From: m35products (m35prod@optonline.net)
Date: Sat Aug 28 2004 - 17:23:22 PDT
Here is a story about my GGGF, edited for clarity. Please delete if stories
about war trouble you.
Henry Howard Preston, son of Medina and Glorianne (Cartwright) Preston,
joined the 6th New York Cavalry when he was 16 years old. He followed
General Sheridan on his famous 20 mile ride from Winchester to Cedar Creek.
At Appomattox he received a wound to the ankle which never healed. He was
born in 1845 and died in 1919. He was Assessor, Superintendent of Highways,
and one of the founders of the Library. In 1902 he was elected Sheriff of
Suffolk County, NY, and he lived in Riverhead during his term as sheriff. He
believed in "progress" and was the first owner of an automobile in
Riverhead. He was married to Asenath W. Congdon who lived from 1844 to 1912.
He is buried in the Shelter Island, NY, Presbyterian Church cemetery.
Following are excerpts from letters he wrote home.
On, February 4, 1862 from York, Pennsylvania, Preston wrote his father:
"Received your letter the other morning and was very glad to here from you.
The government payed us some last week. They owe me about 20 dollars now. I
want to send you about 10 dollars, give it to you I mean, I think I had not
better send it all at once so I will not send you but 5.00 dollars this
time. Then when you answer this letter I will send you some more.
You asked me if Page (his cousin) is in Camp. Why yes certainly. We were
both on guard Sunday together. He has not been very well since we have been
here.
There has been a law passed not to pay the Cavalry but 13 dollars a
month. Then they keep back 1/2 the regulations say. Then we have to buy a
good many things for our comfort. We want for shirts and gloves and such
things. I have now bought the second pair of gauntletts or gloves as you
might call them. They are buckskin gloves with long wrists to them about 6
inches long. They cost about 1.25 to 2.00. You see handling a sabre so much
they soon wear out. There are regular riding gloves but we do not have much
riding to do now. Our new barracks are pretty comfortable. I tell you I am
growing as fat as a hog. I weigh about 140 now for I was weighed
yesterday....Page sends his best respects to you and all."
On Friday, March 6, 1863, he wrote his parents from Yorktown, Virginia:
"I received your letter tonight, also the box. Nothing affords me so much
pleasure as to get a letter from home. I am well and in good health so that
I have gained 6 lbs weight in 1 week. What do you think of that. I am now
inside of the fort at Yorktown. I am acting Orderly for Colonel West, chief
of Artillery Ordnance on General Keyes (?) staff... I like him very much...I
have to go out riding when he goes out; and carry dispatches to regiments
when to march and when to open fire on the enemy ... That is the principle
of it. ..."
"I have lived to see another birthday. (18th, APB) You spoke sometime ago
about promotion. I suppose I could, as at least I know I could, get promoted
if I should get drunk every other day or as often as the officers does. But
that I cannot do. I was not brought up a drunkard and I never will be. There
has been times that I have been compelled to drink liquor and that was when
we was up in front of Richmond last summer. Had it not been for brandy that
was dealt out to the men, not one hardly could of survived the campaign. The
campaign was the first time I ever tasted of liquor after I slept out all
night in a hard rain strorm. We were all stiff in the morning, we had no
shelter at all. The Lieutenant Col., who is a church member and a church
temperance man went and drawed liquor from the Commissary. Had it not been
for that, half of the command would of never survived."
"I think I have seen some very hard times, so that I think that when I get
home I will know enough to stay there."
"I do not see as the war is any nearer to a close than it was when I
enlisted."
"I am tired of this war. It is not a just war. If I had known as much when I
enlisted as I do now I should of never come out, I can assure you, for I
think that the South have a cause to fight. They are fighting for their
houses and firesides. Which is more than we are doing. It's the
abolitionists that caused all this trouble."
"Henry"
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