Franklin County: Christian Geisel to Louisa Geisel,
January 17, 1863
Summary:
Geisel describes for his family camp life and guard duty during the winter near
Fredericksburg.
Louisa Geisel
January 17th 1863
Banks of Rappahannock, Snowdon, Va.
Dear Sister
Your welcome letter of the 10th
[illeg.] came to hand this afternoon and I was happy to hear that you
were all in good health and the letter enclosed from brother William gave me
great pleasure. As I have nothing to occupy my time this evening I take the
opportunity to respond to your letter. The
refference to the letter you got at New Harper [illeg.] I give
you credit for mentioning it to me and I think I can give you some light on the
subject. James Curtis, which name you say was assighned to the letter, was a member of our Co. but is now transfered to Co. M, one of
the new Co.'s raised for our regiment. While we
layed at Frederick Md.
I got well aquanted with him, and when I was put
in charge of the recruits of Co. M I gave him
permission to go in my tent with my partner till I
would return again, as he had
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but poor accomodation where he was. From
that time he requested me several times to write directions on some letters for
him and I recollect directing one for him to Louisa Geisinger New Harper P. A.
which must be the letter you spoke of. Co. L and M
of our regiment are at Frederick Md. yet and I
have not heard from J. Curtis since we left there on Nov. 29th 1862.
Our regiment is laying near Gen. Franklins H.Q. about three miles [illeg.]
Fredericksburg, where it has been laying since the
battle. In reference to sending me a box, I would advise you not to go to any
trouble to send me anything under the present circumstances. In the first place
it is my opinion that our army will go into action again in a short time and
second, if such should not be the case, our navigation is so far off that it is
uncertain wether they would deliver a box here or
not;
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but I am very much gratified with your kind and generous
offer, and I may some other time make use of your generosity, when we are at a
more convenient station. Christmas passed away with us very quiet, there was
nothing more going on then usual, excepting that we had divine service, our new
Chaplain, Mr. Gracey, had joined us a few days before, and he is very much liked
throughout the regiment. On the 31rst of Dec. our Co. was
detailed for provost guard, and we were stationed on houses along the river
below Fredericksburg, where we have been since that time. I am stationed with
six men on Mr J. Seddans plantation, called Snowdon.
It is about 4 miles below Fredericksburg, close to the Rappahannock River. Mr.
Seddan was a major in the rebel army but it is reported that he has resighned and is now in Richmond. The family that
lives here now consists of Mrs. Seddan, her mother,
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Sister and five
children, three boys and five girls, the oldest of whom is about twelve years of
age; they all acknowledge openly to secesh, but
in every other respect, we could not wish to meet with a finer family in this
part of the country, and we feel by this time quite at home here. We have here
the sunny part of a soldiers life. we have room to ourselves, for our quarters
which is furnished with a bed, table, and chairs, they
find us our board, and we set down to a table just like at home, and we have got
quite used again to eat with knife fork and plate
instead of a spoon and tincup. We were to be relieved this week by another Co. but when the people along the river heard it they
made [illeg.] application to the provost marshal to let us stay here, to
which he consented and we were not very anxious to get relieved. This residence
is one of the finest along the Rappahannock River; it is situated on
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a hill from which we can see for miles over the country and down the river, the
place has been fixed up in grand style, but it has got a good deal deranged
during this war. We can see the rebel encampments on the other side of the river
just as plain as our own. their pickets are stationed on the other side of the
river all along the bank and ours are on this side. they are very friendly, and
have been in the habit of crossing the river to each other, to trade of sugar
and coffee for tobacco; the rebels have plenty of tobacco but no sugar and
coffee. the crossing of the pickets [illeg.] stopped since a few days
ago and [illeg.] we will have another fight in the neighbourhood of
Fredericksburg before long. Our men have been at work for the last three nights
making a corderoy road through the field just below
us in a field to the river, preparations of the same
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kind have been
made at several other places, but where they are going to cross is yet a secret.
I hope and pray that if our army makes another attack, we may be successful
rout the rebels out of their strongholds, drive
them to [illeg.], and bring this war to a close as soon a possible. The weather has been so pleasant here since New Year that we
hardly know it is winter season. It rained here on thursday the 15th but it was warm; it cleared of
again on friday morning, and the wind has been some what colder since; the roads
are [illeg.] for our army to move. [illeg.] now bring my letter
to a close hoping that it may find you all in as good health as I enjoy at
present. Give my love to all our family and my compliments to all inquiring
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friends and I hope that I may have the pleasure soon to hear from
you again. I remain
your affectionate brother
Christian Geisel
Co H. 6th Penn. Cavalry Col. Rush's Lancers H. Q. Gen. Franklin Vir.
