Nov the 3^rd 64

Head Quarters

50^th Regt NYSV engineers

 

Friend Mary your kind & welcome letter came to hand day before yesterday I should of answered it the same day but I was very buisy & that night I was on guard & the next day & last night I wrote to nan & to day I have ben building me a tent for it has rained ever since yesterday morning & to night I will try & write to you but it is after roll call but I will try & finish it to night for there is no telling what I shall have to do to morrow I have ben so buisy to day that I forgot to send out nans letter I received a letter from maryann yesterday she was well & the / rest of the the folks out there I also received one from vie she was well I have not heard from home in three or four days but they were all well the last I heard from them the reason mary that I did not answer your other sooner was I have not had time to write we have ben on the move for the last three or four weeks to work on diferent parts of the line some times where the shot & shell flew prety thick but there was not any of our Company killed there was two got hit with a ball but did not hurt them much indeed we have ben lucky so far & we laid in the rifle pits two days & one night last week when our folks made the attack on / the left we were on the front line we could see the Johneys in their works but their was not any fighting where we were you wanted to know about herman he is back to the Company he is Corperal & Company Clerk he has got well & I never saw him so flerty before he is single yet he often speaks of you Sarah is maried & has had two children but lost her oldest she lives in bloomington Illinois she maried a man by the name of firman kate was maried about two weeks ago to a man by the name of Spaulding & the last letter that I had from home nan said that hariet was agoing to get maried in a few days mary it does not seem posable They were little children / when you went away & we were young & now we are agitting along in years & our children will soon be young men & women Leslie my oldest was nine years old the 8 of last month it does not seem posable nan looks about as young as she did when you saw her last a good many thinks that she is younger than Kate or hariet her health is better than it used to be She weiged over a hundred & fifty a year ago last summer but I have growed old my health has not ben good for three or four years it has ben better since I have ben down here than it has ben for four years before I am real tough agan now I had quite a poor spell but did not leave my Company mary I was glad to hear that you had begun to think of writing me another letter for evry body but not wait until I answer their letters & some times I can not write as often as I should like to for I answer evry letter that I get just as soon as I can I have a good many to write I got one from Cephus to night he is at York hospital P^a he has ben home on a furlow he has not got discharged yet he says his leg has got amost heald up poor boy it is hard to loose a leg but if a man gets out alive he does well mary if you go to york state you must visit some for me I should like to be out there but you will not hardly know the place it is ageting late & my paper is amost full so I will close you must excuse this poor letter for I am a poor hand to write & poor writer hoping soon to hear from you I will bid you good night

 

write soon

 

I remain your 

friend Dave                

To Mary C Shibly

            From David

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