The following 13 letters were written by Alva Cole Merrill (1845-1863), the son of Barzilla Merrill (1818-1863) adn Ruby (“Ruba”) Eloise Cole (1816-1887) of Dayton, Cattaraugus county, New York.
Alva was not old enough to enlist without his parent’s permission so when he signed up to serve in Co. K, 154th New York Infantry in August 1862, he either lied about his age or gained his parent’s permission. My hunch is that it was the latter. A couple of weeks later, his father, Barzilla, also joined the same company. They were both killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville in what was the regiment’s baptism of fire. Barzilla was killed near Dowdall’s Tavern where remnants of the 11th Army Corps put up a fight to hold off Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack. Alva was killed the following morning.
Other letters related to this same archive of letters include:
37 Letters by Barzilla Merrill, 154th New York Infantry
5 Letters by Wilber H. Merrill, 44th New York Infantry
For more on the Battle of Chancellorsville and the 154th New York Infantry, I strongly urge readers to check out the article Mark H. Dunkelman wrote entitled, “Baptism of Fire” for the American Battlefield Trust in August 2022. Likewise, check out an Interview with Civil War Historian Mark H. Dunkelman.
Letter 1
Camp James M. Brown
Jamestown, New York
August 14, 1862
Dear Parents,
I am well as usual. We got to camp about 10 o’clock that night safe and sound. I have been examined & sworn in so you see I am elected to go to Dixie. There is talk that we are a going to get our uniforms tonight. If we do, I shall be at home tomorrow and if we do not get them, I shall come home as soon as we do get them.
The first night in bunk I like to froze to death. We did not have any blankets. But last night our company drawed 50 blankets so that we slept more comfortable. We have had good victuals and all we want of it and cooked good too. I don’t ask for any better living.
We are camped in a pine grove & a pretty place too. I don’t know as I have anymore to write this time. Give my love to all.
Yours, from your son, — Alva C. Merrill
Letter 2
August 29, 1862
Dear Father,
I send 20 dollars to you by Doctor Rugg. I should have sent a little more if I could have got a [ ] broke but I could not & I want some money. When you come out here, I guess I can let you have a little more. From your son, — Alva C. Merrill
Letter 3
October 22, 1862
Dear brother and sister,
I now sit down to write you a few lines. I am enjoying the greatest of earthly blessings called health adn Pa is well too. It is very windy here today. The wind is in the northwest but I am turned around here so that it seems to me as if it was in the southeast. Yesterday we marched up to Fairfax to let General Sigel see us drill a little. After that we were marched about three miles north of the village and were drawn up in line of battle. There were seven regiments of us and a battalion of artillery. We were reservers and had to lay back in the woods about half a mile from the main line.
Well, Irvin, & & Horace have been fixing over our house today. We went about half a mile from camp and paid 10 cents for two bundles of cornstalks to weave into the gable end of our dwelling. We wove them in so that we have quite a comfortable house now.
You wrote that you talked of having a husking bee. I wish the next time you write you would tell me whether you had one or not and if you did, tell me what kind of a time you had and the next one you have. Don’t forget to write Horace and me.
Well, Nancy, fow do you do today and what are you doing? Ma wrote that you sprained your ankle. Has it got better yet? I hope it has. I want to know how many bushels of potatoes you have got in the cellar and I want to know whether there has been any snow there yet. I expected when I got down in Dixie to find hot weather but there has not been any hotter weather here than I have seen up in Old Cattaraugus. the first week after we crossed the Potomac, it was just about as warm as it generally is up there in haying time. Since that we have had some of as cold nights as I want to see while I have to stay in these little nasty tents. Some nights when I go to bed, I put on my overcoat and button it up and put on my night cap and then my cape over my head, then put a blanket over me and then when I wake up, I am shaking as if I had the ague.
Now Mother, I guess I will write a little to you. Are you well today? I am afraid you work so hard that you will be sick. I want you to be careful. You had better hire some than to get sick. When Sunday comes, I think I can see the people gathering to the meeting house to hear the word of God preached and it seems just as though I should like to be there too but there is the same God to worship here that there is at home. You must pray for me and tell the people of God they must.
Well, Mother, I want you should get that money that Mr. Dooley owes me and send it to me in the next letter. I want it to get me a rubber blanket. Horace bought him one today and glad for it and I want you to send me some three cent stamps—say 5 cents worth or such a matter. They are a pretty scarce thing here. I suppose Pa has described our journey so that there will be no need of my describing it. One thing certain, it was a good long ride. Oh, one thing I liked to have forgotten, yesterday I attended the funeral of one of our fellow soldiers, His name was Myers, a member of Co. D. He died of congestion on the brain. I guess that I won’t write anymore this time. Write as soon as you get this and don’t forget the money and the stamps.
