Crowley, of Marlborough, Mass., enlisted in the 28th Massachusetts Regiment, composed of Irish Americans. His letters to his friend back home provide vivid detail of the soldier's life, Crowley's emotions and political sentiments, and reference particular battles and Union officers. The regiment left Gallop's Island in Boston Harbor by ship for New York, where they were packed onto cattle cars for an unpleasant journey to Baltimore. The regiment joined the Army of the Potomac, and Crowley recounts the battles of Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and the Battle of the Petersburg Crater, considering it a miracle he survived death or injury. He describes soldiers' increasing dissatisfaction with Union Army leadership and the toughness of the Confederate Army, Irish American enmity towards both New England "Yankees" and African American troops, and the soldier's affection for McClellan. Crowley also writes about other Marlborough soldiers in the regiment, and comments on news from home. One letter (1864 Dec. 6) is written on a sheet containing an illustrated broadside, "Disbanded O!," a song to be sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." En route to Washington, presumably to be mustered out, Crowley describes the devastated landscape of northern Virginia. With a letter to "Dear Cousin" from E.B., Haverhill, Mass., 1875 Aug. 1.
