Morris Island S.C.

Sunday Aug 23^d 1863

 

            Just before sundown last eve a rebel flag of truce came over to our boats and I was in hope that some thing had been accomplished as up to about 8 Oclock this morning not a gun was fired and our gun boats or monitors went up into the harbor But alas they are banging away again now and the same old tone that we have heard for a week or more past is continualy vibrating in our ears.

 

            Why can not the Rebels surrender now without any farther blood shed as long as there is so little hope for them. Last Yesterday afternoon we made some platforms on the bows of lighters time will tell what they are for perhaps

 

Aug 30^th Evening has come and all alone in my tent I am trying to make myself I think of one thing and another that I will do and in confusion of thought I grasp the pen. But not to write much for other things at this time seem more driving or of more importance I would like to write every day to one that I have found I love, but I fear that my trouble would be for my pain. I recd one letter today from niece Anna and Sister Martha but how I wish I could wake up the one I love my dear Lorane never while at home did I know that I was so much confined to the loving of one, but there is no one else on earth that I can confide so much in as in my own dear wife and there are no letters that seem half as precious though I have kind and very affectionate sisters & relatives I get letters from Lorane but I want them every mail only 3 ct Oh how much good they do me Better than all the draugh[torn] of precious wine or highly boasted liquors /

 

The cannons are booming in our front

 

Eve of the 30^th in South Carolina

            Many may wonder what the soldier finds to do during his evenings and odd spells Why some of them are playing cards, others are talking abt the progress of the war, others are taking a snooze and their minds are with the loved ones far away some are eating and others drinking and some have got so tight that they make considerable noise But I spend most of my odd spells in my tent and a good many of them alone

 

            I want to improve myself in some way so that when I come home again (if God should spare my life) that my friends and relations will not say that I have lost the 3 years entirely I am a soldier in arms in the cause of my country but there are many moments that a soldier experiences that will either tend to make him better or worse I dont think that playing cards will will aid in the happiness of the future either in this world or the next, and the drinking of liquor is another wearing away of both body & mind and unfitting the partaker for decent company after this war whether dead or alive Therefore I shun these evils and by the help of God, I mean to be able to copy the features that he has delineated in the face of man

 

            I think the past time is harmless and I am sure that it has no degrading influence but rather an elevating tendency, and if I live and can accomplish what I intend to at the expiration of my time I shall not consider my odd moments lost but I think I can apply them to advantage for the support of myself & family And I think of things that might befall me, I may be cripled before I leave this army, and my chances for having left on my body a right-arm, is another inducement for me to try and make myself skillful while I indulge the taste that God himself has put within me This I have written for a pastime and still is my mind as whomsick as some might deem it

 

            And whatever may be my fate this may fall under the eye of some interested one and it would tell from the tomb what the heart would speak

 

[front top margin upside down]

 

I must try and pass each day as if I knew it were my last and leave my mark behind so that those I love may read and see what I thought of and what my mind can do

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