May the 16^th

A D 1862

 

Dear Wife

 i take my pen in hand to write a few lines to you hoping that these may find you better i not very well at present with the cold i received your welcomed letter today and was glad to get it though i was sorry to hear that you was not well but you must not get disheartened you must not mind that difficulty for it will be all right again i wrote a letter to you on the 4^th and 12^th of this month you done right enough to tell me and to go to father or he would not / know what you went away for i cannot think what possessed mother and Sarah to act in such a manner i got the paper and stamps and envelops and i am very thankful for them for we cannot get any here i have near a quire of paper and envelops in my knapsack but we left them in camp about 40 miles from here and i am afraid that we will not get them. i saw Thomas Davis yesterday he came to our camp Sam byers was here too they are well Thomas had got a letter the day before where you was going to cut his fingers if he would not bring me home Well i think that we shall soon be home We are about 25 miles from richmond and M^cClellan says he will finish in 20 days / We have taken a rebel Col and and Major prisoners here there is some talk that we will have to go a Provost guard because our brigade has no officers fit for duty our general is sick and Col and lieutenant Col and major are the same so we have no officers i shall tell you my fortune when i get home it is all good if true Father has not wrote to me yet to ask if you did not want me to write to them but i wrote to mother about it i think that will do i would like to see mother now to have a little talk with her i wrote a letter to your brother John some time ago but have not got an answer yet he will wonder at me for writing to but i was not doing anything one / Pen and ink being near i took at it. this is a very pretty country it is more hilly than i have seen in virginia and more improvements in some places the farmers has planted their corn and left it We encamped on a wheat field it was knee high i have seen hundreds of acres of wheat and droves of cattle and horses grazing on it. Well i must bring my letter to a close i hope the next letter will be from Richmond father sent me a dollar and 12 stamps i think will be paid before long take care of yourself and be contented from your ever true husband William Rees to Mary Rees Write soon give my best respects to all the family

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