1862: William Smith Rulison to Sophia (Van Antwerp) Rulison

I could not find an image of William but here is a CDV of William P. McNeil of Co. H., 2nd New York Heavy Artillery (LOC)

This letter was written by a member of Co. A or Co. H of the 2nd New York Heavy Artillery (NYHA) from Fort Ward, Virginia. It is my opinion that the letter was penned by Lt. William Smith Rulison (1840-1901) of Co. H, 2nd NYHA to his mother, Sophia (Van Antwerp) Rulison (1809-1887). In the final paragraph, William states that “Mary is well” and I believe he is referring to his wife, Mary Abigail Johnson (1841-1916) with whom he married in 1861.

William was promoted to Captain of Co. C in January 1864. He resigned on account of disability on 18 July 1864.

In 1860, William was enumerated in his parents home in Champion, Jefferson county, New York, where his occupation was recorded as “Land Office Clerk.”

[Note: The letter was datelined 1861 but this was clearly an error.]

Transcription

Fort Ward, Alexandria, Virginia
March 30, 1862

Dear Mother,

I received your letter yesterday and was very glad to hear from you for I had begun to think you had forgotten me. Ever since we wrote, we have been pretty busy drilling from five to seven hours every day and you may believe the sun does not spare me for I am getting as black as an Egyptian, but I do not think I am any the worse for it. The boys all say I have grown both tall and broad a considerable since I have been in Virginia.

Since I last wrote we having some grand times here. The place where we are encamped is a large level field with as many as 200 acres of land in it, and within the last week there has been three grand reviews of soldiers on it. The first day there were 40,000. The second there were thirty thousand, and the third there were as many as seventy-five thousand soldiers—infantry, artillery, and cavalry. There was General McClellan, McDowell, King, McCall, Harney, Barry, and Williams, besides Lord Lyons and as many as a dozen Congressmen. I saw them all and some of them are fine-looking, you may believe.

Our Colonel’s (for we have one and a good one too by the name of [Gustav] Wagner—a Hungarian) orderly was sick for three or four days and I had to act in his place while doing so. I had to go to Gen. Harney’s headquarters with a dispatch. While I was there, McClellan and McDowell came in and I had a good view of them. McClellan is not as tall as I supposed he was and his hair is not as dark. Tell Soph he made me think of Napoleon. But after all, Gen. Harney is the man for me. He has got the best Brigade and the handsomest horses this side of the Potomac.

Col. [Jeremiah] Palmer of our regiment has resigned and we have a first best “Col” now or at least he ought to be for he has served twenty-three years in public service and been in 17 batteries. He was in the Revolution of 1848 with Kossuth.

But Mother, I must stop for it is time for parade. Mary is well and Mr. Jones is better and I am first rate. Goodbye, — Wm.

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