Letter, 1865

This collection consists of a letter from H. E. Norton, a soldier in a Michigan brigade just after the close of the Civil War. Writing from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to friends Erastus and Viola Terry in June 1865, Norton briefly describes the brigade's journey westward. He then complains that veteran members of his regiment were supposed to have been mustered out in May but that the regiment was instead ordered westward, seemingly with the acquiescence of Michigan's governor. ("[I]t is Generally Believed that the Michigan Brigade was Basely sold by the Governor of the State of Michigan for we could never have been transfered to this Dept. if he had not consented to it," he writes.) Norton pledges to remain with his regiment and discusses the camp rumor that the regiment will soon be assigned to guarding a government train to Nebraska Territory.