Henry H. Covert to Lucinda Van Pelt, 10 March 1864
Camp Near Warington
Thursday March the 10 1864
Dear Wife
I receivd a letter from you this afternoon and it pleased me in some respects and in others it did not in the first place i would like to know wat you gave seven of them picturs to sarah for i do not see in to that do you give evry thing away as soon as i am gone i would like to know how many you have got left two was lef in newark you gave two at home i have got no complaints to make of that but wat you gave the 7 for that i would like to know and now you have got two left and wen you send me one you will have none for yourself i gess you care little of my picturs dam little i get plenty to eat hear not a very fine place to eat it i recivd a letter from sarah / and hear they made out to send one betwen them pity they could not make out a whole one you had better keep all the money you get it comes very hard to get wen you once get out i have got forty dollars for you as soon as i can send it i have to watch it close for there is a great many gets rolled of all ther money some of them gambels it away others get drunk and gets there pockets piked i went up to town the other day and me and Stryker thought that we would like to have a drink we ask a man if he had any he said he had none but he could get it i ask him how much and he said four dollars and a half we thought that we wasent dry about that time we left that place in a hury and went acrosed the street and a man gave us drink the only one we have had since we came to the army we are a great way from the seat of war but the gurillies troubels us very much / two men was captured yesterday and we sent a party after them but they did not get them we have not got our arms yet and dont know wen we will get them we had crackers give us yesterday for we thought that we would have to leave we thought we would have the rebbels down on us but they did not come and to day we have got bread the best bread we have had could not be any better white as snow and fresh it is all hills hear look ware you will nothing but hills i dont now wat to do with Gellert do try and keep him if you can get somebody to keep him for you if you can if not give him away poor dog if i had him hear i would not take a hundred dollars for him i would like to have a dog hear but even that is denied me i wish i had brought him with me if you do not like it at old talors you can move you can get plenty of places i know of no other plan you can sell the things and bord but do not go home pay up your rent regaler / then they can say nothing i now the squire sent me 1500 it is as you said but they told me in trenton that my bounty had been paid i do not know for certan but i thought it had he of coars will let you know i expect as soon as he has got it i do not know exactly wat my bill is at dunn but you will soon find out if he that is father does not pay it he dunn will send somebody to look after it if not paid soon i would like to know this delay dunn will sell all your things if the money is not paid you know that is all that made me enlist becaus i could not rais the 60 dollars it is somthing like that i will let you know wat to do if father dos not pay it do not let any body know how much money you have got with you nobody i do not care who but me let me know evry time you write i will keep your pocket so there is no danger of starving any how you must write me evry other day twice a week any how and i will do the same if any body imposes on you let me know and i will let them know that i have not got my hands tide as much / let me know wat people says and soon how the time pases with you if you ever dream about me i had a dream about you the other night i dreamed that i was with you only a short time though i will be back some day and then they better look out by thunder i do not sware as much as i did i thought that i sware bad but wen i come down hear the boys sware me right out of it they sware so that it fritened me right out of it i tell you missey wen i come home i will talk you right out of sight i will have so much to say you cannot talk hear i have had only one conversation and that was the captin if you say any thing hear the boys will give you some rough answer and then lauf at it i have got a bad coughf the first one that i ever had i hope it will not get in to anything worse i could fill about ten sheets full of riting to my Missey but i gess she will get tirde of reding this i expect you do not like to read my long letters but i dont care i want you to send them picturs of your self if you can not get any / send me that one that you have it will come if you put it in the mail spell it that way not the way you did in you last male that means man Ha Ha Ha that is all i have to say about your letter only you do not send them often enuf now let me know evry thing wether Hooker has paid that money or not and so on i shall never forget you or leave you again wen i once get by you you did not know wat a time had to leave you on the 25th of febuay that was the i left i would have come down home again that night if you had been in Rocky Hill but it was to far to go to catch the train now my dear little wife i want you to remember me in your prayers and above all other things do not quite forget me your evr loving husband
Henry
Henry Covert
Henry H. Covert /
P S
take good care of our little boy and learn him to talk as soon as you can learn him to look at his papa O i like to have forgotten it i have seen no wimen hear of any account they are very ugly they all wear curls wite hair and red cheeks i would not give fip for as many as you could put in a four horse cart they all look dirty at that it is raining now it has rained all day teribley bad storm as i ever see as bad as some of them wen we went corting a long time agoe in the days wen i went sparking a long time agoe O my bony jersey maid Ha Ha Ha O how i do lauf at them old times good bye my own love death is all that will evr make me forget my own sweet Lucind
Henry H Covert
7704
DATABASE CONTENT
(7704) | DL0245.008 | 107 | Letters | 1864-03-10 |
Tags: Alcohol, Anger, Animals, Children, Dreams, Enlistment, Food, Gender Relations, Guerrilla Warfare, Guns, Home, Illnesses, Joseph Hooker, Laws/Courts, Mail, Money, Payment, Photographs, Prisoners of War, Weather
People - Records: 2
- (2720) [writer] ~ Covert, Henry H.
- (2721) [recipient] ~ Van Pelt, Lucinda ~ Covert, Lucinda
Places - Records: 1
- (73) [origination] ~ Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia
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SOURCES
Henry H. Covert to Lucinda Van Pelt, 10 March 1864, DL0245.008, Nau Collection