The following letter was written by Lewis Longden Long (1826-1889), the youngest child of William Calvert Long (1783-1861) and Mary Armstrong (1783-1861) of Priceburg, Monroe county, Pennsylvania. Lewis married Catherine Peters (1832-1856) and after her death, took Catherine’s younger sister, Elizabeth Peters (1842-1915) as his second wife.

Lewis made his living as a Monroe county farmer before and after his time in the service. He was mustered into Co. C, 176th Pennsylvania Infantry as a sergeant in November 1862 and was discharged in August 1863 after nine months service.

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

Camp Suffolk, Virginia
Thursday, December 4, 1862

My Dear beloved wife,

This will inform you that I am well at present and hope you are all the same. Well, Libbie, we struck tents at camp Philadelphia at 2 o’clock p.m. and arrived at depot at 4 p.m. and left for Baltimore at 5 o’clock p.m. arrived at Baltimore at 2 o’clock p.m. [We] took breakfast at 3 o’clock and left at 7 o’clock for Washington. Arrived at Washington at 11 o’clock a.m. and stayed overnight. Took the boat at 3 o’clock p.m. and arrived at Point Lookout at 8 o’clock. Cast anchor and laid on deck all night. 6 o’clock a.m., left for Fortress Monroe and arrived at Ft. Monroe at 8 p.m. Cast anchor and laid on deck all night. Left for Norfolk at 11 o’clock. Arrived at Norfolk at 3 o’clock. Took cars for Suffolk. Arrived at Suffolk at 11 o’clock and slept in cars all night. In the morning we marched into camp and found twenty-five thousand solders there. They was very glad to see us come. They say we are good for Richmond. We are 60 miles from Richmond.

This is a nice place—about the size of Stroudsburg [PA]. It is nice and warm here. It looks like May does up there.

We are in the Left Wing of Burnside’s army. There is plenty of Rebels here. Some of the boys went out yesterday and captured a rebel battery and some prisoners and brought them into camp.

I am sitting on the ground and holding my paper on my lap so you must excuse this poor writing. I do not expect you will get this very soon. You must write as soon as you get this. We are within 20 miles of the Rebel’s camp. We are five hundred miles from home. I hope you are all well. I do not think I can come home before my time’s out. I will write soon and tell you all about the boys. I will try and write better. We come down the Potomac. I will have to stop for this time so good night and may God bless you. my dear wife.

Lewis Long to E. Long