The following letter was written by 20 year-old Edward H. Roberts and his brother, 25 year-old Daniel Roberts, both privates in Co. D, 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). The brothers enlisted together on 3 October 1861 to serve three years. Daniel mustered out at the end of his term of service; Edward mustered out as a corporal in July 1865. They wrote the letter to their older brother, George W. Roberts (1829-1900).

The Roberts boys were the children of Morehouse Roberts (1790-1847) and Susannah Newman (1806-1898) of Delaware county, Ohio. I previously transcribed an 1863 letter by Daniel Roberts which can be found at—1863: Dan Roberts to George W. Roberts.

The 20th OVI was organized at Columbus, from Aug. 19 to Sept. 21, 1861, to serve for three years. During the winter it was employed in guarding several batteries in the rear of Covington and Newport, Ky. In February 1862, a month after this letter was written, it participated in the battle of Fort Donelson, Tenn., “with no little credit to every man. It also participated in the battle of Shiloh, with considerable loss, and it is fully entitled to a share in the glory of that victory.”

Transcription

City Barracks
Cincinnati, Ohio
January 21, 1862

Dear Brother,

I now will take up my pen and try to write you a few lines to let you know we are all well. I hope these lines will find you and family the same. Well George, I am almost ashamed to try to write to you. it has ben so long since I have written to you. I wrote you a letter before I went to Illinois. I did not get no answer from it. It was not the reason which I did not write. It was that I was such a poor writer and I would hear from you every little while from home so I thought if you wanted to hear from me, you would write to me. You must excuse me this time and I will do better next time.

Our regiment has come back to the City Barracks. I expect we will stay here awhile. It may be that we will stay here till spring. We came here last week. We did not do any fighting when we was in Kentucky.

I would druther be in our tents than here. We are kept in like prisoners here. Ed and Tip is well and hearty. Ed is as fat as he can hardly be. Well, George, he eats a nuff, if that will make anybody fat. We have plenty to eat such as it is.

We hear from home every week. They was well last week. George, you orty [ought to] see Giles. You would not know him. He is about as tall as Old Calwell . I don’t think I ever saw a boy grow as fast in my life as he did while I was gone to Illinois. Well, George, if he is tall, he is awful good boy. He is very hard working boy.

I was home two weeks last fall. He worked hard all the time while I was home. He is very good to Mother. I am going home as soon as I can get a furlough. Ed was home while we was in Kentucky.

I got a letter from our neighborhood last week. They say that Melissa Clark is getting very fat. I can’t hardly believe it. We have not heard from Benjamin and John for about a month. They was at Cairo then. They was both doing duty then. We wrote to them about three weeks ago and have not heard from them yet.

Well, George, I guess Jim Herron ¹ has got dinner ready and I must go and help him get rid of some of it. No more at present. Please write soon.

Dan wanted me to write a few lines but he has written all the news so I will not write anymore. Please write soon and direct to City Barracks, Cincinnati, Ohio, Co. D, 20th Regt. Ohio Vol. [Infantry], USA

Your brothers, — Ed and Dan

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¹ James J. Herron was killed in the Battle of Bolivar, Tennessee, in August 1862.