1^st Div. Camp Winder,

July 4^th 1863         

     

Miss M. J. Smith

                                   

My Dear Sister:

                   I rec^d yours of the 23^rd ult. on the 30^th ult. and would have written sooner had it not been for the fact that no mail has been rec^d here in some days, until today, in consequence of the P.O. in Richmond being closed, the clerks in the P.O. having volunteered in defence of the city against the Yanks. As we had been getting no mail for a few days I supposed as a matter of course none was being forwarded from Richmond, and so postponed writing until this time.

 

            I have bad news to announce, though you will, I expect, certainly hear it thro' the newspapers before this reaches you. / President Davis is dead! I suppose there is no doubt of it's being so, as King, the General Ward Master in this Div. says he heard D^r Dudley say there was no doubt of the truth of the report. I would be glad to hear the report contradicted but fear it is too true.

 

As you have probably learned from the newspapers, Richmond has been threatened for several days, by a Yankee advancing by way of the peninsula—under Gens. Dix & Keys. The Camp Winder Battalion has gone up towards Hanover Junction to defend that part of the country from Yankee raids. Jas. Dudley is acting as Capt of the company from the 1^st Div. made up of attendants & convalescents. Tip Crosland is 2^nd L^t. I think we / have a sufficient force here to defend Richmond. Gen. D. H. Hill is in command of our troops.

 

            I did not go off with the Camp Winder Batt. The Med. Board still continues to meet as if no raid had been made, and my services can not be dispensed with as clerk, and besides I have not sufficiently recovered yet to do service, even temporarily, in the field. I wrote you before that I had diarrhoea. True my bowels were out of order to an alarming extent, but D^r Wagner who attended me principally while I was sick told me today that my bowels being wrong was a natural consequence of the fever. He says I just missed a hard case of typhoid fever. As it was I was fortunate to get off pretty well. I knew at the time / that I had a good deal of fever & it occurred to me once that it was of a typhoid nature, and I mentioned as much to my room mate who attended to me very well while sick (who by the way is named John Smith too, his name only differing from mine by having a T. in it while mine has a W.) but he hooted at the idea. After I got a great deal better tho' he told me that his opinion was that I was just [faded, paper fold] from typhoid fever, & said it was not only his, but the D^r's also. I am still in bad health though. I think I am improving, I have been taking tincture of iron for a few days which I think is bringing me out. I have been doing duty for a week, but it fatigues

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