Camp at Sams Mills Febuary the 7 1864

 

Dear Wife

                        It is with the greatest of pleasure that i take this oportunity of addressing you a few lines to you to let you know how i am a geting a long my health is firstrate at the present time and hope that these few lines may find you in the best kind of health and in the enjoyment of every comfort of life i expect that the weather has got some warmer than it was some time ago we have had the very finest kind of weather the last 4 weeks it is just such weather as we have in April and not so cold and stormy as it is in genral with us in the North and we have had but very litel snow here at all this winter the snow has not ben over 2 inches deep at any one time this winter and not often at that for the first snow that we had was on 12 day of January 1864 and we did not have but very litel rain for the fall and winter and the spring so far and we have spent the winter so far in the best kind of stile for Soldiers and my oven works the best kind We bake light bred for our 2 Companies and we have the grist mill to / to get flower to make us cakes and pyes We have a pot py every once and a while i like this place the best of any that we have ben in yet for we have a beter chance to get things here than we ever had in the Service and we have got good water of the best quality thare six or 7 springs within a ¼ of a mile from here and 3 not more than 50 yards from our quarters and a spring run that we can wash in But our washing we get the nigers to doo and give them some of our old clothes that we dont want or some of the shugar that we dont use or the like—and we are a going to go to building a stoccade here to morrow to keep the Rebels out if they are disposed to try us But they may if they can collect enough of them to geather but i think that thare is no danger of that for they are affraid to try us on—we have not had any more scratches with them there has ben some body around our lines every few nights but they are not very shootish i think that they want to get in and burn the mill or tan yard buildings But they will have a good time of it and you may res it a shure thing that we will flay them if they come in numbers any thing near our own number Especialy after we get our stoccade done we are a going to have it 18 feet high and / large enough for our 2 Companies to fight in you must se in the papers that the Rebels ar deserting like thunder from the the front there has ben 8000 deserters admited in the lines of Chatenuga alone and they are comeing through here every few days and i believe that when the spring campaign opens that thare will lots more desert than thare is now when we get those drafted men and the vetren Soldiers come back again we will give them hark from the tooms i think that they will give up some time this year from the appearence of things at the present time But cant tell how it will go but it has a good appearence of victory at the prest time i hope that we may have victory and allso peace along with it and that before long so that we will all get home once more to enjoy the pleasure of civil life once mor before we die and hope to live some time to come yet i want to know how you are a geting along if you have got any money left yet i am sorry to know that the money that i sent to you has never come through for i did borrow it or 15 dollars of it and if we are paid for less than 4 months i will not have to borrow some to send i have spent more this last 2 months or 3 than i have in 6 / months but i think that i kneed not spend so much for the future and i hope that i may keep in the same state of good health that i have at the present time—Tell litel mary that her paw is going to send her a prety thing in the next leter that i write home to you and i am a going to send the boys some thing nice for each of them tell William to be a good boy and and I will give him some thing nice and a new book tell him to help you all that he can and John to he must be a good boy and not make you any more troubel than he posibly can and i will give him some thing nice We are ordered be redy to go to Pulasky and our Capton is under arrest for not sending a comisioned officer along with the boys that was captured the other day and now the Company has to go to to the town on that acount and the Captain is not to blame for it either but i believe the Colonel is to blame for it all he wanted the genral to have them Court Martialed and the Genral said that the boys done just as he would have done him self but Colonel Morton is determined on cuting up some shine as a nother / Lieutenant C J Sprage has ben to town this eavening to se genral Dodge if he will not recind the Order of genral Swayne ordering us to report to Pulaski But i dont know how they will doo yet but i hope that they will make it all right yet but cant tell if they will or not i would like to stay here a while yet but orders must be obayed

 

We have got a good lot of timber out for the stooccade and some of it raised and will get it done in a few days if we arnt taken to town Every thing is quiet round here at the present time thare was a deserter from Brags army came in our lines this eavening and one came here night before last and in fact every few days but i think thare will be some more of deserters than thare now is and thare is enough now for if our men ware a deserting as theirs i would think our cause hopeless and i believe that they will desert by the dosen and by the score and by the 80 and by the 100 and i think that / all of the deserters that i have talked with say that they never will be able to whip us and they had beter go home to look after their sufering families they dont know how they are a sufering or they would come at the risk of their lives for i tell you that you woman in the North have no idea of the misery of of the peopel of the South especialy the poorer class and they live the worst kind wimen and men will doo most any thing for to get Uncle Sams green backs and they will take them just like I would some of your pye if i was at home and i think that i will have some before the snow falls in Ohio a nother winter at the farthest and i think that my dream is a going to come true it is now about bed time and i am some what tired for i have ben a sawing timber for the stoocade now to days i will close for this time i remain as ever your husband untill death

John W Boston

           

To Mary Jane Boston his Wife

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