Yours, from your son, — Alva C. Merrill
Give my respects to all enquiring friends. Tell Mike he must write and tell him where to direct. You said Caroline was to our house. Did she say anything about getting a letter from me? I wrote to her a good while ago and have not had any answer yet.
Letter 4
Camp halfway between Warrenton & Haymarket
November 8, 1862
My Dear Mother,
I now take my pen in hand to let you know that I am well and so is Pa. I suppose Pa has wrote to you since we left Fairfax. We left there Sunday, November 2nd, about noon and marched till about sundown. Then we camped for the night. In the morning we hitched up and started again. That afternoon our line of march was over the Bull Run battle ground. I saw some awful sights that afternoon. Shells and cannon balls were scattered all along the road, human hands and arms and skulls and men buried with their face out or their knees out and some that were not buried at all. But a man is not of much consequence here. We stopped 1 hour for dinner in the woods about two miles from the Bull Run creek. A good many of the treetops were cut off and some of them nearly a foot through.
Then we passed along through a camp where a regiment of rebel cavalry camped the night before. We passed through Gainesville and Haymarket. This village was pretty much deserted. It has since been burned by Gen. Sigel’s order. Then we camped three miles from Thoroughfare Gap. The rebs were trying to get through the gap. We could hear the cannons every minute. General Burnside came with his troops on the other side of the ridge and attacked them and drove them down past the gap. He has taken Warrenton. November 7th marched 7 miles towards Warrenton and camped. While we have had plenty of honey and apples here, Horace and I have apple sauce three times a day and have sugar to sweeten it with and it tastes first rate.
About them logs at the mill, Pa says that they are not divided & he cannot tell anything about them. I don’t see but what Pa is cheerful as any of them. I don’t think he grows poor any lately. He is not lame & does not cough anymore than he did at home.
About that one that deserted from our company, his name was John Whitney. He lived [at] George Y. Beebe’s. Horace likes it pretty well here, I think. He and I tents together now. Jate Hall and Theodore got so shiftless that we left them. Pa says that he wants Leonard to fix that fence that he spoke to him about before it freezes much. Nov. 7th it snowed half the day. I am tough as a bear and growing fat every day. Write soon. From your son, — A. C. Merrill
Letter 5
Camp near Fairfax, Virginia
November 23, 1862
Dear Mother,
I now sit down to write you a few lines. I am alive and well yet but don’t know when my turn will come to be sick. Monday, November 19th, we got orders to pack up and start & in less than 1 hour we were on the road. We started about 6 o’clock at night from the gap & marched Haymarket that night, camped there till morning, then we started again. Pretty soon after we started, it began to rain and rained all day long. When we left Fairfax, they made us leave our knapsacks so you see our blankets got wet so that they were not very tight to carry and not very nice to sleep in.
We marched the 2nd day within two miles of Centerville, camped for the night on the same ground that we camped on when we went down. It rained all night that night. In the morning we started again and marched to within 2 miles of Fairfax. We got there about 1 o’clock. It still continued to rain—rained all that day and all that night, and the next day and night so that we got pretty well soaked up. I stood it well enough but it made Pa pretty near sick. He is getting well now. I guess if we stay here a day or two longer, he will be well again.
I don’t know how long we shall stay here for it is talked that we are a going into winter quarters but nobody knows anything here. I will tell you so that maybe you can tell something about what we are a going to do in General Sigel’s Corps & in the division under Brigadier General Von Steinweir. I wish you [would] write where the 44th and 64th [New York] is if you can find out. I heard that they passed us when we were at New Baltimore.
I hear that there is talk of settling this war. Does the papers talk any such thing? I suppose today is Sunday but it don’t seem much as Sundays used to in Cattaraugus. We have had a General Inspection today. Had our knapsacks & guns inspected. Stood about an hour in the cold. It is a pretty cold day. When they give me enough to eat, I like soldiering first rate—like it full as well as I thought I should. I am growing fleshy every day. I hope you are all well. Tell Irvin he must be a good boy and do the best he can. I think I shall be at home before long to help him. If I was in your place, I would tell Uncle Leonard to do his own work and ask no favors of him at all. I want you to get my rifle from there and have Irvin clean it up and oil it and hang it up and lend it to no man or boy for if I ever get home, I shall take a great deal of comfort hunting with it. When Irvin gets a little older, let [him] use it if he takes a notion to. I don’t know whether you know whether you know it or not, but Horace and I tent alone now. Jate and Theodore got so nasty that we could not stand it with them and not only nasty but lousy too. You need not tell anybody so but it is a fact.
