No. 81.                                                                       

Saturday, Nov Dec. the 17. /64

Camped near Savanah Ga

 

Dear Mollie               

It has been a long time since I have writen to you as you will see by the date of this letter. I wrote one before we left Atlanta & mailed it but it was to late, the last train had gone out & so the mail was returned. it is an old letter but I thought I would send it for it might be hews to you we had a mail last night, the first since we lef Atlanta. I ghot 3 letters from you & one from Josa. you can imagin how glad I was to get them for you have been without as long as I have. your letters are No. 79, 80, 81. they have come across the salt waters. I dont no if they came by the way of New york or not. 

 

well Mary I supose you are anxious to hear about the money I was going to send you. you will see in my first letter how we were going to send it. we left sooner than we expected so I have the money yet. thare is no chance to express it so I will send it by mail. I will not send it until the mail rout is more secure & I think that will be in a week or two. I will send it in letters, $50 at a time, unless thare is some other way provided.

 

I am glad to hear that your health is so good & that you are so fleshy. I think it agrees with you to live without a man. as for me I dont no as it makes eny diference but for all that I would like to be at home. I think Clarence is geting to be a fast young man. I hope he will continue so & when he gets large anough to write I hope he will improve it. /

 

            well Mary I supose you would like to know whare we are & what we are doing. well I will tell you, we are about 7 miles from Savanah. our lines extend to the river above & below the city. the rebels cannot get away unless they cross the river & thare it is so swampy that they cannot make roads, so I think we have them in rather close corners. we have came here the 12. we have not had much fighting here yet. the second Division made a charge on fort M^ccalester & took it with about three hundred prisoners & 18 pieces of artilery, 3 of them siege guns commanding the river. our cracker line is now open, but we have not drawn eny yet. they are building roads & making a landing for our boats. we have not had a hard tack for 3 days. they say we will have some in a day or two. we had a plenty of everything while / we were on the march. we had all the sweet potatoes & fresh poark & honey & molases we wanted. our loss on making the charge was about one hundred killed & wounded the most of it was done by torpedoes which they had placed in the ground for that perpose. they had them all over the fort so as to blow up our men if they made a charge. I heard yesterday that Sherman had the prisoners at work taking them up. they have them all over the river so that it is not safe for our boats to run. they are taking them up every day.

 

Monday the 19. well Mary I will finish my letter so as to have it ready when the mail goes out again. it went out last night & the warming was so short that I could not finish it so I have concluded to be ready next time. I expect we will have a warm time before many days, for Sherman is bound to take the place before many days.

 

[margins]

 

the rebel force is estimated at about fifteen thousand. it is a small force to contend with ours for we have full 60 thousand, but they have a dissided advantage over us. this is a rice country & they have opened the flood gates so as to keep us back. in places the land is under water for a half mile wide.

 

my sheet is nearly full so I will close

 

my health is very good & has been the whole trip. we have marched over four hundred since we left Atlanta. no more this time from yours as ever, To Mollie C Shibly from Oliver Shibly

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