Camp at Jackson Tenn

                                                                                                            January 23^rd 1863

 

My Dear Fanny

                                    We are having another wet and rainy day, but I am now so comfortably situated that as far as my-self am concerned I care but very little for the weather. but with some of our men it is different. yesterday I with the help of a mason went to work and built a very neat little fire-place and chimney. it works to a charm so that to day we are as comfortable as kittens. the Adjutant and myself occupy the same tent. We also have a clerk now which I think is a great acquisition as he releaves me of about half my former duties which pleases me not a little. I tell you Fanny the way they used to put me through was a caution. very often I have had all my own duties and those of the Adjutants to perform either of which is enough for one man to do, but I used to do all of both that I could without grumbling but I have learned better now. I have learned the soldiers first lesson that is to shirk. I do my own duties to the best of my ability and farther than that I dont care. I am getting fat and lazy and that on half rations. I weighed 147 lbs the other day. I guess that I can beat Sarah now. I know I can you.

 

            As I have been writing Dr LaDow has come into / our tent and sits beside me as I write. he is not well and has had to resign his commission on the account of his health. I presume he will return to Wis. soon. I hate to have him leave as I have formed quite a liking of him. I believe he is the best Surgeon we have in the Reg^mt if he is no better than the other two I pity him for they dont amount to shucks in my opinion.

 

            I am a good deal better in health than when I last wrote you, though I still have a bad cough which I am in hopes to get red of in a few days. we have lately lost quite a number of men by death and there is quite a number yet sick, poor fellows. that dear Fanny is one of the hardest things in a soldiers life, to be sick and perhaps to die, with no loving hands to soothe the hours of pain or to close the eye in death. I thank God that I have not been one to realize from experience the agony or rather torture of a sickness in the army. if I am to fall I would fall where the battle rages hotest, rather than linger along in some of our military hospitals. A soldiers life in view of all the hardships and dangers he has to endure has many attractions. you may laugh, Fanny at the idea and wonder what attractions there can be in forced marches, raw pork & hard crackers, and a bed on mother earth with a broad blue sky for a shelter I suppose it is the free and easy way we live / constantly exposed to danger, ever on the watch, and always in a state of excitement. while we are in camp the song and jest with once in a while a good story passes off the time very pleasantly, so that the rough hard times are forgoten in the enjoyment of the present. but still as our thoughts recur to home and oure loved ones there will rise a pang which all our enjoyment and pleasure can-not obliterate. but we have to learn to be patient and submisive. Uncle Sam’s postal araingment is the cause of much cursing in the army as long as our mail communication is open and we are in the luck of receiving letters with any degree of regularity, every thing passes of pleasantly but when that is closed to us as it has been for weeks a fellow gets almost homesick. I have not heard from you Fanny or from any of my friends since the twenty fifth of last month which is now nearly a month I cant imagine what the reason is our communication has been open for some time. I almost fear that there is something the matter.

 

            Our Clerk has just brought me a letter from brother George dated the thirteenth of this month so that I guess I shall get one from you in a day or two. but it is getting late and I must close please give my love to all your people. I want to see you very much Fanny but I suppose that is out of the question, so please accept a half dozen kisses & believe me as ever  Yours Afectionatly

                                                                        Frank M Guernsey

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