John W. Derr Letter: July 13, 1864

Editor’s Note: The material on John W. Derr which appears at The Siege of Petersburg Online is provided by Derr’s great-great grandson Jim Derr.  Jim was fortunate to inherit the letters of his great great grandfather, written during the Civil War.  Jim is posting his ancestor’s letters one by one on the date they were written, 150 years after the fact at The Civil War Letters of John W. Derr.  This material is copyrighted 2011 by Jim Derr and is used with the written permission of the copyright holder.  No reproduction of this material may occur without the express written consent of Jim Derr.

July 13, 1864:¹

Camp near Petersburg, Va.

                                                                                                                                July 13^th, 1864

 

My Dear Father and Mother,

I take the present opportunity to inform this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope that this few lines will find you in the same state of good health.  I received your letter today and I was very glad to hear that you are well all the time and I am happy that I can say the same.  I am also glad to hear that you got my money and I hope you will take good care of it, as you did before.  And if we don’t soon get paid I will be very apt to send for some of it but I hope we will soon get paid off.  We don’t need much money, but I want some once in a while.  I suppose you took good care that you got my pay all in good money for I wouldn’t like to have any bad money for I have to work hard for it.  We hear that the rebels are making a raid into Pennsylvania again but I hope it will be to their sorrow.  I hope they will lose more men then they did last summer at Gettysburg and they didn’t gain much that time by all appearances.  It is for no use to write anything to you about the war for you know more at home then we do out here for we do hear very little but what we see.  But I will let you know that we will have a great explosion here before very long.  We are going to blow up the rebels forts.  They are undermining them now.  They have two or three all ready now and our regiment is working at one and they are near done with it and I hope it will work all right, if they get it going.

I have no more to write today so I will bring these few lines to a close for this time with the intention of hearing from you soon again.  So I will remain your affectionate son.

John W. Derr

Answer soon and direct your letter as before.  Give my love to my brothers and sisters and to all inquiring friends.  Tell Josiah Fetterolf if he wouldn’t write a letter to me I would pin his nose up on his forehead.  G.D. the mules they shake too much I can’t write anymore.

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