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

Camp of 8th Regt Conn. Vols. New port News Va. July, 18. My dear brother & faithful correspondent, Your nice long letter of the 15th inst. arrived this P.M. & day before yesterday I received one of your missives (Mother Ellen & yourself) letters dated 14th. Until you go for a soldier you cannot know how welcome these letters are. Every other day seems very frequent & - very - pleasant after our No Carolina expe- rience. I shall try to write every day or two tho' it's almost impossible to do any thing the heat is so excessive, - infernal is the only word that will meet the case at all. our morning duties commence at Reveille at 5 a.m. & end with Co. drill which is over at 8..30 A.M. then we are at liberty until Battalion drill at 4 PM after which we have Guard mounting, dress Parade [illegible] & the day is closed by taps at 9..30, PM. so you see the [illegible] we have to ourselves are during the heat of the day entirely. Strange to say to day has been so cold that we needed extra under clothing & coats on. A regular easterly storm. One advantage of this place over NewBern that we highly prize Is the receipt of N Yk papers only one day old. I get ^one these regularly but it is gen- erally the Herald as for some reason or other the news man gets very few Tribunes &c. I was much interested in Mr. Chandler's (of Mich.) speech on the conduct of the war in yesterdays issue & I do think there is a great deal of truth in It & I think Genl Pope's unequaled (according to my ideas) address to his troops is to the same point. Better a few more fall in battle & thousands less in the trenches. "Bases of supplies" are very important I suppose but if the enemy is retreating I think the true Acourse is to follow & find your "bases" where his are. The 79th New York - Highlanders - who fought so well at Bull Run & at various places since arrived from so Carolina the 16th. Several other Regts came at same time & others are expected. The 79th say there never was such a battery as Capt. Rockwell's 1st Conn. - they cannot say enough in its praise. I hope Capt. R. will join us. Almost my first thought in connection with joining the Mcc. army was the pleasure of meeting Bela - I should say Lieut - Learned. of course I have had no opportunity yet but I shall improve the first. I have not seen Col. Harland since we arrived tho' his Hd Qts are in plain sight accross the field. It has been too hot even to go there. Col. Kingsbury of the Reg. Army has at last taken command of the 11th & will make a bully Regt of it. They are encamped next to us & I see him round the camp inspecting the Guard &c &c He evidently understands his whole duty & there has been a marked change in the Regt though he has been in command but three or four days. I wish the 8th had as good arms as the 11th. They have the Springfield & we the Whitney rifle. - the latter aint worth two cents & the worst of it is that the men all know & feel it. If mother can send me two or three checked cotton shirts right away I would like it much, the woolens made me break out all over. If they are sent immediately I think they will reach me though I know nothing how long we shall remain here. I shall within a few days send you a box full of my old traps, including Mrs. Rockwell's camp basket, (it has never been of the slightest use, except as a seat, & is a great bother) a pair of high boots are rather small to march in, &c&c I have at the present time two contrabands, Napoleon & lately I have taken in a youngster 13 years old who had been employ- ed by some of the non-comissioned off. of my Co. at NewBern & though ordered not to come, secreted himself on the boat at Morehead & here he now is with no food or shelter so I have taken him in tho' I dont know what I shall do with him. There goes tattoo & I must go to Roll call. Saturday July 19. 5 1/2 A.M. Good morning All. Cant Norwich furnish better officers, for the Cos being raised, than those named by Ellen & yourself. I dont believe several of those mentioned would be at all the men, & if Cos are not well officered they will not be first rate cos. Why dont some of the business men start. Officers should be men of character & business habits - these two are all important - if they are not too old they can learn the drill very soon. I hope you do not entertain the idea of enlisting. I promise to let you know when the time comes for you to go. I should make a poor recruiting officer I imagine for I never could ask any decent man to enlist as privates. I believe thousands upon thousands will be mined & great mass dreadfully degraded. I consider this the necessary consequence of a soldier's life. They expect their officers to provide every thing they seem to know no such word as economy & they really get to be a kind of machine. Keeping them under guard continually makes them all the more so. Dont repeat what I have written about the poor fellows. It is very provoking to manage them very often - they will destroy their clothes &c & waste their rations & then come to the Capt for more as if it was all our fault & as though we ought & could furnish them again I have been having rather a mother time with Co. B. in respect to Co. Savings. The Co. Savings fund accumulates from the savings in rations. The ration is more than can be eaten & what ever is not drawn is returned in money. Well just before leaving Newbern I received the savings for last January - $ 78.58 for one month. the Co. immediately voted to divided it among themselves, about $1 apeice. I told them that was not the design of Co. savings & that I was responsible for the money & its proper expenditure & that Army Reg. placed the power of using this money in the ^hands of the co. Council composed of the three Co. officers. They were quite mad & thought I was keeping back their money. Since I have appropriated quite a part of it for the good of the Co. in various ways, one I will mention. when we reached this place we had rations for only one day ahead & we came so sudden ly unexpectedly that the commissary of this Post could not supply us until he could get provisions from Fort Monroe which would take at least two days, so we must go hungry one day. I thought this the time to use co. savings & the Co. council agreed. So I furnished Lt. Eaton with the money & he went off & purchased several bushels of potatoes, 44 loaves of fresh bread. If it had been distributed as they wished they would have spent it long ago & so gone hungry that day Aff Bro Chas