.NTYy.NzI5
[1]
Camp near Chaf[f]in's Bluff
Aug. 2d 1862
My dear wife,
I have thought about you [more?] than u
sual this morning, and felt very much inclined to
write to you, but am so lazy & listless I can hardly
write. I failed to get any letters last evening which
make me more anxious for the to-days mail to
come. The longer I stay in the army, the more
distasteful & irksome does it become to me. We
get up early & have roll call about 4 O.C. – then
breakfast as soon as it can be gotten – commence
drill at 7 O.C. & drill till 9 O.C. – then liter-
ally ['literally' underscored] nothing to do till [Five?] O.C. when we drill a-
gain till dusk. How long, and weary, & lonely
it does seem from 9 till 5 O.C. We cant leave
camp to go any distance without a special permit
from our Capt. & Col. – We cant read – cant write,
cant do anything but sit [?] & listless whereever
we can find a little piece of shade, & then crowded
with soldiers of every description, dirty, profane,
- or we sit & rub on the everlasting old [...ns?]-
kit, which in itself often a great relief. I
feel sometimes as a human with night mares,
[2]
or buried alive, as if I must make a mighty,
super human effort to break lose, or smother.
(Sunday Morning Aug. 4th 62) I stopped here yesterday
a few moments to get a daily paper – while
waiting for it, the mail came with a letter from
you & one from Millie in the same envelope,
and one from Mr. Hines, informing me that
he had sent $5 to R. F. Lester & requested him to
send me its worth in tracts to be distributed a-
mong al the soldiers. I hav'n't received the tracts
yet, but hope very much they will come, & will
write to Mr. Hines soon thanking him for them,
and also to Mr. Lester to give directions for
sending them. There is a Mr. Bagley, bro of our Capt. employed by
the tracts [?] to visit the camps & distribute
tracts to the soldiers. He makes our camp his
head-quarters. I told him about Hr. H's tracts & he
seemed delighted – said he would aid me in
getting them & also in distributing them. As you
will see from the first of my letters [?] & Mil-
dred's letters found me in a very gloomy vein.
They cheer me very much – I am ashamed
to send the first part of any letter, you all
[3]
seem to be so cheerful & write so cheerfully.
But I cant write to you, Darling, without let-
ting you into all of my feelings & thoughts, &
when I write more freely than I ought, I know
you will be careful that none, but thou who should
shall see it. Tell Mildred I cant help answering
her letters now – even should I miss writing to
you once – I will also try & answer [Lou's or Sue's?]. I
think it is a shame that Aunt Judy should suf-
fer so much from not getting letters from Sam;
he does write, but inregularly. He thinks a great
deal about his house-folks & talks a good deal about
them & seems uneasy when he fails to hear from
them; but is so fond of his farm [(?)] and
so much opposed to writing that he doesn't think
of the lapse of time between his letters. I have
known him to write a letter & keep it in his
packet three or four days before he sent it.
Doc is kept very busy since his appointment (temporary)
of Ass. Surgeon - & we now see so little of him
that we almost feel as if he was lost to our
mess – but he still eats with us. Yesterday he
went to Rmd [Richmond] for Medicine & found a box at
[4]
Mr. Howison's fr [struck-through] his Ma had sent him. Everything
that was cooked in it had injured. It is so with
all the boxes our mess has gotten. If you should
send us a box as I suggested in my last, cook
nothing you put in it, & send some soap – the
government has stopped giving us any & we
cant buy at $1 pr pound. We have been
[fa...?] sumptuously (for soldiers) since the visits
of our K & Q friends. Henry is getting better, but
is very weak – Doc says he is free from decease.
I intend letting him go home as soon as he
is strong enough – he seems so home sick, & I
know how bad it is. Got a note from Mr.
