Bush Hill Sunday Aug 4 1861

Dear Freelove

                        With pleasure I seat myself this morning to inform of my health which is very good except that old trouble of mine which I used to drink pumpkinseed tea for it is a very pleasant morning & pretty cool. Oh how good is god in preserving our lives & giving us good health I feel that I am not half thankful enough for the blessing which he daily bestows upon me. men that was in the battle & saw their friends killed by their side but 2 weeks ago seem to have forgotten all about it and are as jovial and light minded as ever but as for me what I saw on that field will or has made a lasting impression on my mind which nothing but death will ever eradicate our regiment if ever call upon to meet the enemy again will meet them in quite a different shape for we have a battery consisting of 6 rifled cannon two of which  is brass and we think they will find a difference next time in the force against them I read that there is 11,000 cavaly mounted about to join us if we had have had them before the battle would have been ours but they have taken a large amount of property from the government but never mind it will be taken back again in time our defeat seemed to arouse evry man in the northern states to action and they are enlisting evrywhere to put down rebellion and the’ll do it to. there was a man hung in fort Ellsworth close by our camp a good many of our boys went to witness the execution but I staid at camp I think I saw enough dead on the battle field his crime was murder in the first degree he had some trouble with/

 

[margin: that man was hung last Friday]

 

a woman in Alexandria of ill fame he had a pistol with him and he shot her dead on the spot he had his choice to be hung or shot and he chose the latter. I have your Miniature before me and I look on my arm and I see your initials and I say to myself Ill never disgrace you nor any of my friend I want to live in a way such that I can look evry man in the face honestly and feel that god knoweth the way I take and he will uphold me by his own free spirit the men are spending their money as fast as they can there is a man who is called Sutler on the ground who keeps store and I will give you some of his prices rasins 20 cts per pound tobacco 50 figs 20 cheese 20 whiskey 75 cts per pint pens 4 cts apiece paper 2 cts a sheet and these young fellows are spending their wages for such things and now Ill tell you how they do it they have not been paid any money yet so they go to the Captain and he gives them a ticket with the amount they wish to draw and they present it to Sutler and he changes it with smaller tickets the same as money some are 25 cts some 10 some five cts but I shall buy as little this way as possible it has been eight weeks tomorrow since we left home and it seems to me about 6 months not that I am homesick but you know that I had rather be at home in sixteen days more I shall be thirty years old it seems but a short time time since Brother Herrick and myself used to go up to Hope I have not seen my face for a time and dont know how it looks but it feels as hairy as a dogs tail I don’t think you would know me now if I should come upon you unawares. this is the first time that I have had a good chance to write since I left home has Tom hauled the hay yet I want you to make the pig grow all you can so that we can have a good lot of wust and good large sparerib is Dolly well kiss her for me is your Mother with you I want her to stay with you if you can possibly get along for if I thought you were alone I should feel very uneasy about you when you writ again tell me how Eva Farrand is and/Sarah Blackington if they are better or worse tell me who cut Juliann Hay and how they got along with it tell James Ingraham I think of him often and finaly all the neighbors for I dont feel as if I could ever have any thing against them come what would on account of their kindness to you give my love to all Julianns folks John Harvey is well Benton, Otis Orlando, Oliver Bladkington are all well also Henry Mitchell Orrin Thomas is well give my love to all the Methodist Brethren and Sisters and especialy to M. A. Jackson now laugh wont you tell them all to pray for me that wether I see them again on earth or not I trust we shall meet in heaven. Oh is thare going to be a campmeeting tell them when they go to remember me how I would like to go and spend a week there if the church was united are they as far apart as ever how do they like brother Mitchel tell him to write to me tell Frank Witham and Benjamin Gardner to write. I would like to see old Spark and brood. I have just heard that in our regiment thare was 24 killed 22 wounded and 40 missing so you see that is not 1/4 of the regiment as stated in Col Berrys report while I am writing the singing choir is out under a large oak singing from the American Vocalist and it seems a good deal like campmeeting Mr Whiting leads and it sounds beautiful is Jont surely coming out here tell him to bring all the news I should like to have a chance to come in and get a good bowl of bread milk tell Lucy Spear I shall look out for Bent as I promised her. if Dell was out here she would have a good chance to criticise for when they have an abundance of any thing they say they have right smart & for fetched they say fotched and for going they say gwine so you see they are an uneducated set. give my love to all I cant think of no more to write           so good bye for a little while

 

                                                            yours forever

we have a brass band of 22 pieces                  Abiezer Weazie & tell me when you write

 

they play fust rate                   look in the dicionary and see what the meaning of Sutler is

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