griffing@fnal.gov
The
Civil War Letters of William Davis
[click image to enlarge]
Fort
Lincoln,
[Washington,
D.C.]
November 5, 1863
[Dear] Friend [Mr.] Richards
I take the pleasure of writing you a few lines this evening hoping it will find you fully recovered from your illness.
I returned to the Battery about a week ago and found my old chums all well. Billy [Phillips] felt very happy in seeing me. He said he felt quite lonesome while I was away. He has been hear several times since I returned. I was over to Headquarters yesterday to see him. I found he was quite anxious to get home on a visit but did not know of what grounds to make his application. I proposed a plan for trial in which he readily concurred. Some men are obtaining furloughs every week from the different Battery’s in this Regiment when good reasons are presented. The simple reason of seeing one’s friends is not sufficient grounds to obtain a furlough in the August presence of the Colonel Commanding.
What I propose for consideration is simply this. Phillips has been absent some time. He has attended to his duty faithfully and has done as much service for the benefit of the Regiment as any one enlisted man in the Regiment and is duly entitled to a furlough in preference to men that are obtaining them now and again, some of them only in the service four or five months, and the only way it can be obtained is by resorting to a principle generally adopted in military tacticks called Strategy. [It is] very true the duty he now performs can not be filled by any and every one in the Regiment. His service is such that he can not very well be spared, but for a short time it would not make so much difference. I would then suggest to you Strategy and the Modus Operandi to follow in bringing out the object successfully. If successful, we can congratulate ourselves in the result. If not, it will result in no harm. In the little experience I have had of military, Strategy must be resorted to in obtaining favours.
I
wish you to write a brief letter to William as a friend informing him of the
serious illness of a supposed Uncle, using a fictious name and a request on the
part of his Uncle to see him as the only reliable friend to convey the last
words, etc, &c. to his (William’s) Mother. You will also advise Billy, as
a personal, to come home if possible as you believe his presence would be a
great consolation to him now prostrated on the bed of sickness &c. and that
you think it of the utmost importance as his Uncle appears to manifest a great
interest in him by setting a portion of what he has acquired through years of
toil & industry to his (William’s) personal benefit. Make it as urgent as
reasonable stating no length of time to be absent and as applicable to the point
as in a case of reality. On the envelope, it would be policy to mark, “Please
forward.” By doing this, I think it will [be successful]; if not, it will be
only a confidential failure. [If] you attend to this immediately, it will be
more likely to work for if it comes before pay, it will show no disposition on
the part of
My kind regards to Mrs. Richards, love to little Nettie, and accept the best wishes of yours truly, -- friend William Davis
P. S. Please destroy fearing the plans for the campaign may fall into the hands of the enemy.
griffing@fnal.gov