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4 pp. On stationery of Depot Quartermaster's Office of Bermuda, Va. Written to his brother George in New York.

“…The Army of the James is back in its old position again; the losses in the late movement are not by any means large. From the Army of the Potomac, we have nothing reliable…you in New York have more information in regard to the fighting of the last two or three days than we. I fear… the late attempt to take the Southside Road has proved a failure… Grant will not lay idle but will immediately make another push…There are going to be a great many fine opportunities to go into business in the section of the country after the war is over; there is no reason why this region should not be one of the most wealthy and productive in the land. Just look at the York river with not a single village…its whole length. The James has not even a hamlet upon its banks all the way… to Richmond…And yet there used to be a very considerable trade done on both of these rivers. Ten years from the close of this war will work a great change in this country. Towns and villages are bound to spring up and commerce will increase amazingly… Norfolk is bound to be a large city. Its location is almost as fine as one could select for a commercial town. The great draw back to my going into business here however is that I would have to leave home and friends and I think I have been separated from the long enough already….” While General Grant, failing to cut off the railroad lines to Richmond, freed Union forces at Bermuda Hundred from a Confederate bottleneck, leaving the Virginia town a busy supply depot during the long siege of Petersburg – Quartermaster Captain Walbridge of the New York Infantry, directing a staff of “industrious” African-Americans in laborious duties, had time to think about the profitable future. Walbridge, later in life, he did make a fortune, not as a Yankee “carpet-bagger”, but starting his own very successful cast iron manufacturing company at Buffalo.