Type: Exhibition caption
Detail: Joseph Lufbery Haines of Rahway was an early volunteer, joining Company Z, of the Second Fire Zouaves (Seventy-third New York Regiment). Influenced by French colonial troops in North Africa, Zouave regiments were known for their unusual dress and drill style. Drawn from the ranks of the city's many volunteer fire companies, the unit was known alternately as the Second Fire Zouaves. In this letter written shortly after his arrival in Washington, D.C., Haines thanks his mother for her gift of a Bible, and asks her to send him a blanket, soda and acid to make soda water, and tobacco, and sends his regards to his fellow firemen.