Harrisburg August 1st
Dear Parents
I take pen in hand to inform you that I am in good health and hope that these few lines may find you the same we are still in Camp Curtin and likely to stay here the weather here is very hot and dry and nothing going on here except soldiering Every County in the state is pouring out thousands of men ready for war there is a regiment here from the western part of the state called the wild cats
Every man is 6 feet high and has the tail of a deer or wild cat for a plume that he killed himself and better drilled men could not be found We are well satisfied here we got plenty of every thing to eat we have beef salt pork beans bread coffee sugar rice dried peaches dried apples vinegar and paper and our equipment and clothes are muskets cartridge box knapsack canteen haversack and the clothes are cap coat 2 shirts 2 pair of drawers 2 pair pants 2 pair of socks 1 pair shoes all are well made and we got our overcoat where we need it if you look on the outside of this envelope you will see a soldier full equipped Since the riot in the city we have to guard the arsenal day and night one company at a time is taken from our regiment and stands 24 hours I have seen some of the country since I came here and it is nice to be a soldier and to travel for nothing and be well cared for I heard that there was a company making up in Greenfield and if there is do not let Morg and John go for one out of a family is enough if you could only see the men that has passed through here on their way with you would be surprised I know for regiment after regiment passes every day I belong to the 12th Regiment Company F, Penna Reserve Corps this is the most beautiful place I ever saw you can see for miles around and it is another place to what that dirty smoky place was at Camp Wilkins I am getting fat here and feel more like a man than I ever did before so we don’t drill much while the weather is so hot only in the morning and evening and lay about in the shade in the day I wish you was all getting along as well as I am for I am better satisfied than if I was at home I write with a lead pencil for it is handier than a pen but if you have any trouble in reading it tell me when you write to me and I will not do it any more I cant think of anything more to write about now I will write again next week I want you to write to me once a week and I will do the same tell me all that is going on up there and I will be glad to read it so now Good bye
Nelson Mathews
Camp Curtin PA
Direct your letters to
Nelson Mathews
Harrisburg
Camp Curtin PA
In care of Captain [Andrew G. Oliver]
