Fairfax Stations Va. February 8, 1863

Dear Parents,

It is Sunday again, and one of the most beautiful days you ever saw, though we may have another storm almost any time. I am getting along first rate, have been out taking the air today. The measles are taking a pretty thorough run through the company, and it takes about a week to get over it. I believe you wanted to know what became of the sick when we moved. Well, the last time we moved there were a good many sick in quarters, and one company was left behind for guard duty at the Courthouse (it is said they could only muster thirty men), and each company left one hut behind for the use of the sick, and did not move them until we had got somewhat settled in our present situation.

About the old Catholic church that the Chaplain wrote about: They say it is a good place for a hospital. There are four of our men there now, three sick with the measles, and one (Hastings of Ludlow), with inflammatory rheumatism. I really wonder though that the Chaplain should have taken pains to write anything about the 16th, unless it was for popularity's sake, as all he seems to care about the 16th is to make money out of them. He has a son here with him, and he lets him out to the sutler [a man who follows an army and sells food, liquor, etc. to the soldiers] and has a man detailed from this company on purpose to wait upon him, and he employs him in peddling stationery that he has sent to him from New York with his tracts, etc. Whether he gets it through freight free or not I do not know. He himself gets his living at the hospital, thereby saving the expense of boarding himself. A part of this I know to be true, and the remainder I have from sources which I cannot doubt.

How does Uncle Alden get on with his new wife, and how do they and George agree? How do they like their new schoolmaster, and how do they get along with spelling schools? G.W., Esquire, I beg your pardon not making a particular acknowledgment of your whole half sheet, but it was received, and perused nevertheless, with a great deal of interest, so try again sometime as you say you will. There came an order yesterday for each company to send two of their best shots to headquarters. Hazen Fletcher and M.P. Baldwin were the men selected, each fired four shots, and each put three balls into the bird. None of the other companies succeeded in getting more than three shots into the board, while we had six.

Thank you for the corn. I could also use a few good steel pens. As for Orlo Fullam, he had trouble with his feet so they detailed him to the ambulance corps as driver of the transport which carries the officers baggage. Our company has become so reduced by details and sickness that it cannot today muster sixty men present and fit for duty, though we have as yet lost but one by death, while Co. "F" has lost 10, twice as many as all the rest of the regiment. H.G.D.

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Contributed by Linda M. Welch, Dartmouth College, Windsor County researcher.

Return to the Index of Hezron's letters..

See also Hezron's biography, and his memoir of the Gettysburg Campaign.