LT: September 15, 1864 Luke Ostrye

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.

Note: All of the Ostrye brothers’ letters were transcribed by Charlotte Smith.

15 Sept 1864 (no location given)

Dear Father and Mother:

We take up my pen to let you know we are all well and all of the French Creek boys and I hope that these few lines will find you the same. Me and Charles sent $33.00 and paid the express.$1.00. I will send more but I had $10.00 stolen, but I don’t feel so hurt as hurt as Henry Mina as he had all of his money stolen, but we are at Baltimore now. I don’t want to have you write till you get another letter from me. We don’t know where we are a going nor care where we go. We got—to eat here. We sent our clothes home from —(Elmira??). We don’t know when I shall get a gun. Good bye for now give my best to all of the folks.

Luke Ostrye [Charlotte Smith: “evidently written by Luke-very poor spelling and phonetic. He had someone write all the rest of the letters. This was common during the war and volunteers did this. Many soldiers could not read or write.”]¹

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Other Letters Written  By Luke and Charles Ostrye at the Siege of Petersburg:

• LT: September 21, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: September 29, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: October 16, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: October 23, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: November 5, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: November 20, 1864 Luke Ostrye
• LT: December 15, 1864 Luke and Charles Ostrye
• LT: December 16-23, 1864 Luke and Charles Ostrye

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