Camp near Hunters Chapel, Va.
Oct 7th, 1862
Dear Miss Annie
I only know one way to stop
this cross firing of letters, which is to write
tonight and acknowledge the receipt of
your last letter which reached me this
afternoon. to be sure, I did write last night
and my letter was only mailed to day, but
this mutual and continual explanation about
our letters passing on the road is becoming
extremely ridiculous. It would be funny, tho
if the same idea should strike you upon
receipt of my letter, and you should do the
same thing. To avoid all future mishaps
I shall now wait anxiously for your
reply to this, and for the sake of distinction
you can call it “the letter in which I
had nothing to say”, for I fear such is
the case. I cannot usually recollect the
contents of more than one letter (if that)
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at a time, and consequently get quite puz-
zled sometimes to understand your allusions
to my “last letter but one”. I dont intend to
apologize for the stupidity of this, as I
think I am entitled to due allowance, con-
sidering the circumstances. I know I am
not blessed with a superabundance of ideas,
and generally crowd into one letter all
my accumulation for the past week, at
least. I am very sorry to hear that you
are still an invalid which I was not
aware of before. In fact you have the
smallest amount of egotism of any of
my correspondents. You hardly ever
mention yourself, and then only indirectly.
Shall I say you dont select the most
agreeable topics in your letters, after
this, or shall I merely leave it to your
imagination? I should like to be home
now, just to be allowed to prescribe homeo
pathically for you. I have a case of
medicines and doctor all our company.
For some days past I have had an
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average of two or three patients per day,
and all this with only eight species of
medicine in my box. I firmly believe
that if I had a regular case with
thirty or forty varieties in it, I could soon
get our whole company on the sick
list. Joking aside, I have been very
successful in my treatment so far, and
several of my patients were right sick.
Perhaps I received some assistance from
good constitutions, but so would any doctor.
As you seem to wish to have the his-
tory of that ring, I will give it. It was
my Mother’s engagement ring and was
given to me when I was five or six years
old, worn until I got too big for it (I
should say my hand) then carried on
my watch chain for a long time, where
it was always looked upon as very suspicious
and lasterly carried in my pocket book.
Now are not these associations sufficient to
make it valuable? As to the impropriety
about it, I am sure I dont see any
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If there was, of course I would not want
you to wear it, out of regard for yourself,
but as there is not, I am glad that you
keep something which with the aid
of my letters will prevent you from
quite forgetting that such an indicid-
ual still exists. Perhaps you have had
some disagreeable inquiries or insinu-
ations made in regard to it and do
not care to undergo any more, and
I know it is a difficult thing to be
independent under all circumstances.
In fact I dont think I have any
right to ask it, at present, and I don’t.
Do people still talk around German-
town, or has some other unfortunate
couple become the staple article of
diet, at tea fights.
I told you last night all about
my flag (the “hypocritical” flag) but to
day matters are more complicated,
for I have an informal notification
that Co F must drop their colors
or they will get a formal order to
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that effect. Now aren’t you glad? I
am now prepared to accept a U.S. Flag
of the proper size and material, say
eight feet long and wide in proportion.
Of course I should not like to ask
any one to make one for me, but if
one should be made for me, I would
promise that Co F would not disgrace
it. I think one with a letter F in the
Union instead of stars would be a
splendid idea, as it would answer
for two purposes. I expect you think
I am entirely too proud of Co F. I
certainly am proud of them, and I
have reason to be, as I believe they
will prove, one of these days. They
will do anything at all for me, and
I mean to do all I can for them. I
can never outlive the associations we
are forming here together, and unlike
most officers including many of our own,
I agree with Capt Eliot that men who
enlist as privates to fight for their
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country are better entitled to be treated
as men, than ever before, and this
is our course towards them. We reap
the result in having the best drilled
and best behaved Company in the reg-
iment, and get from them even more
respect than the officers who do the
reverse and treat their men as if they
were only machines. But as you are
probably not going int the military
business at present, I will not bore
you with a treatise on military mat-
ters, and I know you would be more
interested in the description of more
active operations, which unfortunately
I cannot give at present.
Ned Bowen is well and in good spirits.
He got a line from Cousin F. recently,
speaking of Miss Carrie’s engagement,
very short and sweet, however, I see
a good deal of Ned, for though our
officers are with hardly an exception
agreeable and gentlemanly men, still
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like everywhere else, we have an inner
circle of those whose associations and
interests, outside of the regiment, are
most similar. But considering that
I started with the assurance that
I had nothing to say I have done
pretty well, and for fear that you
may think the truth is not in me,
I must close, particularly as it is now
after twelve and my breakfast hour
is about 6 A.M.
Lea’s letter will conclude on the 9th]
Joseph Tatnall Lea, Co. F, 114th Pennsylvania
MSS 11412
