2 January 1863
Brooks, Louis, fl. 1862-1876
Autograph letter signed
Title: to Nelson Rifenburgh
Stationery includes a stamp of the likeness of General George McClellan. Finally has gotten a little bit of time to write. Is working as a hospital steward. "Could not spend those [leisure] moments in a better way" than writing to him. Supposes he will be there for a "good while." Saw some "niggers" at Newport News about six or eight weeks ago: "I do not believe they were more than half human. They were a cross between a man and a monkey. A kind of orangutan baboon." If these people are what the war is about, "I would never have enlisted." Yesterday, their colonel treated them to a barrel of…
GLC08914.012