Letter from an American Soldier, 1864

Especially because two or three of my maternal ancestors must be mentioned in it somewhere (and it includes rosters), here's a book I'd like to check out at some point -- Jeffrey L. Wood's Under Chamberlain's Flag: The Stories of the 198th Pennsylvania and the 185th New York Volunteers (2008).

And here's my transcript of a letter provided to me by my Mom for Christmas from the family archives. Said ancestors Alvin and Joshua Werkheiser (or Workheiser or, as they actually signed their last name, Werkiser) served during the American Civil War on the Union side and fought in Virginia late in the grinding conflict. Original spelling and grammar kept throughout:

Desember [sic] 5th 1864

My dear brother I sit down to write a few lines to you to let you no [know] that we are both well at present and hope these few lines will find you all the same, and I ges [guess] you thought I wasn’d a gonend to write annemore but I thought I would write to day and let you no that we are well but I can tell you we hain’t to [Philadelphia] anemore we are down front ware the Johneys are and don’t know what day we will get in a fight for there is a report this morning for some [regiments] to move but we don’t know wether we will move to day or not but if we do we will se [see] some hard times and there are some that have no guns yet we have none yet but we will soon have one if we get in a fight but the Johneys don’t like to fight very much for they run away and come in our lines and throw away their guns and skedaddle of [off] norther there are some comes in every night when we came here first some of our boyes would go and trade papers with them and trade coffee for to bacc' but they darsend do it no more and we live about half we get nine hard tacks a day and one lofe of bred the next day and one day we get pork and the next day we get fresh beaf and the pork we kep to fry the beaf and hard tack and we get plenty of coffee and sugar and we get some beans and a few onions and then we make a great soup.

[W]e didend enlist for this ridgement we enlisted for the to hundred and second were [where] the boyes are in Jeremiah Williams is in but they transferred us in this ridgement and so it was lone[ly] some in the first plase but now we are all right we no the boyes, and so no more to day write as soon as you get this letter and send to Washington DC

Alvin Werkiser
Joshua Werkiser

[Repeated:] write as soon as you get this letter

Derection
Company A., 198 Penna Vol.
1st Brig 1st Div. 5th Corps
City Point Va.