Engineer Depot            Washington D. C.

                                                                                                                        Dec 6^th 1863

 

                                                            Dear Agnes

 

                                                this beautiful sabbath evening I take the pleasure to write you my regular weekly letter which I trust will reach her whom I most devoutly love by tuesday next it is now night and I am left alone in my tent which is sometimes a great pleasure to me and espeicially to night for I am very unhappy. I will give you my reason. on last tuesday morning there was a sad accident occurred here to a boy about fourteen years old he was riding on a ponton wagon and was jolted off fell on the paved street and was run over the wagon passing over his head cutting it in a horrid manner/

 

he was picked up by several of our company and born to where he was attended by the surgeon of our regiment. after his wounds were dressed he was taken home. I was not aware of the accident until near noon oh how it thrilled my heart now why should it make me feel so bad I will explain. the first winter we were here I became acquainted with the family. he was then quite small but he often came to see me at my tent and I became very much attached to him very soon and my love for him has grown strong. he was of a wild disposition very affectionate and a truthful boy he would do any thing to aid and comfort a soldier but how noble no amount of money could hire him to give or bring liquor to a soldier he did not use profane language and to evry questioned asked always a civil answer was the reply oh how I felt when I heard of his sad accident for he was my dayly visitor and during my sickness this fall a year his mother and sister often sent me nice dinners which were conveyed to me by his hand and nearly/hourly were his visits to see me but not I alone that loved him for all who knew him could not help but love him. and among his brothers and sisters at home he is more than loved. and when I speak of his mother and father my heart shudders and my eyes fill with tears for there is no one can tell their grief. he left home in the morning in all the spendor and joy of life and in less than two hours was returned home on a stretcher insensible and severely mangled he bled out of his ears and nose for twenty four hours he lay insensible and is yet very low I was up with him on thursday night last and visit him dayly I was among the first that was noticed by him he reached out his hand and shook hands with me and said how do you do sargent I could not help but shed tears. he is now gaining a little my tent mate is with him to night and I expect to be with him on to morrow night./

 

well Dear Agnes how do you get along I am thinking of you often and before I commenced writing I looked at your photograph and how I wish I were by your side to night well as I cannot be by your side I will content myself by thinking Dear Agnes is writing to me and I will soon hear from her I hope I may not be disappointed I look for a letter evry day but am often disappointed. but I sometimes think this is a world of disappointment to very many and I am not alone.

 

                        I am well a blessing which I know I am not thankful enough for but I trust Dear Agnes you and your good mother and all the rest are enjoying the blessing of health I want to see you so bad but there is no chance for a pass and I must be content to stay here until I can/come to stay if I live I trust them to meet me whom I can ere long call my better half one to whom I can confide in trust and love yet more than I can my self I feel to night Dear Agnes like having some one that I can pour out my whole heart to. there is not much war news and not any local news that I can tell you so I will close my love to your Mother Dan Aunt C.

 

                        but remember you Dear Agnes

                        have the love of my whole heart

                        from your ever true lover

                                                F C Miller

                                                to Agnes

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