Will Fisher to his brother
Camp of 123rd NY Vols. Inf., Atlanta, Georgia
October 4, 1864

Dear Brother,

I think I will write you a few lines taking it for granted that a letter will find you in Princeton. Mother told me in her last letter that you said you had written to me by a young Corbit of Putnam. Said Corbit has not arrived at the 123rd yet, but as I now know our whereabouts I will write. I would have written before but I did not know where you were so as to direct a letter once since you left P., & besides you were indebted to me for a letter & why don’t you write oftener? I don’t care how busy you are it will not justify such a long persistent silence. I know there can be nothing, only neglect & carelessness.
When this will reach you is more than I can tell for we are in a rather strange fix at present. Hood has taken advantage of an armistice & treacherously transferred the whole, or a large part of his army to our rear, consequently we are blockaded for the present. When Hood was first discovered he was pushing up through the country by Rome, Ga. striving to get to the Kenesaw Mountains first and there he could cut our communications & force Sherman to evacuate Atlanta. But in this he was foiled for Sherman soon had the whole of his army in pursuit except the 20th Corps which Corps now hold Atlanta alone & it is my opinion that Sherman will make Hood wish for anything like an armistice. But this is the kind of a foe we are to deal with. Only ten days was granted & this to remove the citizens from Atlanta & during these ten days Hood has been moving his army & if he don’t repent it I shall very much miss my guess.
There has no trains run through from Nashville since a week ago last Sabbath. This gives rise to some apprehension for our crackers but as yet we have not suffered any, nor I don’t think we will. Gen. Sherman has not been idle all this while. He has got lots of rations through & now they will come in play. We are busy engaged now barricading the streets & fortifying. I don’t think old Hood will ever come near enough to invest us much, but we think it well enough to be ready for them.
No trains running leaves us without any mail, have not had a letter in six weeks with one or two exceptions from mother.
Maj. Gen. Slocum, our old commander has again got command of us since Hooker left. He is the same old sixpence as formerly.
Atlanta is a right smart town for the sunny South, a place that contained nearly 40,000 inhabitants at the time of its investment, but before the war did not probably contain more than 8 or 10,000. There were some very heavy works such as foundries, laboratories, rolling mills and in fact most all kinds of work used by the government was carried on here. I tell you it was a severe blow to them, more so than any they have received before during this war by all odds.
The Rebs have not advanced up any farther than Jonesboro since the last dressing they got at the hands of old Sherman. That place is about 21 miles south of here. Our lines were at Rough & Ready, a station on the Macon RR thus leaving some 11 or 12 miles between our outposts & theirs, so we have had it very quiet indeed. The enemy have not shown themselves about here since Sherman has withdrawn the army to pursue Hood. They are liable to at any time however.
Poor Hutton, he soon followed his friend Jim LeRoy. Did you know Hutton? Laura did, I think. He was killed on the 20th of July. That was the hardest fight of the summer, but it was a glorious victory.
How are you on the election question? I know you are sound for old Abe, yet I shall disown any friend or relation who will be so disloyal as to vote for Geo. B. Mc. or any other man than the one that is in now. Any man of sense knows that it would delay the result of the war eight or ten months at least to put in another man at this time. If the people are tired of fraud & speculation, how do they expect to satisfy the demand of a new & hungry swarm of officials. But I don’t believe there is any more corruption in the present administration than it is possible to prevent. The only thing out of the way with the administration that I can see is that it does not put that vile, low, miserable traitor Vallandingham where the crows could not pick his carcass & be ten times more arbitrary in its arrests.
Give my love to Laura & Willie Boy. I should like to see him first rate. Now, John, I have only 11 months more to stay if I live & I wish you would write at least one or two letters in that time. When the time gets to dragging, you don’t know how much I do like to get a letter. Write soon & always direct to the same as before putting on the 20th Corps & it will come alright.

I am your brother,
Will F.