CIVIL WAR LETTER - 29th Wisconsin Infantry - ECLIPSE of MOON, Great Content !

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
CIVIL WAR LETTER -
Co. K, 29th Wisconsin Infantry.
This Civil War soldier letter was written by Perry C. Farlow (1842-1863), the son of Alfred Farlow (1821-1895) and Anna Marie Taylor (1819-1879) of Dodge county, Wisconsin.
Perry enlisted on 21 August 1862 in
Co. K, 29th Wisconsin Infantry.
This regiment was organized at Camp Randall, Madison, was mustered in Sept. 27 1862, and left the state Nov. 2. Upon reaching a point on the east bank of the Mississippi River, opposite Helena, Ark., part of the regiment joined an expedition into the interior, after which it was engaged in picket duty and expeditions until Dec. 23, when it moved to Friar’s Point and established a camp. Four hundred of the regiment marched into the interior and put to flight part of Forrest’s force. On Jan. 11, 1863, the regiment went to Devall’s Bluff, Ark., where it captured artillery, arms, stores and prisoners. The 29th Wisconsin served until June 1865 but for Perry, it was the end of the line. He died of typhoid fever in the regimental hospital at Helena on 5 February 1863—one of 242 enlisted men in the 29th Wisconsin who died of disease during the Civil War.
Perry often mentions an “Uncle Sim” in his letters. This was his mother’s younger brother,
Simeon Nash Taylor
(1828-1908) of Dodge county, Wisconsin.
Transcription
Camp Solomon
December 9th 1862
Dear Father and Mother and all the rest of the folks at home,
I received your letters this afternoon and I was very glad to hear from you all as I had not got but one letter from you since I got here and I began to think you was not a going to write to me anymore but I did not believe it.
We are still in our same old place and am like to be for a while yet. It is the nature of a soldier to be moving after they have stayed about so long in a place and we are ready to move but it may be better for us to stay here now we have got settled. You said you thought we would get use to stealing. I don’t call it stealing down here. I call it taking things.
It has not froze more than half an inch any night since we came down here so if your plowing was down here, you could do it without any trouble. But give me Wisconsin yet—but you must not think I am getting sick of my job for I am not. I like it more everyday. We have good living and I am getting so fat I can hardly get around and the Captain has gained 21 pounds since he came down here.
I suppose you seen the eclipse on the moon last Friday night? It was total here. The way I come to see it, I was on picket. You may think it is dangerous business standing on picket and so it is if a fellow does not tend to his regular business. But if a fellow does, there is not much danger.
Since I last wrote you, there has one or more company of artillery come on this side of the river. They are from Missouri. I have not seen any Illinois regiments yet but I will go across the river in a few days and try and find the 95th Regt. Ill. Vol.  If he is over there, I can find him.
I have not news enough to write you all a separate letter and if I could, I could not answer Wright’s letter for I cannot print as good as he can. Tell him we don’t want any jobs of husking corn. We do not have to husk very [much] for we take that that is husked and we can’t eat raw dogs yet for we have plenty of other stuff to eat yet. But when we get so we can eat raw dogs, I will let him know.
We have had cotton cloth tents all the while till now but we have just got the duck tent which is very nice. Our old ones was good for nothing when it rained.
There is several of our boys that are unwell and some that are very sick. B[enjamin L.] Hales, Mr. [Sumner G.] Sanders, Simon [A.] Terwilliger, [and] J[ames] P. Tripp is in the hospital and [Samuel] James Hodge is in there too. There was one of our boys died tonight a little after four o’clock. He was well and up round last Friday and Sunday night he went to the hospital and tonight he died. His heart was affected. His name is John Nash. You can see that record. He is as good a boy as there is in the camp. Mr. [William V.] Perry is very sick. I don’t know what ails him. Alvin [W.] Hamilton has got the measles. He was taken with them last Sunday.
Mother thought I would have a good many letters but she did not mention all that I get. I get more letters from there [from my friend and] she will get more letters from me than anyone around there but she is not as dear to me yet as my Father and Mother. Do you remember John McMaster that use to work for you eight or ten years ago? He is 2d Lieutenant of Co. C, 30th Wisconsin Regt. I run across him the next day after you was out to Madison. There is two brothers more in that same regiment that used to work for you in harvesting at the same time. And I saw James Foster while I was in Madison. He lives about fifteen miles from there. Those other fellows use to live over beyond Horicon, just beyond the corners. I forget their names.
I suppose you know that tomorrow is my birthday. My next birthday, I think, I will be up there and won’t I have a spree if you get that woodshed up that you are going to make. Kib is pretty well today but he had one of his cramping spells but it did not last long. It only lasted him about an hour. This will not go out till day after tomorrow and I will write some more tomorrow. It is most time for roll call and you know we have to go to bed soon after. — Perry
¹ I can’t be certain if this is the same soldier but suspect that John Nash (b. 1839) was the 21 year-old farm hand enumerated in the household of Irish emigrant John Sullivan in Clyman, Dodge county, Wisconsin in 1860. The census record indicates Nash was born in Vermont.
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