This entry comes from David White English, Private, Company E, Fifty-First Illinois Infantry, and the letter can be found in its entirety at the 51st Illinois Regiment Website.
English was an optimist, as you will see from excepts of his letter that follow.
While he was with his regiment, he was never sick, always there, and could be counted on. Then, on September 5, 1852 he was sent to the hospital and permanently discharged from the service 10 days later. It appears that he was kicked by a mule causing a double hernia.
Let not my going war depress your spirits in the least. You can always refer to it with pride that your good man, enlisted in the grand Army of the Union for the defense of our glorious country's flag which our fathers left us. Refer to it often to the children while I am gone, and have them read the histories of the wars which you have, viz: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and others, to see how our ancestors went through so many hardships while we apparently live at our ease, not fearing to be attacked by the enemy at any point, and when we make a blow, we take all their supplies, and as many of the enemy as possible escape with their lives, glad to abandon every thing for the sake of their own lives.
.. . .I will bring my letter to a close, appealing to you to stand by the great lever that moves this world of mankind - Hope - "hope on - hope ever." All things will come out right.
A portion of David White English's Letter
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