A couple more thoughts about the letters I am researching with. One, it is easy to see the love John Watkins has for his fiancee Sarah ann. In his first letter he says how he already wants to return to "where the treasure of my heart is", and he makes constant references to how he misses her. Also, as the letters go one he gets more creative in how he ends them. He begins with a simple "yours truly, John", es escalates to "I will remain true to you as ever, John", and ends with things like "darling I will remain true to you as ever as long as I am in the service and when I get home we will be just the two happiest mortals alive, John". Watkins certainly has a talent for expressing his feelings into words.
Secondly I should point out that the unit was not a particularly active one. They never participated in any huge battles, and unlike the movies suggest their lives during the war are not always about fighting. Often the unit will simply stay at camp for months at a time. Obviously this does not leave the men with much to do, so most of them spend the time drinking. Watkins did not drink much (according to his letters), but many people in the unit were drunk almost every night. Whisky was prevalent among the men, and if none was available legally they were not afraid to steal it. One good story follows two of the men who snuck out of camp in the middle of the night to go into town and drink. Eventually the officers realized they were gone and went into town and put them under arrest. They were then put in jail. Apparently the men were not as stupid as they looked, and they found a way to escape from jail. The men then decided to use their new found freedom to head back into town and get drunk again. So, again, the officers went into town, found them again, and put them under locked guard. So there are a lot of stories like that that make my reading more exciting.
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