Though unsigned due to its being a partial letter, I can confirm that it was written by Moses Thompson (b. 1835) of Co. E, 35th Ohio Volunteers (OVI). Moses entered the service as a private and mustered out as a sergeant. He was married to Mary Jane Morrison (1839-1865), the sister of Elijah M. Morrison (1836-1863), to whom the letter was addressed. Moses and Mary Jane were married in Preble county, Ohio in 1859.

The 35th Ohio Infantry was nicknamed the Persimmon Regiment. It was organized in Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, and mustered in for three years on 20 September 1861 under the command of Col. Ferdinand Van Derveer. On September 26, 1861, the 35th departed Hamilton for Covington, Kentucky, arriving the same day. That evening, General O.M. Mitchel ordered the 35th onto a train on the Kentucky Central Railroad, placing detachments from the regiment at railroad bridges along the route in Harrison and Bourbon Counties, with the regiment headquarters being located at Cynthiana, Kentucky. The members of the 35th successfully protected the bridges from Confederate attacks. Upon completing this duty, the regiment moved to Paris, Kentucky, where the 35th remained until early December 1861, when it advanced to Somerset, Kentucky.

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Paris, Bourbon County, [Kentucky]
October 27th 1861
Capt. D[avid] M. Gans
35th [Ohio] Regiment

Respected Brother,

It is with the greatest of pleasure that I have seated myself this beautiful Sunday morning to the purpose of answering your most welcome letter. I am in tolerably good health at present as I have had the chills again but I have got over them again. We had a very good dinner gave by the ladies of Old Bourbon but they cannot come up with the ladies of Old Butler for it did not shine with the good things like the table did at Old Hamilton. It passed off tolerably well. There was one man shot his hand with a pistol and there was one fell down last night while going around on guard and his gun went off and shot another man in the foot. This is the third or fourth accident of this kind has happened. I think that we have some of the most careless people in the regiment that anybody ever seen.

We had one of our companies to go to take the 2nd Ohio Regiment provisions a few days ago and they have not returned yet. They took one prisoner as they passed through town and they took him on with them for to see if he was a good traveler.

This is a much nicer place than we was camped before for there is two Union men to where there was one down there and the country is much nicer and the fairground that we are camped in is one of nicest grounds that I ever seen for they have the nicest buildings that I ever seen. ¹ As to where wee will go to from here, I do not know, nor when we will move.

William Morrison and William Mikesell is out in town to see the women. There is some very nice looking girls here that come in to see us. William was, I think, deceived in his Captain or else he don’t know what it takes to make a man, for there is not a half a dozen in the company that thinks a great deal of him. You need not write anything about it back The boys is a playing cards as usual and then they will go to Meeting and come back and sit down and play cards for a change. Just in from dinner, and it would make you laugh to see us go into…. [rest of letter is missing]

¹ “Camp Bourbon is located at the Fair Grounds of the county of that name, within the vicinity of Paris, the county seat. It is a beautiful location for a camp, the ground being high and rolling and thickly sodded with blue grass. The buildings in the fair grounds are ample and of the most approved style for the purposes they were erected, far surpassing those of a like kind in our own Ohio.“ [Letter by member of the 35th OVI from Camp Bourbon on 2 November 1861]