Letter 6
Camp near Falmouth, Va.
December 23, 1862
Dear mother,
I now sit down to pen you a few lines. I can’t say that I am well nor I am not exactly sick either. I have had a very bad cough now for about two weeks and my lungs are very sore but I think that I shall get over it without calling on the doctor. I guess that I will give you a little description of our last march. We left camp near Fairfax December 10th, marched all day, passed by Fairfax Station, then we marched a little each day for 8 days. December 12th we reached Dumfries. The rebel cavalry left there about three hours before we got there. December 14th we reached Stafford Court House. The next day we marched to within 8 miles of Fredericksburg. The next day we was called out about 8 o’clock in the evening and marched till 1 o’clock that night mud knee deep. Then we was ordered to stack arms and be ready to fall in at a minute’s warning. We laid there till 3 o’clock the next day. Then we marched about a mile and camped where we now are.
We are not in the reserve now. We are in the front and so near the rebs as any of them. I presume that you have got news that our men have taken Fredericksburg—another great Union victory. But the truth is our men got whipped there—pretty bad too. Burnside shelled the town in the first place and drove them out onto the hills in their breastworks. Then Halleck ordered him to cross the river which he did and tried to storm their batteries which they could not do and had to fall back with great loss on our side. Our men are all on this side of the river. Our pickets are on this side of the river and theirs on the other.
We are encamped within about a mile of the river [and] can see the rebel fortifications from our camp. How long we shall lay here, I do not know. Hope not long. I had rather march than to lay still. Last Sunday I went about 4 miles to the 44th and had a good visit with Wilber. I tell you, I was glad to see him. He has got to be a sergeant. He looks as natural as ever. He looks tough as bear. The rest of the boys that went from Dayton in that regiment that is left are all well.
I got a letter Monday from Mrs. Howlett with the stuff for ink in it. As soon as I can get a little time, I shall answer it. I have written one or two letters before this that I have not received any answer. I wish that you would write to me a little oftener than you do. Pa has got three now within a few days and no letter for me.
Tell Nancy & Irvin to write some too. I should like very much to hold Christmas & New Years at home but that is impossible. It seems hard to have Pa deprived of the comforts of life as he is. If he was only at home, I could stay and feel a great deal better about things than I do now—not but what I like to have him with me, but I feel as though his place is at home. And if he was there to see to things, I think it would be much better. If you see any of the Dawley’s folks, tell them that I saw Ed Ells and that he is well and he had heard from Wat a day or two before and he is well. I don’t know as I have anything more to write this time so goodbye. A Merry Christmas to you all. This from your son, — A. C. Merrill
About the stuff we got in that box, we got the bag of dried fruit and six pounds of butter and a flannel rag and Pa got about a pound of cheese by teasing hard for it. P. W. Hubbard used as much of the butter as anybody. I don’t want you should ever put anything in a box for me that is a going to be directed to him.
Letter 7
Camp near Falmouth
December 26, 1862
Dear Mother,
Again I take my pen in hand to let you know that I am still living and I feel better that I did when I wrote before. I received a letter from you dated December 17th with $1 in money and 1 stamp. I was glad to get it. It came to me Christmas. I don’t know but you meant it for a Christmas present. At any rate, I called it so. Wilber is over here today and he and Pa has gone down to Co. B. They are about half a mile from here supporting a battery. Oh! I guess I will tell you what I had for dinner yesterday. Horace and I had some pork and some desiccated potatoes & apple sauce & plenty of sugar and some molasses candy after dinner. I went over onto the river bank & sat and looked at the rebel pickets. I was just a good rifle shot from them. It looked just like little boys play. I sat and thought of home and those I left behind me. But I suppose they are enjoying themselves. At any rate, I hope so. I tell you I thought of a good many things in the course of two hours but I can tell it to you better when I get home than I can write it.
