Sept the 10 1864     Incamped near Petersburgh Va

Head Quarters 50 regt NY

SV Engineers

           

Friend Mary your kind & welcome letter was received last night & I hasten to reply this morning finds me well with the exception of a bad cold my lungs are prety sore but I am in hopes they will be better in a few days I was glad to hear of your good health & I sincerely hope that it may continue to be so for a woman with a family & no man needs her health since I wrote to you my little boy has ben very sick last night I got a letter from Nancy she says that Leslie is agetting well but she is not very well so you see that some of them are sick the most of the time mary I like the description of your man & family first rate for I like to hear a woman speak well of her family especialy her man if he is deserving it I am glad that you have got a man that uses you well for I should hate to hear of one of my old friends getting a man / that did not use them well I have always tried to be kind to my family but I can see where I have not allways done right we are all liable to cross but Nancy & I will have to have the first quarrel after I get back home if we have it atal but I am in hopes that we never shall have it you say that parents are partial about their children I think that they are at least I am willing to own that I be for I think my children are just as nice & smart as any boddys & I believe it is rite that we should all think so you say that it has ben dry weather out there this summer it has ben very warm & dry down here the dust has ben enough to suffocate man or beast but it is cooler now there is a number of our mens time out in our regt & they start for home to morrow but it is filling up again very fast it is no trouble to fill this regt Nancy says that all of our neighbours has inlisted for this regt we have ben / very lucky this summer we have not had but one man killed in our Company but it is awful to see the horrors of this war there is some regts that came out this spring with eighteen hundred men in them that does not number over two hundred now that is killing off men pretty fast & they are still killing every day but I am in hopes that it will not last much longer you say that your man is near attalanta I supose that it is ours now he must of had some hard marches as well as we but we have not got richmond yet mary you spoke of Nancy being jealous I will risk her I sent maryanns letter home for her to read & she says how natural that line of marys looks & do wish she would write to me & I hope you will we used to be friends & why cant we be yet still we can not enjoy each others society but we can corespond alltho I am a poor hand / to write & can not write interesting letters but still I am willing to try & do my best for I always did like to read a letter from you & I know that Nancy does if you would write to her she will send you the photographs of our little family if you wished it I think she has got all but the one we lost & that one we have not got a photograph of I have an ambrotipe of her with me & I prise it very highly I have got my whole family with me all but the baby & I have Nancys father & mother but I have not got one of my own folkes I should like to have maryanns & her boys if you can pleas send us yours & family Nancy has a album that holds fifty pictures we would like to fill it with friends if you can send them you may send them to her or me I do not care which if you send them I shall see them for she will send them to me to look at well I guess that you will think this is a great letter but you must excuse me for my head aches pretty hard to day & I have not done any thing for a week & I feel lonesome

 

            Mary you would not know the old hollow I was there last spring & it is the worst place that I was ever in except the army Charles Curtis keeps a regular gambling drunken shop the whole place is not much better I could not help but think how differant it is from what it was when we were young folks & lived there those were happy days but are past no more to return but my paper is full & I will close write soon & I will answer from your old friend [?] & well wisher to Mollie Shibly

 

write soon                                           

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