Camp Of The Sec R.I. Reg^t

Near Fredericsburg Va.

March 1^st 1863.

                       

Dear Sister.

                                    I have just got back from a three days trip of picket? duty without having any picketing to do at all. We were on reserve the two first days and should have relieved a company the third day, but they chose not to be relieved, so we were in reserve the whole time. We have had a rather nasty time of it generally while we have been away. We started in a heavy South East rainstorm and came back in another, but its clearing away now. For about four hours Thursday morning we were out in the rain / unable to get into any shelter. It stopped raining about this time, just before we got into good quarters in a large barn close by the river. There was about six inches of snow on the ground and with the rain made real pleasant walking, but that did not make any difference to us as long as we were under shelter.

 

Yesterday morning we left the barn and came back about a mile to a house about big enough to hold a dozen. it was about ten feet square and had been used for slave quarters. It was a little to thick for me so five of us went out into the woods and slept there in the rain till morning. I got two letters from Ans. yesterday morning and one from you. But the letter you speak of as having postage stamps in it has not got along yet. I dont understand that about my telling you not to direct to the Co. / If I have ever written any thing like that I did not know what I was about. letters are generally given to the person addressed to when only the regt is put on. But they dont reach the owners as soon as if the Co was on. I must have made some mistake in writing (perhaps left a word or two out (as I often do) that has caused the difficulty. I guess I shall never be any the better off for the stamp in the letter. How many were there? About the box. I was not disappointed at all. I heard about as soon as you did that sending them out here was no go. But I wish they were here for all that. I think by the time we marched I should have made a big hole in what there was good to eat and perhaps the box too would have suffered but we live pretty well for soldiers. are going to have soft bread they say / as long as we stay here I believe they are baking the first batch of bread today. we have had rations of potatoes, onions, and fresh meat issued to us since we got into camp this morning I think you might have sent those stockings for two cents quite as well as to have paid twenty one. they never collect any postage due on letters or papers here. you might have put them inside two papers (newspapers) and they would have come I think. A fellow in my tent the other day had a quarter of a pound of composition come in a paper two cents postage. I should laugh to see you trying to get Jo Wood to bring my box I guess that would have been rather a laugh You wouldnt caught him making an Express of himself. I told him that the folks were going to send a half bushel of apples out by him had he come back there it made him laugh some. I hope Tom Gotohell enjoyed himself at home and especially when he started back for the Army again

                                                                       

Lowell C Cook_x

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