Saturday April the 30 Camp i dont no ware 1864

 

My Dear little Wife

            i received your letter this afternoon with your picture in and was very glad to see it since your last letter that you got from me was dated we have moved far from the place in wich it was written away over the repahannock river we crossed at Kelleys ford yesterday about 4 oclock on a pontoon bridge and moved on towards the Rapidan and we expect to cross that stream soon we are in camp now but do not know how long we will remain in it to day i piked up a bullet that if you had at home you would think it quite a curiosity it had been fired in some skirmish you can see plenty of bullet holes in the trees around this bullet had struck somthing for it was battered pretty well i threw it away i wish i could send / home but could not if it had been in the winter i should have saved it you spoke you was afraid i would be killed but if you was once to see the troops even that i saw today why you would never think so again only think as far as you eye can reach and the country is very level nothing but one string of cavelry both ways a great deal farther than from one mountain at home to the other and only think that is one briggade and a division is just 4 briggades only think wen an army gets together with 8 or 10 divisions it is immense you do not think now only think that in all the time this company has been out and they have been in a great many battles they have had but one killed in three years and the boys all say that if we had not been so careless he would not have been killed he was killed at sulpher springs he would not lay down but kept roming around from one tree to another and after a wile he fell so you see that he was careless this regiment has been in the battles of geteysburg cedar mountain tow battles at sulpher springs antitam wine run brandy station at bull run at fairfax and at mannases at Hanover court hous and both battles of fredricksburg chanslorsvill and a great many that i can not think of so you must not think of my getting killed why my dear little wife i mean to come home and bring you down hear some time to see the place it is nothing but one vast wast we encamp right in a mans grain field he had sowed last fall it is good for nothing now we made fire of his fence and the generl made headquarters of his parlor and let him move his things in the kitchen you do not even think now it looks nothing to see through the country but old camps for miles and miles and miles roads alll over the fields evry ware and any ware no fence and only now and then a house but evry little ways you can see ware once stood a house but now only a charred and blackned ruin and two tall chimneys one at each end of the house they allways build a chimney at each end of the house of stone and they allways stand they build them half out of the house and half in we went to the sulpher spring it is all in ruins i shall shurley take you their wen i come home if the war is stoped some of the boys has been to brandy station to day the whole army is moving thousands and thousands of men all marching towards Richmond their will be a big battle soon some ware abe sulphan is with the dismounted men he says if they do not / get him a horse he will desert but he is not sharp enuf for that he had better not try it for he will never dare to go home again as long as he lives they had to walk yesterday wile we rode and they did not catch up untill eleven oclock i do not pitty abe sulphan for he had two good chances to get horse but would not take them they did not suite him and now he cant wear his boots his feet is sore it is so dark i cannot see any more i shall have to get a pice of candle it looks very rainy and it sprinkles a little this is a pretty long letter but i guess it is quite an interesting one to you if you like to hear my travels i must tell you though that is not true about nothing being sent after the 25 of April one can allways send wen there is a mail and the mail is [?] you need not be afraid to send you will be sure to get my answer i have got a candle now but it is tirsom writing lying [?] on one elbow but if it was not to you i should not find so much to write about you had better not travel on the boat i think if you do you will soon loes your good name and once lost it is not easy gained if you want to go it is better to hire a way to go then their is no troubel but you must do as you wish the picture you sent me does not pleas me but you know that beggars is not to be chousars you know but John cox is a very poor hand to take pictures if this is a very good one you getting very fat i think you look very sollen you must not think of my having it bad for i have got it first i tell you only i eat so much it makes me sick once and a wile you would not believe wat an eater i am getting to be wat do you think i can eat fat pork raw and did to day i was not hungry either but simply to lazy to cook it you would laughf to see us i feel very good all the time nothing at all the matter with me at all nothing and i can ride longer in the saddle than the old soldiers without getting stiff it does not affect me at all i have a very good horse but i wish i had fathers betsey hear she would take the shine out of all the horses and some of them cost 3 or 4 hundred dollars and another thing i have not been homesick but you know that i would like to be at home if i had known that railroad was coming through i would not come but i think i am better off hear than ever i was befor only i am away from my familey that bothers me but to see by my sisters letter that they will draft in the township i wish they would hurrah for the union / i do not think i shall ever leave my dear again if i once get home and i know that i shall get home sometime i feel sure of it i shall look for a letter from you every day so you know that i do not forget my dear wife and child poor little boy how i would like to see him but i will see him some time or other i just wish you could once see us you would not think of my being killed i am sure that is all i thought may be i would get a shot to but i dont think so wen i see all the troops not a bit of it i will never think so again you better move as soon as you can then that old devil will not growl pay her off but you had better pay willet but pay him wen she is by then it will be all right for sure i got both the letters with stamps in eight in each and i answered them both one with a pencil the other with pen i am sorry to hear Unkle peter has so much troubel but i cant help it but it shocks me to hear that Wilson is such a bad man but he will get his desserts sometime we was mustered for pay to day and we will get it sometime i do not know wen but next month i guess now write soon and remember me in all your prayers and i always remember you in mine and if we should never meet hear again try to meet each other in that better world ware their is no sorrow and ware the weary are at rest and the wicked ceas from troubling now God and the blesed Angles be with you and guard you in all things and keep your pure sperit at rest about your dear Husband who is fighting his countrys battles away far away from his native land and his own dear famley and cottage home good bye my dear wife yours ever and ever

                                                                                    H. H. Covert

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