My Dear Wife,
You will recollect that in your last letter I wrote we were under marching order and expected to go to Tennessee, but we have arrived at last in Lexington. We left Newport News a week ago last Wednesday night about 11 o’clock on board the steamer Long Island¹ for Baltimore. We arrived in Baltimore Thursday evening about dark, stayed on board until the next morning, took the cars forHarrisburg, Penn. From there went to Pittsburg and from there we changed cars for Cincinnati. Crossed the Ohio River and took cars for Lexington. We arrived at this place night before last tired and sleepy we have got settled down at last.We have had a long journey but in many respects a pleasant one. We have passed through a pleasant country and seen many things that were well worth the journey we have taken. We are encamped in one of the prettiest places I ever saw. The grass is green as it is at home in June. I think we shall stay here the rest of our time, as it will not pay to move us any long distance. I am well with the exception of a bad cold but it is better than it has been. It seems a long distance to be away from home but we can go home from here as quick as we could from Newport News. The most I think of we are so far from each other that we can’t hear from each other as often as we could when we were at NewportNews but we must get along with it as well as we can. We are pleasantly situated here as we were at our last camp and if they will let us stay here we shall enjoy ourselves as well as it is possible for a soldier so far from home.We have traveled about twelve hundred miles since we left camp at Newport News.At Pittsburg we had a good supper and at almost every station we had boiled eggs, apples, coffee and cakes given to us but in Cincinnati we had anything we could ask for. The ladies gave us oranges and apples and all we wanted to eat.I want you to write me whether you got the last certificate I sent you or not.I want to know how the elections have gone in R. I. and Conn.² Tell Father and Mother that I am just as well of here as I should be nearer home and much better than I was at Falmouth and a lucky thing for us that we got away from Joe Hooker’s Army³. I don’t think we shall have any more fighting to do but I can’t tell anything about it. We came over the Allegany Mountains. The cars ran a grade of 112 feet to the mile for eight miles. It took 4 engines to draw the train up. It looked curious enough riding up hill in the cars. The people think everything of Burnside⁴ out here. We expect to be at home by the first of July certain. We shall probably leave for home the 12th of June as our time dates from the Colonials commission⁵. I saw George Butman today the first time I have seen him since I came out but I must close my letter for I have had to write by piece-meals. We have to drill or do something else nearly all the time. I will give you the directions how to send your letters. Write often forI want to hear from you very much. Give my love to Father and Mother and all of the rest.
Your loving husband, Ezra B. Rounds
Direct your letters thus
Ezra B. Rounds
Co. A
12 Reg. R.I. V.
1st. Brigade 2nd Division
9th AC Lexington, Kentucky
Via Cincinnati, Ohio
Footnotes
- Steamer Long Island – the Union purchased and contracted hundreds of private boats to be used supplying and moving Union troops, although I do not find the “Long Island” listed in the alphabetical listings of ships of the Union, in the National Archives.
- Elections in RI and Conn. – According to Wikipedia – The United States Senate elections of 1862 and 1863 were elections during the American Civil War in which Republicans increased their control of the U.S. Senate. The Republican Party gained three seats, bringing their majority to 66% of the body. Also caucusing with them were Unionists and Unconditional Unionists. As many Southern states seceded in 1860 and 1861, and members left the Senate to join the Confederacy, or were expelled for supporting the rebellion, seats were declared vacant. To establish a quorum with fewer members, a lower total seat number was taken into account. As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth Amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.
- Joe Hookers Army – Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was a career United States Army officer, achieving the rank of major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although he served throughout the war, usually with distinction, Hooker is best remembered for his stunning defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
- General Burnside – In charge of the Army of the Potomac and replaced by General Joseph Hooker.
- Colonial Commission – Per Wikipedia -The United States first employed national conscription during the American Civil War. The vast majority of troops were volunteers; of the 2,100,000 Union soldiers, about 2% were draftees, and another 6% were substitutes paid by draftees.
