Camp of the 3^d Division 3^d A.C.

Ambulance Corps

Near Brandy Station, Va.

Friday Dec. 18^th 1863.

 

Dear Mother.

            Yours of the 13^th came to hand last evening and much pleased was I to see such a long letter from you. I also received a Standard at the same time but you sent me one. The weather must be altogether different with you than it is with. we have had no such storms although it has looked very much like storming. it rained quite hard yesterday and when it commenced it froze as soon as it touched the ground. it rained some last night but it is quite / pleasant this morning, being very muddy and nasty under foot. My health Mother is excellent and never did I feel better in my life, only a slight cold in my head, which is nothing more than natural.

 

            You want to know if I dont think the war will end this winter. Well I hav'nt bothered my brain much with the prospect lately, but I can tell you one thing certain, that it is nearer to a close than when it broke out, ha, ha. I am not very anxious myself. I would like to get another dig at the Johnies. I tell you just how I think, that is this, that between now and next August this rebellion will be crushed out, and another thing I have become so habituated / to this kind of a life that I feel perfectly at home wherever I throw down my old rubber blanket, and I am better acquainted with old Virginia soil than with my own native state.

 

            That sermon of the Dominy's was excellent. I wonder if he will not pay us a visit this winter. how I should like to see him. But if I have good luck I shall hear him this winter preach one of his good sermons.

 

            Elijah Akley started for home yesterday. you will see him if you are at home before you get this. he took the trouble to come way over here to see me before he started, to see if I had any word to send. I told him I had written to you the day / before, therefore it was unnecessary for me to write. I told him that if you had any boots ready when he came back to bring them if it would be no trouble, as I was much in need of them, in case the box wasn't ready, and then it would be better for him to bring them as it would be so much more weight out of the box.

 

            You say you always felt that you would like for me to go in a Battle if I could come out all right, same here, and anxious to get in another one, but you can cease to tremble hereafter so long as I hold position in the Ambulance Corps, for there will be no danger of my getting into Battle so let your mind be at rest and dont meet trouble half way, it is time enough when it comes. /

 

give my best respects to Mrs. Hendrickson, also to Miss Jones. tell her I am glad she is still alive and single. tell her she had better hurry Johny up or else when I get home his bread will be all dough, for I always thought a heap of her before I came to the war, but she didn't know it. Laughter by an unseen audience.

 

            It seems that you have a great many sudden deaths on Red Bank so Mother if you can look at the matter in the right light you will see that God is able to preserve life in Virginia as well as in Jersey and I am just as safe here as at your side, for what is to be will be, that is certain; nothing is impossible with God. no doubt Theodore Fields feels / very badly on account of the death of his brother, but he died a noble death. he fought with all the vigor and zeal of a lover of his Glorious Country. God grant to reward him in Heaven.

 

            a handkerchief always comes in play so if you get this before you send the box, you can put in one. about that grit pudding never fear but that I can cook it for I have just the apparatus for cooking all such as that, as well as buckwheat cakes. I have a spider so you see I dont want any griddle. I can bake one at a time and big ones. I fully understand how to mix them. we draw molasses & salt I wish you would put in a paper of pepper. now Mother / dont work so hard at the box that you work yourself sick, for I would sooner not get it than you should over exert yourself. it makes no material difference whether you get stockings or socks. now you know that I am always easily suited at least since I have been in the Army for I have learned to get along with anything and everything.

 

            You want to know if we have any church. I hav'nt heard a sermon preached since we were at Culpepper before the retreat. anyhow we hav'nt been situated to give the Chalpin any chance, but he does his duty and I believe him to be a good man. I have talked with / him a great many times since we have been in Virginia but now I am away from the Reg^t I dont see him so often. I think after we get fixed up finally that he will have church sundays then I shall saddle my horse and ride over. it was plagued lonesome for me here the first day or two, but I soon became acquainted with the boys from the different Reg^ts and now I am home.

 

            you want to know if the Captain left the Company by being promoted he did. L^t Patterson I believe is in command of the company now, but I have got nothing to do there now. My position is just as good for me as the Captains is for him, only the money affairs

 

            You better direct the box here as it will then go to Division Head Q^rs and I will not have so far to carry it.

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