Marine Hospital New Orleans L.A.

Nov 15^th 1863            

 

Dear Wife

                                    I will commence another letter to you to night as I have very lonely to day for some cause. It has seemed to me all day as though the best treat that I could have would be the privilige of going to church I have not been inside of a church since I left Auburn last fall. I have been to meeting since then but it was regimental meeting out in camp and it did not seem like going to meeting I have sat here to day and wondered if you had gone to church and if you had I thought I should like to be there with you for a short time there used to be meeting here but was Episcopal and that is so near Catholic that you can hardly tell the difference and I could not take much interest in it for it did not seem like being at church for the services seems to be all mere form and show 

 

I still occupy my old position here and am improving slowly in health but am still weak and cannot stand a great deal of hard work without getting pretty tired in a few minutes I am trying to be careful as I can so that when I do get well again it may be permanent, although I have not been dangerously sick since I have been down here yet My health a good share of the time has been very poor and if I had allowed myself to get down hearted and home sick as I have seen some here I do think that I should died just of that alone but I have always kept up as long as I could and when I was sick a bed I would not lie there any longer than I was obliged to and I found that by so doing and keeping up my spirits that it was as good as any medicine and I did think better in most cases I have seen men here that was stout rugged men as I most ever saw die just from despondency and homesickness one man in particular a very large man that was sick but a week and his main sickness was home sickness and unless they would send him home he should die and he allowed it to work on his mind so that it killed him in a week 

 

Your letter written the 11^th of Oct I recd last Friday nearly a week after I got that you wrote the 15^th for some cause it was delayed on the way but it came very acceptable even then but I will answer the one I got last first

 

            I see in that letter that your first request is for my likeness well I will get it and send you before long but I do not think that I look any prettyer than I did when I left home. but by the way, I have not got any likeness of you and the children yet although I sent you a locket for you to put them in last July when I sent that first box but that reminds me that I sent another box to you the 26^th of Sept have you got that yet let me know as soon as you get it                        I am very sorry to hear of lillys being sick and glad to know that she is im proving getting better again take good care of her and do not let her go to school until she gets entirely well of her sickness I have money enough to get my likeness taken so you need not send any for I shall send you ten dollars in this letter. I have sent allready since I got my last pay before this letter $30. twenty to Mr Reynolds and ten to you this ten makes $40. since I was paid I hope that you will get it all right

 

            I am pleased to hear that Frank is getting to be such a good boy tell him that Pa is glad he he is a good boy and hope he will be so all the time and then I can take comfort in sending him something from here

 

            you say that if I will come home that you will get me a new pair of pants well I should like to try it and will as soon as I can but I have got the start of you for I have got a new pair some four weeks ago also a new dress coat so you see that I am dressing up some. the old pants had not a hole worn in them yet but needed washing and I was ashamed of them if I send anything more home I shall send them for they are worth sending

 

            yes about that ring well I will send you one probably in my next letter I sent one to lilly last summer but never heard whether she got it or not I hurt my thumb to day so that I shall not be able to do it this week I guess but will if I can              you say that Mrs Reynolds brought you some nice apples and you wish that you could give me some apples are quite plenty here but cost five cents apiece but orranges are cheap only a penny apiece so I eat them for apples  

 

            In regard to those bees of Burley you need not say anything about them if he wants to be mean let him when I come home he must settle for the hive and damages you said that Vandusen was in town a few days since and that you would like to see him well I should not be very anxious about it for there is not much pleasure in visiting with him he was here in the city some four weeks before he went home but never came near me and I did not know that he was going home until after he was gone he went and saw all of the rest of the boys here but me he thought perhaps that I was of no account and so did not come here only about a quarter of a mile from where he staid but it is all right he is not like J. H. Miller for he took pains and went out of his way to see me before he went home and he had only about 12 hours notice before he started but he came and saw me before he went

 

            With regard to Chet Burley let him go he is nothing but a poor scape goat at the best. as for my telling that his whels were in the shop it is perfectly false I never had them in the shop and would not because he would not pay me what he owed me then. he brought them there and left them out door and I never had any thing to do with them only to set them out of way                     

 

I will send in this a 5 cent stamp to lilly to pay for what she sent me let her buy anything she wants to with I will send frank some in my next letter. you spoke of a new Telegraph in oposition to the old one what do you mean by that I got the last Newark paper that you sent me and send you a New Orleans paper with this letter

 

            The picture on this sheet is a view of New Orleans from the centre of the Mississippi River not a very good one though if I was there with it I could show you the Marine Hospital it is not very plain I made a pin hole where the Hospital is the white up in the right hand corner is Lake Ponchartrain about 6 miles from here

 

            But I must stop for this time for I am very tired

 

            write often                  

 

Yours as Ever

L. V. Tucker

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