No 13th  

		Camp Kellogg, Grd. Rapids
	                      December 14th/62

Dear Brother Nell,
		    I received your letter
last evening and feel that to serve you right
I ought to take no notice of it. If you cant
write a longer letter than that I would like
to know how you expect me to write long ones
      Why it was nothing but an aggravation
to receive such a letter as the one you wrote last.
  But then perhaps I should have done
the same that spelling school and
the girls of course gave you no time to
write more. I shall look for a longer one
Soon, dated perhaps this morning; at
least I hope so.   I was am very
thankful for the stamps, for without
them, I should have been unable to send
you this, as I spent the last cent of
postage money yesterday in sending
Rene a letter in answer to one I received
from him Friday evening. He was well
and as usual very busy chasing those
“ragged devils”, the Secesh.

[Written Horizontally on Page 2]

        His letter was dated the 6th of December.
On the 29th of last month they had a very 
severe skirmish with them, which lasted
nearly all day. The loss was very light
being but two wounded in their company
	He seems to enjoy himself first rate;
        We are getting along here first rate and
enjoying ourselves as well as any of Uncle
Sams boys. We are all well and glad to
hear that the folks at home are also well.
       The 6th has left us and ours is now
the best and largest regiment on the ground.
  They moved away on Monday and Tuesday
last, and the old camp looks quite desolate with
out them. Col. Mann says that we shall be
full by the first of January, and that
we will leave here as soon as full, I hope
this is so, but --------------- 
	We have not received a horse yet, and not
more than twenty men with the exception of
forty for the battery, since we came back
here last. Col. Mann says that 900 men
are enlisted for this regiment, but they are
slow in coming forward, I do not want
you to think I do not beleive what our
Col. tells, for he is respected as a man
by his entire mess regiment.

	But there is something rather perplexing
to hear his stories and not see the men. He employs
nearly half the force of the regiment in building
quarters for more men and everything indicates the
expectation of more soon, perhaps as soon as we are 
ready for them.
        Forty men for the battery arrived here Tuesday
evening, and a noble lot of men they are too, all
Germans, but few of them able to speak English very
well. They went to work next morning after they
got here and mounted the four rifled guns that are
here and arranged them together with caissons,
forge, and battery wagons in line of battle,
but it has been so wet and muddy, together 
with the lack of some of their equipment that
		      with
they have not drilled ^ or fired them any as yet.
        I wish you could see one of them a fine young
fellow of perhaps five and twenty, an Italian
who has been in the army for years, in Germany
Russia, and but lately with Garibaldi un
in Italy, and has been in this country
but little more than a month. He is the best
drilled man with a gun that I ever saw
and no sane man would ever attempt
to stand before him with a sword, some 
few have dared to do it here and have received
some pretty hard knocks on head, hands
shins and elsewhere where ever he chose to strike	

	What on earth are all the folks at home
doing, are they dead, asleep, or have they have
forgotten that there ever was such a person as Ed
Havens? I have written two letters to Father and
Mother, and have received not a word in reply,
also one to George Lee more than two weeks ago
and yet no answer I declare I will quit writing
altogether if folks cant pay their debts better
than all this comes to. Rene is about the only one
who has not forgotten me, I wrote to Isom and
Melinda two weeks ago, no answer. Darn it
what are they all about. Well all I've got to say 
is that if they want to hear from me again
they have go to toe up. If not I'm satisfied.
	Perhaps they will want to see me should
I come home Christmas, very well I shant run
away from them at all; for by that time I 
shall want to see every one of them.
	But am I coming home then? Really
I do not know. If the folks want to see me
bad enough to send me about five dollars
between this and Sunday next I think
that I shall be home about Tuesday night
or Wednesday morning. Newt and I are
determined to come home then if we can get
money enough to pay our fare from Kalamazoo
to Niles. But this paying $2.00 stage fare from
here to Kalamazoo is "played out" with us. We
have made up our minds that we cant earn two
dollars or $2.50 much easier than by walking
that distance. Newt is at present chief bugler
in the regiment with a pretty fair prospect
of retaining that position. Hope he may,

[Vertical on left side: "But this writing is about played out also. Please write as
soon as received and if possible my next letter will be Ed"]