CIVIL WAR LETTER - 131st Ohio Infantry - Deserter Escapes on a Log & Stick Oar !

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
Co. H, 131st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI).
This Civil War soldier letter was written by William Houser Gray (1847-1940), the son of Jacob Christman Gray (1812-1881) and Catherine Houser (1821-1897) of Piqua, Miami county, Ohio. William’s father was a contractor and builder.
After the Civil War, William attended Denison University and then assisted his father in the construction business before taking a job with the Lake Erie & Western Railroad company as a civil engineer. He entered the lumber business in Piqua until 1871 and then turned to the life insurance business.
William worked as a hired assistant to Joseph Cahill, a sutler serving the 19th Indiana Battery in Tennessee during the summer of 1863. His older brother
John H. Gray
served as a corporal in Co. D, 101st Indiana Volunteers.
He wrote this letter while serving in
Co. H, 131st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI).
This regiment was mustered into the service at Camp Chase in May 1864 to serve 100 days to man the Federal forts in or near Washington D. C. while the veteran troops participated in Grant’s Overland Campaign. The regiment never saw any combat. They garrisoned Fort Marshall near Baltimore most of the time.
TRANSCRIPTION
Headquarters Langeretto
Home Sweet Home
June 8th, 1864
Father, Mother, & Sisters all,
I received [sister] Sallie’s letter dated on the 31st of May and was very sorry to hear that Mother was sick but I hope that she is better now.
I was detailed to come down to this place Sunday last 1 week ago and I am very glad of it for we have good grub and everything nicer than we have at camp Marshall. I am cooking for the mess now and I have my nights sleep whereas if I was a guard, I would come on guard every other night which is harder than cooking for 9 men and they split their own wood and wash their dishes. Write in the next letter how to cook rice pudding, beans, potatoes, hominy, & beef soup, dried apples in the various ways. We have plenty of milk to cook with for there are plenty of cows on the commons which we visit twice every day for our own benefit. We have plenty of fresh fish here now to eat and to sell as we are situated right on the Chesapeake Bay two miles south of Ft. Marshall and opposite Ft. McHenry, guarding a magazine in the City of Baltimore where I see steamers and sail boats passing every minute of the day and night.
Last Thursday morning there was a deserter that had enlisted for 5 years in the U. S. S., served 6 months, deserted 4 times, and was held for court martial and came across the bay on a log with a stick of wood for an oar and got away at last.
Tell me how you are getting along with the bridge and what regiment the Piqua boys are in and where they are. Tell S. O. Burnett and J. J. Jarvis to write to me and I will answer. Has Judson Harvey fetched my rifle and molds home yet? and gunlock? If not, get it home and trade or sell it for something or other.
Since I have been here I have been in the main part of the town once and can go where I please any time so you see this is not soldiering like it is in some parts of the world. I believe this is all at present.
As ever your son & brother, — W. H. Gray
I am well and hearty and am gaining this time instead of looking like I did the last time I was out. Tell me where John is now and how he is getting along. Direction:
Wm. H. Gray
Co. H, 131st O.V. I.
Ft. Marshall, Md.
Write and tell me how mother is soon. I will send you an eel skin home. Tell Father to tie it around his ankle and it will help his lameness.
1
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The wrapping of an eel skin to the affected area of the body was a long-standing remedy attributed to Algonquins. It is presumed that the oils within the skin contained the medicine to treat pain, swelling and stiffness. The Cherokee were also known to use eel skins in this manner.
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