On January 27, 1862, Corporal Andrew Neal, of Belvidere, in Company F, 4th Pennsylvania Veteran Reserve Regiment, wrote to Franklin Pierce Sellers at The Belvidere Intelligencer.
Neal wrote, "As it has been some time since I wrote to you, I thought a few lines from Dixie Land might interest your numerous readers. We are still encamped where we were when I last wrote to you [Camp Pierpont, VA]. The past two weeks have been the most gloomy and disagreeable that I have yet experienced in camp - snow, rain and hail all the time, and mud knee deep in every direction. Our hearts were glad last Saturday, the 18th instant, by the presence of Major Oakley, Paymaster of the Second Brigade, in camp. The men each received $26 for the months of November and December, out of which sum many of them have sent $20 to their homes.
"The Second Brigade is composed of the following Reserve Regiments: the Third, Fourth, Seventh and Eleventh, numbering nearly 4,000 men, commanded by Brigadier General Meade, of Philadelphia, who is a graduate of West Point, and as brave and efficient an officer in every respect as can be found in General McCall's Division, which Division can't be beat.
"The Quartermaster's Department of our Regiment gets better every day under the untiring attention of our worthy Quartermaster, Lieutenant Lechley. We get a good quality of light bread, and mess pork in our Regiment is about played out; it is replaced by nicely preserved hams and shoulders, with plenty of good fresh beef...As the tattoo is beating , it admonished me that I must bring my scribbling to a close, which I will do by wishing The Intelligencer success - may its shadow never grow less. Yours for the Union, Corporal Neal."
Copyright 1997-2012: Jay C. Richards
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