Camp at Deckard Station Tennessee

August the 7^th 1863

                       

Dear Mother

                      I seat my self once more to answer your kind letter whitch i received a fiew minuets a go and was sory to hear that you was not well i am hapy that i can tell you i am well and in good spirits and all ove the boys are the same Dan Shearer is now detailed by the colonel for to wait on the sick in the regimental hospital so he will stil be with ous all the time that is he will not be a way from the regt the colonel detailed him be cause he did not loock as if he was fit to stand the hardship and he wasent he had got kind ove wore out but Dan was one ove as good a soldier as was in the company he was two easy but now he has a pretty good gob and i hope he will get staying at it i must say Dan is a good soldier and deserves something good. i wrote to you gest a fiew days a go but i gess you hadent received it when you wrote this letter i am glad to hear ove lidea starting to school a gain i received a letter in this mail from Amanda and was glad to hear from her / but they never say any thing a bout ban in their letters i dont know what is the reason but i see ban is going to stay at home them things alie sent to me i got them and i am very thankful to her and ant mary also but it is a long ways to send things. well Mother i feel bad a bout you being sick but i can account for that very easy to mutch hard work as usual is what ailes you i think it is hardly necessary to say anything a bout this in this letter as i sayed a good deal in my last letter you will see it so i think it will be a nough to stop you from working so hard i tell you this bothers me a good deal i dont wish to hurt your feelings but i do think hard to think that now you have raised and brought up such a large family and educated them the best that laid in your power and now to growed up sons and to think that you have now to work so hard as to make you sick it is hard and i am a way here in the army and cant get to see you to talk to you a bout it i will quit this for i cant stand to talk a bout it but i hope i will soon get to see you face to face now i dont want you to think hard ove me talking this way but it is from my hart well mother our regt was out on picket on the 5^th and i thought i had seen heavy rains but i never saw the heavyest til then and i / think i never saw the like before it came down in torrents for near two hours and we was in the woods and gest to see the boys stand a round in all shapes and the rain beating down on them but we bore it all without a murmer and i dident hear one ove the men say i want peace like the men at home now i would like to see some ove them trying this kind of work a while them selves and see what they would think of it. well mother our old colonel is now commanding our brigade and our lieutenant Colonel is commanding our regt and i tell you he ant the colonel old Sirwell was. well mother i see by your letters that you bother your self a good deal a bout me now i hope you wont trouble your self a bout me for i will do the best i can and take the best care of my self i can now bair this in mind i am getting a long as well as i could expect they was one ove our company killed a fiew days a go while out on drill he left ranks and went out to rest and while he was resting they was a train of cars came a long and stoped and he thought he would get on and ride up near camp and when the cars started they gerked him off and run over him and kill him instantly his name was John Hagens from butler County and one ove our company died in the hospital a fiew days a go at Nashville his name / horatio Harris from Sligo he was married to a Jackson girl well mother we have orders to moove that is to be ready at a minuets notice we will be apt to moove in side ove a fiew days i wouldent be suprised if it would be to morow and i am willing to moove for our watter is bad here and i think if we get over the mountain the watter will be better i am very well pleased with the money matter you spoke ove in your letter i gest mearly spoke of it to see if you knew how mutch you had sent me i am glad to hear that you are so near done harvesting you say the girls are all well i am glad to hear it i would be glad if i could be their to talk to some of them but i hope the time will soon come when i can return home and all my comerades with me i have been with them so long some of them seems as near to me as a brother i hope we can soon all return but i am a fraid it wont be over so soon as some ove them thinks at home but things loocks very favorably at present well i must tell you we have had some good preaching for a fiew weeks past Revt Covin and Revt Brown from freeport preaches most evry evening i will close hoping theas fiew lines will find you well a gain and take my advice do this for my sake nothing more write soon

                                                                       

Abram Kipp To his Mother

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