150 Years Ago (1864 2/11)

U. S. Barracks, Brattleboro, Vt. Feb.
11, 1864.

Dearest wife –

I shall endeavor to write you a longer letter than the last, you need not count that anything. Of news I have none. It is very quiet here. The recruits have all left, or nearly all. There are a few for the 9^th, 7^th, 8^th, and the Batteries here. I have not been in town until last night. It is all still and quiet here. I started to go and see Mrs. Richard Chaplin, but she had got better and gone to a Mr. Miller’s to board in town. Started to hunt up the place: got into the wrong pew, the wrong Mr. Miller, but it was good luck. They were related to Jesse Miller of Coventry, acquainted with the Wrights, Baldwin’s, Berry’s, Thrasher’s, Flander’s, etc. etc.

I made quite a visit out of the blunder. Got some apples, some mince and apple pie and an invitation to call again. The woman was a good motherly sort of woman. That is the first dwelling house that I have been in in Brattleboro. Mrs. Miller is a relative of Mr. Works, where Mrs. Chaplin has been boarding. She calls Mrs. Chaplin a fine woman, and I guess it is all talk about her. Almost any woman that comes on to the ground got complimented over the left, though that depends some upon her manner. There is one woman that lives in one of the barracks near ours, the wife of one of the men in our company that no one ever says ought of. When any of the men are sick she is ready to do anything for them. At other times she is at home. Her husband is a shoemaker and works nights when he is not on duty. His wife washes for the men and mends, bakes pies and sells them and minds her own business. They are making money.