Thursday March the 24 1864 Camp Warington

 

Dear Wife

                        i received a very welcome letter from you on the 22 My Birthday i was very much pleased with it in some respects in others i was not i do not like other people meddling with my affaires and if i was in your place i think i should do all i could to defend my Husbands interest you had better keep all the money that i send you and lend it to no body or tell no body that you have got any for it will be six good months befor i will send you another letter with money in it it will be six months befor we get any more pay so you had better be as saving of it as posable for i am afraid i cannot send you any more i lent abe sulphan twenty dollars and so i have not got a dollar with me now i sent you twenty dollars the other day but you will get that befor you get this it was the last i had in one bill and i bought you a watch i shall put the watch in as soon as i do this and you ought to receive it as soon you had better keep my things that is if you want to live with me again for i expect to come back some day i will not die to pleas them i expect that they think that i will never want them again but they are altogether mistaken i shall certanly come back sooner perhaps than some of them thinks i have not sent any letters to any one but you as yet and father i sent pool one but i get no answer you can do just as you pleas about letting him have that lantern but as for the gig i think he had better get one made he has got as much money to spend as i have i think i do not want to find evry body gigs and fishing and guning riggin just becaus i am not using them not i i shall want them some day i think and if i do not want them they will bring somthing for you and minney to live on the more i think that you should not lend my things becaus if you lend them and i should never come back you would not get the things nor the money nether one they would certanley keep them and say that you cant use them wat do you want of them and you are to timed to say your sole is your own but do with the things as you pleas they are yourn you cannot / that i did not trust you with evry thing that i had i would trust my wife with my life and that i hold derer than any thing in this world tell your father that he need not beleve them stories that he hears about my bounty $100.00cts dollars will pay evry cent of my debts i owe dunn 68 dollars somthing like that you ask the squire how much and if he sayes any thing about it tell him you have got a right to know about by buisness as well as he tell him i said so i owe him on that lether we bought together thirty four dollars and fifteen dollars i boured of him making in all one hundred and seventeen dollars maybe a few cents more i do not know to a few cents wik out my accounts keep my acounts and keep this letter for i may forget by not being by the books wen he gets my money put out on interist he will get a note and i expect he will send me word wat he has done with it do not show this letter for it may come a time wen this letter is worth somthing to you and our son if he says that he has got a note you ask him to see it and you copy it and send me the copy i would like to see it be carefull so no one sees you comit it by hart if you can perhaps there may be some truth in wat charley says to darlings may be he has heard that at home and perhaps they want to let it be known around the country so that they can keep the money and say that it did not pay my debts you know that three years is a good wile in some peoples eyes and they may think if i never come back that it took it all to pay my debts but as god lives that is all the money that i owe wat is in this letter i never keep any secret from you you that if i did use you bad sometimes i did not keep any thing from you did i tell me in your next i think it will be all right i am not uneasey not one bit but such things could be done you know that i hope that you will get along very well with all the people give my best respects to silcox and all the rest i have got no love to give that is all your own but you know that you must keep up your courage i am sorry that you had to go to mill yourself you must hury silcox up with that settlement if you can that is if you want now i have taking it up again my hand trembels now i am in a sweat i have been out / snow ball day befor yesterday a snow fell hear 10 inches deep the old soldiers say they never saw a deeper snow since they have been out hear i have slept comfertly for the last two nights we drill once a day if we had a horse we would drill twice a day all them that has a horse drills in the afternoon i think of you my dear little misey wen you are alseep in your warm bed i am out on picket in the middle of the night you do not think of me but perhaps in your dreams you see me standing alone on my post my last post was by the fire we drew cuts wich of us should stand by the captons tent and i won good luck i have good luck since i have been out hear better than in jersey a great deal better than at home evry thing turns out good so far i like it a great deal better than at home if it was not for my dear wife and boy i would always stay in the army but i shall not stay i do not think any longer than my time out it is harder to be from you than i thought you know i have no one to say any of my hearts desires to that lisens like my dear wife does misey a man never knows the worth of a good wife until he loses one then he sees the worth of her i treated you you know my dear as well as i knew how if i ever should come back and you have not got another man i shall treat you a great deal better not that i think you will so far forget wat is due to a truly virtiues and religious wife but you may some time hear that i am dead do not belive it untill your for certain i will find a way if i am dead so that you will find it out some that they said was dead a year agoe has come from richmond prison but latly yes they even said that they saw him killed and loe he turned up all right you have never knowen how much i loved you but wen i come back you will find out i love you ten times more than wen i left you only to think me hear and then i think wat a fine wife i have at home and a little boy to only think of it you must learn him to talk as soon as you can and see if you cannot learn him to read by the time i get back he will be five years old / then you know tell me evry thing that they say to you around if they say i owe debts ask them if i owe them any thing tell them you can pay all my right off in less than five minets talk out for my rights and your own i left you a good name any how they cannot say that i did not do that anyhow you asked me wat i meant by Ha. Ha. Ha. i ment i had a good lauf do you never lauf any more you must lauf and grow fat wile i am away you can very easy get fat now you have not got me there to pull the flesh off of you you spoke of old Mrs talor giving you a bonnet you talk of wearing it if you do you need not look for any more letters from me do you think that becaus i am in the army that i am not proud of myself and more so of my wife let me hear no more of your wering other peples old close you ware old cloes enuf of your own now get some good ones very good ones two get a new straw bonet i do not sware as much as i did but if you do not want to hear me curse and sware do not wear any one elses clothing that i think will be suffeciont for this time let me hear no more of it i have heard enuf i receivd a very kind letter from mr gardiner he said that you was still a member of his church and told me that my cousin was dead he said the measels with other desies caried her of so quick that her parents could get to her befor she died if charley sornberger has given his wife the camp each i do not see wy he did not give it to her before he has been with her long enuf at any rate i do not belive it abe sutphen just said that Charley was not a very good match i soon sheat shut him up i have not much more room you must send me a letter evry time you can get a chance i want you to buy me some postage stamps paper hear is five cents a sheet envelopes 4 and so on i do not buy any send me as many as you can get not to many though just you see wat mount rents that house for and so on keep a good look out for things so that you will see that if he charges as much as he did me i think he will not charge as much as he did me i wish i had more room i have not told you half as much as i want two it seams that i am talking to you my heart goes out to you wen i right rite you a letter

H H Covert

from your ever loving Husband

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