Soldier's Letter, Civil War - February 1863

 Chenango American, Greene, NY, February 12, 1863

Letter from Lyman Marvin of the 8th Regiment N.Y. Cavalry

Camp of 8th N.Y Cavalry, Near Bell Plain, Va., Feb. 1 [1863]

Dear ---:  Your very welcome letter of Jan. 26th and 27th I received last evening, and hasten to reply.  It found me well and in as good spirits as usual.  I am acting Hospital steward for a time, don't know how long, and get along first rate though I fared pretty hard for two or three days before we got our tent fixed.

We live on coffee, pork, and hard bread.  Once in a while we buy flour and make pancakes of wheat flour and water, cooking them in a frying pan over a campfire.  I think if ever I get home that I can live very cheap, unless I grow more particular than I am now.  I think we eat about a pint of dirt a day as a general thing.

You wanted me to write more of the particulars of a soldier's life.  There is not much of a routine.  It's about the same every day.  Feed and take care of your horse, cook your own victuals, stand guard, &c.  The boys are pretty busy now building log huts.  It is generally labor lost, for by the time we are nicely fixed we have to move our camp.

Two squadrons of our Regiment have been out on picket a week or two, but have all come in tonight to be paid off.  The old Regiment boys get paid off, but the Recruits don't get any pay.  The boys are a good deal dissatisfied at not being paid, and I can't blame them much for we were promised a month's pay in advance and I have been in service nearly six months and not a cent of pay have I received.  Men on small rations and no pay won't fight very well unless compelled to, and our officers as a general thing don't care enough about fighting to urge them up much.  Almost every officer is trying to get up a notch higher so as to make a little more money, more than they are to work for their country's good, and it is such officers that do more harm to the cause of the north, than all the good the men can do.

Where we are you can hardly buy anything that you want, and what you can get costs about five times its value.

The Recruits have been assigned to different companies all through the Regiment, eight or ten in a company.  Alonzo is in company E and I believe I am assigned to that company if I leave the Hospital.  Mark is in company G and Mr. Rose in Company F.

From your son,   Lyman Marvin