Camp Tennally, September 16, 1861
Dear Father:-
Yours of the 10th was received yesterday. I wrote to Bing a day or two before and did not intend to write again so soon, but I will acknowledge the receipt of yours too.[i]
I had the pleasure of seeing John Nickle and William McDonald from Richland yesterday. Those who started from Richland are encamped about a mile and half from us.
There is nothing particular to write about since I wrote Bingy.
Genl. McClelland has issued orders that we are not to be called up in the morning until sunrise, (not at five o’clock as formerly,) and then that we are to have a cup of hot coffee right away. This is to keep off the ague and such malaria. This is an ague country—cold nights and damp foggy mornings. Several in the regiment have been threatened with ague, including myself, but we immediately applied to the Surgeon, who is an excellent man, and he gave us Quinine and other preventatives, I think we can all enjoy a nap in the morning.
I have not heard from Mr. G. since he left nor has anyone else that I know of.
I received a letter from Mary Stanton yesterday also. I was very glad to hear from her. I have had but one note from Miles since he went to Meadville. I am afraid he is not doing just as well as he might. He is rooming with a rather dissolute young man. He was out on a trip to Hartstown with some rather rough company.[ii] A young man in our company had a letter from there saying that Miles had been there with some of the Meadville boys. You need not tell him how you heard.
The mail goes out in a minute. In haste, Good-bye. James
[i] Bingham H. Chadwick, James’s third youngest sibling, born April 8, 1848, was thirteen years of age at this time. Elihu Chadwick had come to Western Pennsylvania to serve as agent and surveyor for the English Bingham family, which owned great quantities of land there and in Maine. His wife’s father was his predecessor in the post.
[ii] Hartstown is a small village located about 15 miles west Meadville. Several of the (non-college) students recruited to fill out the College Company hailed from there.