Camp Lincoln
                                                                                                                                                October 5, 1861

    Dear Mother:

         As it is rainy to-day we have no drill, so I have an opportunity to write.

          We shall probably be mustered into the U.S. service to-day. I saw Captain McDonald last night. He has
    raised a company and has gone into camp at Camp Cameron. A dispatch came here last night ordering us to
    report as soon as possible to Washington. We shall probably be here till the week after next.

          I expect to come home Tuesday night. Did father take my fork and spoon yesterday to get them marked? If
    not, someone else has. So if he has not taken them, he can buy me some and have them marked. While I
    was out drilling someone took them. When I get some more I will lock them up after every meal. When I come
    home have them ready for me, and also some towels and stockings. I shall get a furlough for forty-eight
    hours, if possible.

                                                                                                                                                      Yours truly,

                                                                                                                                                      W.F. Draper



             P.S. Direct to Lieut W.F. Draper, Company B, Camp Lincoln, Worcester, Mass.

                                                                                        *********

      Reading a few paragraphs from the general's autobiography, Recollections of a Varied Career, may be
    helpful in understanding some of the things mentioned in the letters. Here are a few lines from Chapter IV -
    War.
     

      After the election of officers we were sworn in to the United States service, and spent a week more at home
    in drilling and in marching to the neighboring towns, to practise our legs. On the 25th orders having been
    received, we went to Worcester and camped on the Agricultural grounds with a number of other companies
    which formed the nucleus of the 25th Massachusetts Regiment. This regiment was one of the most famous
    that Massachusetts sent out, made so not only by its general gallant conduct, but by its phenomenal charge
    at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, in which, according to Fox, it sustained the fourth heaviest regimental loss in
    killed and wounded of the entire war, -- or seventy per cent, of the men engaged. In the proportion of number
    killed or mortally wounded in a single engagement, it stands second only to the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg.

      We remained at Worcester a little more than a month, being organized, armed, equipped, and drilled. Our
    company was given the regimental colors, and our line officers make third in rank, the regiment consisting of
    ten companies. Edwin Upton, of Fitchburg, who had had a long experience in the militia, was commissioned
    as our colonel, and Lieutenant-colonel Sprague and several of the captains had had three months of
    experience in the field. We were armed with Enfield rifles, and splendidly equipped, being furnished even with
    a regimental band, which was one of the luxuries cut off after a year or so of service.

      The 31st of October we left for Annapolis, via New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. During the month
    before leaving we devoted ourselves to drill and the detail of guard duty, with such a result that Governor
    Andrew's compliment [in a paragraph that I've skipped] was not entirely undeserved. Colonel Sprague,
    Adjutant Harkness, and several of our captains had served during the three months' campaign at Fort
    McHenry, a company with regular troops, and we profited by their experience and instruction. Nothing notable
    occurred t me during the month, except the theft of a silver knife, fork and spoon, which my mother had given
    me. I also remember that a large part of the line officers, including the writer, had their swords ground to a
    cutting edge, though I doubt if any of them was ever stained with human blood, -- an officer's sword then and
    now being an emblem of authority, rather than a weapon for use.

      As before stated, we broke camp at Worcester October 31st, a collation provided by the ladies of Worcester
    being served before our departure. Line was formed at three P.M., and we marched through Highland and
    Main Streets to the Common, where at four, cars were taken for New York, via the Norwich Line. The
    Worcester Spy the next morning gave us a special editorial, of which I quote a part.

      "This regiment, in which our good City of Worcester has so large and so precious an investment of its sons,
    brothers, and husbands, left us with colors flying, and "merry as a marriage bell," yesterday afternoon at four
    o'clock. It is of the same good stock, we need scarcely say, as the Fifteenth, of whose achievements we are
    all so justly proud; and we know it will be equally worthy to represent the valor and the love of liberty of this
    county of Worcester. It was too plain for concealment, and it is no reflection upon any other Regiment, that the
    heart of our city was more deeply touched by its departure than by that of any previous one. Our whole
    community watched its gathering and its organization with the deepest interest, and it was present in
    unprecedented numbers to cheer it off... We have good reason for believing that there is not a man in the
    Twenty-fifth who does not know how warmly his regiment is cherished here; and we know there is not a
    class, or sect, or party, or nationality, which has not representatives in it, of which each can say, 'By them we
    will be judged.'  ... As a living power in defence of a good cause, this regiment will be known widely hereafter.
    May the God of justice be its helper! for with Him is victory, and out of victory must come peace, its blessed
    fruit."

     My parents and many kind friends were there to bid me farewell. I wrote, "The parting was sad for many, but I,
    looking only on the bright side, was less affected than the friends I left behind. William F. Draper,
    Recollections of a Varied Career, pp. 36 - 41.

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