Palmer B. Holdridge Civil War Letter #4: Baltimore Thursday Sept 24, 1862

NOTE: Disclaimer and explanation of formatting included at the end of this post.

Baltimore Thursday Sept 24
Dear Catherine,
     I received your letter
Monday night. I had began to fear
something might have happened, but that
letter dispelled any fear and did me
more good than all I ate that day
I now improve the first opportunity of
answering it. There has but little of
importance occurred in camp since I last
wrote. There were eleven men detailed from each
Com. The ? ? and sent to the city
to guard a hospital and store home
this morning the whole of ? Co.? I were sent
down for the same ? The impression
prevails that the whole Regiment will be
taken to guard the city and rebel prisoners.
The wind blows so that I find it almost
impossible to write. I am writing in the
Lieutenant’s tent and it shakes like a
windmill. I think we shall have rain
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shortly. We have no Captain, yet the man
who was chosen for our Captain was in the
recent battles and may have been killed.
In case he does not come, our first Leu?
will probably be Captain of this company.
The boys are most of them well, though
there seems to be rather more sickness than
when we first came here. William has been
quite unwell for several days. He is feeling
a little better today.
     Did our folkes get the letter I wrote them
a few days since? About that letter you wrote,
you can’t imagine how much good it did
me when I read what our folkes said about
Freddie. Should I not live to return, that
assurance will be to one a source of great
consolation. I would die more willingly and
shall live a happier man. May Heaven’s
? blessings attend them. This is the
prayer of their ? grateful son. You spoke
of ? certain division of ? that is all-
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right. We are in different tents ?merely
because it happened so. I have no better
friend than W. When you write again
Tell me if Dillizon has written to you yet.
You said he talked of enlisting. Do you
hear whether he? has received that draft or not?
I have bought a couple of Photographs of
our Camp which I am a going to mail
you today. One for you and one for
Mary Jane. They are very accurate
representation of our camp. The price was
25 cts. each. I will try to describe it so that
you will understand it. The building on
the right which I will mark S is an ?
saloon where some of the officers and men
hire their board. The ? beyond
marked C is the commissary department where
each company draws its rations daily. The two
long buildings at the back part and at the right
of the center is where our working? done each
? ? ? ? ? three men
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are detailed each day to assist him. At the
left of the cooking Department where you see
a man standing on guard in the magazine.
The building on the extreme left is the hospital.
Those back tents which are roped to the ground
are the officers tents. The others are the men. The tents
are lettered as they are occupied by the different
companies. The Regiment is dressed? up on dress
parrade in front. The tent occupied by William
and me is marked ?. The tent that
Norman occupies by a cross? One company as they
stand on parade is the third from the right.
Camp Belgur. The name of the camp is inscribed?
over the gateway. Tell Mary Jane I will get my
likeness for her if I can get a pass to go down
to the city. I have not been off the ground
since we came on two weeks ago yesterday.
Tell her I am looking for a letter from her
every day. It is most time for the mail to leave
as I must ? We get our letters at the
commissary building. Write soon and write all
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and write all the news. How are our folkes
getting along with this work? Do they hire
any entry? help? Give my respects to Mr. and Mrs.
Jones?. How is Freddie? Are you both well?
Write often.
     yours ever
     P B Holdridge

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Explanation of formatting:
Effort is made to keep much of the spelling, line breaks, and page breaks preserved as shown in the original letter book on file with the William L. Clements Library. Some names of third parties and other select data sets are considered, with footnotes added. A question mark (?) will often indicate a word or letter that was not clear. It may be used to replace the word or letter. Other times it may show on the end of a word, if the transcriber was unclear about that specific word, but chose to transcribe it.

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as per permission from Janet Bloom, Research Specialist
William L. Clements Library - 19 February 2009.
In August 2011 permission to publish "a typed transcript... to my publicly accessible ... family tree websites" and "Provide copies of my photocopy to any interested relatives" was granted.

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