October 5, 1861
Dear Mother:
As it is rainy to-day we have no drill, so I have an opportunity to write.
We shall probably be mustered into the U.S. service to-day. I saw Captain McDonald last night. He has raised a company and has gon into camp at Camp Cameron. A dispatch came here last night ordering us to report as soon as possible to Washington. We shall probably be here till the week after next.
I expect to come home Tuesday night. Did father take my fork and spoon yesterday to get them marked? If not, some one else has. So if he has not taken them, he can buy me some and have them marked. While I was out drilling some one took them. I get some more I will lock them up after every meal. When I come Home have them ready for me, and also some towels and stockings. I shall get a furlough for forty-eight hours, if possible.
Yours truly,
W.F. Draper
P.S. Direct to Lieut W.F. Draper, Company B, Camp Lincoln, Worcester, Mass.
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Reading a few paragraphs from the general's autobiography may be helpful in understanding some of the things mentioned in the letters. Here are a few lines from Chapter IV - War.
After the election of officers we were sworn in to the United States service, and spent a week more at home in drilling and in marching to the neighboring towns, to practise our legs. On the 25th orders having been received, we went to Worcester and camped on the Agricultural grounds with a number of other companies which formed the nucleus of the 25th Massachusetts Regiment. This regiment was one of the most famous that Massachusetts sent out, made so not only by its general gallant conduct, but by its phenomenal charge at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, in which, according to Fox, it sustained the fourth heaviest regimental loss in killed and wounded of the entire war, -- or seventy per cent, of the men engaged. In the proportion of number killed or mortally wounded in a single engagement, it stands second only to the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg.
We remained at Worcester a little more than a month, being organized, armed, equipped, and drilled. Our company was given the regimental colors, and our line officers make third in rank, the regiment consisting of ten companies. Edwin Upton, of Fitchburg, who had had a long experience in the militia, was commissioned as our colonel, and Lieutenant-colonel Sprague and several of the captains had had three months of experience in the field. We were armed with Enfield rifles, and splendidly equipped, being furnished even with a regimental band, which was one of the luxuries cut off after a year or so of service.
The 31st of October we left for Annapolis, via New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. During the month before leaving we devoted ourselves to drill and the detail of guard duty, with such a result that Governor Andrew's compliment [in a paragraph that I've skipped] was not entirely undeserved. Colonel Sprague, Adjutant Harkness, and several of our captains had served during the three months' campaign at Fort McHenry, a company with regular troops, and we profited by their experience and instruction. Nothing notable occurred t me during the month, except the theft of a silver knife, fork and spoon, which my mother had given me. I also remember that a large part of the line officers, including the writer, had their swords ground to a cutting edge, though I doubt if any of them was ever stained with human blood, -- an officer's sword then and now being an emblem of authority, rather than a weapon for use.
As before stated, we broke camp at Worcester October 31st, a collation provided by the ladies of Worcester being served before our departure. Line was formed at three P.M., and we marched through Highland and Main Streets to the Common, where at four, cars were taken for New York, via the Norwich Line. The Worcester Spy the next morning gave us a special editorial, of which I quote a part.
"This regiment, in which our good City of Worcester has so large and so precious an investment of its sons, brothers, and husbands, left us with colors flying, and "merry as a marriage bell," yesterday afternoon at four o'clock. It is of the same good stock, we need scarcely say, as the Fifteenth, of whose achievements we are all so justly proud; and we know it will be equally worthy to represent the valor and the love of liberty of this county of Worcester. It was too plain for concealment, and it is no reflection upon any other Regiment, that the heart of our city was more deeply touched by its departure than by that of any previous one. Our whole community watched its gathering and its organization with the deepest interest, and it was present in unprecedented numbers to cheer it off... We have good reason for believing that there is not a man in the Twenty-fifth who does not know how warmly his regiment is cherished here; and we know there is not a class, or sect, or party, or nationality, which has not representatives in it, of which each can say, 'By them we will be judged.' ... As a living power in defence of a good cause, this regiment will be known widely hereafter. May the God of justice be its helper! for with Him is victory, and out of victory must come peace, its blessed fruit."
My parents and many kind friends were there to bid me farewell. I wrote, "The parting was sad for many, but I, looking only on the bright side, was less affected than the friends I left behind. William F. Draper, Recollections of a Varied Career, pp. 36 - 41.
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