ENPages
p.
"Camp Parole" Annapolis Md. April 17th 1864
My dear Mother:
Again I am in the act of writing home and this time I am able to say truly too, I am feeling better than for six months before.
I am gaining health, strength and spirits, every day: have apparently recovered from my attack of Ague entirely, though my scabby lips are a constant trouble to me, and make me regret the necessity of taking [Quinine?] in so large quantities. The weather is still far from pleasant here, for it rains most every day of the week here. All the "Down-Easters" who wished have gotten furloughs, for thirty days and gone from here. Their Governor came here personally, to see to it, and other Governors could do the same if they cared enough for their men to take the trouble. Connecticut sent her State Agent here, who accomplished the same for Conn. men.
p.
Some expect Governor Andrews of Mass. will be here this week. If his men, who are here, were all [underline]Negroes[/underline], he would have been here before this time. I hear the Seventeenth Vt. Regiment is to be attached to the Ninth Corps. now being rendevoued at Annapolis and will soon be here. The Eleventh is ordered to the Army of the Potomac from the Forts around Washington. If this is true, the Members of it will soon find the Service to consist of something more than the Garrison duty they have been used to so far. Our Regiment is now twice as strong [underline]numiracally[/underline], as it was last Autumn. I have not yet attained the title of "Veteran", by reinlisting. No knowing how soon I may do so. I have not heard of Charles [Prisous?] since I return from Richmond: where is he?
Levi too? I suppose ere I see you, Levi Thomas, and most all other young men of my [?] acquaintance will have earned the title of "Paterfamilias", but I do not care if they do. I am only twenty-six and there is time enough, yet.
[page break]
When do John Willard and family live now? the Exchange of Prisoners does not seem to prosper of late, for which I am truly sorry. It does not seem to me that a Government that wil leave forty thousand men to suffer in the Prisons of the Confederacy, (so called) when it is in its power to have them released, can prosper. Courage in the field and listening to the whistle of the musketball, and the roar and boom of the Shell, calmly are things easily shown and "dulce et decorum pro patria mori" is as true now as in the days of Caesar, but ill treatment in "Libby", starvation on "Belle Isle" and confinement in "Castle Thunder", are things one can not endure, with patience and when it is know, to a man, that his continuation, in these trials, results from a quibble, in relation to the Exchange of a few Negroes, it is not likely to make him a Radical Abolitionist, I think. I must confess I am not so much of one, as I was three years ago. It may be on account of faults in my mind, however.
p.
A circus has been on exhibition in Town the past week, and has gone to Baltimore to-day. I did not attend it, for certain reasons and those who did do so were poorly entertained. I should judge. I have been to The Bath House, and taken a warm Bath, this morning, as I usually do Sunday morning. I know of some who have not bathed since they came to this Camp, and one who came when I did has not done so since leaving Belle Isle. Is it a wonder then, that many Soldiers in the Field are infested with vermin when, with the conveniences we have here, they so neglect the laws of cleanliness? [underline]Vermin[/underline] ae not [/underline]allowed[/underline] here, and our Quarters are required to be kept as nice as a dwelling at home. I will close now as I guess thee will be willing I should. Give my love to Jane, Sister Dorcas & all the rest.
Ever thy loving Son
W. B. Stevens 3d Batt. P.P. "Camp Parole"
