Camp Fair Oaks, June 10, 1862.
My dear sister:
I have just received your letter of the 4th instant,
enclosing one from Cousin John and your reply.
“The good that men do lives after them.” I have no liking to
have my biography published at this time. I have already had several
applications of the same kind. If you wish it, you may say I was born of poor
but honest parents, went to West Point in 1833, was graduated in 1837, served
two years in the Florida War and on the Northern frontier during the Canadian
Rebellion, went to Mexico in May, 1846, was at Vera Cruz and all the battles in
the valley, brevetted at Churubusco a Captain, a Major at Chapultepec, and was
made Captain in December, 1848, and assigned to Duncan's battery, which I
commanded till 1855, when I was made Major in one of the new regiments of
cavalry, a Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel in April, 1861, a Brigadier-General
of Volunteers in August. I am now suffering in front of Richmond. This is what
all my friends know and all that I care they should know. If they enquire
further, I am afraid that they would find something that would not bear the
light.
Reinforcements are coming on, but it takes a large number to
make good our losses since leaving Washington — more losses by disease than in
battle. Did you receive a letter
from Captain W. D. giving a description of the battles?
Yours,
J. s.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, Correspondence of
John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 62-3
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