American Historical Ephemera & Photography

3 pages, 8vo, with postmarked envelope with 3-cent stamp, old folds.

Addressed to his mother, Billings devotes the first page to exchange news. Camp Parole was the camp where POWs were held until they could be exchanged for a man from the opposing force. He writes: "the news to day is that their [sic] is not going to be any exchange one of our comishoners [sic] came from Richmond the other day to find out what our Government was going to do....we should not exchange unless they would give a major for a white man." 

Billings enlisted on 4 August 1862 as a private and was mustered into Company F of the 18th Connecticut Infantry on 18 August. He was captured and became a POW on 15 June 183 at Winchester, VA. The records list that he was paroled on 14 July 1863, but the letter here seems to indicate that this date was later. He was promoted to corporal after parole on 12 March 1864 and was mustered out on 27 June 1865 at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.