Hawleyville Iowa March  the 29^th/62

 

Dear uncle & Aunt

                                                                                                                        it is with great respect that I set myself after so long a time to let you know that I am yet alive and in the land and with the living and my health at the present time is very good and I hope when those few lines comes to hand it will find one and all of you well I have bin in the war but am now at home in private life again I enlisted in the servis last August and I wasent in the servis three weeks till we got in a battle the Battle of Lexington M^o there we fought for three days and knights and then being overpowered we was obliged / to surrender up our happy land of [?] the number of men on our side was 27 hund wilst on the other side that is on the Secesh side they had thirty five thousand and I was taken prisenor then with the ballance we was then musterd out of the servis as it hapend uncle idid not get shot very bad I got hit twist once in my heel and once in my hand but ar all right again my horse was shot down and then I had a mule the the D—D raskels shot it to oh they ar the darndest st. I eaver saw they will point there gun right at you and let flickerd but I think I stoped some of them from eating mush and milk at least I dun some big trying and they loss on our side was 175 and on the Secesh side was two thousand killed wounded So you see that we gave them the D—l. /

 

I would also state that Father & Mother Brother & Sister ar well as for Eliza Jones and her man ar both in the army the last we herd of them they was in S^t Louis Benton barracks I reinlisted the second time and our cavalry regment was mustered out of the servis and got an Hon discharged from the servis and not being very well at the present I did not enlist again now uncle when you write to me let me know where Samuel is and Benjamin and Eliza ann especialy I wrote a letter to her when I was in St Louis but I have had no answer to it and so tell her that I have not forgoten her oh how I should like to see you all heart to heart and hand to hand uncle I am single yet thats so /

 

I am going to farm this summer insed of fighting we have had a very backward spring last year I was dun sowing wheat the 24^th of March and now we wont get any sowed before the tenth of April produce is very slow bacon 10 cts per lb wheat 40 oh times is very hard here and geting harder all the time &c

 

Father & Mother sends there respects to one and all of you Father said he wrote to you but never got an answer to it. they ar going to write soon again mother says that [faded] her strength back to her she would like to get it

 

            Writ soon and you will oblige

your umble Friend

                        W^m P Peterman

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