Franklin May 14^th 1862

 

            I have just received three letters from you dear wife written since your arrival at home. Your account of the attempt of Mr Cooper to swindle me has made me very angry, and I enclose a statement of our trade and its result. The horse I now have I owe him one hundred dollars for, & I also owe him for pasturage for our stock but not one cent for anything else. The brown horse is not mine, and he must be forced to return my cows, and give or pay for them. He is attempting an infamous swindle and I will not submit to it. You must get John to attend to this matter for you. Give him my statement and let Mr Thompson take hold of it. Surely such an infamous proceeding will not be permitted to be carried out by my neighbors at home whilst I am here tied hand & foot. You will not of course pay for my horse until the whole matter is satisfactorily settled. I am sorry / dear wife that you have these troubles to contend with, but I hope you will soon overcome them, and in the future we will try to avoid such persons.

 

I have already written you in regard to your movements in the fall. Go to Louisville by all means, and make such arrangements there that you will not encumber your mother. You can take rooms near where she can be with you the same as if you were at her house. Arrange this however to suit yourself, only you have my full consent to go to Louisville. Perhaps these troubles in this region may before that time have so far passed over as to permit me to come home, and then we can change the arrangement if we see proper. I desire to be with you dear wife as much as you can wish for my presence, but my duties here for the present bind me hand & foot. Today is the first day of rest I have had for a long time. Gen^l Fremont has / arrived with about nine thousand troops of all arms, and has relieved the force that was here, and so hardly worked, from all duty for a day or two to enable us to recruit. Today therefore I have luxuriated in resting on my cot, although the rain has pounded steadily down the whole time. I have telegraphed you twice since we met the wires, in order not to keep you in suspense in regard to the battle. The enemy followed us to this point, but has in his turn retreated, and as soon as we can get the proper subsistence for our men and horses we no doubt will follow him back upon our old track. We are strong enough to drive the enemy, and are all anxious to do so at once. We can now sleep at night without fear of a night attack, and take our breakfast leisurely in the morning such as it is. I suppose you have had all sorts of reports about our battle. The first rumors that went off were entirely / untrue, but they no doubt have been ere this corrected. All units insisted that the battle of Bull Mountain (which is the name we give it in our regiment) was the most severe one that has been fought in Western Virginia. We drew the enemy from their first position and then held our own until the darkness, and want of ammunition compelled us to withdraw, which we did in good order, without being followed by the enemy. The 75^th expects to inscribe the name of this battle on its banner, and deserves the highest praise for its conduct during the action. I wrote you yesterday on account of it, but I fear my letter was almost illegible for my hand was so unsteady from fatigue and want of rest that I could scarcely write atall. It is now late and although rested I still need to keep early hours to entirely recover my usual state. Love to Lindy and the children & good night kisses with warmest love to darling wife.

                                                                                                                       

N. C. M^cLean

 

Get Burnet to see John for you, and help attend to Mr Cooper—

SOURCES