I might write you a little about P. W. Hubbard but it is too mean to write with a pen. In fact, it is too mean to believe. I presume he will be at home in a short time and be as good a Christian as ever. I guess you have not had much experience in soldiering. If you had, you would not wonder at my going in with the rest. I tell you, it is astonishing to see folks steal here and folks that would not do it home no more than nothing in the world. Pa got about 2 lbs. of sugar of Mr. Hubbard and in the night one of his tent mates stole part of it. I will not call any names but it was one from our own town. I presume you remember the man that stayed to Mr. Garfield’s the night we stayed there just before we left Jamestown. He died a few minutes ago. He has been well and tough till a few days ago. I have not learned what was the matter with him. We have heard here that W. H. Seeker was dead and we have heard that he was getting better and I don’t know which to believe.
Our regiment has dwindled away considerable since we left Jamestown. We left there with 900 and 70 odd men and now we cannot muster quite 600. You have not written anything about my rifle yet. I wrote to you that I wanted it got home and cleaned and kept at home for when I get home. I shall want to use it. Please tell me about it in your next. I don’t think of any more to write this time. Pa is well and the rest of the folks too as far as I know.
Yours from your son, — Alva C. Merrill
to R. C. Merrill
Please send me a few stamps in your next and tell me what the brave boys that have got home have to say about the war. The most of us think they were homesick. Don’t let anybody see this letter.
Letter 8
Camp near Falmouth
January 27, 1863
Dear Mother,
I am seated in my tent with my blister wrapped around my foot trying to write to you but I have got almost discouraged about writing to you anymore. I have written two letters before this and have not got any answer to any of them. I don’t know as you have got them but if you have, I don’t think you have done exactly right in not answering them. But I write this time in hopes that I shall get an answer. Pa is well and I am well and tough as a knot but I have got a boil on my left foot on the heel cord which is not very pleasant. But I think it will get well in a day or two.
Pa got two letters from you this morning (no. 23 & 24, no. 19, 20, and 22 he has not got). Probably they are lost. You said you heard we had crossed the river and had had a fight. It was another one of the Union victories. I will try and give you a little history of the fight.
January 14th pretty early in the day about 3 o’clock we started from camp and marched till daylight and made us some brush tents and then we went to work (our regiment and the 73rd Pennsylvania was there) fixing roads. We stayed there a couple of days and then went back to our old camp, stayed there two nights, and then we went back to the same place and went to work again. We were fixing roads for the army to cross the river. It was about nine miles from Falmouth up the river. Got everything ready and the whole Potomac Army was in motion calculating to cross the river.
But January 20th, just as dark, it began to rain. Rained all night and all the next day and all that night and the next day. You would have thought about Virginia mud if you had been here. It was just halfway to my knees. Every step that day the whole army was ordered back to their old camps. Our company was detailed to help the wagons through. They stopped about 3 o’clock in the afternoon to get something to eat. When they got ready to start, Horace and I was not quite ready so we got a little behind and we had to go just as fast as we could to overtake them. We catched up a little after dark and I could have kept up well enough but Horace tuckered out. He thought he could not go another step. But we got to the woods and made us a fire and went to bed, rested good, and the next day we was enquiring for the 154th New York but we found it without much difficulty.
Oh, you can’t begin to imagine anything about the mud. Here was a cannon stuck and there was a pontoon stuck and there a baggage wagon, and there a dead mule and here a tired out soldier and so it went. We got to camp the 23rd. We did not go to our old camp but stopped about 1 mile from it. Thus ends the great battle.
Mother, I wish you would send me a pamphlet of some kind to read. You can do it just as you would a paper. I don’t care much what it is but something interesting. Uncle Norman was here but he did not stay here long. I did not see him but a few minutes. I got the boots and was very glad of them. They fit first rate and I think they are a good pair. Only there is not nails enough in the bottom. It is a hard place for boots here. The gloves you sent by the Captain I have not got yet. The Captain had his satchel checked and when he got to Washington, it had not come and when he got ready to come away, it had not come so he came without it. It may be you will want to know how far I have read in my testament. I begin at the 16th Chapter of Acts. Horace has read his through.
The paymaster is here. He has paid the 29th New York and the 73rd Penn. Vols. We expect every day that he will call on us.
Well, it is six months yesterday since I enlisted. It don’t seem as though it was so I think my 3 years will be up pretty soon. I can stand anything I have seen yet but I suppose a bullet would kill me as quick as it would anybody. Mother, you can’t begin to think what a hard place for morals it is here. When I first got here, I was perfectly astonished at it but I tell you, when you have lived without bread for 2 or three days, you would get something if you could. I hope I shall not get to be a very big thief.
