppose my friend Billy Wirts is one of them poisonous varmints I suppose this draft that is to come off will make some of them Scratch where it does not reach: I am afraid that Vicksburg is not going right the news is not altogether against us but you can see that there is something a little timorous about it: I must soon close or I will not have space I will enclose ten dollars in this letter and if that arrives safe let me know and I will send ten more

no more at present my Respects to all, answer soon

Yours Respectfully

Your Friend Samuel T. Cassatt

Dear Sir

I recieved your welcome letter of the 10th it found me in good health and I hope these few lines may find you engoying the same the wether is very warm here now the thermometer was up to 100 and 1 degrees yesterday in the shade and I think to day is warmer than yesterday: you said you would write to Mcpherson if I wished it you will be doing me a favour if you do if you write let me know when you get an answer and what prospects there is of getting one: I will not send them ten dollars till I hear from you again for if I should happen to be lucky enough to get a furloe I would need them to come home on: you asked me what I thought of Gen: McClelland I have not heard much about him of late I do not know any thing about him onley as a general and that I think that he was a good one for I do not think that there is a general in our Army that would have brought the army of the Potomac through like he did if he had been a traitor at the time he could have left the Rebels capture our whole army and no body would have suspicioned him no one that was not in it has any idea of it and the soldiers fought for him harder than they did for any other one as soon as he was put out the spirits of the army went down and we have not gained much since he would talk to any private soldier no matter how low but we will let that rest for the present I sent you a map a few days ago I suppose you had not recieved it when you wrote to me it is a map of one hundred and fifty miles around Richmond, no more at present

hoping to hear from you soon

Your Friend

Samuel T. Cassatt

Dear Sir

I recieved your letter last evening of the 25th July and hasten to reply the wether is so hot here it is almost hot enough to bake cakes in the sun we are encamped about 2 miles south of Warrington I do not know how long we may lay here but we all need a little rest: I catched up with my regiment on the third day after I left you but I done some hard marching before I catched them they were marching evry day from the time I left them till I joined them again the day I saw you I marched about 3 miles beyond Emetsburg that evening and the next day I made Middleburg wich was 30 miles I got up to the Regiment near Williams Port our boys had a little fight with the rebels there but it did not amount to much I was not in it the rebels crossed the river there was none of our troops on the other side of the river as was reported but there was about 2 or 3 thousand rebels taken before they could cross as soon as they crossed our troops struck for Manassas gap and got there as soon as the rebels 2 Divisions of the third corps had a nice little brush with them there we have been marching every day until now since we left Gettysburg It is a little more than one month since we left Fairfax Station and we have marched near five hundred miles in that time since we left the station we marched 3 days on nine crackers when we left Manasses Gap on account of the wagons not getting after us we would occasionaly seize on a secesh hog to remind them of Pennsylvania: You wanted to know how much I sent for them articles I sent one dollar and 15 cents apiece for them 2 dollars and 30 for both of them that is what the tickets cost I did not know that Hen Wirtz was in the Rebel army before I recieved your letter do you know what Regiment he is in What does old Henry and John think of him What do they say about this war I suppose they lean a little towards the south I must Bring my letter to a close

Hoping to hear from you soon

Your Friend

Samuel T. Cassatt

Dear Sir

I recieved your letter of the 17th of August we are Still at (another "at" crossed out) the old camp along the river and every thing quiet

the wether is very warm here during the day but the nights are very cold. Well that draft so long talked of has come off at last I have been looking over the list I see that John is drafted but it pleased me to see Dan Werts name among them: there was one drafted from Petersburg that belong to our company and deserted last fall his name is Amos Gardner there was 5 deserters shot here about a week ago in presence of the whole corps the 5th corps it was a pretty hard sight to look at but they deserved it they were men that went as substitutes for the money and run away one of them Deserted seven times they were marched behind their coffins around to their graves each man had a white shirt on and uniform cap and pantaloons and each mans eyes were bandaged and set on his own coffin and shot in the presence of the whole corps that should be a warning to all deserters I almost forgot to tell you I wish you would grease that rifle of mine If you please in side and out side to keep the rust from eating in I forgot it when I left

Yours Respectfully

Samuel T. Cassatt

Sir

I recieved your letter of the 7th last night it found me well and I hope these lines may find you engoying the same: about that legacy I wish you would send me the release as soon as you can I do not need the money now I want you to draw it and keep it for me so that it draws interest we are laying about 2 miles from the river we crossed at Kelleys Ford we do not expect to lay here long I suppose you heard of our move Old Meade took the Rebels like thunder did the toad by surprize our division was not engaged this time the South Corps done it they advanced on towards the river to Rhappahannack Station and found the Rebels there on this side well fortified they fought till dusk when they charged on their works and took them and our men flanked them and got posesion of their pontoon Bridges and surrounded them and took their whole Brigade all that was on this side of the river an one Battery it was a desperate fight for a short time they stabed one another with their bayonets then our men advanced across the river and the Rebels were all in winter quarters there they were hurried out so fast that their officers left their trunks behind them and some of the fires there was their dinners on cooking one of our boys found a letter in one of their shantys that a Reb had wrote to some of his friends telling them that they had Just finished their winter quarters and that the yanks ought to come to see them now and they did come it appears before he got his letter in the office no more at present

Your Obedient

Samuel T. Cassatt

Dear Sir

I take the pleasure this morning of writing you a few lines I am well and hope when the few lines reaches you that you may be able to say the same we are camped on the Battle ground of Bristoe Station where the second Corps slaughtered the Rebels when the army withdrawed from Culpepper Court House there are Rebel graves in the midst of our camp we have good quarters now but the duty is heavy but we forgot all that and look forward to the 8th of June and say only four months yet the Guerrillas are not so troblesome at present as they were some time back but it is not safe to venture two miles from camp yet unarmed there has been several captured out of our Brigade since we lay at this Station there was a very heavy canonading in front yesterday all day until dark we recieved orders to be ready to fall in line at a moments notice we have not heard the result of the firing yet but no doubt Gen. Meade was feeling for the rebs some place some of the veterans returned yesterday from their furloe there was about seven hundred reinlisted out of our Division and I think there will be a few more yet I have some notion of going myself but have not decided yet I suppose the last call for troops will cause another draft to be made I must tell you or perhaps you have heard it that Hen Werts give himself up or he was taken prisoner in Martinsburg after the Gettysburg fight he has taken the oath of allegiance well I must soon close for the present I wish you would please send me fifty cents worth of postage stamps (3 cents each) No more at present but Remain yours

answer soon if you please

Samuel T. Cassatt

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