Jan 24 1863

 

                                                                                                Dear Father and Mother

I received a letter to day from you and Cous Belle I was glad to here you was all well the date of it was Jan 7 I am well and have been evry since I left Camp Cleveland we are encamped about 6 or 5 miles from VicksBurg we can here once and a while a canon fire to day

 

                                                                                                            when I wrote you last I was at Arcansas Post the next day after I wrote it commensed raining and that night it turned to snow and snowed all the next day and was as cold as Greenland you se it was the first cold weather that we had seen and it chilled us clear through as it happened we got our tents the day that I wrote you and got them pitched just in / time so we did not get wet but the next day after we pitched tents we were ordered to strike them and move on board the Stemer Empress here there was 7 Co of us ordered on the hurycanedeck our Company among the rest there is no shelter there at all I would not stay there but went below and slept among the horses and mules after the first night we got achance to sleep in the hole of the boat there was a lot of bags of corn in there and it made a nice place for a soldier to sleep in

 

                        after a day or to we started down the river and here we are agane the other

 

                                                                                                                        the affare at the post was as complete a thing as ever was we took evry thing they had there horses mules wagons and evry thing else it looked hard the next day after the rane in some places where the Rebs had burryed there / dead they did not cover them deep enough so but what they washed out by the rane you would se them laying around in piles of from two to six some with there heads shot off others with legs and arms gon

 

                                                                                                            there was some questions that I forgot to answer in my other letter you wanted to know what our Generals name was his name is John Decorsee our Colonel is Sheldon we are in Decorsees Brigade and Morgans division and Shermans Command

 

                                                                                                            you wanted to know what kind of guns we had there is 3 kinds of guns used in the reg the Persian rifle Enfield rifle and Springfield. I have one of the Persian rifles they all shoot the same sized balls they are all long ranged guns calculated to shoot 1,000 yards

 

                                                                                                give my love to Grandma / and tell her I am well tell her them needles and pins that she gave me come handy

 

                        tell sis she must eat a big piece of Jony cake and an apple for me I cant think of any more to write excuse mistakes and bad writing

from your Son                                                                         Newell J Fuller

 

P S direct as before

                        I forgot to tell you that I received a dollar in that letter that I got at the post I thank you for it very much write as soon as you get this

                                                                                                Newell

SOURCES