Camp Stevens Thibodeaux Feby 7^th 1863 LA

 

Dear Wife I will write you again although I do not know as you get any of my letters that I send you.  have written you three or four letters since we came to Lousianna & by reading your last one that was written the 18^th of Jan I see that you have not got any of them why it is I cannot tell as the other boys have written home and got answers back again since I wrote my first ones. I wrote you a long letter and one to T. F. Horton & mailed them both before I wrote that one to C. B. Lusk So you had not ought to think so hard of me because he got his first you probably have got them all before this time and I will write you as often as I can possibly I do not have as good a chance to write here as I should if I was home so you must not blame me if I do not write as often as you do. in one of my letters I gave you a history of a fight that we had with the Rebbels about 30 miles from here and I also sent you a paper with it in & I sent one to Reynolds that had the list of the killed & wounded in in all of Regiments on our side that was engaged in the fight 

 

You said in your last letter that I had not told you what position I held or what I was doing I still hold the position of Buglar and am also a helping in the Hospital which at present keeps me very busy. It is very sickly here now and a good many of the boys of our Regiment are dying of one Company Co G has lost 5 with in a week our company has lost two Co F one Co B one Co I 2 Co H one and some from other companys you can judge for your self of the sicknes last Monday we had orders to march and there was 147 reported sick for the general Hospital and some near a 100 that was unable to do duty so the Regiment was reported unfit for duty and left in camp the order then was to march to Texas some 200 miles from here and the men were not able to do it

 

We have plenty here to eat and that is good but the water is not fit to be used it is not as good as canal watter the country is very low & level which makes it very unhealthy for us from the North if you dig down a foot you will get water so that it will fill the hole that is dug with in 4 or 5 inches of the top I saw one of our boys buried a short time since the ground could not be dug only about 20 inches deep on account of the water & when the coffin was put in I had to set and hold it to keep it from upsetting until they could get dirt enough on to hold it / it looked hard to see any one buried in such a place as that was The most that have died of our boys have died with the Typhoid fever one of Co G boys was shot the other night he was out on picket and left his post to go & steal some chickens and was shot by the man that owned them he lived but a little while afterwards. You wrote that John Vandusen was thought so much of that he was put on a boat with the officers that is so for the officers all went with their own companies so you see that he had no more honor confered on him than any one else There was three boats one had the colonel one the lieut Colonel & one the Major on so in that respect there could not be much partiality shown the one I was on had the Colonel on. You wrote that it was rumored that frensh had gone to the hospital well he has he has been there three weeks in the hospital at New Orleans. I heard once that he was better & then I heard that he was worse & would not probably live it was thought when he went there that he was a working to get his discharge in playing up sick but it may be that he was not

 

            The boys nearly all of them have had something said in their letters about Capt Potters getting drunk & swearing in New York there is not any truth in it at all for no such thing ever took place in auburn or new york 

 

            I felt very much vexed yesterday morning at James Hibbard he was sent home with one of the officers for the purpose of recruiting more men for the regiment I heard of it at night and in the morning I went down to see him and he had gone I think him very cousinly not even come & see me before he went home I had a lot of shells that I wanted to send home by him and he could have carried them as well as not if he had been disposed to but the time may be when he will want me to do something for him. I supose that you will get my allotment check for $40. before you get this as we have been paid of up to the first of Jan or a few days over 4 months you can get the money by taking it to the bank if you send it you must sign your name on the back first I finished a letter to you last Sunday and wrote a half sheet full in to Frank & Lilly

 

            You need not send me any more of them cards of mine at present as I have all that I want or need of them

 

            We have orders again this morning to march but do not know where to we have to start every time on Sunday our orders are to march to morrow for some place I will write again as soon as we get to you & Reynolds & The Horton

 

            I will put in a specimen of the money that is used here for change there is other kinds & i will send some of them at other times Direct you letters to me just as usual & they will get here Give my respect to all friends   from your til death

L. V. Tucker

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