3 October 1861

Camp Newton
October 3, 1861

Dear Father,

I received your letter soon after dinner today. I was engaged putting a pocket in the inside of my new coat & I think I did a very good job. I intend to put two in my overcoat on the outside. I am not surprised at what Boragin said or what Taylor told Uncle Walter. It is no more than I receive almost every day. But it is as you said, I am too young. There are but few in the company but what are older than I [am]. I shall not be 19 until the 13th of November, but I intend as I ever have tried to do—be a true gentleman. Boragin, I guess, drank pretty hard while here. When I went to see him, they had his tent down ready to move. Hod & I sat down on a seat where his tent had stood & talked with him a few moments & when we had got a short distance from him, I happened to look on Hod’s coat & there was a large louse on the outside. I think we got it there. Most all of the boys use tobacco & some liquor but they know where I stand & respect me as much if not more.

Now a little business. Horace & Parker want each a pair of seven (7) boots & insoles. I will send my measurements taken by our tent mate who is a shoe maker. I wear seven (7) shoes & my last boots were the same. I want good insoles too—all to be made of the best, rich, good thick soles put on with pegs, & heels heavily nailed, & legs that come plumb up to the knees for we have had to wade some already & the prospects are that we shall have more before spring.

We shall need gloves very much—not to work with but to handle a gun with when on guard & on the march—a lighter buckskin or something of the kind. Send me a good hair brush. Our coats come up high in the neck so we do not need any tippets but if you have got any good dried beef, put in a good sized piece in my boot leg.

I wrote to you to send me (2) two pair of stockings by Capt. [Jerone] Rowe. If you have not, send those & yarn to men. Send two pair of good, thick drawers. I guess the Government will give us shirts. Hod wants 2 pairs of drawers/ Tell Augustus to take some of those old oyster cans up in the wood house chamber & put in some preserved fruits of some kind & put in some corn beef & bacon & Edwin to put in something or other & you may put in my rations of apples, pears, &c. A box of camphor ointment from mother & a roll of salve & anything else you want us to have. A box will get to us in 2 or 3 days after it is started & our quartermaster will fetch it right to our camp, He goes or sends to Alexandria every day.

One of our boys had a box of liquor sent a few days ago & others are having tobacco sent from Ithaca by Express but we don’t want either of these articles. Send that wooden type of my name. It is in a little drawer in the desk at the store, I guess. We have to keep everything marked here. We have an inspection at 10 o’clock tomorrow & go to the fort at 11½ to work. Orders are to have two days rations cooked & everything ready to march at a moments warning. All well & eager for forward march.

Yours, — Chas. E. Bradley