From the 16th Regiment.

SOMERSET, KY., Jan. 27, 1862

J. A. HARRIS, Esq. -- Dear Sir: According to promise I must write you. I have been getting along pretty well, but we have seen hard times. There are many like me who care for nothing but eating, and I can't see why they don't push us forward. About 50,000 troops here in Kentucky and still giving the rebels all the chance to fortify themselves and get advantage of us. A grand army on the Potomac and not a bit of a movement forward, an army in Missouri and one in Virginia and nothing done. The rebels have all the railroads and rivers in their possessions and daring our forces to attack them. If Zollicoffer had not possessed more spunk than our men I believe there would have been no fight for months to come. Can you, can I, or any other man of the party see into it? No sir. There is something up among the leaders which we cannot at present understand, and I fear it is not the welfare of our beloved country nor the protection of the glorious Star Spangled Banner. It looks to me as though it was for the abolition of Slavery that our Abolition rulers are holding back. God knows, and I swear to it, that if I find out I am fighting for niggerism my death-dealing rifle can find the heart of an Abolitionist just as well as otherwise that of a secessionist. I consider Abolitionists worse than Jeff. Davis and his confederates. May hell have a special place for those who would abolish slavery under cover of fighting for the welfare of the country, and may they get their deserts there from time to eternity.

My prayer is that the time may speedily come when the conservative, patriotic and Union-loving Democracy may get control of the government and settle our difficulties, for as long as Abolitionism is dearer to our rulers than the country we will never have peace -- no, never.

May the stars and stripes soon float from mountain to mountain and from ocean to ocean, and the good old Democratic motto, "The Union, The Constitution And The Enforcement Of The Laws," be acknowledged by all men and enforced throughout the whole country.

Hoping that these few lines may find you all well at home

I Remain Yours Truly,

CHARLES FINK.

[ZINK]