Mata Gorda Island, Texas.

            Dec. 1^st 1863 at sun down.

 

            My Dear Wife

                        A staff officer just now came and gives us 15 minutes to write and put up our letters, which is by far too short a time for me to write our history since we embarked on the Steamer Warrior.

 

            Suffice it to say that we besieged Fort Esperanza on the 27^th ult. and that the rebs evacuated the same on the night of the 29^th. All the neighborhood boys are safe.

 

I will give you a description of this Ft. / in my next. We will embark tomorrow on another expedition perhaps Mata Gorda City. They are calling for the letters and I must quit.

 

                                                                                                            Yours in haste

                                                                                                                        Enos Reed

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