Wilkes-Barre Aug 24. 1863.

 

Dear Jacob:

                        I now take this opportunity of addressing a few lines to you to let you know that I am still alive and kicking. I came out of the military service unscathed and unharmed by the missiles of the enemy. The last battle in which our reg^t was engaged was at Chancellorsville V^a and left the Rappahannock for Harrisburg on the twenty fourth of May last & was mustered out of the service on the third of June. The first week on my arrival at home was spent in receiving and calling upon friends and acquaintances so that I passed the time very pleasantly. I am now in my brothers law office pursuing the hard and intricate study of the law and like it much better than I expected I should. I am to commence attending school at the Wyoming Seminary / on the 3^d of next month & have made preparations to go one and a half or two years. I will read law two hours during each day so that with my other studies which will not be more than three at a time, I will have enough to do to keep me busy. Jake you know that when my brother failed in Hawley the people of that place turned their backs upon him, but he has shown them that they turned their backs upon one who was their superior. He has not only paid off his last judgment but can estimate his property by twenty thousand dollars and now has one of the finest residences in the town of Wilkes Barre. He has a very extensive practice and stands as one of the first lawyers at the Luzerne County Bar. When I am ready to go into business with him my prospects of success I think will be pretty fair—yet I am aware that a person must / rise and work his way into public confidence on his own merits.

 

            The Wyoming Valley is quite gay at this season of the year. Everything wears a most beautiful aspect. I never saw any country in the South to equal the Wyoming Valley in beauty and grandeur I do not know whether you ever visited any part of it.

 

Last winter I wrote a letter to Fitch and sent it according to your directions but have received no answer to it. Perhaps he wrote after we left the Army not knowing that it was a nine months Regiment.

 

            Wesley Pierson is still in Mr Tafts Store in Hawley. He and Taft seem to be inseparable. Chauncy Andreas is in the Army & Charles Smothers went to sea several months since. Our old companions and associates are scattered all over the world and the ties of friendship / which were formed in our youth will never be severed I trust while we remain on the shore of time.

 

What business are you following this summer and how are you getting along generally? Is your father still following that honorable and noble employment, agriculture or farming? When you write give me all the particulars.

 

            Remember me to your family—

 

Hoping to hear from you soon

           

I remain your

True Friend

Francis. P. Longstreet

 

John J. Dewey

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