Camp CaseyCapitol Hill Washington D.C.Oct 13th 1862Dear Laura:

Page 1

Your letter sent to Brattleboro, reached me tonight and you may be sure I was glad to hear from you. I hope you continue to get along as well as you appear to have been at the time you wrote. Write a little at a time every day & send what you write once a week or oftener. I will replay as often as I can. We are very busy & I have a great deal to do. Mary can tell you how busy we were at Brattleboro & we have not got over it yet. We are just beginning to drill in addition to our other duties.

We had a fine battalion drill this afternoon of two hours. My horse acts charmingly. He will make a fine horse & if I ever get him home you & Mary will like him much.

I wrote Mary last night that I had a slight cold, but I woke up this morning entirely rid of it. I am very well indeed & am getting fat. I told Mary about our mess chest with stove &c. Our cooking arrangements are now in good shape. This morning it was quite cold so the Col. when he was down in town bought three sheet iron stoves for our tents & I have mine up now. A little wood in it makes quite a difference in the temperature, for we have very cold nights. I have not been out of camp today but shall go

into the city tomorrow. The unfinished capitol is just west of us. The dome is a magnificent structure. In every other direction is a barren plain, stripped of every portable thing by the thousands of troops that have encamped here. There is hardly a blade of grass under our feet & the men have to go more than a mile to get limbs of trees for bedding in their tents.

No one can imagine the desolation that war carries in its track.

The time is passing very rapidly with me, tho' I suppose it is more slow with you at home. Give my love to all in the house. Remember me especially to Mrs. Flanders & tell her that I shall be under lasting obligations to her for her kindness to you. Tell Jane to stick by you till you get well or we will have

John Eastman drafted.

I have written twice to Mary & expect to hear from her soon. My love to her & tell her to be patient for nine months will soon pass. My regards to Dr. Poole, & all who enquire.

I shall write to either you or Mary twice or three times a week.

I directed the Dr's letter to 83 Shawmut Avenue. Was not that right?

I am teaching school. The Commissioned officers of the right wing recite to me in the Tactics, once a day in the movements that we go through with in drill.

Write as often as you are able & get along as fast as you can.

Your affectionate brotherRoswell Farnham