I suppose P. W. Hubbard is at home enjoying himself. BRAVE BOY. You spoke about his coming into the ranks. I hope he won’t anyway for I was glad to get rid of him and so was the whole company. I suppose he will enjoy just so much religion as he ever did but I shall not have to answer for what he does. I shall have enough to answer for without. I was very glad to hear that <ary had experienced religion & I hope she will live it. I will write to her as soon as I can get a stamp. Please tell me in your next of any more of the girls to the Summit have been converted and what their names be. And I want to know if you have got that money from Mr. Dawley’s yet. I think you would have a good visit to go there and stay all day. I think I should like to make two or three calls down that way. Give my love to Nancy and Irvin and to all the rest of the folks. I don’t think of anything more to write this time. Please write as soon as you get this.
This from your son, — Alva C. Merrill
Irvin, here is a ring that I made of laurel root. You can take some sand paper and make it smooth. And here is an old bosom stud that I found at Camp Seward.
Letter 9
Camp near Falmouth
February 2, 1862 [should be 1863]
Dear Mother,
We received two months pay last Saturday. Enclosed please find a check for $18. You can set it down with the other that I sent home. I shall send a little more before great while. I don’t suppose you can read this at all. I have got a felon on my forefinger of my right hand that helps some about writing. I think I have killed it so that it will get well in a few days. Our surgeon is going home and I am going to send it by him. I wish you would write to me once in a while. When Pa gets a letter from you he has to read it three or four times over before he will let me see it at all and then likes as not, he won’t let me read it so I have concluded not to ask him to let me read any more of his letters.
No more at present. Write often. I remain as ever your ungrateful son, — A. C. Merrill
Letter 10
Camp near Stafford Court House
February 14, 1863
Dear Mother,
Your most welcome letter of the 4th came to hand in due time—the first I had received from home since last Christmas. I had made up my mind you did not calculate to write to me again at all. I am in by my fireplace and lit a candle and you had better believe it done me good to read it. I almost forgot I was a soldier for a few minutes. Let that be one of the times that I forget it and I will tell you one of the times when I think of it.
We broke camp February the 5th about 9 o’clock in the morning. It commenced snowing about the time we started and snowed all the way. We camped about 3 o’clock. Soon after we got our tents pitched, it began to rain and rained all night—camped right in the open field, the snow about five inches deep. You can calculate it was anything but fun. The next morning they took us up into the woods and we pitched our tents again. We had not been there more than an hour when it was strike tents and fall in. Marched to within two miles of Stafford Court House and now we have got good winter quarters for the 3rd time. I expect every day when we shall have to dig out.
I am glad Irvin can take comfort in going to spelling schools. I notice I would like to hitch the colts to a spelling school myself. I reckon that I could raise Ned equal to the best of them. But I reckon I shall have to wait a while. You said you wanted me to write what I wanted sent. I should like a good wool hat and a pair of checkered shirts and a coffee pot that will hold about 3 pints. You can pack it full with butter or dried fruit so that it will not jam very easy and you may put in a paper of shoe nails and some waxed ends and a sewing [ ] and a pegging awl both with handles to them and two pair of sacks. Please send me by mail as soon as you get this about 50 cents worth of nice paper and envelopes. I want something nice and I can’t get it here. Do them up nice so that they will not get mussed up. It is mail time now and I must hurry up or it will not go till Monday. What you send, you had better send right away for as soon as the weather will do, we shall be pulling out of this.
The recipe for making in [is] 1 lb. of extract of logwood, 1 ounce of bichromate of potash, to 10 gallons of water. I have not got my papers you sent yet. Please write soon. Give my love to Nancy and Irvin. Please write as soon as you get this and don’t forget to send the paper and envelopes.
This from your son, — A. C. Merrill
Letter 11
Camp John Manly, Virginia
March [1863]
Dear Mother,
I have just come in off from picket. Went out Saturday noon and came in Tuesday noon. Did not see ant rebels. Mr. Badgers brought me a letter from you and [I was glad] to hear you was enjoying such good health. It is a great blessing to enjoy good health at home or abroad. I have enjoyed good health so far and I hope I shall till I get home.
I will tell you what I know about 9-month’s men. We enlisted for 3 years unless sooner discharged and was mustered into the United States service for three years. But there was fraud used about it and they think that they can’t hold us. The Colonel of the 29th New York was at Washington and he said that our regiment was down on the record as 9 month’s men.
