30-year-old John Bond enlisted on January 7, 1864 in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and mustered into the 19th Regiment on January 10, 1864 at Camp Stanton. 

In the early spring of 1864 Private Bond served as part of a Union Army recruiting party that recruited slaves from the farms and plantations in the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland. While stationed at Oxford, Maryland, he wrote the following letter to his wife:

Oxford, Maryland

March 9th, 1864

Dear Wife,

As an opportunity presents itself I will address a few lines to you to let you know that I am well and hope this will find you enjoying the same blessings I am. At this place on recruiting service and like it very much. I am well pleased with the duties of a soldier, enjoy myself well, and am treated kindly. Have plenty to eat and drink and wear. 

I should like very much to see you and the children and shall try and come home as soon as I get back to camp. My love to you has not grown cold though far away. I hope the day is not far distant when I may be permitted to see your lovely face again, and hold you in my arms, and __ you mine forever. 

Keep up good courage and hope for better days. May heaven bless you. Write as soon as you get this and direct to Trapp, Talbot Co., Maryland in care of Trent Baymor. Remember to my friends, I remain yours as ever,

John Bond

John Bond died of pneumonia five months later, on August 21, 1864, at the City Point, Virginia, army hospital.

The hospital failed to report Bond's death to the regiment, which carried him as sick for the balance of the war, and as a deserter after the war. Finally, in 1883, when processing his widow's pension application, the Army discovered and corrected its mistake, removed the charge of desertion, and corrected Bond's records to show that he had died in the line of duty.