Dated “Camp Near Burlin [Berlin] Maryland / July the 16 – 63” and written by Abraham Bope to his father, the letter is 4 pages in length and written in ink.  Signed with full ID, “Abraham Bope Co. K 61 Regt O.V.I.”  Accompanied by cover with 3 cent stamp directed to “Mr. John Bope, Belle Vernon, Wyandot County / Ohio”.  At the upper left is handwritten, “Belle Vernon Pa / July 23 1863 / Misscarried & forwarded”.

Partial text of the letter reads as follows:

“…marching for thirty fore days and the hard days fiting at Gettysburgh I was not there on the first days fighting…one hundred of the regiment was out on a scout..we goth there the second day about ten oclock..60 of our regt were detailed to support a battery SO I DID NOT GET TO FIRE A SHOT IN THIS FIGHT AND I DID NOT LIKE THAT FORE WHEN THE REBELS SHOOT AT ME I LIKE TO BEE WHARE I CAN RETURN THE COMPLIMENT…the third days fiting was desperate harte at one spell it was hart to tell what side was a going to come out best in the forenoon it was mostly musket fiting and in the afternoon about one oclock they opened on us with one hundred and seventy guns but we returned the compliment with over two hundred guns . . . WE DROVE THEM BACK WITH HEAVY LOSS was told the rebel loss was sixty thousand and had kees and dix come in time we would to a captured Lee and his hole army” etc.  This man evidently saw a lot of the battle while lying near a cannon.

Bope, who enlisted as a private at the age of 25 in February 1862, would be appointed Corporal and transfer to the 82^nd Ohio Infantry in 1865 and would rise to the rank of Sergeant.

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