Coit, Charles M. (1838-1878) to his family

(across top, first page) wish I could have been with Ellen skating I would have helped her part of the time. Camp Burnside Annapolis Jany 3, 1861 [1862!] Dear Home & all there, Your letter recd yesterday has troubled me much I did not imagine that you were so careful in money matters. I hope to be able to send this week I understand that we are to be paid off to day or tomorrow about $200 this with uncle wm $50 I think will pay for horse, the Catholics $100, India $15 and leave ten whole dollars for you to live on for two months until I am paid again. I am very sorry that I cannot send more but dont see how I can get along with less than $50 to $60 for two months & perhaps longer. I hope you may have something left from rents after paying interest taxes, insurance on house, &c but I fear not much. Cannot Geo. keep an exact account of cost of repairs taxes insurance & other expenses on the building & also an account of all the receipts & then strike a balance & know precisely how much the two stores pay if any thing. This would be a good exercise for him & need not take much time if done at the right time. That where all we coits fail. Tell him to beware. I do feel it here as well as when at home but it is dreadfully hard to overcome it. I am writing while my hair is being cut so you must not expect much in way of penmanship or brain. The old horse for which I must pay $125 is almost entirely unfit for use. I am not using him at all now that is have not for two days, have used Lt. Col's to carry down my report. Eastman walks him down to the pump twice a day. the rest of the time he is in the stable. I cannot find out from any body here what the matter is for more than a month he has had very particular care, have not driven him except on a slow trot & only a little each day & have been very careful about his feeding have given him about 12 quarts of oats per day & plenty of good hay. he is an enormous eater & does not flesh up at all though very lean. His skin is loose & there seems no reason why he should not gain yet he is entirely without spirit so that spurs hardly affect him. He has not certainly been used harder or exposed more than the other horses yet he is so down now that the impression here is that his days of usefulness are over. I made an awful mistake in not buying the Chappell horse for $90, he was tough at least. Geo. thought him too old, 13 years, & that he would not sell when I return, but it is a very mistaken idea to take a horse to war & expect to bring him back worth anything no one here expects to. when his days are fully num bered I hope to get a new one or $125 from uncle sam he having been spent in the service. I would like to have seen Mr. Raburn very much though I dont believe Father if alive & well would have been in the service. I hope not I am sure. His former military knowledge would not have helped at all every thing must be learned & this is certainly a place for young men only except those who have always been in the army. I would like to have heard what he had to say for you know or really know so little about fathers early life, I wish you could write it. we only hear of the trouble in this Regt through the Connecticut papers & letters from home. we know of no trouble here or no disatisfaction with officers. I truly think both our new Lt. Col. & Major are truly respected and much liked. of course Co. D wished Capt. ward to be major & Co.K from Meriden Capt. Upham, but I think no selection would have been as satisfactory to all as the one the Governor made of Capt. Appelman our senior captain. our former Lt. Col. was always the laughing stock of the whole Regt. I only wish it was that all four of the Capts mentioned in the Bulletin had resigned not from any dislike by the man but because his place could be filled by more competent officers. Harland last evening was in our tent & in presence of Lt. Col & sgt. Major said "Adjt, why won't you take a captaincy" I told him I did not consider myself well enough posted in the Tactics. I am so little used to study that I am afraid I should not learn very fast & my position here is so pleasant here that I would hate to leave it yet I want to accept & am not entirely decided yet. The Lt. Col. dont want me to leave him. By the way the Lt. Col's head is cold at night so he wants a kind of smoking cap, he happened to say last night that it was very apt to get off so I thought me of your flannel night caps & got him one, it pleased him much he said "what a sensible mother you have got" And such a laugh as the sgt. Major & I had over it He Did look so funny with it on before the glass to see if it really is so funny. He is a gay one any how. our Sergt major we must loose & I am sorry for he is a first rate fellow & a real worker. He is to be Aide du camp to Genl Parke. Harland has been intending to promote him the first opportunity. we shall miss him much. I dont see or hear anything from Lt. Col. Mathewson I have not time to go there & he has never been here. I did not think he was very glad to see me when I went & I have no horse to ride now. Must stop to send by mail. I wrote yesterday after receiving yours & enclosed my note for 125$