This letter was written by George W. Geiger (1841-1923) who enlisted on 7 August 1862 as a private in Co. E, 88th Indiana Infantry. George was discharged for disability from a Nashville hospital in November 1863, presumably after having participated with his regiment in the battles at Perryville, at Stones River, and possibly even Chickamauga.
George was the son of Thomas Geiger (1814-1886) and Mary Jane McGuire (1814-1879) of Green township, Noble county, Indiana. Less than a week after enlisting, George married Rebecca Russell (1839-1913), to whom he wrote this letter a couple of weeks later from Camp Morton near Indianapolis, Indiana. Camp Morton was a training camp for Indiana soldiers early in the war but by 1862 was also used as a Confederate prison camp.
Transcription
Camp Morton [Indianapolis, Indiana]
August 31, 1862
Dear wife,
We have just received our bounty money and got orders to pack up and leave for some place unknown to us. I will send you five dollars and I will send the rest to father by Express as I do not like to risk very much in a letter and he will make it right with you. I heard one of the men say hat we was going to Lexington, Kentucky, and I suppose that that is so.
These finger rings I got of the secesh prisoners that was here.
I will have to quit writing and go to packing up my things. So no more at present.
Yours, — George
Direct to Indianapolis, Company E, 88th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, Care of Colonel G[eorge] Humphrey
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