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

Opposite Fredericksburg Nov 23 Dear old folks at home, I have been using my pen all day, this Sunday, for the benefit of my sick boys, making out descriptive Lists &c with which they obtain their pay & clothing and before putting it aside I must scratch a few lines to the dear ones. I dont get sufficiently warm to write until about noon & we use candles, they are so scarce, only for making our beds & tumbling into them, so a day's writing does not amount to much after all. I have written six letters to day & ought to write twice that number tomorrow. I shall write Mr Arms tomorrow if we are quiet but I hardly expect that for tho' I do not think we shall move yet I should not be surpri- sed if the battle should begin & we be under arms, ready, during the day, but I know nothing & you will know before this reaches dear old Norwich. We hear, on what we consider quite good authority, that Genl Burnside has written to Hd Qts at Washington that his object in coming to Fredericksburg has been defeated because they have not forwarded supplies as they promised. I wonder if that is true. It may explain our long halt here which rather surprises us after our rapid march from Warrenton. The enemy are creating batteries back from the river on the Fburg side but I think they can hardly mean to engage us in a gen eral action at this place but if they do, so much the better for us as we are nearer home, shall not have to march until they are all tired out before reaching there & our wounded can easily be sent North but I believe they only intend to delay us. Recd Last night three letters from you to the 13th & the Tribune. We here believe Genl Burnside will do all mortal man can do to put an end to this Rebellion. Tuesday Nov. 25, P.M. Have just com pleted my letter to Mr. Arms, will inclose a copy. The first & last letter of the kind I desire to at present. Saturday P.M. Nov. 29 Since the last date, Nov 25, we have mved our camp twice, first Thanksgiving day, back about a quarter of a mile from our first ground to a position dryer & nearer the woods & last night we were thinking we were pretty comfortably fixed, - we had build during the afternoon a great brick fire place, using Virginia mud' as mortar, - but as usual orders came to us - the 8th - to move at half past four - AM. - - Before day light this morning we had packed up & marched to this place, - the - Lacy mansion - one & a half miles, so here I sit in a real chair, (the first that has sustained my corporation since my Washington trip,) & my paper rests on a hansome black walnut table. A good fire is burning in the fireplace at the right of which sits Capt smith reading my "Eugene Aram," on the sofa ^ (in front of the fire) on which I expect to dream to night, sits the major reading "old curiosity Shop" & Lt weed, "Dad" as we call him, is stomping round the room generally. And now I will add what I suppose ought properly to have commenced this description, This Rebel mansion, a fine, large, brick house is situated on the bluff directly opposite the city & only then a four hundred yards from the river. As I sit here writing I can look out of the back windows & see the city all laid out before me within musket shot range, & if I look from the west window I see where the rebels are at work on their batteries only two or three miles distant. All this can be seen as I sit in the center of "our" - the green - room. The wood work is painted green, deep windows & window seats, as we call it the green room. One of the other rooms, occupied by Capt Hoyt &c, is the blue room. From the second story porch we can see the whole range of hills & the roads going out from the city & the batteries built there. The house is delightfully located It has been occupied by many distinguished officers of both armies at different times during the war. Genl Burnsides' Head Qts, last summer over on the grass plot between the house & the road. Our shelter tents occupy exactly the same ground at present. Our old Camp, last summer, was just across the road. One word now about this room, I Cant bear to leave the subject & will not complain if the powers that be will leave us here this winter. The room is larger than our dining room at home, ^& higher much & we have a good large closet which we use as a wash & baggage room, we have one table, one sofa, a lounge for 5th the major's use, three chairs not to mention the window seats & two little & one large shelves, mantles, I should say, over the fire place. Then in the closet we have a wash stand, a window & shelves. Lt Goodrich is acting Q.M. while our Q M is absent in Washington & consequently was not mentioned in my enumeration of the worthies occupying this room. There are five of us together - the major in addition to our tent's crew. I have been so comfortable all this forenoon that I have been really troubled lest I should dread going back to our tents again after spending a few days or perhaps weeks here. That last is a beautiful sentence is it not. While the officers, all of whom are nearly as pleasantly located as we, are so comfortable I am sorry the men must still be in the little shelter tents exposed to the weather as much as ever though they occupy good ground. I am too happy to write or do any thing but enjoy my comforts. Thanksgiving came two days too early, to day would be a good day for it. For dinner Thanksgiving day we had fried Beefsteak, potatoes & soft bread not very bad soldier's fodder but not very sumptuous rations for Thanksgiving. Our supper was coffee bread & molasses. Must mention another luxury that we have here. The man who minds our mess occupies a room in one of the out buildings & now when we are called to our meals we each shoulder a chair & start. We therefore sit around the table in a warm room & no smoke real old fashioned style. I consider that rather tall & in perfect keeping with our other accommodations No news. We cant understand any thing & most of all this doing nothing, when the rebels keep at work at their batteries within easy range of our guns. We get New York Herald only one day old ^- 10 cts each - no other N Yk paper - & the Baltimore clipper the day it is published - Recd this noon yours of 22d & 25th inclosing 40 cts &c. The shirts by mail not yet recd tho' the letter of 22d says have been mailed. We expect the Quarter master back from Washington to night & shall write you soon whether he gets Harpers Ferry bundle or no & also if he gets a valise. I am too happy this PM to write more & I know I have written a real selfish letter all about myself but I love every body and most of all my dear mother sister & brother & my dear old home. Chas