Camp Michigan
Feb 5th, 1862
Dear Sister and Brother, it is with pleasure I sit down to write you a few lines to inform you of my health. It is good at present and I hope these few lines will find you all well. I received your letter baring the date of Jan 22, and I was glad to hear from you that all was well. I have plenty to eat but was sorry to hear that Boney was dead. Tell Charles Caswell he can come to see me and to bring his wife with him, I should like to see her too.
Our Regiment has been on picket duty for the last four days and counting. Coutis [sic] had one skirmish with the Rebels and killed several of them with out receiving any loss. I was not in the fray but heard it and started for the scene, but the fun was over before I could reach the scene of action. Our men retreated, there was but seventy-one of our men and the rebels had some four hundred.
Jane spoke of England interfering with with us in our present troubles, but there is no danger, they dare not interfere. As far as I am concerned I would rather they pitch in as not.
I have sent you my likeness, it is not very good but it is better than none. I did not put on any accouterments for I thought you would rather see me in my old fashion.
I had a letter from Lem not many days ago, they are all well. Henry and Hiram Hyde have enlisted, they are in the 6th Regiment. They must be to Baltimore now, and Frank has enlisted somewhere. Buby, I will be home soon to eat those apples. Tell all my enquiring friends that I send my best respect to them. Tell Margette to wait patiently until I return. George, when I am back I will fetch you a black girl.
You must write soon. This is from,
Sam
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Written by pen on a plain piece of paper and folded like a book.
Charles Caswell was a neighbor of the Taylors (Samuel's sister and brother, Samuel lived with them before the war and worked on their farm).
Company H and I of the 3rd were involved in a skirmish with the rebels on February 3 near Occoquan village. They had been sent on a scouting mission, and when the companies pulled up on the opposite side of the river than the village, they surprised some rebels who were drilling on the other side. The confederate troops ran at the companies "Bull Run" style, and took positions within several houses. Captain Lowing of Company I told the men to "Show them what the new Austrian rifles can do", and the men from the 3rd fired several times, and after dropping four of the opposing soldiers, they retired to a more protected area.
The firing, being heard at regimental headquarters, caused the reserve of each company to be sent forward. 30 men were sent from Company G, and it appears to be that Samuel was one of them, though that fact is not verified. The reinforcements were disappointed to arrive a little too late, for the scouts were already falling back and the extra troops followed them back to Camp Michigan.
By this time, the 3rd had all but disposed of the old shoddy gray uniforms made for them by a Grand Rapids contractor and had replaced these with the standard issue uniform, with the exception of getting black greatcoats instead of the standard light blue.
Samuel mentions the chance of England interfering with the war. It was a great hope of the south that England, after using up all its cotton stores, would come to help the Confederate States so they could keep the fabric mills running. Unfortunately for the south, 1860 had been a bumper crop of cotton and the storehouses in England were stuffed to the rafters. By the time England begun to run out of cotton, Abraham Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the confederate states (not the northern states, of which there were a few who still retained slaves). Because England had outlawed slavery years before, they could not support a country that was now fighting to keep slaves due to the proclamation and the fact that the north was now fighting in part to free the slaves.
Buby (or Bub) is Samuel's nickname for his 10 year old nephew Levi, the son of Tunis and Sarah Jane Taylor.
| Levi and his father Tunis Taylor many years after the war. |
