Editor’s Note: This item is part of a collection of letters from New York engineers written while their units were at the Siege of Petersburg. Researcher and Engineer enthusiast Dan O’Connell generously donated all of the items in this collection for use at The Siege of Petersburg Online. These transcriptions are copyrighted by Brett Schulte and may not be used without my express written consent. I do not have images of these letters so some errors could be from transcription or in the original.
Camp near City Point,
August 8th, 1864Dear Parents,
The weather is dreadful warm and the flies very thick but not bothersome enough to divert me from my purpose of writing home. We are all in the enjoyment of good health and I trust this will find you all the same. Daniel is tougher than he has been any time since he entered the service and is getting quite fleshy for him. The health of the Co is not very good at present for we have four or five in hospital besides some of the others are complaining some. I think your boys have been wonderfully favored on account of sickness. Voorhis and James and Hice are well and I can say for Jimmie there is not a better soldier in the company and he is always ready and prompt to do the duty required of him. Everything is very quiet in camp hardly enough to keep us in good healthy condition both physically and mentally. A few of the men are at work repairing the pontoon train and the rest of us have little else to do besides fighting flies. Last Friday heavy cannonading and musketry was heard off on the left and reports say the Rebs undertook to blood up one of our forts but failed in the attempt and it makes me quite anxious to obtain some daily paper. We hear so many different stories we can’t tell what to believe and what not to believe. In fact I hardly believe anything anymore when I see it with my own eyes. Even if Old Abe himself should step up to me and tell me I could have my discharge tomorrow I would not believe it. This puts me in mind of what you wrote in regard to the prolongation of this war. You told the Capt. And me to give our opinions on the subject. Well for my part I am getting almost discouraged and don’t have near as much hopes of peace as I did last June at any rate I think the war will last long enough to give me the opportunity to serve three years at any rate if not longer. There you have my opinion in ful and I wouldn’t give a snap of my finger for it nor anyone else’s on that subject. It is only conjecture with any of us.
I will close for this time for I am getting to darn warm and sweaty to write.
This from your son
Charles W.1
***
Other Letters Written By Charles Personius at the Siege of Petersburg:
- LT: June 10, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: June 18, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: July 18, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: July 24, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: November 7, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: November 18, 1864 Charles Personius
- LT: January 12, 1865 Charles Personius
- LT: January 15, 1865 Charles Personius
- LT: February 17, 1865 Charles Personius
- LT: February 19, 1865 Charles Personius
- LT: March 16, 1865 Charles Personius
Source:
- Personius, Charles. (1864, August 8). (Letter to his parents). Personius Brothers Letters (CL 105, Box B, Folder 38). Booth Library, Chemung Valley (NY) Historical Society, Elmira, NY. ↩