Howison stating that Abe's furlough had been pro-
longed twenty days & he expected to be able to
come back in that time. I know I will stand
it better when all of our boys get back. Am so
sorry for Aunt Mary – tell her that I can under-
stand all of her feelings, & will do every thing in
my power to watch over Daniel & take care of
him. Tell her that if she will (do as you have
done, I hope, my dear Precious) give up her boys en-
tirely to the care & keeping of our kind Heavenly
[5]
Father, and feel that they are safe with Him they
will be safe, ['they...safe' underscored] & will be returned to her safe when it
is best. I stopped my letter here to attend inspection
(8 1/2 O.C.), then to go on guard, for I am on guard
again to day – but fortunately got what is called
the orderly's post, which exempts me from
all guard duty. I then heard a fine sermon
from Mr. Bagley from "Thy vows are upon me."
I think those are the words, from somewhere in
Psalms. He introduces his sermon by referring to the
nature of vows, then spoke of the importance
of even a resolution made to one's self. But
the Christian's vow is more important because it
is made to others – is more important still from
the character of those to whom it is made – Gods
people ['Gods people' underscored] – is still more important because it
is made to God Himself. He then spoke of
the great amount of harm done by inconsiderate
christians. & back sliders – then of the work [underscored]
that each christian had to do, & of the opportu-
nities for doing such work in camp. It was
a very good sermon, & I thought of you (as
usual) all the time & wished you could hear it.
[6]
Mr. Hines spoke of making a visit to the army,
and of dividing his time equally between us and
Mr. [Baskerville's?] camp. I wish you would en-
courage him to come. I think his earnestness
& style of preaching might do great good
here, & I am sure it is needed nowhere more.
A good many of the privates are I think chris-
tains, [&?] not many of the officers. Capt [Pettey?]
of Mecklenburg is a good, warm heated christain.
Except our Company officer's I know of none
others, though there may be some. Our Regimtal
officer's are the most profane, godless set of
men I ever saw. Col. Goode, Maj Leigh (son
of Ben [Wather's?] [?]) & adjutant William Jones
seem to think a sentence can have no weight
unless it is rendered senseless with oaths. Our
Lt. Col. has never yet been with the Regt. his
name is Randolph Harrison I believe, & is
said to be a nice man. Maj. Leigh is an
atheist or infidel – or pretends to be - & doesn't
treat a minister or religion with common
decency. None of them ever attend our
meetings of any kind. We have no chaplain.
[7]
It I have time this evening, I will write
an answer to Mr. Hine's kink letters – will
you thank him for it & ask him to write
again when he can. I am very sorry, Dear,
I wrote for that straw hat as your Pa is
wearing it – the soldiers make a good many
of them & some right nice, & I could have
easily gotten one here. I happened to think of
it & wrote without knowing that your Pa had it,
but remember very well telling him to take it.
Tell Charley I would like above all things to
see him in his pants & jacket. He is getting
to be a boy [underscored] now, he must be a very good one.
- Must never cry & must take good care of little
Minnie & not make or let her cry, & must tell
he about her [?] Pa who is so anxious to see
them. There are some things I wish to write
about but can't think of them. I have always
to write as fast as I can, not knowing when
I shall be called on to do some little trifle
about camp. Am afraid sometimes to send
my letters not knowing hardly what is in
them. Hope you dont show them to every body, es-
[8]
specially as you have such an exalted opinion of
them yourself. Tell Sis Martha that our second
Liet. Ryland, is a young [underscored] second edition of old
Prof. Owen – does she want a beau? Every
body seems afraid of writing old news, (Mildred,
Sue, Mr. Hines) thinking you write every thing
worth writing. I am always glad to here even
the same thing told over again, & besides there
are a great many things that you never write.
Please tell them so. Caution them a great deal
about [saving?] my wheat crop promptly & per-
fectly dry – also make them examine the oat [?]
& see that they do not injure. Ask Mr. Hine's if he
thinks Irving had better burn any coal to help
cure my tobaco. Tobacco is going to be very
high & I wish my little crop saved very carefully.
As your Pa if he knows how much I owe Maj. Tay-
lor now & write me word. Give much love to
all at your Pa's & in the neighborhood – the negroes.
I do wish so much for even a very short fur-
lough, I shall keep begging [underscored], but have no hope
of getting one. May God keep you & ours always dar-
ling. Your devoted husband N.V.W.
