Georgetown Heights, July 1st, 1861.
Headquarters 79th Regiment.
Dear Mother:
At length I have an
opportunity to inform you of my doings since we parted.
I will spring over
details however, to say that I am now with Elliott at the Barracks of the 79th
Regt. — that I slept last night upon the floor — that I am not yet Lieutenant,
though assured of an eventual appointment — so until I write that I am entitled
to wear the epaulets, please direct my letters to the care of Lieut. S. R.
Elliott, 10th Co., 79th Regt., N. Y. S. M., Washington, D. C. Up to the present
I have enjoyed myself much and am delighted with the novelty of the situation.
However, I have no catalogue of hardships to complain of, as I have been dining
in the best of company at a very good Secessionist Hotel which lies handy to
our quarters, so please, dear mother, don't expose yourself to any privations,
for the purpose of better sympathizing with me as regards camp experiences. . . . Elliott you know, and I need not sound
his praises. . . . By-the-way, my
expenses here to Washington were paid by a grateful country, and in this wise.
Young Quartermaster Elliott, meeting me at the Steamboat Landing, introduced me
to some officers of a Maine Regt. on its way hither. I was introduced as Lieut.
Lusk and in that capacity was invited to occupy the car appropriated for the
staff. The officers manifested some curiosity regarding the Regt. I was
supposed to represent, so it was with no little difficulty that I resorted to
such evasions as would enable me to cover my ignorance. I pronounced the 79th
Regt. to be the finest in the field, and was looked upon quite respectfully.
We are now
delightfully quartered on Georgetown Heights in the Catholic College, but are
going into Camp today. Yesterday a preacher from the Scottish Kirk discoursed
to the soldiers in the yard. The Catholic priests must have shuddered at the
terrible sacrilege, but even sectarianism must bend to meet the exigencies of
war.
Elliott sends kind
regards to you, and the sisters, and Hunt. Love to all.
Very affec'y.
W. T. Lusk.
SOURCE: William
Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p.
48-9
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