Following the Union defeat at the first Battle of Bull Run, Henry Washington Brown, along with several friends from Thompson, Ct., answered the call to arms being heralded in town squares throughout the north. As with most new recruits during the beginning of the war, they wanted to take part in a great battle before the war was over. Most envisioned being rushed to the battlefield and after a short period of hard fighting, would return home in glorious triumph. There was little thought given to the realities of army life -  the mundane drilling, guard duty, the hardships of being in the field or sickness that so many soldiers would succumb to.

Since the 21st Massachusetts was the nearest unit being formed at the time, Henry and three hometown friends, took a train from Thompson, Connecticut to the regimental headquarters in Worcester, Massachusetts. On August 19, these Connecticut Yankees, resolute in their cause to preserve the Union, enlisted in the 21st Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. 

On August 23rd, the newly formed regiment marched to city hall where they were presented with the National colors that they would soon be fighting and dying under. From Worchester, these new citizen soldiers left by train to Norwich, Connecticut and then on to Annapolis, Maryland, arriving there on August 30th, 1861.

On September 2, Henry wrote his first letter of the war to his mother and appropriately signed it "From your soldier boy". It would be the only letter signed in this manner as Henry was quickly transformed from a teenaged boy to citizen soldier.  During his four months in Annapolis Henry was fairly comfortable as he drilled and practiced the art of war. Although he describes Annapolis and Baltimore as very dirty cities, he was quite happy to be quartered in the wooden barracks (with heat and gas lights) that were formerly used to house midshipmen from the Naval Academy.

The army also kept Henry well supplied and he was able to send some of his army pay to his parents on a regular basis. In the matter of love and war he felt the Baltimore Belles were overrated as he had not seen any pretty girls.  Passes for enlisted men to visit the city were hard to come by and those who received them always came back broke and drunk. Henry was apparently frugal with both his money and morals, although he did not appear to be overly pious.

On Nov. 21, Henry wrote his parents that General Burnside would be mounting an expedition soon but nobody knew when they would be leaving or the final destination.  He had also recently been sick with the measles but when smallpox struck the camp, he was lucky and didn’t contract this far more deadly disease.

The Civil War soldier had more to fear from sickness than being in combat and most soldiers were well aware of this ever present danger. By wars end, for every soldier who died on the battlefield, two would die from disease. In a letter dated August 9th, 1862, Henry wrote... "There is an immense lot of soldiers sick at this time. More than half of our company is sick but I have not missed an hours drill nor an hours guard duty or duty of any kind since I had the measles at Annapolis. A soldier has not one-twentieth as much to fear from the bullet as he has from disease."

Henry goes on to describe his days of camp life and guard duty in a letter to his sister Electa. A typical day being described as…

“Suppose we go on guard duty on Monday at 9 AM .  We have three reliefs.  They go on duty for 2 hours for a total of eight hours.   The next day we have until 1 o’clock to clean our guns and rest. Then one hour of knapsack drill from 1 to 2 PM , then Battalion drill from 3 to 4:30 .

Immediately afterward, dress parade.  The next day we have morning drill from 10 to 11:30 AM and then the rest of the day with knapsack, battalion, and dress parade.  Sunday morning is inspection.  We go to church in the afternoon.  The organ is very pretty and it makes me think of our church at home.

We have coffee for breakfast and bread, salt beef, or fresh once in a while, or salt pork.  Sometimes potatoes or beans, water, coffee and rice.   We have to buy milk for 8 cents a quart.”

Henry seemed to have readily adapted to army life but was anxious to see action before the war was over. There is no doubt from future letters he would write, that he and his fellow soldiers were still convinced that the war would be of short duration.

In early December, Henry's company was issued Enfield Rifles imported from England and the flanking companies in his regiment received Sharps Rifles with saber bayonets.  On December 28th, Henry wrote to his family that his regiment would soon be embarking on Burnside's Expedition but he still didn’t know where the expedition was headed.  He describes how 15 steamships, men-of-war and many schooners were in the harbor. The ships were being loaded with provisions and there was no doubt that they would  soon be departing. 

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