We got the [box] just two weeks after it started—everything all safe, and we was very glad to get it. The coffee pot and spider is just what we need and I like my shirts first rate. I hope Pa will get his discharge for I know he can’t stand the war, weather. If he could get home, I should feel a great deal better. It makes me feel bad to think he is off here where he can’t have no privileges at all. If he was at home to see to things there, I could stay my time out and feel a great deal better. But when I think about home and nobody there to take care of you, it makes me feel bad. But then I hope for the best.
I have not been homesick yet but Pa wants to get home on furlough the worst kind and I hope he will have a chance before long and I hope that we shall all come home before long.
About our captain’s name, I don’t exactly know who it will be. There has been talk that Lieutenant Hotchkiss of Company C is a going to be our captain but I don’t know whether he will or not. You said you had been to Mr. Dawley’s and he had paid you the balance of my wages. I wish you would tell me in your next whether he paid it willingly or not, and what they said about me. You did not write very particular about them. I tell you, I should like to go there and make a visit and there is one or two other places that I should like to call to very well but I think I will wait a little while. I don’t think of much to write this time. Write as soon as you get this and tell me all the news. I wish you would every Sunday. I like to hear from home.
This from your son, — A. C. Merrill
Letter 12
Camp near Stafford Court House, Va.
Sunday, March 15th [1863]
Dear Mother,
I received your letter in due time and was very glad to hear from you and to hear that you was well. It finds me tough and fat. I think that I am fleshier than when I left Jamestown.
About the money matter that you spoke about, I don’t think I can spare any now. Some think we are a going to be paid 4 months pay in a few days. If they do, I shall send home pretty much all of it for a body can get along without paying out any or he can pay out all his wages.
Wilber [Merrill] was over here the other day. He is well and looks tough. He says he doubts Marvin Hull’s being dead. He said they had had no notice from the hospital of his death. They think maybe he has deserted.
The ambulance came just now and took Mr. William Wolf to the general hospital. They are dying off pretty fast. There is a funeral in the brigade nearly every day. I think every time, whose turn will it be next? It may be mine. But it does not make any difference if I am only prepared.
They say that when we was mustered into the United States service, we was not mustered for only 9 months and they all think that when the 9 months is up, we shall go home. But I think they will contrive some way to keep us longer.
When we go out on picket now, we have to stay three days. That makes it pretty tough. We have stayed here some over 5 weeks. I hardly know what to make of it. It is the longest we have stayed in one camp since we left Camp J. M. Brown. I think we shall have dig out pretty soon and maybe we shall have to see some fighting but I don’t care what they do with me as long as I am well. But when I get sick, they need not make much reckon on my coming back to the regiment again. But I hope I shall not get very sick.
I do wish Pa could go home. He wants to the worst kind but I am afraid he will not get a chance very soon. Please tell me in your next if there is any prospect of this war being settled. I heard some time ago that a committee was appointed to be sent to England to do something about war matters but I have not heard whether they went or not.
March 16. Well, Mother, I went a visiting last night. I went to Pa’s tent and got supper. We had potatoes and butter, and bread & honey, & apple sauce & cakes. It was a gay old supper for soldiers. This time goodbye from your affectionate son, — A. C. M.
Letter 13
Camp John Manly, Va.
April 12, [1863]
Dear Mother,
Again I take my pen in hand to converse a short time with you. I received your letter in due time for which I was very thankful. I have not been very well for the past week. I took an awful cold the last I was on picket and the doctor says I will have a run of the fever unless I am very careful. Mr. Badgers is 2nd Lieutenant in Co. A. Our captain’s name is Hotchkiss—a lieutenant from Co. C. Our 1st Lieutenant is W. F. Chapman. Our 2nd Lieutenant is Salmon Beardsley. So you see we have a full set again. I like our captain first rate as far as I have got acquainted with him. I have kept a daily memorandum since I came into Virginia and at the end of this month, I will send it home. I don’t suppose it will be worth much to you but maybe it will be a pleasure to me when I get home to look it over.
Some are making calculations that they are going home in a short time but I don’t make any such calculations. You know I am one of the unbelieving kind. I shall count myself lucky if I get home when my three years is up.
We have got orders to march tomorrow morning at 5 o’clock. It is not certain whether we shall go or not. It is raining now. That is one thing that makes me think we shall go for if there is any bad storm, the 154th has to march or else go on picket. We shall not (if we march) have any mail or have any chance to mail any letters so you need not think it strange id you do not hear from us in quite a spell. You will have to excuse a short letter this time and I will try and write a longer one next time. So goodbye for this time. I remain as ever your son, — Alva C. Merrill
Spared & Shared 23 