Written from the Camp of the 182nd New York Regiment near Petersburg, Virginia. Opens "Dear Cousin Gracie." Notes that he had received her letter of January 4 and is pleased that she was disappointed that he had hurt himself while dancing and reports that he is fully recovered. She had apparently asked what caused him to think she was "handsome": "I say ... that Dark hair dark eyes and a pretty mouth is the most striking traits of beauty in a young lady." He notes that he "stands justly rebuked" for having asked her age and says nothing would please him more than to have a description of her school, other than if she would send her picture. "You say you would like to receive mine now I hardly think possible that you would like to gaze on the frontispiece of one of Uncle Sam's 'bean cracking, Pork demolishing Hard Tack masticating and lady loving nephews.'" He says the present unsettled state of the army makes it difficult to have a picture taken. He asks Grace to tell her friend [perhaps Georgia Farnham] that he will find her a correspondent shortly. He closes with an account of the regiment, noting that it was formed on September 1, 1862 and arrived at Newport News on September 22, staying there on picket duty until the end of the year. From the beginning of 1863 until July 3 they were at Suffolk, Virginia, then to Norfolk before being stationed at Centerville, "doing picket duty and skirmishing with Mosby the famous Guerilla Chief" until December 1863. They then guarded the railroad at Fairfax until May 1864, when they joined the Army of the Potomac. He mentions the battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 19, 1864 and that he was slightly wounded in the arm on May 24, 1864 at the North Anna River. From there they went to Coal Harbor, crossed the James, and proceeded to Petersburg, where there was a battle on June 16, 1864. He describes various actions in the late summer and fall of 1864 and their location near the city of Petersburg. "Our Regiment came out about 700 strong and now there is only 75 men left so you can judge how we have suffered."