Merritt L. Pierce, 1st New York Engineers, Letter 15 Oct. 1864, Chaffin's Bluff

Description

Merritt L. Pierce, Company "L", 1st New York Engineers, Letter home to his parents, 3 pages, 15 October 1864, from "Camp Near Chaffin's Bluff," Pierce writes about how the army does guard duty, predicting they'll be in Richmond this fall and rebel deserters and prisoners, in part:
"
I was on guard when Will brought me the letter, it was about 9 o'clock, I was walking my beat..... I was on guard yesterday for the first time... it is not hard to do guard duty if it is pleasant and last night was a beautiful night... we are relieved once after we have been on two hours.  We are on two hours and off 4, that makes us 8 hours out of 24 that we are on duty.  Then we have the next 24 hours to ourselves.... We are having first rate times now, the weather still holds dry which makes it very pleasant, we expect to see Richmond this fall.  Our boys are just driving the Johnnies every time.  Day before yesterday we took 2 forts, 2 line of works and 500 prisoners.  300 passed here.  The Johnnies are deserting all the time.  3 passed our camp yesterday, they were fine looking fellows.  Well guess I'll stop to take a snooze so as to be in readiness for an emergency...
"
In fine condition.
Merritt L. Pierce joined the 1st New York Engineers out of happenstance when he went to New York City hoping to enter the U.S. Navy.  He was from northern New York state and ended up joining the 1st New York Engineers on 31 August 1864, enlisting in Company "L" along with other friends from his hometown.  He served with the regiment for the rest of the war in Virginia during the Petersburg and Appomattox Campaigns.  In his letters home he mentions other members of his company including Almon C. Emery, John Hunter and William Beckwith.  He generally wrote lengthy letters with good penmanship and spelling.