This letter was signed by a Union soldier named William McMurphy who seems to have been among the 6000 soldiers landed at Ocean View under the command of General Wool on 10 May 1862 to advance on Norfolk that was being evacuated by the Confederates. If not in this first wave of troops, he must have been in the second wave of troops that followed under the command of General Joseph Mansfield. Regiments that were in the first wave included, I think, the 10th and 20th New York, the 1st Delaware, and the 16th Massachusetts, along with some cavalry and artillery. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to identify any William McMurphy in any of these regiments.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Gosport Navy Yard
Norfolk, Virginia
May 20th 1862

Dear Mother,

I received your letter today and was glad to hear that you was well. Your letter also found me in good health as you will perceive. We are in the same place that we was when I last wrote and I guess we shall stay here a while. There is a report that Richmond is taken but I do not know how true it is.

We have just been changing our camp ground into a grove. It is a very pleasant place. There is a great many Union people here but there is some very strong secesh here too—especially among the ladies. Some of them wear secesh flags on their breasts and walk past our soldiers as large as life but we like to tell them of the hot coffee and warm victuals we found in their soldier’s camps when we came here.

I will send you some secesh money and P.O. stamp. Them bills are all the change they have. Some of them are for five cents.

I have just got done cooking and gone into the ranks and I tell you I am glad enough. It is very warm here. I have wrote to you every week but once since I came down here. I can get no stamps here. Please send some and I will send some money when I get paid. I can’t write anymore tonight. So goodbye from your affectionate son, — Wm. McMurphy