Thursday, September 29, 2016

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett to Harriet Plummer Bartlett, July 24, 1864

Headquarters First Brigade.
July 24, 1864, 10 P. M.

Dear Mother, — I write, as I promised. I got back safely from the lines. Just before I went there, a captain of the Fifty-sixth and two lieutenants of the Fifty-seventh were badly wounded by a shell which fell and exploded where they were sitting. Lieutenant Bowman of the Fifty-seventh cannot live.

This makes six officers of the Fifty-seventh who have been killed or badly wounded since I have been here. It is too bad. The firing has not ceased since I wrote you last, nor indeed since I first got within sound of it. The bullets are singing around my tent as usual. Spat! there goes one into the tree, making the bark fly. It is raining to-night, but it does not diminish the ardor of these patriotic sportsmen, who keep up their target practice with great zeal.

The weather has been very cool and pleasant.

I slept beautifully last night, and hope to to-night.

Love to all at home. No letters yet; two Advertisers to-night, — 20th, 21st

Affectionately,
W. F. B.

Did I tell you I went over to see the Twentieth yesterday? Saw Patten, John Perry, and Dr. Hayward. They are a mile and a half in rear of us.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 115-6

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