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Joining the Army

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Autograph Letter Signed, 3p. octavo, Boston, April 20, 1861, and reads in part: "...I am a soldier now. I have gray pants, red shirt, zouave jacket and oil cloth cap with red band around it. I am going down south to fight Rebels with guns, swords, and revolvers. ...THere is a great many young men in Boston that want to go but their mothers won’t let them. But I am sure my dear Mother will let me go and encourage me too. The ‘Bunker Hill’ Company goes this afternoon the best company in the New England States. Two of the members were in to see me this morning, they were good customers of mine, one of them a friend was engineer on the ‘Massachusetts’ a steamer that run from Boston to Charleston S.C. The boats are stopped so he has gone to serve his country...I wear a Union scarf pin and a ribbon star with a small gilt star as a pin on my coat, this is to let folks know you are a volunteer. Hundreds of flags are floating in the breeze to day and things look lively. Some of the flags bear inscriptions of this kind ‘We are ready’ ‘Liberty or Death’ &c....I seen three ‘Men O War’ this morning I wish you could only see one, they are great long ships filled with cannons and great guns, they are filled with men ready for war..." About VG.

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