.NTYy.NzI5
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[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
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