This letter was written by Capt. Charles Barnard, of Bucksport, of Co. A of the 14th Maine Regiment, wrote to his wife, Margaret, about the regiment’s arrival at Ship Island Mississippi.

This letter was posted on Maine Memory and transcribed by crowd-sourcing which did not yield a very accurate transcription. I have reposted it here with a corrected transpription so that it can be referenced. See Maine Historical Society MMN # 79906.

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

Ship Island, Mississippi
March 10th 1862

My Dear Maggie,

I closed my last letter on ship board expecting the steamer would leave Sunday. I find she has not sailed yet.

We landed Sunday morning early in a small steamer (taken from the Rebels) & marched through sand that our feet would sink into six inches every step to the grounds designated for our encampment, We have been shoveling sand to level our grounds & setting tents ever since.

Our food is hard bread, Southern ham uncooked. I made my supper & breakfast on that box of sardines you put in my trunk. We get water quite good by digging a hole in the sand anywhere. The Island, to look at, seems level with the sea. I don’t think it is twenty feet above it in any place. It is fine, white sand. In the center there is a green spot where we get rushes to lay down in our tents for a floor. I send enclosed a few flowers I picked this morning.

We are getting in order very fast. We shall have to cook out of doors. Boards are scarce here. Men will fight for a small pair of board or a few nails & a soldier will steal anything. Even Blodget took a ship scrapper when we packed on board the ship. I asked him what he wants of that. He thought it would come handy. He is human. All I stole was two good frying pans.

This little Island is very thickly settled now. There is quite a large fort, a light house, and any quantity of large guns and a large fleet of armed vessels and transports. The day we arrived, a few officer & men took a small steamer which was a privateer & taken a few day since & went over to Mississippi City about thirty miles from here, then got fired into & was obliged to return. They intend to send a gun boat and shell them out. We are midway between New Orleans & Mobile, 60 miles each way.

I received [your] letter giving an account of the murder of Crocker. I think those fellow had better enlisted. It does no good to work up that lasy Fogg. He pretends to be sick when we call on him for duty. I enquire at his about his appetite & then put him over the road. He can’t get clear. He must work and we have plenty of it. I don’t think I was ever so completely exausted as I was last night. I put some bed sock on Blodge’s chest & my trunk and slept soundly until morning. The sound of beakers as they come in on the shore is grand & soothing. I think this is a healthy place & a good chance to learn the Military.

Brig. General Phelps who made the Abolition Proclamation is in charge. Maj.-Gen Butler over the whole Battalion has not a [ ].

Goodbye darling one, — Charles