The following letter was written by Levi Fletcher (1842-1898), the son of Nathan Fletcher (1798-1863) and Louise [ ] of Monticello, Wright county, Minnesota—formerly of Maine. In 1860, Levi was enumerated in his parent’s household in Monticello, identified as a 17 year-old mail carrier. When the Civil War began, Levi enlisted in May 1861 as a private in Co. B, 1st Minnesota Infantry. Fighting at the First Battle of Bull Run on Henry House Hill while supporting Rickett’s Battery, the 1st Minnesota suffered severe casualties with 49 killed, 107 wounded, and 34 missing. Levi was one of the wounded severely enough to warrant a discharge for disability, granted in October 1861. He filed for a pension as an invalid in 1863.

The year of this October 11th letter is not given but it had to be either 1863 or 1864; after the fall of Vicksburg and before the end of the war. Unfortunately, nothing in the letter gives us a clue as to which year it might have been. We learn that Levi has opened a store in Vicksburg where he believed there was “a great chance to make money.” But he found the town people hard to deal with. “They would not hesitate in taking a man’s life for a dollar. That is the kind of men that we have to deal with down here,” he told his cousin. Apparently this was not just so much hyperbole as there was a notice in the Vicksburg Daily Times of 28 November 1871 referring to the examination of Frank Newman “for the alleged shooting of Levi Fletcher.”

Levi lived out his days in Vicksburg and died there in 1898.

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

Vicksburg, Mississippi
October 11 [1863]

Dear Cousin,

I have been so busy ever since I have been here that I could not have time to write to you until now and I have not time to write you but a few lines now. And I hope you will excuse me for not writing sooner. I think this is the meanest country that ever white man ever got into but this is a great chance to make money here. But everyone is trying to get rich in one day and that they cannot do. But if a man hangs on, he will make money here.

I like [being] in the store very well but I have some of the hardest men to deal with that I ever saw. They would not hesitate in taking a man’s life for a dollar. That is the kind of men that we have to deal with down here. I have to keep hopping around from night until morn and from morn until night and what time so I get to sleep? Why I sleep in the corner of the store while the customers are looking at the goods.

I should like to be up in the State of Minnesota for a short time. One feels as dull as if he had been sick all of the time. I do not feel as lively as I did when I was up there. There is something in the atmosphere that makes me feel very dull.

I had a very pleasant time in coming down here. There were a great many ladies on the boat and we had a very good time. We would dance in the evening and the day times. I would lie to them ladies and make them think that I and the whole of Minnesota and part of Wisconsin and a part of Illinois and they thought that I was one of the great. I am of the northwest. I made them think that I was coming down here to take charge of the Southern Confederacy and then they thought I was one of the southern spies and then some of them detectives and then I was a Yankey soldier. But before the boat landed, they come to the conclusion that I was a gambler and they were right.

Please answer as soon as convenient. From your ever true friend, — Levi Fletcher

Excuse all of these mistakes.