The following letter was written by Patrick John Quigley (b. 1842), a farmer from Orange, Connecticut who served in Co. E, 15th Connecticut Infantry. This regiment first saw action in the Battle of Fredericksburg and afterwards were sent to Suffolk in February where they remained for some time. In this late May 1863 letter John describes the hard work of digging entrenchments and mounting guns in the forts surrounding Suffolk.

Transcription

May the 31st 1863

Dear Friend,

I take the opportunity to write these few lines to you hoping this will find you in good health as this leaves me in good health at present. Thank God for His goodness to us all. I have been sick for three weeks but I am better now.

We are now garrisoning forts at [Suffolk]. We have had a hard time here. We had to work hard. We defended the whole town for 14 days and done picket duty around the whole place. Now we are are at rest. We expect to go to Portsmouth in a week or more to build entrenchments. We have got a little over four hundred for duty in the regiment. We have had as hard a time as any other regiment since we came out. We have not had as much fighting as some other regiments has but we have worked.

Some of our boys were on picket for 9 days while the rest was digging. We have one of the best forts I have seen in three rods of the town. It has two Parrott Rifles. They throw one hundred pound shells and three that throw 132 pound, and three mortars and six Siege guns and they are going to put more up in it. It covers the whole ground that our Brigade camped on.

I have not had a letter from you but one and I don’t want you to stop writing cause you do not get one from me. Write as often as you get time and I will answer if I can. I thank you for that paper you sent me. It cost me 6 cents every day for paper to hear the news but now we are here, we can’t get the paper. Let me know how everything is to home in Connecticut and what you think of the times and the war and the draft. Give my love to the children and tell them that I will come and see them when the war is over and I think it will be short. The rebs is coming down and they will come down and they must come down, dead or alive.

No more at present, but remain your friend, — John Quigley

Address to P. J. Quigley, Co. E, 15th Regt. Conn. Vols., Suffolk, Va.