No. 55.

Woodvill, Ala.

March 16^th /64

 

Dear Mollie,              

I received your letter to day, writen the 8, No 49. I wrote you a letter the 8 & have been looking for one from you for three or four days. I will write as often as you do. now you can tell how often you will get letters. in one of my letters I sent you five dollars. it was no 53. I supose you had not got it when you wrote or you would have spoken about it. I was glad to hear that you was all well. I am glad to hear that your Mother is so fleshy. I think the cherry helps her. tell her not to indulge to much & as for her grunting I dont no much about it. they say grunters never die. I dont no how true it is 

 

you can tell Em for me I hope her physic helped her & if it did to take another. I have not heard from Johns since you left. I will write in a fiew days. I got a letter from Henry Aldrich to day. it was writen Feb 29, they were all well, he says he would like to have me thare to help him work his farm this summer. if I was thare I think I could do better than to work with him. I would work for my self some of the time. I tell you Mary this is all lost time to me. this will be a blank in my life, should I live to get out of this war. I can never make it up.

 

this is a cold anough day & our regiment will suffer with the cold. they went out yesterday on a scout with three days rations. we had about 10 mounted men out on the Tennasee / scouting & on picket. night before last about 200 rebs came over & gobeled all but four. they came in yesterday morning. the company was made up from diferent regiments, the 9-4-31 Iowa & others. the 9 & 4 are old soldiers that did not reinlist. they will have a chance to see Richmond. in my opinion they will not stay thare long. Grant says that is the first place to be taken & what he says must be, will be.

                                                                                   

Wednesday 16^th

            I was mistaken in the date of my letter, this is the 16, a pleasent morning but rather cold. our regiment came in last night. the boys feel rather old this morning they traveled about 50 miles in less than two days. the rebs recrossed the river the same night with the prisoners. five rebs were found / dead. they caried their wounded with them. we had two wounded. they belonged to the 9. one of them is badly hurt. after he was wounded they mashed his head with their guns. the doctor thinks he will die. now you can see the humanity that thare is in the d—d trators. a fiew days ago two of our teamsters went out of the picket after some of their mules that had got away when they got out about 200 yards 3 rebs that were in ambush jumped up & told them if they moved they moved they would blow their brains out. they marched them off about one half mile tied them to a tree & shot them. one of them through the head, the other through the lower jaw on one side, coming out on the other side in the uper jaw. they suposing them both dead the next morning he came to camp & told the sircumstance, one of the murderers was a sitisen who has been drawing rations from our comesary. well we have had another axident. Will Ferguson just came in off picket & let his gun fall & shot him in the foot nothing very serious

 

[margins]

 

well mary my sheet is about full so I will not write much more this time. the boys are all well.

 

my health is good for an old man. I must be geting old, for my head is geting gray.

 

no more this time, you dont say enything about mother

 

good by, Mollie C S

O Shibly

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